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I quit my job. Today is Day 16

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Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#21

Post by Swizec »

gedrap wrote: post #13

>>> I’ve felt the pull. However, personal motivation to succeed keeps the wheels churning. I really like your point about motivation. I'm a freelancer and working from home, and I used to think that nutrition, physical activity etc has a lot to do with it. Yeah sure it does but recently I think at the end of the day, it's just about will power and deep, personal motivation. If you are not enjoying it, no diet will ma…

With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to.

That said, good diet, healthy social life, and exercise are of paramount importance to will power. The better balanced your life, the more will power you're going to have.

But it's also important to manage will power. When you're tired, just stop, take a break. Even leave things for tomorrow. You are likely just fooling yourself that you can still get stuff done and wouldn't you rather just take a proper break than spend the next hour or two shuffling your feet and getting neither rested nor getting work done?

As for short breaks -> Timers. Use timers. Seriously, use a timer.

Shameless plug, I've been working on a book about this stuff: http://nightowlsbook.com

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#22

Post by thix0tr0pic »

keslert wrote: post #16
arethuza wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck - and if it helps here is a quote that I find rather motivating (and yes, I do know what it is like to leave a steady job for your own project): "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who striv…

That is epic. Needs to belong to the wall behind my monitors.

you can also check out zen pencils, prints are usually available http://zenpencils.com/comic/theodore-roosevelt-the-man-in-th...

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#25

Post by keslert »

danielweber wrote: post #24
meritt wrote: post #17

Can you please please remove SumoMe? Or add a button which allows me to disable the stupid highlighting / clickjacking shit it does?

I wants me to do something but I can't tell what. Tweet things, maybe?

Thanks for the feedback guys. It is supposed to make tweeting easier, but apparently it's not doing a very good job (although it probably does make you want to tweet nasty things about me :)

I'll look into a better solution.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#26

Post by gedrap »

Swizec wrote: post #21
gedrap wrote: post #13

>>> I’ve felt the pull. However, personal motivation to succeed keeps the wheels churning. I really like your point about motivation. I'm a freelancer and working from home, and I used to think that nutrition, physical activity etc has a lot to do with it. Yeah sure it does but recently I think at the end of the day, it's just about will power and deep, personal motivation. If you are not enjoying it, no diet will ma…

With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to. That said, good diet, healthy social life, and exercise are of paramount importance to will power. The better balanced your life, the more will power you're going to have. But it's also important to manage w…

Good points!

>>> With the current market for engineers, if you aren't enjoying your work most of the time, you're doing something wrong and should probably find a more interesting project to work on. Fire yourself if you have to.

Yup, I'm starting a new job in 1.5 week, extremely excited :)

>>> Even leave things for tomorrow.

That is also very true, blogged about it too a while ago as well [0]. Trying to get something done for 3hrs can be replaced by 1hr burst next day, as long as 'tomorrow' doesn't become a procrastination. What is important is to make sure that you are actually having a break, your mind is totally away from work.

And yeah, I agree about the timers. I sometimes use a pomodoro timer app and trying to make it a habit, planning to make a physical arduino one. Some day :)

[0] "3. Take a break and don’t feel guilty about it" http://blog.gedrap.me/blog/2014/05/19/4-things-i-learned-the...

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#27

Post by jayseattle »

What would be really interesting is to read this same type of story by someone from HN who has a kids or a mortgage, marriage etc.. I don't mean to be rude, but quitting your job keslert in your 20s, esp. with your skill set, seems brave but my god, the self centered egotistical praise you both write and solicit is a bit of a bore and, unfortunately, I see as a common trait among the young, smart tech crowd.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#28

Post by resu_nimda »

meritt wrote: post #17

Can you please please remove SumoMe? Or add a button which allows me to disable the stupid highlighting / clickjacking shit it does?

Yeah, and looking at the snippets that have supposedly been shared, they all appear to be accidental (unless someone actually wanted to tweet "ettling. The user wrote:"), leaving the rest of the readers with nonsensical highlighted sections and stars appearing in the middle of words.

Seems to be generating more annoyance than value.

Re: I quit my job. Today is Day 16

#29

Post by kull »

elwell wrote: post #7

Freelance Inbox piques my interest, but have you considered a commission fee business model as opposed to monthly payments? I'd like to try it out your service without putting any money up, and if it works well I wouldn't mind paying a certain percentage (or flat rate) to you if the lead turned out to be profitable.

For commission based model you should check matchist.com. Also give a try www.area301.com - it is free leads aggregator which is not blidnly scarping job posts but it does some magic behind the scene to remove low quality leads.
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