Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?

variations of this question would be how to stop procrastination, how to be disciplined, how to be productive...

Some days it's better, but those are when my sleep goes REALLY well... but that's like having motivation, not everyday is gonna be a perfect day, it'd be really advantageous to be able to maintain a good amount of momentum consistently.

I am naturally wired as a procrastinator and what I do to avoid it taking over my life is define limits around it. I set a goal that the task must be "started" in X hours or days depending on the need. I think less about defining when it should be completed as that tends to drive my procrastination. Defining tasks in terms of starting instead avoids triggering my procrastination.

Usually once I start a task the desire to procrastination abates.

Habit. Stop looking for motivation to drive you. Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't. There's a pretty common saying that motivation is a result of doing stuff. You just do it whether you want to or not. I know that's simplistic but that's really all there is to it. Easy to understand but harder to implement. It helps me not to think too far into the future and break stuff down into daily goals so I don't get overwhelmed.

No one is motivated to do stuff 100% of the time. Do you think superstar athletes like getting in the weight room and doing cardio everyday?

I think a lot of the problem is that modern life allows people to have this attitude when it wasn't an option in the past. No one used to care about whether they wanted to do stuff because if they didn't they would die.

"Oh I don't feel like getting firewood or hunting today" - Dead Caveman

When motivation fails, discipline must take over.

Motivation is typically short lived, building discipline allows you to not be subject to its fickle nature. (some people call it habit, I call it discipline)

1) Find people to do it with; become socially accountable.

2) Break your tasks into sub-tasks, and consider the breaking-apart a task in itself.

3) Timebox solving an appropriate amount of sub-tasks at the right time.

I'm supposed to "redo my budget" -- but that's not actionable. What's actionable and simple is prepare a spreadsheet in the right folder, download bank statements for the appropriate months and save them next to. And before I do (I'm supposed to be working right now), write those down on a list as well as "Sketch out this list more."

Most problems that seem hard to overcome (either because you don't know how, or because you don't want to) were not broken down into simple enough tasks. Some warrant a reward (frienship, drugs).

I'm supposed to "do the dishes" -- but if I just take the dishes to the kitchen, empty the drying rack while my coffee is brewing, or rinse the dishes without washing them, the next task is getting simpler. I carry out one or two steps on each visit to the kitchen, so I rarely take off 10-20 full minutes to "do the whole damn thing at once."