

Help HN: Commit to something publicly here. - mortenjorck

While it's a well-known strategy for self-motivation, seeing it mentioned again here (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2131110) inspired the following exercise:<p>There's a goal you've been meaning to work toward. You're the only one holding yourself to it, and you haven't made the progress you want to so far.<p>Where should you be on it one month from now? Is it completable in that timeframe? How far along do you want to be? Post it here. Next month, in a follow-up thread, post an update.
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JonnieCache
As I mentioned in the other thread, there is actually plenty of evidence
_against_ this view, evidence showing that publicly announcing your goals
actually reduces your motivation.

Here is the same short TED talk I posted on the subject in the other thread:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHopJHSlVo4>

Don't mean to rain on your parade, just trying to get all the relevant numbers
out there. Your brain may vary.

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Metapony
While HN is a bit different, I find that a lot of content aggregation sites
are big timewasters. (Most notably Reddit.) What does it matter if you have
spent 20 minutes composing your life's story (or opinion) when it's going to
be downvoted and forgotten in a day or two? That's 20 minutes (plus 3 minutes
here and there to check for replies) that you have now wasted. Yes, your
opinion matters, yes you are a shining star, a special snowflake... but what
matters more, your goal or the satisfaction of showing them that your
insignificant opinion matters?

Also, people learn and work best in short intervals. Spend 20 or 40 minutes
focussed and then get up and go to the window. Stretch. Don't go to the
fridge, you little piggy. Center yourself and still your mind. Flip the album
over and go back to work.

Also, setting an unrealistic time goal might just drag you down, as you'll
spend more time kicking yourself for having missed it than you will working to
achieve it. Set milestones, and they don't have to be perfect. The output
doesn't have to be perfect if you can prove to yourself that you've got the
socket open and it isn't crashing. Refinement should be it's own milestone,
anyway.

You can do it. Don't take my word for it, only your own.

~~~
Metapony
Lol, I just gave you a pep talk when you were mentioning a strategy and
wondering who out there had goals to discuss. I've got goals (some private,
some professional) but I'd prefer to not discuss them til I've got some code
to alpha. I'll leave my comment here, maybe it'll help you. I swear I won't
waste time checking for replies, but just writing that all out was good for
me. I'm a code from home type, and I'm now all covered in sweat from dancing
around, having spent all day learning node.js.

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mortenjorck
As for me, I plan to have a rudimentary command of Cocoa by then, just enough
to sketch a UI prototype for an app.

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mapster
If people don't meet their goals, the thread will full of crickets or excuses.

