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Managing my motivation as a solo dev

marginalia_nu
21 replies
1d

IMO one shouldn't rely on motivation to do things.

You don't need to be motivated to do things. You can do things even though they suck. There'll be good days when motivation is there to cheer you on, but that fucker is the ultimate fair weather friend, so there will also be days when it's a slog and motivation isn't even picking up your calls.

It's a complete misconception of human psychology that motivation precedes action. It's the other way around. Act first, become motivated later. That day you wake up full of motivation and fly out of bed and there's eye of the tiger and you're running up and down stairs airboxing in sweatpants, that day isn't ever coming.

I think the notion that one needs motivation to do things comes from the educational space, where there's a lot of talk about motivating students to do this or that, and somehow this has been internalized into a notion that this is how we also operate ourselves, that we somehow need to bribe or intice ourselves to do the things we want to be doing, which when you think about it, doesn't really make sense.

divan
9 replies
23h59m

It's a complete misconception of human psychology that motivation precedes action.

It's not a misconception, it's the definition of motivation.

The misconception is using the word "motivation" only for intrinsic motivation. If you have a gun pointed at your head, you'll be quite motivated to do whatever the person holding the gun tells you. External motivation can be extremely powerful, it just doesn't last long.

Act first, become motivated later.

You're right. You need some external motivation to start "acting first". There are four types of external motivation (from more external to more internal) – fully external, introjected, identified, internal. Rewards and punishments are the first (external), rewards/punishments "in your head" (aka image of your parents telling you to do homework or you don't get TV time) are the second (introjected), part of your identity ("I'm Muslim, thus have to wear hijab") - third (identified), and "I truly believe I have to do something" is fourth (internal). Internal type of external motivation differs from intrinsic motivation (which is defined as "acting because I enjoy the process", and you can truly believe you have to do something but not enjoy it).

Discipline and self-discipline are somewhere between introjected and internal types, but it's essentially a codename for external motivation nevertheless.

In many cases you really want to instill intrinsic motivation in kids/athletes/employees/etc. But you need to "act first" and repetitively link it to the positive emotions – and that's where external motivation (and discipline) can be used strategically to create intrinsic one. Unfortunately a lot of people/fields/disciplines get stuck in the external reward systems and don't use it strategically.

marginalia_nu
8 replies
23h47m

This is all fine modelling, but doesn't have much bearing on the experience of being human. It's a description, and describing something (regardless of which words you use) does not change its nature.

Motivation, in the sense of "I feel a desire to perform an act I deem to align with what I want to do although it will bring me immediate-term discomfort", that type of motivation, whatever you call it, does not precede prior success in that activity; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, will go away in the face of hardships and struggles; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, is not necessary to perform the task at hand.

divan
4 replies
23h17m

"I feel a desire to perform an act I deem to align with what I want to do although it will bring me immediate-term discomfort"

It's an _internal type_ of "extrinsic motivation", right.

will go away in the face of hardships and struggles

Yes, and this is true for all types of extrinsic motivation.

doesn't precede the success

Well, that's where things get interesting. There are three main factors that influence motivation – autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Autonomy - perception of your actions being connected to your own values/beliefs/desires. Competence - perception of your actions being connected to the growth or achievement. Relatedness - perception of your actions bringing closer to the people you care about.

Those 4 types of extrinsic motivation go mostly on the scale of decreasing autonomy. And it's important to say that all types of motivation have slightly different natures and can work simultaneously, just one of those will dominate.

So you are probably right saying that the internal type of extrinsic motivation doesn't require prior success. But, once you start doing it, the perception of success (whatever that means in a given context) will greatly contribute to shifting your dominant motivation either closer to the intrinsic motivation (i.e. you'll start enjoying) or towards amotivation (opposite extreme side).

Perception of success is mostly a "competence" part. That's how the coach might choose the right level of challenge for the athlete, to keep their motivation growing (or at least not falling). And if you really want to build intrinsic motivation, you absolutely need it.

And yes, not every task require intrinsic motivation. But it would be also true to say, that every task will benefit greatly if people performing it are intrinsically motivated. There are two main reasons: efficiency and... people happiness.

