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How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

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Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#41

Post by acoyfellow »

Fasebook wrote: post #15

What exactly are you building that building it isn't already its own reward? Oh, really? I see...

I'm not sure if I'm misreading this, but your tone sounds quite snarky. That kind of attitude is not exactly the normal tone for comments at HN.

So, I appreciate this article, but the content does seem somewhat redundant to HN. Every now and again a new life-hack article will appear, and then talk about Pomodoro, then people posting links to their time saving apps. It's a tested technique, so why not? Maybe it really will help someone today get their project shipped. It's not the worst thing that can happen around here :)

I like that the HN community supports constantly trying to be more productive. "Building it" can be hard for people, depending on their background and what "it" is-- and I don't think having a sarcastic oppositional stance is going to encourage or help anyone.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#42

Post by read »

nathell wrote: post #38

There are problems with all three techniques. The problem with adopting a prevention focus is that it doesn't work. Or, rather, it might work when the fear of failure is the only fear at stake, but -- at least for me -- it seldom is. For example, one might have thoughts like "I really need to be doing this, otherwise it might be too late ... hang on, it already might be too late ... I really should check ... but what…

Some of what you say doesn't contradict the author. You might also have an incomplete understanding of some others.

(1) A prevention and a promotion focus are two types of focus people have a disposition to. You can't adopt a prevention focus if you are promotion inclined. Maybe you, personally, work better with tasks requiring a promotion focus.

(2) The technique you mention does not contradict the author. I agree with you though that often tricking your mind into starting something works wonders.

You can't ignore that having a process is tremendous help.

Murakami describes his writing process as an extremely rigid daily routine: he wakes up at 4 a.m. every day and writes for five to six hours, exercises in the early afternoon, and then reads or listens to music before his 9 p.m. bed time. Murakami adds: “I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.”

(3) Have you tried writing down your if-then plans? Because there's a huge difference in outcome between saying you will do something and writing down you will do something. Writing makes you commit. It keeps the unconscious mind away from sabotaging your decision.

If you're wondering why 3% of Harvard graduates make ten times more than the remaining 97% combined it's because they didn't just think of their plans but instead wrote them down.

http://sidsavara.com/personal-productivity/why-3-of-harvard-...

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#43

Post by edw519 »

What's next?

"How to Make Yourself Have Sex When You Just Don't Want To"

"How to Make Yourself Eat Krispy Kremes When You Just Don't Want To"

"How to Make Yourself Love You Children When You Just Don't Want To"

Here's a dirty little secret: You should have an emotional attachment to your work similar to the emotional attachment you have to having sex, eating Krispy Kremes, loving your children, or whatever else is your thing. Others should have to drag you kicking and screaming away from your work.

If you "just don't want to work" then the wrong question to ask is:

"How can I make myself work when I just don't want to?"

The right question is:

"What the hell am I doing working on something that I just don't want to work on it the first place and what should I really be working on?"

Find the answer to the second question and you will never encounter the first question again.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#44

Post by JoeAltmaier »

edw519 wrote: post #43

What's next? "How to Make Yourself Have Sex When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Eat Krispy Kremes When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Love You Children When You Just Don't Want To" Here's a dirty little secret: You should have an emotional attachment to your work similar to the emotional attachment you have to having sex, eating Krispy Kremes, loving your children, or whatever else is yo…

Yeah, if work were all strawberries and kisses, sure. But sometimes its doing the paperwork, and it has to be done, and you have to do it.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#45

Post by reboog711 »

edw519 wrote: post #43

What's next? "How to Make Yourself Have Sex When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Eat Krispy Kremes When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Love You Children When You Just Don't Want To" Here's a dirty little secret: You should have an emotional attachment to your work similar to the emotional attachment you have to having sex, eating Krispy Kremes, loving your children, or whatever else is yo…

That last part sounds like nonsense... in any given job or career or life there are both good and bad parts. You can't avoid the bad and still do the good.

