There is one more point that can really get you motivated. I call it the cliff-hanger approach. I use it mostly for programming but you can use it for other aspects too.
Anyway, it goes like this. Whenever you're leaving work, make sure to leave at least one thing nearly done.
Like one failing test which you know how to fix, a function that you've just started writing but haven't completed.
This way you have a starting point the next day and it really helps to get the ball rolling.
On a related note, another approach is to make things easier for yourself. I think it's all about getting over the static friction (time before you get the ball rolling). This approach is to prepare for the next day in advance. Like have your running shoes and socks ready by your bed, have a glass of water and a lemon (+knife) on your kitchen cabinet before going off to sleep.
"I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it." -A Moveable Feast
I have a similar approach: don't sit down at the computer until you know what you're going to do. It works well because sitting at the computer "feels like work" and is also a source of distractions. A lot of times I end up pacing back and forth until I figure it out (which may be a social issue for those of you who are employed).
There's a difference between going outside for a walk and pacing back and forth up an open office. We have a guy that does the latter and it's definitely a huge social issue.
Holy shit, you can stand up! When I lie down on the couch, I have a tough time being motivated to get up. Even to go to bed. I've fallen asleep on the couch so many times.
This works for me in some kinds of tasks. Sometimes when I don't feel like changing the plastic bags in the bathroom tray [1], thinking "ok, let me just remove this bag. I can put a new one (2nd half of the task) later." puts me in motion and I usually do the complete (rather stupid) task easily.
[1] Its a brazilian thing, we can't throw our shit paper in the toilet.
1. Good sleep. Note I didn't say "enough" sleep but good sleep. To wake up fresh in the morning you have to sleep well and you do that by going to bed early. Also, eating in the morning will teach your body that the morning is the period with lots of energy available so it will wake up in the morning.
2. Exercise. Periodic, daily exercise helps to clean your brain. Literally. Caveats: biking does not count plus cold air can give you a slight brain inflammation which leads to "don't feel like working". Every time you brain is not in top shape, you will feel like not working. I recommend moderate weight lifting.
3. Eat properly. Plenty of advice on internet. Your brain works with the food you eat, so if you eat garbage your brain will run on garbage.
4. Daily rest. Plan each day a proper rest. For your brain. I.e. when you do physical work, you rest by staying still. When you use your brain to work, you rest by going in the park and not thinking at all if possible :). Caveats: documentaries, games and other things that make you think do not count. Sorry :)
I include here plans to do things that you really would like to do a.k.a "live your life". This change of scenery helps a lot when you go back to work. You will feel very motivated.
Each time I don't feel like working I just think about what I did in the last days or week and see which one I skipped.
Usually people recommend 1-3 but I was doing that and still no results. Once I implemented 4 I was really productive.
For me, it will give me a slight inflammation to my head, which translates into procrastination.
Also a bike is a really eficient way to travel, so if you are like me you either will not do much effort or you get an inflammation. I've noticed that walking to do some shopping is better. Plus you kill two birds with one stone.
Sometimes I do bike slowly to a park but I don't count it as physical effort. It's just travel.
Edit: It might count for you. The takeaway should be: listen to your body. When you procrastinate something is not good with your brain. Look back in time and see what you did that might be the cause. When you are in "the zone" do the same: look back in time and see what you did and do more of that :).
I am not a big fan of chopping up the huge and complex problem of human existence into pieces and dealing with them individually. We have been conditioned socially and biologically to see everything in problem/solution format. We can't seem to make sense of anything unless it fits into that format.
categorizing motivation into 'external'/internal' is just silly at best. The problem of fulfillment needs to be understood as a whole. There is no escape from fulfillment, you can only escape one form of fulfillment into another but you can never rid yourself of it. And once you are seeking fulfillment of any sort you are setting yourself up for internal conflict, disappointment and all of human suffering that has been going on for thousands of years. The problem has to be understood as a whole not chopped up into pieces that you can free yourself from. Freedom from something is no freedom at all.Freedom can only be achieved through love, not ambition. Ambition is always ugly. Always!!.
The "pregame routine" is why I find it so much easier to work at work than at home.
The pregame routine is simply getting up, showering, dressing, driving to the office. It's not anything I even deliberately created, but by the time I get to the office I'm generally in the frame of mind to begin the work day.