An intrinsically motivated person will require less pressure/incentives, will keep doing the task amid hardships. Which directly translates into economic value. It also directly linked to the feeling of wellbeing and vitality (aka happiness). It might not be very important for whoever needs task to be done, but a society where autonomy is inhibited and extrinsic motivation is dominating is very different from society with high level of autonomy. It's like, people are just happier.

rramadass
3 replies
12h20m

If you didn't know of this already, you might find Edward Deci's Why we do what we do : Understanding Self-Motivation useful.

divan
2 replies
12h8m

Thank you! I study SDT (Self-Determination Theory, the main theory of motivation authored by Deci) in a sports coaching context for a few years now. It's a life-changing theory.

The "seminal" books like Self-Determination Theory (Ryan&Deci, 2017) and new The Oxford Handbook of Self-Determination Theory (Ryan, 2023) are really deep, but might be a bit academic and aren't suitable as a good intro into SDT. I usually recommend free course on Coursera by Ryan. But if Deci's book is an approachable intro, that would be nice!

rramadass
0 replies
11h26m

I recognized from your comments that you were already familiar with the works of Edward Deci and just wanted to recommend this book as a must read for the "general public" who might be interested in the subject of Motivation and how best to cultivate it.

IMO in today's world, Deci's SDT on Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-determination_theory) and Gary Klein's NDM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_decision-making) and RPDM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition-primed_decision) should be a must study (just understanding the basics/overview is often enough) for everybody in any organization.

ipsento606
1 replies
19h50m

that type of motivation, whatever you call it, is not necessary to perform the task at hand.

and on what basis have you determined that the article is about "that type" of motivation, as opposed to the other type which you acknowledge is necessary to actually do anything?

marginalia_nu
0 replies
16h17m

The other types of motivations are descriptions of other people.

It's like being tall. You can see if someone else is tall, or short, but you yourself don't experience your own height, you feel the same size as you did when you were a child. You can see it in a photograph or a mirror, of course, but that is seeing yourself as though you were a different person. Your height is not part of your subjective experience.

Likewise, these other forms of motivation do not have a subjective experience associated with them, they are properties observed in others. Feeling encouraged or discouraged to perform an action, however, is a subjective experience. We can experience in ourselves, but not observe it in others.

jasode
0 replies
23h18m

>, that type of motivation, whatever you call it, does not precede prior success in that activity; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, will go away in the face of hardships and struggles; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, is not necessary to perform the task at hand.

I didn't downvote but I wanted to comment that your explanation doesn't work for a lot of "unmotivated" people. It just moves the difficulty/mystery to a different set of words in an attempt to describe it.

E.g. "How do I get that intitial urge?/trigger?/spark?/agitation? ... to start the activity that creates post-activity motivation?"

Which of course, the answer always ultimately ends up with a variation of ... "You Just Need To Start". Ah yes, "just start".

And thus, we circle back to the same Mt Everest of difficulty for a lot of unmotivated people. They're still stuck and can't get started.

I think the issue is that there are well-meaning people who honestly think they're "not motivated" and then "just force themselves to get started on acting anyway". Now, being in the groove of acting can then become the self-reinforcing "motivation". They then think this personal experience of cause-&-effect of acting-precedes-motivation in their mind can be transferred to other people. But it does not work on a lot of unmotivated people. So, those who are still struggling look for any mental hacks that might work better than "just get started instead of waiting for motivation".

epolanski
2 replies
18h16m

+1.

My life started working out okay when I started relying on discipline. Doing things even if I don't want to.

marginalia_nu
1 replies
16h33m

Like I do think you can go overboard with this. You don't have to turn into Jocko Willinck or become a desert father, but just realizing that you can just grit through stuff even though it may suck, it's so empowering.

I mean realistically if someone was attempting to get you to confess to something and they were torturing you by having you perform all these things you know you should be doing but don't really feel like doing today, it surely wouldn't come even close to breaking you? You've been made to book a dentist appointment to deal with that aching molar and forced to clean the oven and weren't given a cake for desert and now they want you to wash the car as well; if you're begging for mercy surely it's to escape from rolling at the floor form the laughably ineffectual torments.

