Motivation / Staying Productive
Flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow theory postulates three conditions that have to be met to achieve a flow state:
One must be involved in an activity with a clear set of goals and progress. This adds direction and structure to the task.
The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback. This helps the person negotiate any changing demands and allows them to adjust their performance to maintain the flow state.
One must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and their own perceived skills. One must have confidence in one's ability to complete the task at hand.
Clear Distractions
What things easily distract you when you need to get work done
Make a list of these things
Twitter, imgur, reddit, tv, music
Clear these distractions
Use a distraction free setting
Get comfortable
Change your setting
Pairing
Workout metaphor
Hard to slack
Intensity
Don't have to do it every day
Just 5 minutes
I use this technique with my kids for studying
5 minutes doesn't really work for me
Instead I say write 5 lines
Sunk cost fallacy works in our favor
I'm already here. I have something started. I might as well keep going.
Push the peanut forward
You don't have to love it
You recognize that you just need to make some progress
Commit to sit down and get started
Free Writing
Used by writer
Set a timer, at least 5 minutes
Don't use the IDE
Don't write actual code, just pseudo code
Don't think just let the pseudo code flow
Pomodoro Method
Sit down in front of your computer
Set a 20 minute timer
You must take a 5 minute break
The importance of the break, related to exercise
David Burns MD
Write down, on a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied do you think that you will feel by completing the work that you need to do
Write down, on a scale of 1 to 10, how painful will it be to do the work
Do this before as an estimate and then after recording the actual
Keep a running list and refer to it often
