
Ask HN: How to keep yourself accountable? - lamchob
Hi HN,<p>lately I realized I&#x27;m struggeling to keep myself accountable, mainly for work I am the main stakeholder in.<p>When working &quot;after spec&quot; or together with someone else on the same code, I can to stick to it and deliver quality I&#x27;m satisfied with.
But as soon as I work for myself my standards, quality and even goals start going down hill. Short term I&#x27;m okay with less and sloppy work, and after a while I regrett no doing a better job.<p>Do you guys have ideas, techniques etc. to deal with this behaviour?
======
lallysingh
I think this is the wrong question. I think you should find better compassion
for yourself. Understand why you didn't do something the way you wanted.
That's useful learning about yourself, other hackers, and the software
development process on general.

Are you doing work where you don't care about it's quality? Why do the work?
Some part of you didn't care about the result, or didn't believe that the
additional quality would actually pay off.

That's completely normal.

Understanding which one and why is honestly far more interesting than most
personal software projects.

~~~
ttul
This was exactly my thought. When I was in my twenties, starting my first
company, I hammered myself every time I failed to deliver on my TODO list.
Today, I'm far more introspective. If there's something that's dying on the
vine, I want to know why that thing is apparently not very important to me.

Spend time figuring out what's really important and make sure your TODO list
is full of those things. The unimportant stuff? Outsource it or make changes
so that you don't have to have those things on your list.

------
tunesmith
You might need to do some philosophical delving. If this is happening to you,
then it implies that it's a task that you have told yourself is important, but
that you don't really think is important.

So there's the two versions of you. The one that diagnosed it important, and
the one that behaves as if it isn't.

Which is correct? There's a philosophical concept akrasia that might be worth
reading about.

But for a shortcut, here's what I like to do. Get very disciplined and
explicit on the Why. Ideally, every priority of yours should be traceable -
through strict logic based on sufficiency and necessity - down to values that
are important to you.

That explains why that split sometimes happens.

Because sometimes the You that diagnosed it important is correct, because it
really is implied by a basic value of yours, and is necessary as well - but
the You that behaves is wrong because the Why pathway isn't explicit enough.
An example might be putting off signing up for life insurance if you have
kids. If you're more explicit to yourself about the reasoning pathway, it can
add more motivation to see the effort through.

And sometimes it's the opposite. The You that behaves is correct to ignore it,
and the You that diagnosed it important is wrong. And this can be because your
convoluted Why pathway is wrong somewhere. Perhaps a premise that originally
justified its importance is no longer true, but you haven't realized all the
implications yet.

For technical people in particular, it's all too easy to start amassing an
unbelievably huge todo list just because of ideas that sound cool. They turn
into goals "just because". Keeping yourself aligned with your own values can
help you pare down your priorities.

~~~
mattmanser
Replace Akrasia with "you need a therapist".

In all seriousness, if you're looking to Aristotle to fix your psychological
problems, you're looking in the wrong millennium.

~~~
loa_in_
I'm going to counter this with another anecdotal argument:

Today more people than ever are philosophers. How many people have influenced
your thought while exploring the internet in past year (or 10 years)? They are
not labeled as such, but I do strongly suspect that Aristotle was considered
an exceptional, and eccentric maths and ethos teacher at his time, not "great
thinker Aristotle".

------
neuland
I work remotely and have recently taken on a bunch of responsibility with two
non-profit orgs. And I've found my time getting crunched between everything.
So, I've started detailed time tracking to make sure that I don't slip on work
hours, especially since it's not 9-5.

I don't submit it to anyone, it's just for myself. And, it turned out that I
wasn't slipping at all. But, the peace of mind of being able to prove it to
myself was good. A nice side effect is seeing which projects or types of
activities take up my time.

Other accountability things I've been doing lately is writing more comments,
documentation, and focusing on writing code that is easy for others to jump
into (well structured modules, one-click dev setup, automated deploys, etc).
That is, even on projects for myself or where I'm likely to be the only person
ever to touch it. It is good practice to get into and it does help a lot when
you're coming back to something after 6 months.

~~~
fceruti
What tools do you use for time/project tracking?

~~~
leetrout
I am a fan of rescuetime.com

I set up separate accounts on my machine for personal, work, sideprojects and
log in to those accounts when I am working or when I want to veg out and play
minecraft. Couple this with an invasive tracker like rescuetime and I can have
HN and reddit blocked on my work-related user accounts.