RHSman2
0 replies
13h30m

Jocko’s and Goggins are good examples of it. And to be taken with a pinch of healthy salt

To achieve stuff you have to have something that enables you to do it. Call that motivation/discipline or whatever but the ‘ball has to roll’

thefaux
1 replies
1d

"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightening to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself." ― Chuck Close

Close is a complicated person but the quote holds up.

CuriouslyC
0 replies
23h59m

Showing up and getting to work is a great mantra for people who already have traction. For people that aren't, that's a recipe for burnout, as you need space and time to keep pushing in the face of uncertain returns.

nottommo
1 replies
20h37m

I don't really understand this line of thinking, but maybe we have different definitions of motivation. If you are not using motivation to do things what is the reason you to do things?

For me anything I do is because I am motivated to do it.

marginalia_nu
0 replies
20h11m

Isn't it possible, even common, to seek an outcome, but not feel inclined to do the thing that takes you toward that outcome? I don't think there's anyone who doesn't want a fit body, yet to borrow a phrase, "nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights"

loa_in_
1 replies
22h32m

It's more of a failing of modern world to not cultivate this kind of motivation than a misconception.

marginalia_nu
0 replies
20h6m

If you can't do anything without feeling stoked to do it, there's just so much stuff you're never going to be able to do. Doing things that are uncomfortable and unappealing is such an important life skill.

nuancebydefault
0 replies
22h5m

I find that sometimes there is just no motivation, there's even a big reluctance. It's very weird how or why this happens now and then. Maybe it is a natural protection mechanism kicking in, or maybe it is just a chemical imbalance of hormones involved in the reward system.

'Just do it' (tm) does not work in those cases.

After a while i just google 'how to get out of a rut' and that works after some undefined amount of wasted time.

Another trick to fall back onto, is changing jobs.

m3kw9
0 replies
22h19m

I believe a task without motivation is pointless. If you are not motivated but is doing it anyway, it already has innate motivation, you just may not admit it is.

Not motivated to pay your bills? You do it anyways because not getting services cut off is actually the motivation, or that “I always pay up“ is motivating you

ezekg
11 replies
1d1h

Leave tasks unfinished

I also do this. I learned that if I leave a failing test for myself in the morning, I'll think about it on and off and jump right in next session without wasting time on HN or YT for an hour or 2 in the mornings. Sometimes this ends up causing me to work a little bit late, trying to make sure I actually have a failing test written for the problem (sometimes I have an issue without an accompanying test yet), but it's worth the extra effort/time. A failing test gives me something 100% actionable to jump into in the morning, as opposed to leaving e.g. a feature half written which can have an ambiguous starting point in terms of jumping back into it. I can't recommend this enough.

tnolet
5 replies
1d1h

I was super in the other camp. Could not sleep if something wasn’t finished. Especially for coding. For marketing I found a (good) blog post can take a couple of days.

unshavedyak
3 replies
23h55m

I'm similar, but for me it's i can't sleep if i don't understand the issue. Once i understand it enough that i've either fixed it in my head, or i'm confident i can fix it with the available knowledge, then it doesn't bother me.

"Understand it in my head" is often a good stopping point too. Because if i actually go and fix it, i may find out i was wrong and spend even more time re-analyzing the issue to reach a new understanding.

TeMPOraL
1 replies
19h44m

I used to get into loops with that - I thought I understood something, then I'd try to implement it and hit a corner case, or even a caveat would come to my mind, and suddenly my understanding is crashing. I developed anxiety around this, because thinking and rethinking would mean I could spend days without anything to show for it (other than a thousand lines of semi-coherent ramblings in an Org Mode file). I started to lean towards taking things simple and direct, solving them more by feel than explicit analysis, in order to create a bedrock of something I could then iteratively improve or rewrite, without having to keep the entire problem in my head at all times.

RHSman2
0 replies
13h52m

Yes. I would have Monte Carlo simulation dreams that seem to prime my brain around the subject. But completely stupid and never based on the truth.

