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Fooling myself to work

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Re: Fooling myself to work

#61

Post by jirinovotny »

Stormbringer wrote: post #60

To do lists are great. Having your subconscious solve the hard puzzles for you is great at the time... but I wonder whether that has a flow on effect to insomnia. You want your brain to be thinking, working, but sleeping is supposed to be rest time... Perhaps there are short term vs long term trade offs. I've been experimenting with caffeine. So far I'm getting some surprising results. Amongst hackers the common view…

The brain is working anyway, when you sleep. This just directs it a bit.

When you whip a horse, it runs faster too. Caffeine is like whipping your heart. IMHO the long-term consequences of caffeine consumption do not outweigh the short-term gains.

Also, green tea (sencha anyone?) is healthier.

I also think that if you lack energy, you should rather "debug" your lifestyle.

Re: Fooling myself to work

#62

Post by Void_ »

If you don't feel like working, start writing about it.

Remember that scene in Social Network when Mark would come to his room angry, and start blogging?

I don't know why, by that works for me when I'm lazy to work. Writing is easy, it's just putting your thoughts on the paper. And we like to write.

So why not start writing about what you have to do, and why you have to do it. Spend a few minutes doing it, and you will find yourself working.

This happened to me this morning. I'm working on a little project of mine, and I can't get myself to open up Xcode and start coding.

I recalled I had to write an email to my teacher, explaining this project and why it's so cool. I wrote that email and it really got me going.

Now I'm writing this comment and that helps too.

Re: Fooling myself to work

#63

Post by roel_v »

jirinovotny wrote: post #6
forensic wrote: post #5

I actually like your advice but it's such an obvious sales pitch for your software. Your ulterior motives make me nauseous. P.S. I would probably try your software if it wasn't stuck in windows land. Why not make a WebApp?

Thanks. If I didn't use it, I wouldn't mention it. Well, Windows land is our niche. Once we get the online synchronization and a companion web-app (with support for mobile devices) going, we will have kinda unique product combo.

Actually, Toodledo is a free online service (free for the 'light' version) and syncs with many apps - mobile of all sorts, desktop (Win/Linux/Max), has API, ...

It's very cool and not to be dissing your product, but if you'd just add Toodledo sync you'd have all bases covered (you can't compete if you will try to develop apps for all these platforms yourself).

Re: Fooling myself to work

#64

Post by dreyfiz »

Maybe someone will see this late comment:

Do The Work, by Steven Pressfield, is free on Amazon for Kindle (you could read it on your computer or smartphone, too) for now, so grab it! His War of Art changed my life. Understanding the nature of Resistance is incredibly important.

http://www.amazon.com/Do-the-Work-ebook/dp/B004PGO25O

Re: Fooling myself to work

#66

Post by ecaradec »

biot wrote: post #48
justlearning wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

".. always amazed by the little clues that are behind by otherwise proficient non-native speakers." could you elaborate?

One thing I've found particularly for German speakers is the use of phrases like "since 2 years". A native speaker would say "since 2 years ago ", fixing the reference to a definite point in time rather than a duration alone.

I'd love a service that would fix such mistakes in my blog posts to make them look more native; something like an online mum that would fix the turn of phrase I use. I'm french, and this is typically the kind of mistakes I do all the time as well.

Re: Fooling myself to work

#67

Post by mmavnn »

ecaradec wrote: post #66
biot wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've found particularly for German speakers is the use of phrases like "since 2 years". A native speaker would say "since 2 years ago ", fixing the reference to a definite point in time rather than a duration alone.

I'd love a service that would fix such mistakes in my blog posts to make them look more native; something like an online mum that would fix the turn of phrase I use. I'm french, and this is typically the kind of mistakes I do all the time as well.

"...mistakes I _make_ all..." would be a more 'native' wording. (That isn't a dig, by the way, just given as a piece of information.)

My wife is Italian, and it's amazing how many constructs you come across that are correct, but sound odd. Defining rules for many of them in English is almost impossible given the unstructured nature of the language, which drives her mad given her background as a Mathematician.

It also annoys her no end that most people don't correct/question her if they understand the intent of what she said. They feel they'd come across as rude pedants, but she wants to know so that she can improve her grasp of the language.

Re: Fooling myself to work

#69

Post by Hisoka »

praptak wrote: post #20
dasil003 wrote: post #17

A pretty good list of tips, however I've gotten more mileage over the years by digging deeper into my procrastination to understand its roots. Most often than not there is some fear or dissatisfaction tied to the procrastination that needs to be heard. Checking in with myself and becoming aware of these deeper feelings forms the foundation on which long term productivity is possible.

Seconded. Forcing or fooling myself to do something is a symptom of an internal split - one part "forces" and the other resists. Going to the roots of both parts (Why do I want to do this task? Why do I resist doing it?) usually helps. There's also a good book about the usual suspects behind the resistance and some weapons against them. "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore. Fear of not doing the task perfectly, unconscious…

I agree. Fooling yourself to work is something you may need to do temporarily, but if you need to do this on a consistent basis, maybe you need to reevaluate your life, and make a change. Life shouldn't be about forcing yourself to do things
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