For my younger friends who en masse seem to be having a huge crisis about what the hell to do and how the hell to do it, let me collect a few resources. This list will develop.
① Metafilter: How can I make myself do stuff?
Freedom means you’re not punished for saying no. The most fundamental freedom is the freedom to do nothing. But when you get this freedom, after many years of activities that were forced, nothing is all you want to do. You might start projects that seem like the kind of thing you’re supposed to love doing, music or writing or art, and not finish because nobody is forcing you to finish and it’s not really what you want to do. It could take months, if you’re lucky, or more likely years, before you can build up the life inside you to an intensity where it can drive projects that you actually enjoy and finish, and then it will take more time before you build up enough skill that other people recognize your actions as valuable.
② Paul Graham: Essays (most are good but this is a good start)
The key to wasting time is distraction. Without distractions it’s too obvious to your brain that you’re not doing anything with it, and you start to feel uncomfortable. If you want to measure how dependent you’ve become on distractions, try this experiment: set aside a chunk of time on a weekend and sit alone and think. You can have a notebook to write your thoughts down in, but nothing else: no friends, TV, music, phone, IM, email, Web, games, books, newspapers, or magazines. Within an hour most people will feel a strong craving for distraction.
Tags: motivation
January 15th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Personally, I adapted a method recommended by Jerry Seinfeld:
http://lifehacker.com/software/motivation/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret-281626.php
Instead of a particular task like writing, I award myself a red X if I achieve at least something I see as an important task, or a number of less important tasks, on my to-do list. I use a combination of notebooks and Omnifocus to record tasks whenever I think of them.
It’s fun drawing the Xs and watching the chain grow. Funnily enough, ‘not wanting to break the chain’ is somehow strongly motivating, and gets increasingly motivating the longer the chain gets!
January 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I think it’s a matter of discipline too. Some people are very disciplined, and they can finish their responsibilities quickly without being distracted, but people who are like me, can’t. Motivation is also important, just like what Ximeng said. It keeps us from straying away from our goals.