Not good sleep but I would seem to be more ‘tuned’ in on the subject.

kahmeal
0 replies
21h1m

This entire thread is an epiphany for me and I can vouch your bit as something I share as well.

ezekg
0 replies
1d1h

I ebb and flow. Sometimes the failed test consumes me and I end up staying up late after the family goes to bed to solve it. :)

It kind of flows into the author's other point, "if I’ve got it, use it."

dugmartin
1 replies
1d

I've posted about this here before but the thing I do it type out a single easy thing I need to do directly in the code so it breaks the syntax. Then the next day I can read the note, delete or comment it out to fix the syntax and then implement the thing. It is a good dopamine boost right out of the gate.

chainingsolid
0 replies
20h0m

I use this same trick, to ensure I resume right where I left off. Works great! Also helps me jump right back in, don't have to go looking for a problem/rabbit hole.

rnoorda
0 replies
23h30m

I once heard this advice given as "park facing downhill." I find it difficult to not finish up before I stop working, but it helps me get started in the morning to jump into a nearly-complete task.

marcusbuffett
0 replies
1d1h

I love this, I’m going to start doing this. It’ll help me actually start writing tests too lol

djcannabiz
0 replies
21h44m

Ive heard a similar idea, from Hemingway. "Learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it. I always worked until I had something done, and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day." — Ernest Hemmingway"

I really agree, and I also thinks it can be helpful to do something similar when taking breaks (have lunch/take a walk while leaving a failing test).

tnolet
9 replies
1d1h

Sounds very familiar. Was a solo dev for at least 2 years before being able to form a team around my product. One nit, one confirm:

- I don't agree with the guiltiness on zero days. There is just no way to stay sane if you don't truly enjoy zero days. You will burn your candle.

- I 1000% agree that any form of customer validation makes your day. Could be a Stripe ping, a mention on Twitter or here. Set up services like https://f5bot.com/. Google alerts is useless.

My totally failed / crickets initial launch here on HN is findable via submissions in my bio, anno 2018. Three upvotes.

marcusbuffett
3 replies
1d1h

Yeah there’s some nuance to the zero days thing. If it’s a day I’ve already set aside that’s fine, but I’ve found myself unable to decide in the moment “not feeling it today, this will be a zero day”, and be okay with that emotionally. Unless I’ve shipped a massive feature recently or something, then it’s okay. Motivation is a mess, is what I’m getting at :)

Haha I share in your frustration with the crickets launch, anything I post here that I actually care about people seeing, gets shuttled off to the shadow realm, then stuff like this that’s just musing tends to hit the front page.

anyfoo
0 replies
21h22m

Yeah, I know that feeling well. The day after completing a massive thing, I'm super happy to have a zero day, and just enjoy the feeling of having accomplished something big. Other days, not so much.

alex_suzuki
0 replies
1d

For what it’s worth, I feel the exact same way about zero days. Intellectually I know I deserve them, but something inside me just refuses to stop thinking “I need to work now” until I’ve had some kind of “minimum viable productivity” to show. But interestingly as soon as I do, I can absolutely disconnect.

RHSman2
0 replies
13h40m

I have found there is only one way to get a zero ‘time’. Extreme exercise or activity. Something that requires my whole being to attend too.

Heavy weights, high intensity workouts or something that has the mental requirement like climbing.

Then the chemicals give a reset and I’d return to the subject.

I’d think of them as activity naps.

dewey
2 replies
1d1h

Another great service for mentions is https://syften.com/, also supports Twitter but is paid.

tnolet
0 replies
1d1h

Yeah. We use that too now but still have my F5 account going

marcusbuffett
0 replies
1d1h

This is the one I use, should have mentioned in the article

arthurdelerue
0 replies
12h35m

For my SaaS I use https://kwatch.io which is equivalent to F5bot. The free plan is less generous than F5Bot, but on the paid plans you can monitor Twitter, Reddit, Quora... These days getting organic traffic from Google seems to be harder and harder, so such platforms are good customer acquisition alternative solutions in my opinion.

POiNTx
0 replies
21h51m

Customer validation is also super easy to get.

