I recommend 2 books: "The War of Art" and "Do The Work", both from Steven Pressfield.
In short, this is Resistance. Do The Work.
Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
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Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#12Been there, done that (over and over again).
You don't have time for everything. Therefore, you must choose what to do, but also you must choose what not to do. That is the hard part - choosing what to let go. Once you did that, the rest is (comparatively) easy.
Ideally, devote yourself to one subject and immerse yourself in it. Stay focused, refuse to do anything else. You'll have distractions, you'll doubt your choice, but don't start anything else until you finish what you've started.
If you have to do two things at the time, split your day in two. In the morning do one subject, then take a break (have a lunch, go to walk,...) Then, you study the second one. This break is important, don't jump from one subject to the next without it.
In summary, make your choice and stick to it until completion. Ignore everything else.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#13I recommend 2 books: "The War of Art" and "Do The Work", both from Steven Pressfield. In short, this is Resistance. Do The Work.
What he said. Highly recommended books.
Also, I wrote a post about this: http://www.splinter.com.au/turning-30-all-ideas-no-execution...
Good luck :)
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#14You need to balance what you need to get done with your natural curiosity. Separate them out and make sure both happen.
1. Work out what material you need to cover on your required studies.
2. Break it down into shorter, manageable bits. A chapter per week, perhaps.
3. Make completion of these bits concrete, so you know you are progressing (and not just reading). Completing the exercises, perhaps.
4. Break down the bits even further, so you can plan them across days.
5. Every day at the same time, start working on these bits.
6. When you finish your bits for a day, stop working. Your reward is the rest of the day to learn about whatever you feel like, guilt-free.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#151. Make a dependency chart for all your things, showing which ones depend on which other ones.
2. Mark each node with some notion of what you're getting out of it in the first place. This could range from "for the lulz" to "world domination".
3. Pick the earliest, easiest, most useful/fun thing and do it, as soon as you have the time. Do not do anything else, except possibly the next easiest, most useful/fun thing if you really feel the need to split your time. Keep on coming back to these same one or two things whenever you get the time until they are done.
4. Repeat (3) until entire dependency chart is exhausted.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#16Hi Michael, I think you need to pick a specific goal that will make you happy and make your life better and work towards that.
We can learn, just to learn, but maybe you would be happier if what you learned had a direct impact on your life.
I studied for a while (got my PhD), but I wasn't happy with what I was doing until I was running my own company and learning what I needed to learn to make money and make my company better and make my life better.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#17I suffer from the same problem.
MOOCs sometimes help me because they establish a weekly rhythm of homeworks/structure.
It's OK to let things go if they are not interesting enough (I don't finish all MOOCs/books/whatever).
I've read that learning everything at once is actually more efficient than focusing on one thing at a time, even if it is harder and more confusing in the beginning.
Regular times for learning probably help. Getting away, for example to a library or cafe might help.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#18There is one alternative that rarely gets mentioned: you don't NEED to cover anything. I don't know of your specific circumstances, but you might consider dropping the school completely, and instead exploring anything that you're interested in, if it is viable in your case. Life is too short to spend it on what others think you need; yes, it might take longer to get to a certain level of knowledge, but on the other hand you won't waste time trying to satisfy others, so the two will pretty much cancel out in most cases.
I followed the same route, with great results -- but I never had courage to do it until I was in my forties, spending much too much time on trying to fit into other people's ideas what I can and should do.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#19If it's any consolation, this type of question, along with the "I start projects and get distracted by more interesting ones before I can finish them", seems like a very common problem around here. I don't have a definitive answer but what works for me is I work on an interesting project in parallel to learning about a topic. For example, if I am learning about compilers, I will think of a programming language and write a compiler for it. I usually try to pick an original project that is at least minimally useful because otherwise I lose interest quickly. If I can't come up with anything, I might just write some blog post(s) about the subject.
Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma
#20I'm not sure if it'll work for you, but the only way I managed to really study and master big subjects was slow and steady.
Study every day. It doesn't matter how long, how intense, how much material you cover. Just study every day. Sit down and look at the subject you need to study every day. If you get bored after ten minutes, do something else. But don't skip a day and say you'll make up for it by studying twice as long tomorrow. Just show up every day.