Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself? Don't you get tired of?

zeynalov · on March 22, 2012

Here is my motivation stuff:

A Reddit comment on being a producer not consumer: ---

“I make sure to start every day as a producer, not a consumer. When you get up, you may start with a good routine like showering and eating, but as soon as you find yourself with some free time you probably get that urge to check Reddit, open that game you were playing, see what you’re missing on Facebook, etc.

Put all of this off until “later”. Start your first free moments of the day with thoughts of what you really want to do; those long-term things you’re working on, or even the basic stuff you need to do today, like cooking, getting ready for exercise, etc.

This keeps you from falling into the needy consumer mindset. That mindset where you find yourself endlessly surfing Reddit, Facebook, etc. trying to fill a void in yourself, trying to find out what you’re missing, but never feeling satisfied.

When you’ve started your day with doing awesome (not necessarily difficult) things for yourself, these distractions start to feel like a waste of time. You check Facebook just to make sure you’re not missing anything important directed at you, but scrolling down and reading random stuff in your feed feels like stepping out into the Disneyland parking lot to listen to what’s playing on the car radio – a complete waste of time compared to what you’re really doing today.”

*

Quotes: ---

- “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” - Goethe

- “Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” - Voltaire

- “Live the life you've dreamed” - Henry David Thoreau

- "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' " - Muhammad Ali

- “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” - Goethe

- “Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.” - Phillip Adams

- “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Einstein

- If you Complete what you have started, I call this success. Muhammed Bozdag.

*

This video: ---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHAJhosbWiM

klaut · on March 22, 2012

wanted to watch the video, but being in UK i am not allowed due to some copyright issues. too bad :(

zeynalov · on March 22, 2012

try this - https://www.distinctbypass.info/browse.php?u=Oi8vd3d3LnlvdXR...

kappaknight · on March 22, 2012

You actually sound pretty normal. I find I go through the same, alternating pattern roughly every quarter. I'll have 3 months of all nighters and forgo food and sleep without issues. Once a certain level of success is obtained, my brain and body decides to relax and not let me do anything unless it's an emergency. Sometimes this last for weeks, sometimes months. But I totally get what you're saying.

For me, inspiration and motivation are tied to my procrastination. I tend to come up with the best ideas and do my best work when hanging off the edge of the cliff.

In addition to working out (as philip has suggested), I would find a way to either hide or invest your monthly income so you don't have access to it. If you only had to live off of $4500 a month instead of $15,000+ a month, you will get your head back into the game.

geoffw8 · on March 30, 2012

You my friend need a good old friendly slap in the mush. Because otherwise, you will never be successful. Its as simple as that.

Over with the harshness, I know what you mean. I used to be self employed and at times I found it tough, I'll use an analogy. I used to set my alarm, and snooze for about 30 minutes, now I snooze once and I'm out of bed within 5 minutes. The hardest part of starting your day is getting your arse out of bed.

I would recommend two things:

1) Create a trivial task that just "gets you started". Maybe thats making a list, reading a industry report. Is it lack of inspiration thats failing to get you going in the morning?

2) Make sure what your doing is right. I have a saying, if something doesn't feel right, something is usually wrong. What I mean by that is, if I feel something is too hard, or making me feel uneasy or - say - I'm not motivated, its probably the sign of something bigger. Maybe I'm working on the wrong thing?

Additionally, I'm 22. My qualification to write this comment is I am incredibly motivated, I do a 10 hour day at another startup, then I work on my own site which is just finishing. I'd guess your about the same? Actually, I just read, you've a wife, I'd pin you as older in that case.

You know what, being a senior yourself, scrap all of what I said. You just need a slap in the mush ;)

If you've excited, holiday. Relax. Do what you gotta do. There's a great saying about procrastination and I forget who said it but its something along the lines of "time worried about procrastination is time wasted, if your going to procrastinate, enjoy it".

Best of luck man, maybe you should consider getting a hotdesk or something, too.

Enjoy your day!

pwhelan · on March 22, 2012

In my experience, it just means that your habits have become that which you don't want them to be.

Look into creating a morning routine that gets you to working on something so when you wake up you get out of bed and start something, anything. Start making breakfast (this can be easier if you have the coffee pot on a timer so it is ready upon waking), pound some water & a banana before going for a run, do hygiene and get dressed -- any of these make a good starting point. Finally, getting out of the house/apt to a workspace can really help the focus as well -- I dream about working on my startup all day at work but when I get home I frequently fall into the traps you've discussed unless I go to a place specifically to work.

As a redditor you might want to look at /r/getMotivated.

Finally, the biggest thing for me has been realizing that "just start" is really, really helpful. If I can just make myself start on something for 5min then I can easily work on it for 5 hours but that initial resistance is by far the worst of my barriers.

Good luck.

tstegart · on March 22, 2012

I've learned to just let my phases happen. I'll go weeks with amazing productivity and then just hit a wall and all I want to do is game or read. So as much as possible I try and get it out of my system. I find that trying to force myself to do work actually has the opposite effect. I sit there and procrastinate and get mad at myself. Its much more fun to clear out my work and just say, I'm going to game for three days straight. I get the same amount of work done either way and enjoy life a lot more. However, if you need to interrupt your procrastination, I suggest travel. Get out of your routine, go away for the weekend with no electronic devices. Its amazing how much more motivated you are when you come back.

dangeur · on March 22, 2012

The suggestion to change your setting is definitely a good one. If you can find way to change setting which also removes distractions it definitely helps. I find that just grabbing my netbook and going somewhere else to just focus on working really helps me.

castlerobot · on March 25, 2012

Maybe you're just burnt out from all the time you spent working on it last year. Since it seems pretty low maintenance right now, try taking an extended break from it totally. When you go back to it, you may feel differently and more motivated to work.

Sometimes procrastination is a sign that you're unhappy with how things are going. Maybe you miss the thrill of creating something new and challenging yourself. Maybe try recapturing some of that excitement by pushing yourself and your startup further. Try growing it more, make it better, try out a new crazy idea. It could help you ignite that passion again.

philip1209 · on March 22, 2012

Try exercising. Honestly.

ecaroth · on March 27, 2012

Find something outside the internet that motivates you, where if you start slacking or become lazy at it you see the results immediately. For me that was martial arts, learning how to eat/live healthy, and working out.

mannicken · on March 22, 2012

I just work on things that are interesting and tolerate things that are not interesting to work on things that are interesting. Makes sense? :)

tolitius · on March 22, 2012

don't think anybody can really help you here, but things to try that come to mind..

    * have kids
    * have friends that you can touch
    * have an affair
    * travel
    .. ...
    * put "127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com" in your "/etc/hosts"

itsprofitbaron · on March 24, 2012

I wouldn't recommend the affair one but, I'm replying to this because regarding the last one:

  put "127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com" in your "/etc/hosts"

You don't even need to do that if you don't want to completely ban yourself from HN (especially as this site runs on several domains) you can just edit the "noprocast" to "yes" and edit the maxvisit: and minaway: times from the standard 20minutes and 180minutes to help you to be more productive and stop procrastinating.