The easiest way I've found is to include a simple Google Form in the product. It's super rewarding to get feedback from users. Ask simple questions like: "What's your favorite thing about X", "What's your least favorite thing about X", "How did you learn about X" and "Anything else you wanted to let me know?". And make all the questions optional so there's a minimal amount of friction.

Xeamek
5 replies
1d1h

The 'leave things undone' tip sounds really good, definitely will try.

SoftTalker
4 replies
1d1h

I never liked it because I like to go home without any nagging problems, and intentionally not think about work until the next day. It's not always possible, but I try to wrap up loose ends to the extent possible by the end of each day.

VBprogrammer
2 replies
1d

Leaving yourself a clear idea of what is next to do would be similarly effective IMHO. Finish the task you are on then open up the next task, maybe open up the right file in your editor then log off for the evening.

bfuller
0 replies
21h41m

One of my professors would always leave his pc set to the last move of klondike so he would return to work every day with a "win"

SoftTalker
0 replies
23h58m

Yes, I just meant I like to leave work feeling like I've reached a "natural" stopping point. Something finished, or at least the path to finishing is clear.

What I dislike is when I'm stumped, puzzling over a bug or the correct implementation for a complicated feature. It's not always possible to resolve these situations by the end of the work day and they tend to nag at me through the evening. I don't like that and try to avoid it, rather than deliberately create this feeling ("leave things undone") as some sort of trick for motivation.

ed
0 replies
1d1h

Personally I try to finish a feature, but leave QA for the morning. This way my first task is “copy and paste this command into terminal” or “use X feature in the app.” Because there’s always something that needs tweaking before it’s really done, this naturally pulls me into flow the next day. It’s a great trick!

thesurlydev
3 replies
1d1h

Thanks for sharing. I especially liked the leaving tasks 90% done. This is motivation for someone who has 1000 unfinished side projects to finish one tomorrow :)

alex_suzuki
1 replies
1d1h

I found that one interesting too. I do something similar but different: I keep a bunch of “warmup tasks” around, basically easy, low-risk (usually coding) tasks that are 90% likely to be quick motivational boosts to get started in the morning. NGL this has occasionally backfired and something simple turned out to be not so simple at all :-)

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
0 replies
23h56m

NGL this has occasionally backfired and something simple turned out to be not so simple at all :-)

In my case it often backfires in the form of a sudden decision, right or wrong, that yesterday-me made a bunch of bad decisions about something so they all need to be revisited. Before I know it, the thing that was 90% complete is now 60% complete.

JoshTriplett
0 replies
1d1h

I try to leave a task 90% finished at the end of a working session. It feels slightly worse than closing out the work, but it makes starting the next day 10x easier.

Yeah, this one works incredibly well for me as well, and wasn't at all obvious until I saw it for the first time a few years ago.

mpalmer
3 replies
21h10m

In my experience it's always challenging for people who struggle with focus and motivation to have conversations about it with people who don't have those issues, even when everyone involved means well.

Unless someone has experienced both dynamics, it's very hard for each to put themselves in the shoes of the other, because we're talking about brain chemistry.

No one with severe ADHD symptoms really knows what it's like to have a calm mind for an entire day, let alone most days (and what that means for one's career and social life). They can reason that such a thing is possible, but that's different from really grasping the experience.

Same for the other way around - you can reason that ADHD is a real and often debilitating condition because you see its effects, but you still might have trouble believing they're not also just a little lazy.

joenot443
1 replies
18h19m

In my experience, the ones best able to navigate that conversation are individuals with ADHD who now medicate and can observe the difference.

Scott describes the phenomenon roughly as one’s “motivation” existing and fluctuating on a spectrum, with the absolute minimum being full sedentary psychosis and the maximum basically being mania. Some people spend their whole lives towards the edge of that spectrum and upon medication (normally a type of stimulant) bump themselves along into the “normal” range. I’ve witnessed the change for a handful of people close to me and it really is remarkable.

DontchaKnowit
0 replies
4h45m

Have you ever taken adhd medication?

I feel like your perspective might be different if you experienced stinulants first hand.

