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How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

durmonski.com

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Re: How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

#61

Post by nicbou »

nwienert wrote: post #33
nicbou wrote: post #19

That was a tedious read. Most of the article is just filler text. There is a whole page of it before the point: give yourself 3 years. Why 3 years? Because Rome wasn't built in a day. That's pretty much all there is to it. The advice feels pretty circular. To stay motivated, do it for 3 years. If you can commit to something for 3 years, you already have the motivation. Regardless, I disagree with this advice. Give it…

Disagree, many (most?) things worth doing and doable take more than a month to get used to or to get to the good part. I’ve definitely not “hit my stride” until month 8 or so of certain projects of which I adore once I do. Keep at it so long as you believe in the mission.

Sure, but after doing it for a month, you can tell whether or not you enjoy the process. You'll learn a few chords, a few sentences, some basic techniques. You'll get an idea of what the activity is like, regardless of whether you're good at it.

Re: How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

#62

Post by nicbou »

pier25 wrote: post #52
nicbou wrote: post #19

That was a tedious read. Most of the article is just filler text. There is a whole page of it before the point: give yourself 3 years. Why 3 years? Because Rome wasn't built in a day. That's pretty much all there is to it. The advice feels pretty circular. To stay motivated, do it for 3 years. If you can commit to something for 3 years, you already have the motivation. Regardless, I disagree with this advice. Give it…

You won’t get anywhere in a month with a violin or a piano. Some things are just harder but that doesn’t mean they are not worth it.

No, you won't, but you'll get a good idea of what the activity entails. I've been learning to play the guitar for a few months, and I suck at it, but after a month I already knew that I enjoyed practicing.

Re: How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

#64

Post by pier25 »

nicbou wrote: post #62
pier25 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won’t get anywhere in a month with a violin or a piano. Some things are just harder but that doesn’t mean they are not worth it.

No, you won't, but you'll get a good idea of what the activity entails. I've been learning to play the guitar for a few months, and I suck at it, but after a month I already knew that I enjoyed practicing.

Playing guitar is way easier than playing violin.

Re: How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

#65

Post by polishdude20 »

nowandlater wrote: post #22
nicbou wrote: post #19

That was a tedious read. Most of the article is just filler text. There is a whole page of it before the point: give yourself 3 years. Why 3 years? Because Rome wasn't built in a day. That's pretty much all there is to it. The advice feels pretty circular. To stay motivated, do it for 3 years. If you can commit to something for 3 years, you already have the motivation. Regardless, I disagree with this advice. Give it…

I agree with your sentiment. Something that's helped to keep me learning/improving/progressing past the 1 month mark is to remind myself how much I managed to learn and or enjoy during that time. If I can't think of anything -- usually this is rare -- I'll give it up. Extend your reassesments to every 2 months, 4 months etc... I end up finding it harder and harder to give up. Still, it's good to know when to throw in…

Along with this, what's helped me with my long term project is to realize that Rome wasn't built in a day. That I don't have to work on it today if I don't feel like it. I've got my ups and downs and it's helped me to realize that the project will take a little longer than anticipated but I've got time.

Re: How I stay motivated working on my long-term project

#66

Post by blegr »

warent wrote: post #37
ZainRiz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of focusing on a goal for three years, try to focus on a goal that you can achieve in two weeks (or whatever your default attention span is) Design each two week goal so that you get a dopamine rush from doing it, get some value out of it, and it also helps your long term goal. I share my attempt at doing just that here: https://www.zainrizvi.io/blog/do-more-by-doing-less/

For some reason what has always worked for me is just abandoning rational thought entirely and working day-to-day. I go into a project thinking "I bet I can get 50% to 100% of this thing done today" and that's almost never the case, but the thought of it gets me excited. That's all the motivation I need. I work like crazy until I'm ready to stop working. I say "Wow I sure made a lot of progress. Tomorrow I'll probabl…

You’re probably not mad, I work like that too. It’s basically the only way that doesn’t bore me to death before I even start.
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