~~~
jonfw
This is really clever. It's a very robust way of introducing artificial
friction to mode switching

------
ljf
I don't code, but every time I work on a document I share it with someone
within an hour of starting it. An hour gives me plenty of time to get a
framework down and to put some thoughts together, and then I make it a public
(internally) shared doc and ask others for their thoughts. Knowing that people
are in there helps my complete the work quicker and often gets good edits and
suggestions.

I also publicly announce a time frame I'm working to - I'll have this complete
by 4pm for example.

Often you need far less time than you think to do a good job of a spec or
other written doc, so saying 'next week' won't improve the results and will
likely just mean it drops down my priority list.

I'm in a relatively senior role, but still need these 'hacks' to get the best
out of myself.

------
aldanor
I'm in the opposite camp - for all personal projects I always want to get
everything "just right and perfect", employing all the best principles etc,
which ends up being so complicated that nothing gets done due to decision
paralysis. At work, there's less freedom and the goals are often more clear
and feasible, so things get done this way or another.

------
gboone
I have two thoughts.

First, I find this happens to me when I get busy. The key is doing the work
"for me" before the work "for others". Wait up earlier and make my work
matter.

Second, I used to get up from my desk where I met clients, and literally sit
on the other side to write out what needed to change. And then I would get up
and go back to the first side and get to it. That mental shift of looking the
other way was very useful.

------
keesj
Since you seem to care what others think about your code, it’s worth
considering making your code public or find someone to share your pull
requests with. Someone who occasionally reviews your code. You can even pay
someone to do this.

Alternatively you can set up a linter that doesn’t let you push your code
until it’s properly formatted and/or well-tested.

With regards to more higher level stuff such as setting and working towards
goals, I find a “mastermind” group invaluable. It’s a group of like-minded
insividuals who meet up regularly (offline or online) and discuss what they
are working on. Having a structure in place to make sure everyone has to share
their progress or lack thereof is key.

Shameless plug: I built WIP ( [https://WIP.chat](https://WIP.chat) ) To solve
this exact problem. It’s a community + group chat of makers where we actually
share our todos and the progress we make. (this makes it very different from
your typical group chat)

Of course you could also set up something similar yourself with a group of
friends. A weekly Skype call with Google Doc. Etc. Whatever works best for
you.

Edit: typos

~~~
toyg
Hey, WIP looks cool but the price is a bit steep for something I might not use
after the novelty effect wears off in a week (which is the typical problem
with todos/productivity apps). I understand it acts as a barrier to the worst
timewasters polluting the chat, but maybe there should be some sort of
ramp...? Just my £0.02.

~~~
keesj
In my experience the novelty effect of a good productivity tool doesn’t wear
off that quickly. It will become an indispensable tool in your workflow.

For most members $20/mo (or $150/year) is well worth the boost in productivity
and connections made. That said, if you decide it’s not for you I’d be happy
to refund the $20.

------
fergie
Whenever you work for yourself the key is to DO SOMETHING THAT YOU ACTUALLY
CARE ABOUT. If you care about what you are doing, then you will hold yourself
to high standards.

Another thing to think about is what part of what you are making do you
actually care about. Code quality/idioms/dialects/languages? functionality?
Look and feel? You might be so caught up in making a kick-ass gizmo that you
completely forget to write "nice" code (for certain values of nice). THIS IS
COMPLETELY OK- you are not unaccountable, you are just prioritizing.

------
giancarlostoro
Ages back when the CEO of the company I work for came by he talked about
somebody who worked in the communications department (where they tell the
company everything happening). He told us how she organized her work:

Every day she would start with a white board or piece of paper and write down
everything she needed to do for that day. The next day she'd take whatevers
left and start the list over. Her goal was to make sure nobody ever could say
they have no idea what was happening in the company, and honestly she did a
phenomenal job at it: she wrote up transcripts, shared videos and pictures as
well. You just knew what was going on: some people don't like reading: there's
audio / video, or they don't like video: there's a transcript.

In any regard, what I personally do is I create tickets in whatever ticketing
system I'm working with be it Jira, Trac, GitHub Issues, whatever system and I
write out or take the tasks / stories / issues (man devs really need to pick a
darn uniform term) and write out a checklist of what I need to do even if I go
back to the ticket. As I'm working and I realize something new I need to do, I
write it down. I check things off, or cross them off (to make it more obvious
what isn't done in longer lists) and I found this helps me when I go "what was
I trying to do again?"

