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Just Do It.
Put your head down and do the work and stop not doing it.
I spoke to my counselor once about going to the gym and I was expecting to hear him talk about emotional issues that might be preventing me going etc and he said: “there are some things in life that you simply have to take action on. Going to the gym is one.”
Nothing more fancy to it that that.
Do the work. Take action.
I'm going to guess that you're going to get more mileage out of cutting something out of your life than in adopting yet another mindset, habit, drug or whatever. Some possible things that might work: * youtube/netflix * social media * news * sugar * video games These are the things your brain goes towards automatically as an easier "win" than in facing the harder problem. Cutting them out will leave room for you to f…
As for the other stuff, if I cut those out I get miserable and more easily bored. Better to use them as carrots; "if I do 45 minutes of coding I can play 1 game of Rocket League."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Giving a third +1 here. I had (have) similar issues with motivation and got diagnosed with ADHD at age 25. I'd describe it as "a disability of knowing how to do something, but not actually doing it unless there are external consequences involved"
How do you differentiate this from laziness/apathy?
I have a tough time concentrating on hard problems too. I don't have ADHD, I'm just scatterbrained and easily distracted. When I do hit that "zone" I can stay in it for hours, but I rarely get to that point on any single problem. Here are some things I do: Go for a walk. Don't face the problem head on specifically, just absorb the gist of the problem and then go for a walk and let your sub conscious deal with it, the…
What's the difference?
> When I do hit that "zone" I can stay in it for hours, but I rarely get to that point on any single problem.
Maybe you're already aware, but that's very common with ADHD.
Some things that have been extremely useful for me: Play video games that require intense focus for prolonged durations to perform well like Starcraft 2, CSGO, DOTA 2 helped me build mental endurance. Reduce social media. I’ve found that this was the most productive. Social media was fragmenting my attention by making me anxious and addicted. After I reduced Reddit and Facebook usage, my mental discipline increased d…
I used to be better than average at Starcraft 2. Probably peaked around top ~1.5% in the world wide rankings.
My thoughts on this is that the vast, VAST majority of people who play a competitive game like Starcraft 2 will not get any benefit from it. Following this advice blindly would be a disaster for 99% of people.
As a former high ranking master league player, I would mostly dedicate my time to memorizing and mindlessly practicing build orders. All responses I made in the game to my opponent were born from literally thousands of hours of practice and memorizing how certain interactions in the games went. 1 Marauder beats 1 Stalker. 2 Marauders beats 3 Stalkers. 2 Marauders loses to 4 Stalkers. For every single game interaction possible. I doubt an actual full formed thought ever crossed my mind during gameplay.
That's great for just zoning out and crushing noobs, but as a top 1.5% player I was absolutely TERRIBLE when compared to even low ranking professional players.
Why? Because they spent time watching replays to understand their opponents and to meticulously analyze their mistakes and think about solutions.
I didn't do any of that. I just memorized popular strategies and got good enough at pressing certain keys in certain orders that I was considered a "master". But I didn't master anything really. What does that say about the 98% of players who were lower ranked than me? What does that say about the larger player pool of Starcraft 2 which don't even compete, but rather play single player or arcade?
I want to make a critical correction to the quote that prompted me to reply.
> Practicing video games that require intense focus for prolonged durations to perform well like Starcraft 2, CSGO, DOTA 2 helped me build mental endurance.
The point I want to drive home is that concentrated, deliberate practice is the key to building mental fortitude.
Good luck finding a solution and if you do tell me how you did it!
I had a similar problem where the the bigger / the more complex the task in front of me was, the more my brain resisted to getting started and the more i procrasitnated. I came up with a fundamentally "agile" solution: break the problems down into smaller tasks until the first task is too small to offer resistance. E.g. rather than "write architecture specification", start with "outline the heads for architecture spe…
This may sound flippant but it’s deadly serious: Just Do It. Put your head down and do the work and stop not doing it. I spoke to my counselor once about going to the gym and I was expecting to hear him talk about emotional issues that might be preventing me going etc and he said: “there are some things in life that you simply have to take action on. Going to the gym is one.” Nothing more fancy to it that that. Do th…