When I work from home I might not shower right away, I might putter around doing other chores, etc. and generally I have a hard time getting in the frame of mind to work.
I wonder to what extent motivation is the culprit. I, for one, have experienced intense motivation and intense procrastination at the same time.
I have every reason, internal and external, to get the thing done, but I sometimes have trouble starting. This is particularly true of tasks where premature optimisation is possible, as I quite enjoy the analytical/planning part of the work. It's just that it takes on a life of it's own and the actual/quali-mechanical act of starting keeps getting pushed further back.
On the "intense motivation and intense procrastination at the same time" thing, I've found it's possible to turn that to your own advantage, especially when you're not working towards tight deadlines.
What I find is there's often something "I know" I have to do, as well as other things that interest me at the time. So long as the thing you know you have to do doesn't have an imminent deadline, you can find other things to "distract" yourself with that end up working out for the best in the long run. For example, I've had times when I was finding it hard to concentrate on a piece of work, but found something technical (like a programming language) that I wanted to explore. By going with it, you end up improving your skills, and if you can chip away at the "must do" task on the side, you find that when you're ready to look at it again you've already laid the ground work.
That's one of the approaches that works for me. Have you experienced something similar?
You're not alone. I just eventually fall out of that phase, for no apparent reason, and start delivering, sometimes even for weeks and months. And then I fall back in. Been looking for years, but still can't pinpoint the cause.
same here. I had the motivation but not the ability to do it. After a few years I realized that lack of motivation just means "brain (the organ) in bad shape" (see my other comment).
Just finished reading "The Power of Habit" [1], which was eye-opening. It makes a strong case that we're really a collection of habits. We can't eliminate habits from our brains, but we can override them with new ones over time. There are also Keystone Habits which tend to positively impact all areas of peoples' lives – exercise tends to be one, for example. In the corporate setting, he uses the example of Alcoa focusing on worker safety, and how that became a keystone habit that completely transformed all aspects of the business.
Also, say you have a habit of opening Facebook (or Hacker News :) when you're at your computer instead of opening up your IDE. By figuring out what reward you get out of those diversions, and being able to identify the trigger, you may be able over time to replace that 'bad' habit with a 'good' one – perhaps stretching, or talking a 5 min walk. The result might be a less fragmented day.
I really buy into this theory, in part because anecdotally it seems to align with examples of successful people; they have good work habits. Great writers, for instance, talk about simply sitting down at the typewriter every day. Same with comedians, painters, etc. Procrastination is a hard thing to crack, because so often we're fighting against deeply ingrained habits – by becoming mindful of them, we can potentially reshape them into habits that make us feel accomplished.
I've found my best chance at tricking myself into working is using my procrastination as a tool. Whenever I feel like not coding I go and write some documentation, work on some design or groom tickets. This is my equivalent of students cleaning their dorms instead of learning for exams.
I've seen this technique somewhere exploited even further, by tricking yourself into working in "forced mode" on something completely secondary, while resting when working on the important stuff.
I have sometimes used a method where I start working in the morning and when I find myself losing focus I have a rule to stop and go home. It keeps me constantly underachieving and wasting time. After a while I actually just really want to get stuff done and the runs get longer. Obviously this does not work very well when working in teams or for someone else.
The rest is confronting your fear, boredom, and anxiety; managing your time and energy; developing good habits and process; and knowing when to ask for help or study up. You have to be an expert at getting unstuck.
Give yourself a goal to accomplish within a specific amount of time. It's easy to procrastinate when you have all the time in the world. It's hard when there's a due date.
I think many people need an external factor beyond the calendar. You need a what if and a force to apply it.
What if I miss this date? Have I setup an auto pay to a political group I don't like? Is there some public mockery coming my way? Will a significant person tell me how ashamed they are by my complete lack of determination?
Anyway, it goes like this. Whenever you're leaving work, make sure to leave at least one thing nearly done.
Like one failing test which you know how to fix, a function that you've just started writing but haven't completed.
This way you have a starting point the next day and it really helps to get the ball rolling.
On a related note, another approach is to make things easier for yourself. I think it's all about getting over the static friction (time before you get the ball rolling). This approach is to prepare for the next day in advance. Like have your running shoes and socks ready by your bed, have a glass of water and a lemon (+knife) on your kitchen cabinet before going off to sleep.