I imagine how my son (5 years old) sees me through his eyes, and I think about how my life is a large predictor of his life, and then I ask if I am being the kind of man I want my son to be.
Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#12It's not about being motivated. It's about working when the work itself isn't intrinsically motivating. I think that's what pg calls the schlep.
I deal with schleps by making them a part of larger, non-schlep goals. And if the schlep is really resistant to attitude adjustment, I'll wrap the larger goal in a more formalized project plan, so I can clearly see the schlep's role in the more valuable/interesting/motivating work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#13I think of what my long-term goals are, then how the task at hand fits in the path to reach those goals. This makes it much easier to work through the boring stuff, since the motivation is drawn from the big, personal life goals.
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#14I find the only way I'm able to work on anything to my full potential is to force myself to look at it without any distractions. At any time, I can rattle off three or four things that I should be working on.
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#15For me, the motivation comes by having other people use and respond to the software I create. This means getting out of my developer bubble and doing some marketing. When people are engaging with your creations in a positive way, it's hard to not be motivated. I think this applies to any software product that is written with the intention of having someone else use it, open source or otherwise.
This gives me a short burst of motivation but is don't seem to get around to actual completion of a project and seeing it in use.
Well, what if you started generating revenue, and customers were sharing your stuff all over the world? What could be more motivating than that?
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#16Motivation is something personal, you have to find what motivates yourself. There is books on that, but I can't advise you as I never used them. As I see it, the key for doing things is to begin, then to focus. Can't focus ? Do another. Just keep doing . Motivation is not really something that helps you when you are doing, it's something that helps you to begin and to end. But is motivation the only way to begin and…
Duty, deadlines, promises, anything that make me morally engaged does not actually get me to do good work as this drives me to procrastinate and do stuff at the absolute last minute.
So, put the last minute right now !
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#17That one day, I will be able to do some great work while living in the US / Europe / Australia / Canada and provide good quality of life and education to my kids.
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#18I stumbled across a site on here called http://getinspired365.com that dishes out daily inspiring/motivating quotes and videos. I find it a good way to start my day but my friend who uses it dips in and out as and when his motivation levels drop..
thanks, it looks good i'll try it
No worries, hope you find it useful! My friend reckons it's helped him no end..
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#19My startup is all about solving this problem! http://beeminder.com
It's specifically for lifehacking data nerds (so probably most people here on HN) and the idea is to combine a quantified self tool with a commitment contract. Specifically, you pledge (actual money) that you'll keep all your datapoints on a "yellow brick road" to your goal and if you don't, we charge you.
We integrate with various gadgets and apps like RescueTime and Trello and GitHub (also fitness things like Fitbit but I guess this thread is more about productivity-related motivation) so, for example, you can force yourself to waste less time on Facebook or commit to GitHub more often, or enforce a steady rate of moving Trello cards to the Done pile.
Re: Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?
#20My startup is all about solving this problem! http://beeminder.com It's specifically for lifehacking data nerds (so probably most people here on HN) and the idea is to combine a quantified self tool with a commitment contract. Specifically, you pledge (actual money) that you'll keep all your datapoints on a "yellow brick road" to your goal and if you don't, we charge you. We integrate with various gadgets and apps li…
Don't you think it's a bit evil to make a profit out of people's lack of self-motivation? I would prefer to give the money to a good cause...