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Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#131

Post by betterworldb »

JesseAldridge wrote: post #89

Here's what has worked for me: 1. Think deeply about what's important to you in life. Constantly ask yourself if what you are doing is aligned with your values. If it isn't, figure out what changes you can make. 2. Understand that trying to make progress through sheer force of will only works in the short term. Your environment and the people around you shape your actions way more than you realize. Change your enviro…

This is basically what I've learned as well by going to therapy and has dramatically improved my life as I've began to embrace what I'm excited about and say no to activities, people, and hobbies that don't align with my values.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#133

Post by Smithalicious »

The trick is in being able to pick things back up after (long) breaks. Forcing yourself to keep doing something when you don't enjoy it anymore isn't sustainable and when life gets in the way there's nothing you can do, so trying to consistently keep working on any big project for a long time is just a pipe dream. The important things are, in my opinion:

- Try to do something each day, no matter how much. Really even 5 minutes is fine. - Learn to get back to projects even after a hiatus of several months or even years. Progress is seldomly erased and unless you're retirement-aged it's very unlikely that you'll run out of time in your life. - Accept that over the long term we all operate at maybe 10% of maximum efficiency, and that's if you're a productive person. If you feel as if something should realistically take three months, expect it to be finished a year or two later. (coincidentally, this is also usually the solution to the "this would be simple to build and useful, why has nobody built it yet?" problem)

In the end it's a marathon, not a sprint. A little bit every now and then will eventually get you there and you're realistically very unlikely to run out of time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#134

Post by cableshaft »

internetvin wrote: post #59

I was going through similar experiences. Last year I decided to see what would happen if I made some kind of music for 365 consecutive days with no prior experiences. I wrote about the experiment on Twitter, "What I learned making some kind of music for 365 consecutive days": https://twitter.com/internetVin/status/1019033516028280832 Hope it's useful in some way. I'm doing the same thing now with code. I am currently…

Your music is very good for putting out a new song every day, of what I've listened to so far. Even Day 1 you were doing things that sound more musical than what I usually came up with in the past, and I've used my music as the soundtrack of my video games before (not that they were great, but just okay enough that I went ahead and used them).

How much time did you usually spend on these daily songs? Did you do any research into new techniques in between that, or was everything you learned all through experimentation?

Probably my best attempt at a music loop I ended up using in one of my games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqe0hS7AvOE

I haven't made any new music in awhile. I always enjoyed it, even though I wasn't that amazing at it. I should get back into it a bit.

As for HFO, I always thought that was something I needed to do more of, and programming seemed a bit anathemic to that idea. Sure you can make small scripts, but making anything that seemed "worth it" to me always took a lot more effort, like 40 hours at least, and that was for a simple game. But take something like webcomics or baking or something, and you can make a distinct item and get it out there in front of an audience on an almost daily basis, and you could refine your skills and build a name for yourself a lot easier than putting out a game 2 or three times a year, which is what I used to do (and now a lot less often than that). Maybe my mindset is just wrong. I definitely have a lot more distractions in my daily life (impatient and demanding dogs, and relationship and social responsibilities) than I did ten years ago.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#135

Post by phaedrus »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #30

One of the things that gets me is analysis paralysis. When I first started programming (albeit not professionally) most people didn't have the internet, me included. So I had to just write code and figure things out. For a very long time it's how I did things. Now, with blogs, SO, github, etc. I fall into the trap of, "well, I need to do X, so let's see how others have done it." instead of just trusting myself and do…

Another thing which helps is doing a project in a language or framework which you're not yet as familiar with - hard to get in analysis paralysis when you don't even know how to start the analysis. The thing is if you're choosing a language or technology which is extremely appropriate to the task, for example learning a grammar builder IDE to tackle a parsing problem, you'll hopefully still produce a "good" (or especially, "good enough") solution despite your beginner status. And then maybe when you come back to the domain you had analysis paralysis in you might have a better perspective.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#136

Post by ryall »

jshowa3 wrote: post #47
jshowa3 wrote: post #2

Follow through and don't use what people do on HN/Reddit/etc. as 100% truth. Allow yourself to take breaks, but just continue exploring and doing. People are always trying to sell themselves and embellish what they do. Plus, in posts, you're only viewing a small window of their lives. You have no idea if they suffer the same problems and just happened to write about completing one thing, ignoring all the failures alo…

If you want some practical advice: 1. Stop going on HN and Reddit. If you spend a lot of time reading about what other people do, you won't do it. If HN and Reddit helps you progress, spend 30 minutes a day on it. 1a. Start small and simple and build from there. If things are getting too complicated, scale back. Always scale back. It reduces frustration and anxiety as well as builds confidence. 2. Set a schedule. Tak…

Is add one thing to this great advice, schedule downtime for yourself and make sure you stick to it. Willpower/discipline is a finite resource, make sure you don't burn out.

If you look at top athletes, none of them work at 100% all hours of the day. Mental stamina is just the same as physical, your body needs that recovery time and will get stronger because of it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#137

Post by kUdtiHaEX »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #30

One of the things that gets me is analysis paralysis. When I first started programming (albeit not professionally) most people didn't have the internet, me included. So I had to just write code and figure things out. For a very long time it's how I did things. Now, with blogs, SO, github, etc. I fall into the trap of, "well, I need to do X, so let's see how others have done it." instead of just trusting myself and do…

I hear you because I fight the same uphill battle every day as you. Still haven't found a proper solution for it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#138

Post by anderspitman »

Haul4ss wrote: post #3

I'm convinced that almost nobody is good at the whole cycle of creating/maintaining something. Some people are great at coming up with new ideas but quickly bore with the implementation. Some people can relentlessly improve on an existing thing but can't come up with the initial idea. Some people are great stewards of an established program but don't thrive in the chaos of rapid iteration. I think instead of trying t…

This is an interesting take, but I think you can take it too far. Kind of like if a kid gives up on math as soon as it becomes difficult and decides "I'm not good at math". Skills can be learned. Discipline can be developed. But yeah if you put in the effort to learn how to finish and are consistently miserable, maybe stop.

Re: Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

#140

Post by valgor »

Lot of great stuff on here. However, here is the thing that worked for me since I was in the same boat as you: after finally releasing a project into the world and calling it "done", I felt SO much better than when I jumped from project to project every 1-2 months. Finishing a project is a different sort of "high" that I want to get again and again. My advice would be to pick something small so you can finish it and have that experience.

I now have two out of work successes I can point to, and more importantly I now feel guilty wasting time on side projects that aren't a part of my third release I'm working towards!

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