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Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#22Why do you WANT to work more?
You are in the enviable position of being able to work for just 10 hours per week to support your quality of life. Perhaps you could pick a new hobby and dedicate your free time to becoming a master woodworker? Perhaps you could find a cause you care about and volunteer your free time to helping in some capacity? Perhaps you want to learn to paint or travel or meet new people or, hell, just sit in the park and feed the ducks.
Or if you really do want to do more income generating work, what do you want to work ON? Just saying "I should work more" isn't going to cut it.
> It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? - Henry David Thoreau
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#23Can I ask why you think you should be more hard working? Social norms?
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#24Why do you WANT to work more? You are in the enviable position of being able to work for just 10 hours per week to support your quality of life. Perhaps you could pick a new hobby and dedicate your free time to becoming a master woodworker? Perhaps you could find a cause you care about and volunteer your free time to helping in some capacity? Perhaps you want to learn to paint or travel or meet new people or, hell, j…
Why is the top answer to "how can I work more" always "work less"?
If you don't agree with that the poster is trying to do just don't answer instead of undermining their motivation.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#25It sounds like you're trying to deal with boredom rather than a need to work harder. Working from home only ~10 hrs/week, I could certainly see myself going a little stir-crazy.
Have you considered changing your routine a bit? Maybe try working from a coffee shop, or rent a co-working office for a couple of months.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#26I’d say you think you should want to work more but what you actually want is do the things that you do instead.
So I’d explore these thought patterns “I should work more” — maybe use Byron Katie’s “the work” process?
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#27Why do you WANT to work more? You are in the enviable position of being able to work for just 10 hours per week to support your quality of life. Perhaps you could pick a new hobby and dedicate your free time to becoming a master woodworker? Perhaps you could find a cause you care about and volunteer your free time to helping in some capacity? Perhaps you want to learn to paint or travel or meet new people or, hell, j…
Why is the top answer to "how can I work more" always "work less"? If you don't agree with that the poster is trying to do just don't answer instead of undermining their motivation.
Perhaps because a desire to spend more time working is, in the grand scheme of things, a colossal mistake.
You get top answers advising the OP to work less because some of us lived through the same problem and in the end realized what a colossal mistake it is to waste your life living to work instead of working to live.
How many people have laid in their deathbed complaining how they didn't spent more time at the office pushing some paperwork? Hoe many complained they didn't spent enough time with their loved ones?
Yes, the top answer is always "work less" because that's alwayd the right answer.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is the top answer to "how can I work more" always "work less"? If you don't agree with that the poster is trying to do just don't answer instead of undermining their motivation.
Perhaps because a desire to spend more time working is, in the grand scheme of things, a colossal mistake. You get top answers advising the OP to work less because some of us lived through the same problem and in the end realized what a colossal mistake it is to waste your life living to work instead of working to live. How many people have laid in their deathbed complaining how they didn't spent more time at the off…
I disagree with this. Some people do not want to have families, and some people are really competitive and ambitious. Not everyone's goal is to spend their time with others or leisure.
Furthermore, I know for myself I feel like shit after a lot of social activity or leisure, and feel actually really great after working for a long amount of time. The only hard part is starting.
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#29In my experience, you have to build habits. Motivation and willpower can fluctuate, but forcing yourself to do something for awhile until it becomes the norm tends to work for me (assuming it's something I value).
Now I have a question for you. How did you end up in a situation where people will pay you for ten hours of work a week instead of forty?
Re: Ask HN: How Can I Be More Hardworking?
#30You've had a really poor response from the HN community here. Barely a single comment even attempts to speak to your question! HN is normally pretty good at resisting Sturgeon's Law, but not today.
muzani isn't asking to be talked out of working more hours, everyone.
Anyway, my suggestion: it sounds like you work alone. Maybe try working with other people, for a day or two per week. (I don't know if that's compatible with your line of work, or if you'd consider taking on a different one.) The camaraderie may help you make a habit of it.
Also, a formal commitment to turn up each week is likely to work much better for you than a take-it-or-leave-it arrangement.