------
ajcodez
It sounds like you do your best work to impress others. What if you hire a
code mentor to review your code every couple weeks? It’s worth $100 if it
works.

------
softwaredoug
I make public commitments that would be hard or damaging to myself to get out
of. Basically committing to a deadline with real consequences.

(Example if I am interested in a side project, I promise to speak at a local
meetup about my work)

~~~
ScottFree
I tried doing that once. My stress level went through the roof. Does the same
thing happen to you? If so, how do you deal with it?

~~~
softwaredoug
It's somewhat mitigated by the fact that Meetup talks are informal, and in
general people like hearing what worked/what didn't work - not perfection.
People are generally nice at meetups, especially towards side projects. Of
course I'd prefer to show something amazing, but sometimes that doesn't work
out :)

~~~
JnBrymn
Oh hey! And you remember that time we wrote a book about a technology we were
unfamiliar with? Shame driven development in action right there!

------
Tenoke
One thing I've always wanted to do (and hopefully will) is to hire one of
those cheap online assistants that can handle generic tasks for you, and both
streamline what I have to do, and use them to keep me accountable.

Having someone confirm whether you've done certain things as their job seems
like something that will help me, and even if it doesn't fully help they can
reduce the amount of work I need to do to start on something which is helpful
on its own.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone here is doing something like this?

~~~
ericcholis
This idea is intriguing. How much is "cheap" and do you have any recommended
providers?

~~~
sam-a
You can find some online workers here:
[https://www.onlinejobs.ph/jobseekers/jobsearch/category/offi...](https://www.onlinejobs.ph/jobseekers/jobsearch/category/office-
admin) I've used some of the them for data entry, their price is really cheap.
You can get some for as low as $2 - $5/hour, depending on what you need.

~~~
razordave
This feels very exploitative.

~~~
Erwin
Is all your clothing made solely in US?

Bangladesh minimum wage for garment workers (1000+ of whom died when a poorly
maintained building collapsed) is 95 dollars per month.

~~~
ranie93
Good point, better to keep exploiting than be a hypocrite!

~~~
dotancohen
You are not exploiting the person making the garments, you are exploiting the
fact that the cost of living in Bangladesh is far below the cost of living in
a Western nation.

The fact that the standard of living in Bangladesh is also lower does not mean
that you are exploiting the worker. In fact, in many cases (especially
employing them directly online as the GP is suggesting) you are helping to
improve their standard of living.

------
airbreather
Write yourself a spec.

Even better, follow the full process

1) Problem Identification

2) Requirements Capture

2a) Technology selection (optional)

3) Specification

4) verification and validation

Maybe you do some TDD and mix it up on 3 and 4, but this is the minimum
process to meet an intent for a v-model, call it a shallow v.

Try and maintain at least minimum traceability thru the stages, but can easily
fit each on a tab on a spreadsheet and link cells across the phases.

Once you get a few done, they are really very little work compared to the
benefits yielded.

If you can't articulate what you need, want, how to do and how to check, even
if only one stage in advance as you go, then you probably aren't ready to
start.

Sometimes it might be instructive to write one to throw away if you aren't
sure how it might best pan out, then make the plan for the actual thing.

------
jcims
I struggle with this typically, but now have a loved one with a very serious
medical condition that I need to help out regularly and everything has
basically gone to hell at work. I've lost all semblance of strategic thinking
and what I used to encourage as open feedback from my team now rings like
overly entitled whining. It's a mess.

