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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?

#41

Post by pm215 »

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 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...

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

#42

Post by Dave_TRS »

I have a whole arsenal of strategies:

- Creating a hard deadline, such as booking a meeting to share the work. Then "If you leave it to the last minute, it only takes a minute" can work and be efficient

- Carving out time for that thing, such as going to a coffee shop and telling myself I won't leave until that 1 thing is done

- "Structured procrastination" which is finding a task that's even less pleasant and putting it beside the other unpleasant, but easy task on a todo list, and when I'm avoiding the really really unpleasant task I can get the other thing done

- Waiting for an altered mind state. Some tasks I know I can't bring myself to do unless I'm at peak mental energy at 10am, so I let them take up that slot to get them done. Other unpleasant tasks such as badgering people to do things they dropped the ball on I might tackle when I'm feeling more in an angry mood brought on by some unrelated frustration, but lingering. When I'm feeling frustrated generally I sometimes pick up the phone to deal with annoying customer service at companies I've been putting off

- If I'm really stuck in a rut I'll listen to the Andrew Huberman podcast and try to lean abut brain chemistry and sometimes find that learning about some underlyling mechanism of why motivation helps me fix thigns

- If I'm really stuck sometimes I'll go for a run. Resets my mind, gives a bit of dopamine and motivation from runenrs high - Avoiding carbs and alcohol is helpful for me. Carbs make me lethargic, and having low motivation makes me want to eat carbs, which is a self reeinforcing negative spiral

- I try to be mindful of how meaningful social connection improve wellbeing and motivation. Saying something nice to my wife, showing heartfelt appreciation for someone at work helps lift mood and give me energy to tackle the least motivating items on my task list

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

#43

Post by JoelMcCracken »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #11

Not sure if this applies to you, but in case it's helpful: I think my procrastination comes from some combination of ADHD, low-level depression, and existential dread (i.e., does anything really matter anyway?). If you think ADHD is part of your issue, you might find some videos by Tracy Marks [0] useful. (And if you're not sure about ADHD, you might consider getting tested for it.) [0] https://www.youtube.com/@DrTra…

I came to say this, find out if you have depression/adhd; they seem to be the root causes of my procrastination issues

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

#44

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

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…

Yes. If parent wants more in-depth musing, I highly recommend The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg [0]. It details how and why habits are formed and how to create your own. Genuinely a life-changing book for some people.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-ha...

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

#47

Post by mcv »

Two options:

* Just start doing it anyway

* Think about why it's necessary to do it. Think about the benefit that will bring. Think about any other benefits it will bring, ranging from skills you'll learn to the pride or peace of mind of having done it. Draw intrinsic motivation from that.

Not that I'm good at either of these...

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

#48

Post by JoelMcCracken »

naragon wrote: post #34
sparks1970 wrote: post #27

Try breaking it up into small steps. I procrastinate about doing my tax return all year but I "tricked" myself into doing it earlier this year by telling myself "I'm not doing the tax return now, all I'm doing is finding my employment records." Finding those records was easy, energized by that easy win I picked another easy task, "I'll get together my bank interest statements" and in a couple of hours I was done. May…

Exactly this. Do something small. Tell yourself I'm just going to do this one small thing and then I will allow myself a break. Rinse and Repeat.

yep. But the thing is, realize that you can't trick yourself. you need to be allowing yourself to actually only do that. So, instead, think of it like this: its fairly easy to collect my various tax docs, and if I can't find a specific thing, then I have something specific to investigate instead of a nebulous fear.

I think a lot of procrastination is breaking down a large, nebulous task into a loop of investigate and then resolve until the task is complete, but our brains naturally tell us to avoid this kind of thing, its riskier to go after the food that you really don't know how to acquire and takes a lot of investigation than the food that you've been able to acquire easily in the past

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

#49

Post by m1m1ck »

Make a SHORT list & Give yourself options, (ideally no more than 3): I have to do these 3 things today, which one do I least-not want to do right now? 1) write a Christmas newsletter 2) work on programming project 3) take out the garbage

If there are more than 3 tasks, Use the Eisenhower matrix (important vs urgent?) To plot them and filter out all except the ones which are BOTH most important and most urgent.

I find that I get a lot of dishes and not-important/easy-but-urgent cleaning done when I have a big nasty task pending. But at least then I'm still doing something productive with my time. Plus once you've finished & checked off some small stuff often I feel better about the tasks in general.

I think for me it takes a lot of energy to start a hard/important task, especially if I'm doubting if I can do it - or if I have never done it before or have to look it up to figure it out... If I'm also feeling anxious about the huge pile of other things I've got to do (even if they're small chores) then this can get to a crippling state where I don't want to do anything.

So again, sometimes just starting with some easy tasks to just get yourself moving, and saying "I am doing a good job, and I am getting stuff done" can then help me reduce the list. Make a written, physical list, and physically check it off. I know it seems trite for computer people to Not use tech to solve a problem, but you need to see it and get that dopamine hit when you check it off.

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

#50

Post by id »

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #10

If you are stuck in a loop of: I need to do X, but you just nope out of doing it, then feel guilty, and it is a recurring pattern then watch these two vids: - Psychiatrist Explains Why You Feel Tired All The Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sppw7Zq35w - Why Don't You Want To Do Anything After Binging 4 Hours of Youtube Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgCRJluWTc

I don't know, I've seen both and they don't really offer any solutions. Plus Dr. K. spouts a lot of pseudoscience and at times even esoteric nonsense.
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