131–140 of 382 posts
Make of it what you will, if you suspect you have something undiagnosed you might as well make a doctors appointment. Things can fly under the radar like that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very encouraging testimony, thank you for your honesty. I am wondering: were you up-front with your cofounders about these issues when first coming together to start the business, or is it something that you just kind of brushed under the carpet and hoped that it would somehow work out (and it sounds like it did)? Or otherwise, were you aware of it enough at the time that you knew what to look for in your c…
Hey, of course this didn't come out of nowhere. After lots of failures on my own ambitions right after college, I eventually caved in (completely broke) and started a job in tech support to pay the bills. It was only then — where I got my problems and structure from an external source — that I started really excelling. I eventually automated my job away, worked my way up through engineering into a Lead Architect posi…
I struggle with excessive procrastination on a daily basis and seeing the stuff that generally gets posted on the topic of 'productivity' here and for example LinkedIn doesn't track with me at all since it tends to focus on doing massive amounts of work every single day with a 'just do it' mindset. All that does is stress me out, and I often feel like I'm not the right type of person to achieve things. Your view on the topic has given me some well needed positivity - thank you!
I've tried everything. Two things finally helped me: understanding, and that one neat trick.
Understanding:
Understanding yourself is important later, but for now, it helps if you understand procrastination.
https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_mas...
That one neat trick?
Just do one. One push up, one minute of meditation, one minute of work.
Setting yourself up for failure will never work. Setting the bar really low is the only thing that let me achieve anything.
I can do one minute of work. It's easy. I very rarely stop after 60 seconds, but sometimes I really just ain't in the mood. Most of the time, I just keep going. If I lose focus, I say, ok one more minute then I can do something else.
Who has time for 100 pushups a day? Nobody. Who doesn't have time for 1 pushup? It's literally like 10 seconds of hard work unless you think about it for longer (why?)
The one neat trick is more about "just starting" than anything else.
Working is easy, starting is hard. The biggest issue with most motivation techniques is they assume you have already started.
What you need to do is reduce any and all friction from starting. If starting seems daunting or too hard, you're planning to do too much. Reduce the act of starting to it's simplest form if you have to. Ive had days where my task was to sit down at my desk. That's all I had to do before I could tell myself "job done." I wasn't going to get much done on that sort of day anyway but at least I didnt beat my self up about it.
That last point is where understanding yourself and acceptance really starts to play a role.
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Not saying OP, but some people chaff under leadership and need that "out" of freelancing to feel like they can walk away without concerns for loyalty. Sometimes it's because the leaders are inept, and sometimes it's because people just don't like being controlled. The Wachowskis spent 3 movies telling us about how there are layers of control no matter where you look. Perhaps OP is struggling because he may have been…
Do you have any more information or links on this interpretation of the matrix?
It's not so much an interpretation as just one aspect of the entire story. Go back to the first film when Morpheus says the Matrix is just a form of "control", and then laser focus on that word for the rest of the trilogy.
There are many aspects of the story, and while it's great to sit back and take it all in at once, it's also good to give it a watch through with a specific concept in mind.
I suppose in that way it's similar to what people find in their various bibles. Reading the same stories again and again, yet finding new perspectives and on them.
I'm familiar with this. There's no magic solution, sadly, but I'll share one thing that has helped me and may apply at least to some of your situations. I realised a while ago that my main issue was with nebulous tasks -- that is, the more concrete, defined, and _meetable_ a task was, the less trouble I had with it. So I started to break down large tasks, which never got started much less finished, into smaller ones,…
100% this. Break down the tasks into smaller and smaller chunks, use an app like Todoist to track it. So create a project for each major task, and have all the todo's inside that project. You'll feel achievement as you complete each small task, and within no time you'll find you have completed the project, AKA, one big task.
All of these things are relevant and can have a significant impact on your mental health and ability to focus.
Things to try: - get more sleep - time off to recharge / re-motivate - meditation / yoga / exercise - try to stop using stimulants (includes caffeine/nicotine/sugar) or try using different stimulants (eg. arecoline) - absolutely do not smoke marijuana, it is known to make many people lazy and demotivated - control your environment (quiet, no phone, phone off, offline) - clean your environment (zero clutter) - change…
absolutely do not smoke marijuana, it is known to make many people lazy and demotivated This is the stereotype. Sure, some folks get lazy, but same for lots of drugs, including alcohol. How many potheads have you known? I've been one at different times, probably qualify, and would rather work with a pothead who is stoned all the time than a drunk. Lazy isn't due to marijuana, but rather the person smoking and to an e…
As far as the OP goes, the only thing I can suggest is quit the video games--that's an addiction the same as anything else. My programming career took off when I quit playing games and started being a man. It's like all the advice from previous generations actually works or something, weird huh? It doesn't help that everything marketed to us is one way or another designed to infantilize and distract, but you can rise above it.
But honestly, maybe you just need to do something different. Find a small shop that needs a developer, pick something that your grossly overqualified for.