~~~
Roritharr
I can absolutely relate, but sadly have no advice, only sympathy to offer.

~~~
jcims
Thanks...I know there are lots of folks dealing with worse, at least i'm
fortunate to have a good paying job with a compassionate employer to worry
about. But it's still not always clear how to prioritize and when it's
appropriate to start making decisions to reduce responsibilities and impact of
away time.

------
jfitzpa22
If I understand your question correctly, then you are looking for ways to hold
yourself accountable when doing work for which you are the main stakeholder.
Does this mean a side project outside of what you do for a living or does this
mean when working solo at your job? If it's the former, then you have at least
two options: see the work through or quit and find something that excites you
enough to follow the task through to fruition. If it's something that that you
are working on solo for your paying job, then perhaps consider keeping to a
schedule, asking colleagues that you respect to review your work, and to
taking some time at the end of the day to identify why working by yourself
produces the observed results. Does some rational (or irrational) belief lead
to a dip in quality and goals?

------
foobar_
You have to be a bit of a manger for yourself and be ruthlessly critical. Ask
your self about the end results. Ask yourself what are the current
obstructions. Ask yourself about the pros and cons and costs. Ask yourself if
you are just fooling around or getting work done.

------
toxicFork
When you are working for someone, or with someone else, you have their voice
as authority, or as someone you are helping. Find what motivates you. This is
similar to going to the gym yourself versus going with a personal trainer.

What are your expectations? What would go good or bad if you do or do not
succeed?

How much do you really regret, what aspect of it do you regret the most?
Identify one specific problem and seek to improve that specifically. Once you
are good at that little thing, pick the next one.

------
vbsteven
I like to log everything I do in a log file. I use OneNote for this as it is
very easy to create checkbox lists.

I start the day by creating a new day title with the date and then add empty
checkbox items for the things I want to get done, then I move over stuff from
the previous day that I did not get around to yesterday.

And I also have a list at the bottom for stuff I need to do eventually but is
not a priority, I review this list every morning as well.

------
ericcholis
I've done quite a few different things, none of which worked for me 100%.
Trello boards, Asana, GitHub Issues, etc...

I have recently found success in working backwards to determine why things
aren't getting addressed. I'm using Clockify
[[https://clockify.me/](https://clockify.me/)] to track time spent on tasks.
My flow is to stop the timer when I switch tasks, and start a new entry.

My job has a high amount of interruptions, which causes quite a bit of context
switching. Not the most productive situation when working on long form tasks.

I've found that keeping an inventory of these interruptions helps me to
determine what my stakeholders might need assistance with through utilities or
fixes. It also keeps me semi-accountable in relation to how much of my day is
being used appropriately.

But, I think the long and short of it is, keeping yourself accountable starts
with being honest about where your time is being spent.

------
knightofmars
I think you almost hit the problem on the head but are slightly off mark. I
believe you are close with, "But as soon as I work for myself..." But I
question whether or not you are actually "working for yourself".

Is this code you're writing for yourself a product that is intended to become
a full-time endeavor? If yes, then it makes sense that you'd find yourself
frustrated, and it is likely that the quality isn't actually the problem. It's
a frustration with not having the bandwidth to work on your own project 100%
of your time. You're not financially independent and recognize that you don't
have the time to actually deliver the quality and content you'd like to. It is
a sense of futility working on something during odd hours that you'd rather
spend decompressing from having to deliver quality all day long at a paying
job.

------
DoreenMichele
_But as soon as I work for myself my standards, quality and even goals start
going down hill._

What does that even mean?

Are you talking about an entirely private project on your home PC that no one
but you will ever see? Then it's a hobby and you can make it as good or half
assed as you feel like.

Or is this open source? If so, then decide what your goals are or your reasons
for doing it.

Most people don't appreciate free stuff and people who work for free often
resent the way they get treated for idealistically providing high quality
stuff completely for free. You don't owe "your best" to random strangers who
won't appreciate it. If you are resenting that or feeling burned out or
something, take a break, re-assess your reasons for doing it and decide
whether to quit, lower your expectations, scale back your involvement, or
whatever.

------
iandanforth
To get the work done at all -
[https://www.focusmate.com/](https://www.focusmate.com/)

The expectation of a stranger for you to show up and work is powerful and
effective.

To make sure it's high quality, pay for code review -
[https://www.codementor.io/](https://www.codementor.io/)

The expectation that someone with minimal competence will be looking at your
code is powerful and effective. Note: You don't even need a super experienced
person (read expensive) you can get 90% of the motivation from even a junior
reviewer.

Build the cost of these into your pricing structure.

Aside: I'm still looking for on demand project management for 1 or 2 weekly 30
minute sessions to track progress since I hate (and thus don't do) this
overhead work.

------
proxygeek
I've been following the below steps for about an year now:

1\. Go through my agenda for the next day every evening and commit to no more
than 3 categories of tasks multiple, unplanned context switches don't work for
me)

2\. Try to religiously track my time. Easy to do for planned items but still
struggling with tracking unproductive time. But within a couple of weeks, you
start to see patterns even with such vague notes as (1230-1430: YouTube, etc)

3\. Review your weekly / fortnightly patterns every Saturday. Takes no more
than 30 mins a week to reflect on the well gone by and come up with one change
to try the next week.

Orgmode has been a huge help with tracking the time and it ties in my
workflow. And of course, the overall process itself keeps evolving, as it
should.