As one example; I don't like dealing with the marketing / networking aspect of m,y business; but if I didn't do that I'd go out of business.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#46

Post by _delirium »

edw519 wrote: post #43

What's next? "How to Make Yourself Have Sex When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Eat Krispy Kremes When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Love You Children When You Just Don't Want To" Here's a dirty little secret: You should have an emotional attachment to your work similar to the emotional attachment you have to having sex, eating Krispy Kremes, loving your children, or whatever else is yo…

Well this isn't that hard to answer for a lot of people:

"What the hell am I doing working on something that I just don't want to work on it the first place and what should I really be working on?"

Because what I don't want to work on pays, and what I do want to work on doesn't make money! If I were independently wealthy, I would have no trouble at all allocating my time to things I find productive and enjoyable to do, and give the results away for free. For example I have a backlog of several projects relating to improving OpenStreetMap data waiting for time to work on them, but I can't think of a way to get paid for doing them. I think the results would be valuable to many people, but it's hard for me personally to capture that value, since improving OSM data is kind of a public good that anyone can use freely (when your work enables a profit-making business based on OSM data, it's not like they pay royalties to all the people who enabled it).

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#47

Post by flaviusb »

edw519 wrote: post #43

What's next? "How to Make Yourself Have Sex When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Eat Krispy Kremes When You Just Don't Want To" "How to Make Yourself Love You Children When You Just Don't Want To" Here's a dirty little secret: You should have an emotional attachment to your work similar to the emotional attachment you have to having sex, eating Krispy Kremes, loving your children, or whatever else is yo…

Sometimes you get sick, and you just don't want to eat (even Krispy Kremes), but you know that you have to eat to get better, so you force yourself to eat. This applies analogously with work: sometimes you are burnt out, sometimes you are bone tired, sometimes you fucked something up earlier and now have to do a messy triage, sometimes the most essential thing you could be doing with your expertise is boring scut work that no one else in your company can do... nevertheless, unless you are in a situation where you can just say "Fuck it, I'm going on holiday! See you losers when all of this is sorted out!", you may have to force yourself to work, both to get through the doldrums and also to keep being able to afford to eat.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#48

Post by enscr »

joelrunyon wrote: post #13
chaz wrote: post #6

I have found the Pomodoro Technique ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique ) to be helpful. I can't do it for a whole day, but a short sprint to grind through something is a near, achievable goal. For extended, head-banging frustrations, it's helpful to step away, think about it without the distraction of the screen, and coming back at it with fresh eyes. The time AFK is not to be underestimated: http://ww…

Posted this a few weeks ago, but workstation popcorn [1] is sort of like pomodoro this on a macro scale throughout the day & has helped me a ton with being more productive & simply getting stuff done. [1] http://impossiblehq.com/workstation-popcorn

I found this post too specific i.e. it may or may not help - depends on your type of work.

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#49

Post by ninjakeyboard »

chaz wrote: post #6

I have found the Pomodoro Technique ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique ) to be helpful. I can't do it for a whole day, but a short sprint to grind through something is a near, achievable goal. For extended, head-banging frustrations, it's helpful to step away, think about it without the distraction of the screen, and coming back at it with fresh eyes. The time AFK is not to be underestimated: http://ww…

I was just going to comment that I'm using pomodoro as well. Glad I'm not alone. I wrote about the combination of strategies I'm trying to use to kick start a side project and pomodoro is one of them: http://refactoringfactory.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/the-side-...

Re: How to Make Yourself Work When You Just Don’t Want To

#50

Post by ninjakeyboard »

desigooner wrote: post #37
chaz wrote: post #6

I have found the Pomodoro Technique ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique ) to be helpful. I can't do it for a whole day, but a short sprint to grind through something is a near, achievable goal. For extended, head-banging frustrations, it's helpful to step away, think about it without the distraction of the screen, and coming back at it with fresh eyes. The time AFK is not to be underestimated: http://ww…

Shameless plug for a site I created once: http://tomato-timer.com

I use this sometimes - thank you!
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