Ask HN: How do you guys stay motivated if you don’t feel like working? - tomklein
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axisofpleasure
Depends upon the driving factor, for work most of us have to pay bills so the
requirement for hard cash is pretty strong motivator! That's even more true if
you have any dependents like kids. You may have to simply do something you
hate short term just get by, all the time make sure you're on the lookout for
what it is that you truly want to do. Short term could be days, weeks, months
or even years. I'm working a job I don't like but it pays really well, so I've
got a 5 year plan to work towards, saving my money, getting money off my hobby
so I can hopefully quit my job in a few years time. All the time I'm learning
what I need in place when the day finally comes, that's my motivation to keep
going that target I've set in the distance. It's doable, it's damned hard to
get to but it'll be worth it if i can keep going.

If it's motivation for a personal project, that's far more personal and the
first thing is to make sure that the rest of your life is together to give you
to the environment you need to get your personal projects done. I'm working on
my second book right now, my first did really well but I've lost all the drive
to do anything with the second one. The first one burnt me out completely, so
I'm trying put things around me that will get me in the right frame of mind
and wait for the spark of creativity to light and then I can get it finished.

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batt4good
Usually, when I reach a stage like this it means I need to take a break long
enough to feel healthy enough to work or meet with a psych to deal with a
relapse of depression.

One thing I definitely did wrong was not taking a 4-6month break after college
to really decide what I wanted to do and de-stress. After leaving a FAANG
about two years after graduation I did this out of desperation and cannot
describe the positive effect on my work ethic and mental state after basically
not doing anything productive for 5-6months.

This might be a common trait with those who have ADHD but I usually find that
the only way to de-stress is to simply remove all forms of taxing sensory
input or work for at least 3-4 weeks.

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SkyTreasure
By reminding myself why I started it.

Talking to my close friends helps me retrospect what made me loose motivation
in what I started.

Sometimes just by pulling out all my will power to do same non motivated task
for 20mins brings back all the momentum needed to get me going.

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sethammons
What is the most important step one can take? It is not the first, it is the
next.

When there is a task that you are faced with that you don't like, attempt to
rephrase how you look at it. Instead of saying, "I don't want to $foo," say,
"I want/need to do $foo so I can $bar." When you approach tasks by looking at
the benefits you appreciate, it becomes easier to take the next step in that
task. Or it might reveal that you shouldn't be doing a given task!

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hsueiue1737
My next paycheck.

The less motivated I am, the bigger that paycheck needs to be.

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nojvek
Little incremental wins. That’s what keeps me going. But sometimes you gotta
take a break and re-evaluate. Don’t work all the time. It’s okay to chill and
relax.

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meiraleal
I smoke a joint and the work gets less boring. And also, I spent the money
well so I enjoy what the work provides me.

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cliqueiq
Adderall. I said it.

~~~
batt4good
I know there's going to be a hoard of people who show up and provide countless
documents and studies indicating that "nobody needs these stimulants it's just
a fad". However, as someone who's been diagnosed by multiple
neuropsychologists I can, with near 100% certainty, say that I'm three times
as productive and steady (able to keep a consistent train of thought and
tasks) while using Adderall and generally attribute my horrible GPA in college
to a late ADHD diagnosis at age 20.

I've talked to my primary care doc and he's shared stories of patients in
their thirties brought to tears after seeing what they could have been capable
of by "giving in" to the use of stimulants day-to-day or at work.

In our industry the medical use of stimulants has no reason to be stigmatized.

