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Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

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Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#101

Post by mumer101 »

danShumway wrote: post #93

Extensive therapy and medication, in conjunction with each other. Threads like this are a great way of getting a wide variety of tips and ideas that you might not have thought of, but you need to keep in mind that there is no universal strategy that works for everyone. You should treat threads like this as a way of gathering ideas, not as a way of getting concrete advice. Different people literally just react differe…

another thing i'm looking to implement is getting into habit of forced submission of self to my will. I witnessed it in religious context, but the idea is that daily suppression of small desires, and performing small "work" like tasks increases self control. There is a cultural equivalent of this called dopmaine fast. Which is similar to fasting religiously.

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#102

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

mumer101 wrote: post #96
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #58

Write software to ship. Even the "farting around" stuff. Document, test, READMEs, etc. Seriously. It really helps to power through the "ho-hums." I have found that the reward of a finished product, at the end, works well as a "carrot" for me. Also, as has been mentioned elsewhere, establishing habit is, in my opinion, essential. "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit." - Somewhat i…

I shall make fart sounds app

Just do it with the full ship structure.

That's what I do.

It will be called "TheGoldenFart™".

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#103

Post by DrThunder »

chitowneats wrote: post #74
pm215 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand that caveman wasn't doing the the same thing at the same pace of work every day of the year, and they had a much clearer idea of why the things they were doing were worth the effort they were putting in...

This comment is such a great example of the modern human brain worms GP is describing. Cavemen didn't have a damn clue about anything other than survival. Imagine not understanding basic things about your environment like: why wife die of sick, why sky open and pour ocean, etc. Now imagine how terrifying and demotivating that type of thing must have been.

You can apply it to essentially all humans pre industrial revolution as well.

The point is that until very recently no one had the luxury of sitting around and worrying whether they felt "motivated" to do things. They just did them because they didn't have a choice if they wanted to survive.

"OH I feel like shit and don't want to get off my ass today" ok.... it doesn't really matter. Still need wood for heat, need to cook, need to feed my pigs etc.

Yeah you can get away with doing essentially nothing now and still survive but people need to change their mindset and form a habit that doing nothing long term results in a very unhealthy lifestyle. Simplify your day into just doing SOMETHING and remove that anxiety of having too many choices. Pick one and go.

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#104

Post by DrThunder »

HatchedLake721 wrote: post #66
DrThunder wrote: post #5

Habit. Stop looking for motivation to drive you. Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't. There's a pretty common saying that motivation is a result of doing stuff. You just do it whether you want to or not. I know that's simplistic but that's really all there is to it. Easy to understand but harder to implement. It helps me not to think too far into the future and break stuff down into daily goals so I don't get ov…

Agree with everything, the only thing I’d swap the word “habit” for “discipline”. I have issues building habits where people say do it for 21 days and then you’ll start loving and “will do it for the rest of your life”. No you won’t. Sometimes you won’t feel like doing it, even if it’s your habit. What keeps you going is discipline. Regardless of the external circumstances, whether it’s cold, raining, you didn’t slee…

Yeah I can agree discipline might be a better choice of words. I guess in my mind a solid habit comes from discipline.

I can't say I've been able to apply it to everything in my life. Certain things like working out and meditating I've finally been able to make it something that's not a choice. It's pretty much like drinking water or taking a dump. It just has to be done now.

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#105

Post by Mezzie »

jstx1 wrote: post #81
aaronax wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably you are referring to work here, as the worth of anything you do in your personal life should be quite evident. You can find rewarding work.

> You can find rewarding work. Seems like a big assumption. I haven't yet, and I keep trying.

And that there's a place for everyone in the current economic model.

I know from experience that I'm happiest doing 2-3 part time jobs. But in order to get things like benefits, job security, a salary over 15/hr, etc. I'm stuck with a single place of full time employment. I try to find jobs that let me do a bunch of different things, but it's not really the same.

Being a generalist sucks.

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#106

Post by fool1987 »

Environment makes a huge difference for me: recently bought myself one of those SAD lamps and switched to working 08:00-16:00 rather than 09:00-17:00 and my general mood has increased 10x; leading to a significant productivity/motivation boost.

I'm not saying that a new lamp will fix your problems but try to be mindful of your working environment and conditions and see what changes you can make to make yourself generally more comfortable.

Other examples include finding a way to further compartmentalise your work, for instance by becoming uncontactable on your work channels outside of work hours.

Further, improve your general health: drink more water and less coffee, make sure you see the sun for at least half an hour a day, take vitamins, socialise more, do more exercise; all the usual health-nutjob advice in as large a dose as you can stand - all of these things have tangible effects on mood which is a huge player in motivation.

You said sleep has a big impact so try getting really strict about your bed time and waking up on time. Try anything and everything and don't be put off when 90% of the new habits you try to cultivate don't stick. You'll figure out what is important to maintaining your mental health by experimentation and observation.

Concentrated mindfulness and a rigid attitude towards work/life separation have done more for my executive dysfunction than any revolutionary to-do list app or task organising framework.

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#107

Post by danShumway »

mumer101 wrote: post #99
bipbipcomputer wrote: post #7

When motivation fails, discipline must take over. Motivation is typically short lived, building discipline allows you to not be subject to its fickle nature. (some people call it habit, I call it discipline)

that didn't answer the question though, what exactly?

Agreed. Learning to divorce tasks from motivation is an important skill to learn that might be worth looking into more, and habits/routines are great to build, but just telling people to do things anyway isn't really helpful.

"How do I do X when I don't have Y?"

"You do X even though you don't have Y."

"Okay, but how? My problem is that if I don't have Y, I don't do X."

"Well just do X without Y, and then you won't have that problem."

"Right but..."

"You know the problem you have? Stop having it. Then you won't have it."

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#109

Post by mumer101 »

danShumway wrote: post #107
mumer101 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that didn't answer the question though, what exactly?

Agreed. Learning to divorce tasks from motivation is an important skill to learn that might be worth looking into more, and habits/routines are great to build, but just telling people to do things anyway isn't really helpful. "How do I do X when I don't have Y?" "You do X even though you don't have Y." "Okay, but how? My problem is that if I don't have Y, I don't do X." "Well just do X without Y, and then you won't h…

yep in another words semantics...

Re: Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

#110

Post by danShumway »

DrThunder wrote: post #5

Habit. Stop looking for motivation to drive you. Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't. There's a pretty common saying that motivation is a result of doing stuff. You just do it whether you want to or not. I know that's simplistic but that's really all there is to it. Easy to understand but harder to implement. It helps me not to think too far into the future and break stuff down into daily goals so I don't get ov…

On the other hand, the darker side of flight/fight/stress responses being such a hugely effective motivator is that long-term over-reliance on them can lead you to burnout as you age and will take years off of your lifespan.

Stress can be a healthy motivator, but it's generally unhealthy for stress and immediate survival to be your only motivator. Be very careful about over-relying on stress. Besides the physical effects, stress can also sometimes lead to sacrificing long-term habits that aren't immediately necessary but that are still important to build (exercise, career building, relationships, sleep, etc...).

There are two pieces of advice here that (in my opinion) are kind of contradictory:

- form habits (good advice)

- "no one used to care about whether they wanted to do stuff because if they didn't they would die" (this is a recipe for burnout, regardless of how well it might work for someone in the short term).

A good habit usually should not be stressful, it shouldn't be something you do out of persistent fear. There is something to the idea of having stimuli/motivators around chores that are difficult to ignore, lots of people benefit from that kind of setup. But... not because you're worried about dying if you don't do them.

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