~~~
JasonSage
For getting a grasp on what your unproductive time, I'd like to recommend
RescueTime.

Fundamentally, it is tracking software, and I know some folks won't like that.

It works by measuring time spent between programs via desktop client, and when
you're using the browser an optional browser extension subdivides its time by
which webpage you have active. It then groups all this info up into categories
and measures your "productive" vs. "unproductive" time.

I used it for many years when I did freelancing work, and found it to be
exceptionally high quality.

------
pinouchon
I'm in the same boat: my standards for myself are way lower than when I work
for other people.

I think self-discipline doesn't cut it. What you need is commitment devices:
put yourself in a situation where it's harder/more costly to not do the work
rather than do it. Have the environment do the motivation work for you, "tie
yourself to the mast"

For example: time tracking, deadline for a public speech, deadline for a demo
day, going to a dedicated room where only work is allowed, working with other
people (even if they don't work on the same stuff as you), developing a good
routine/habits. Keeping a log of progress/failures is good too.

It's hard stuff

~~~
jmatthews
Respectfully, different things work for different people. Motivation is
fleeting and can be easily derailed, but self discipline is a monster that
doesn't quit.

Philosophically, self discipline is self love. What is misaligned that causes
the person to let themselves down?

------
ratherlongname
Sign your code.

Doing this attaches your reputation to your code. Anybody reading it knows to
expect a certain level of quality given it is written by you, and you get the
much needed motivation to write good code.

Amazing piece of advice I picked from the Pragmatic Programmer.

~~~
giancarlostoro
Well that's what version control does, so if you remind yourself that when
someone does a git blame later, and they see who wrote the awful code and
dread your existence, you might want to fix it up.

------
mvip
I'd recommend reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. For me, creating
habits and using a paper todo list have made a big impact on me. That said, i
think everyone occasionally feels that they are slacking performing less than
they could do. I also wrote a bit about what works for me in my blog post A
Decade of Remote Work [1].

[1] [http://blog.viktorpetersson.com/remote-
work/2019/05/18/a-dec...](http://blog.viktorpetersson.com/remote-
work/2019/05/18/a-decade-of-remote.html)

------
rm_-rf_slash
I’ve seen tremendous improvement in my productivity lately simply by
documenting everything I do in a spreadsheet.

Any interval of time with a discrete task, even if it’s answering emails, I
note and occasionally provide supplemental information.

I’ve noticed that it’s helped most with clearing through lots of small tasks,
because when I record my start and stop times, I feel less inclined to let
“answered an email” take any more than a few minutes.

I still don’t have a productivity boosting solution for big complex projects
with lots of research, except “lots of coffee.”

------
hevi_jos
Now Thyself

The first thing you have to do is to identify what is the real problem.

I don't know you, most of the people here do not know you personally so even
if someone here is an expert on human behavior and productivity, is is way
easier to identify the real problem if you are face to face with an expert.

Odds are that the problem(usually they are several problems) that you have is
different to what you see as a problem(the consequence of the real problem).

This expert will read your body language, your voice nuances, your attitude
much better than through plain text. This person could ask you about your life
habits, that are super important(do you sleep , eat well, exercise, make love
with your partner? Do you play and enjoy life?) and tell you what to do.

You probably are doing several things wrong, like working too much, not
exercising, isolating yourself, judging yourself too harshly.

Over this you will probably feel anxiety that makes you procrastinate and do
no work at all.

It takes a lot of reading, watching videos and practice over years in order to
master productivity on your own. Just raw ideas and techniques are not enough,
you need to whatch them in action, being applied to really understand.
Specially watching masters.

And most important, you need to apply those techniques in your life, not just
understand them. A mentor would be your external feedback if you apply the
techniques or not.

Would you learn judo reading blogs? Or books? That would help, but a master
will skyrocket your learning.

There are programs like "wake up productive"(from Eben Pagan) that you can
watch as videos. There are torrents of it if you just want to know what is all
about before buying.

A good psychologist could also help you a lot with any issues that you have
while working on your own.

There are experts in programming that know the best techniques. Just ask them,
make them your mentors if you can.

There are experts in human behavior. Ask them or make them your mentors.

There are experts in productivity...

Find people that are in the same place that you are, a support group. You can
create it if it does not exist.

------
EliRivers
You clearly can't trust yourself.

Put someone else in charge of ensuring quality and make sure they've got the
ability to spot when you're not delivering and the authority to bust your
chops for it.

