Ask HN: What do you do to stay motivated?

[gajda]

I often ask myself with what habits,things or whatever other hackers stay motivated throughout the day (and night).

For my part, its mostly 3 things. First one: Having a nice playlist in iTunes with some slow music ("tracing arcs - babydoll" is one of my favs). Second: A little list written on paper or the whiteboard with some tasks i'm eager to finish today (striking through something on paper or a whiteboard is more "satisfying" than just doing a 'git commit' for me) And lastly: Going for a walk when i am stuck or just need some time to think more than 2 minutes (and thanks to siri and iCloud i never lose track of good ideas on my way).

Any methods you want to share with HN and me?

[sfrechtling]

Fear. The fear of failing. The fear of being ridiculed. The fear of not achieving, of not finishing - of being the back of the pack. The fear of letting my friends and family down. The fear of not making an impact - of living a worthless life. The fear of being looked down on. The fear of not being able to eat, or shelter myself. The fear of not being able to live how I want to live.

[mindcrime]

Pretty much everything sfrechtling said, but I'd also add "visualization". I don't just think about the things I'm afraid of and want to move away from, I visualize the things I want to move towards.

So, visualizing myself tooling around in a shiny new Maserati with a 6' tall redheaded supermodel with a Scottish accent...

I also take special glee in proving people wrong who doubt me, so I visualize the opportunity to go visit $JOE_BIGSHOT who could have helped us, but didn't because he didn't believe in us... after he's crashed out of being a $BIGSHOT and is now selling cars at the local "buy here, pay here" car lot.

Music is big for me as well. Stuff like this:

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZb3Xya7jQ8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FADpsMCe9Cw

Stuff like that. :-)

[shadowrunner]

It sounds like you're running from -10 to 0 (-10 being despair and 0 being adequately motivated) instead of starting and 0 and ramping up to +10 (10 being a full blown obsession).

If you are just treading water, look for a way to get out or modify your work so you enjoy it more. To get to a +10, I think you need to dream big and set goals to achieve those dreams.

I also suggest you do whatever it takes to enjoy your work process. What helps for me is buying great software that removes points of friction from my workflow.

For instance, instead of getting annoyed at crappy, slow PDF reader software, I splurged and bought Nitro PDF which is like a Ginsu knife. Now, using and editing PDFs is sheer elation.

I'm actually launching a program that reveals how to become obsessed over anything - even stuff you used to hate doing. If you're interested you can sign up here: http://indoctrinator.com