

Don't Break The Chain - marrone
http://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.php
Some good advice that can apply to any aspiration
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pg
I found it works for running. After you have a two month streak going, you
really don't want to miss a day. You find you make the rest of your life fit
around it.

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brlewis
This principle is why many Lisp hackers fail to make good web sites or
applications. Lisp programming can lead to days and weeks of fun programming,
so that you break the chain of doing less-fun but important programming.
Sometimes the improvement users want most involves non-fun programming. You
really have to push yourself to implement it instead of procrastinating by
coding something more fun but less desired.

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willarson
This doesn't have anything to do with Lisp. Depending on what they view as
fulfilling, some people veer away from difficult problems regardless of the
language they are writing in. Working in a "more fun" language like Lisp
doesn't make you more likely to avoid doing hard work, nor does writing in a
"less fun" language like Java increase your propensity to actually deal with
the difficult segments. Its a matter of self-control, and is, unfortunately,
an issue for programmers in every language.

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brlewis
I assert that a less fun language _does_ increase your propensity to face up
to unpleasant tasks. If your programming language makes facing up to
unpleasant tasks a part of your daily routine, you won't "break the chain" by
spending a day or a week where programming is all fun and games.

I'm not saying that self-control (a.k.a. passion for doing the right thing) is
_not_ an issue if you use a less-fun language, I'm just saying that it becomes
_less_ of an issue.

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ivankirigin
I can imagine using multiple colors for various tasks on a single board. I
might try this. I use something close to GTD, with a flat text file. I really
need a PDA though.

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mynameishere
Seinfeld kept telling the same jokes for years.

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SwellJoe
Actually, his repertoire was pretty huge, he never worked blue, and he's among
the most successful comics of all time (economically speaking). The last
season of Seinfeld paid him (and his co-stars) $1 million per episode.

He's not my favorite comic (or even in the top ten), but I'll take
productivity advice from Seinfeld any day, all day.

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marrone
It works. I used to do something similar for going to the gym

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kingkongrevenge
"Don't you understand anything about commitment, about being a pro, about
sticking with what you say you wanna be? You don't just do it when you feel
good. You do it every day of your life. You do it when it hurts to do it, when
it's the last thing in the world you wanna do. You do it because you're a
professional." --Teddy Atlas

Said to Michael Moorer when he wanted to skip a day of road-work while
training to fight Holyfield.

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twism
would be an alright facebook app...

~~~
sbraford
... the race has begun.

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rms
Yeah, that's pretty good advice.