In my place, this is often referred to as "QA". He makes sure requirements are
identified, tests are agreed and suitable, processes followed, design and code
reviews done properly, code source controlled correctly, builds done properly,
automated test suites are good, all that sort of thing.

------
andersthue
This might sound like a strange advice, but i have had you problem and found a
way of being in my advice that has helped me in practicing to have high
standard even in my own work.

It all started with reading the book called “The anatomy of peace”, and then
reading the two other books from the same author, this helped me a lot and I
then went all-in and took their coaching education, and now i am much less
stuck and helping others get unstuck at the same time :)

------
lettergram
I tend to write stories on a board the same as I do at work (actually better
than work). I have estimated hours, etc.

Then I pull them into programs as I go, document throughly, and close.

This helps me later work through my progress, but has also helped me onboard
people to help on my side projects. If you think you’ll be adding people, it’s
good to just develop with the same rigor as work. It’ll help you improve and
keeping yourself accountable

------
throwaway1982x
Find your support network.

You know that you work well with other people, so find ways for other people
to help you be accountable.

------
ratherlongname
Sign your code.

Every piece of code you work on should be signed by you. Your reputation gets
attached to your work, fear of what your impression will be on someone reading
sloppy code written by you should be motivation enough to write good code.

This is just one of the many useful tips I learned from the Pragmatic
Programmer.

------
plainOldText
Have someone else – who is on your side – hold you accountable (a friend or
family member). It's hard not to fall into the trap of chasing perfection when
you're the only stakeholder, especially when you're also the creator.

------
kirubakaran
I use [https://crushentropy.com](https://crushentropy.com) to plan my day and
to keep track of how the day is going compared to the plan. It helps me be
more mindful of my time.

------
julienreszka
Ever seen the movie Cast Away? Find yourself a Wilson.

Or real people. Ha!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging)

~~~
anarchyrucks
A rubber duck can do it too.

------
ravenstine
Wasn't there recently a link posted on HN to a service to help
developers(maybe anyone) stay accountable with their projects? Perhaps someone
can help me out here, as I can't find it.

~~~
steve_adams_86
[https://bossasaservice.life/](https://bossasaservice.life/) comes to mind.

I used this and really liked it while remotely contracting, but it wasn't as
helpful for me while working on a team in an office. I find accountability is
easier when I'm in more of a leadership role and I have a team to support.

With remote contracting though, ugh. So many small tasks come up, unclear
direction, often very few people to work with, plenty of isolation. The person
or people you're helping often don't know how to manage projects, but the
impermanence of the project makes it unappealing to step in. Accountability
gets difficult at times. Things like this can be helpful... It kind of became
a game for me to stay on track and work with the 'boss'.

------
treme
some ideas:

Clearly, there is some difference in how your emotional arousal works to
motivate you in working with someone else vs doing your own work.

Look into doing some introspection and try to uncover and compare the
difference in core belief/subconscious commitments you work with others vs for
your self

check out the link if what I said interests you.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HoE_PKlanc&](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HoE_PKlanc&)

------
grumpy8
Had a similar problem, but just do what works for you, i.e. work with other
people and be transparent and public about your deadlines/milestones.

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justinator
Remove the safety nets from you life. You work like you do because you have
the privilege to do so. Get rid of what's holding you back.

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genericperson_z
When I did remote work I had a similar issue, and still have it with my own
projects. The way I overcome the self-lag is to compartmentalize - I have an
internal boss hat / worker hat. When I think about goals, timelines, progress
etc. and set those goals I don't think in terms of "I want to / need to", but
"My $boss would want /need..." and think of bosses that I respected and did
good work for.

tl:dr; I get myself into the headspace that I'm working for someone else to
overcome my own ability to undervalue my own projects.

~~~
jmatthews
Great hack. I need to try this. I used to use the self audit approach where
I'd critically review my own work as a boss on a weekly sit down. What's funny
is it allows you to be empathetic to yourself. Kind of counter intuitive

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mapcars
If you are realizing now that you are doing it - you can see this at any time
and adjust accordingly.

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savrajsingh
See focusmate.com, I’ve been using it a lot. Video conference with
accountability partners

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imvetri
Its okay it happens. You can compete with yourself on what you created in the
past.

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loblollyboy
Maybe you are motivated by fear of failure/rejection?

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pezo1919
Just accept the tradeoffs and have fun either way.

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aszantu
treat yourself like you would treat others?

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amos19870630
Happiness is the only purpose of our existence. Please be nice to yourself.