Swizec
0 replies
19h11m

Also an important aspect is that high functioning undiagnosed ADD often manifests as ”What do you mean? Obviously everyone experiences this”

If you keep thinking that ADD people are complaining about nothing, it may be a good to get tested. You might just have developed lots of coping strategies!

satvikpendem
2 replies
1d1h

Great article and tips. I've heard all of these before separately of course but having them all in one article makes it nice. As I was reading each one, I thought, these all sound like solutions (or at least helpful tips) I've heard for people who have ADHD, and lo and behold, I see the last section.

mey
1 replies
19h39m

I wish the tip at the end was, seek treatment for ADD/ADHD, or any other issues that impact your quality of life. It isn't a failure to do so and can make things better in the long run.

marcusbuffett
0 replies
10h28m

The only real treatment for ADHD is to medicate, and I’ve seen some studies that show your brain creates more dopamine pathways (forget the actual term, but basically more efficient at getting rid of dopamine) over time, which means that if I were to go off the medication, I’m potentially worse off than before. That seems too high of a cost.

I have tried it before though, it certainly works.

ravenstine
2 replies
1d

While I'm not exactly sure what "solo dev" means for the author in terms of intent, I believe that the need to manage motivation is usually a sign that what one is doing is at least somewhat off-course from the ideal of the individual. In simpler terms, if you are struggling to be motivated for something, you can certainly try to change yourself, but it can be at least as reasonable to change that something.

I learned this about myself a few years ago when I quit my job to build a compact piece of wearable hardware that measures metabolism through breath in real time. Even though I was burning through my savings, I spent close to a year working on this thing day in and day out. I had so many different "responsibilities" on my project and so many things to learn that motivation was never an issue, and I did finish a working device in the end. This is coming from someone who has dealt with motivational issues many times. That also wasn't the first time I quit my job to work on a project, though previous projects often ended early when I lost the motivation. At first, I thought this was a sign of a problem with myself, but in retrospect I think it's good that I lost motivation. Those ideas weren't that great and I wasn't as engaged in them, and it's likely I just would have wasted more time and money on them had I not acknowledged the writing on the wall.

In fairness, this outlook is easy to have when you aren't doing something for income. To some extent, we do have to manage motivation for day jobs. I can't honestly say that I'd be coding enterprise applications if I wasn't getting paid handsomely to do that. Even though I am paid, part of motivation is having a mission that's important to you, and it's easy to lose sight of your mission if you've been paid a regular salary for quite some time.

The author's "leave tasks unfinished" strategy plays into this principle at a very small level, but I think recognizing a greater ambition and keeping it in your consciousness can be important as well. A lot of people find the motivation to work harder and longer when they have kids, for instance. Since I don't have kids, I've found that regularly coming back to investing and retirement planning has been a good motivator for my day job because I get enjoyment out of making my money work for me; I loosely visualize what I want my life to be like in 20 years from now and strategize how to get there based on my current trajectory. I don't think about it most days, but revisiting this every few weeks reminds me why my day job is important. For others, perhaps owning a house and converting the garage to an art studio would be a goal to motivate one through their day job.

In short, I think motivation is more a form of measure than a virtue in and of itself. It can tell you whether you've lost sight of ambition or if what you're doing just isn't that great. "Hacks" will only get you so far.

That said, a "hack" that works for me is to just keep reminding myself to "keep up the pace." Even if I barely accomplish anything in a day, as long as I accomplish a minuscule thing on a daily basis, my frequency of accomplishment stays roughly the same. Going too long not really getting anything done is when motivating yourself to jump back in the game gets very difficult.

renaudg
0 replies
18h0m

I believe that the need to manage motivation is usually a sign that what one is doing is at least somewhat off-course from the ideal of the individual.

You're lucky not to have ADHD like the author then.

People with ADHD absolutely can (and will) procrastinate endlessly if they don't proactively use tricks to manage their motivation, even with interesting and pleasant tasks that they are also fully aware are critical to reaching their most cherished goals.

ADHD feels like a broken transmission gear between the planning/rational part of the brain (prefrontal cortex) that desperately wants the work to happen, and the "pre-actuator" part that actually gets to schedule your actions for the next 3 seconds.

Too often that part decides that, in spite of all the pleas from the rational brain, the best thing to do in this moment is to keep the finger infinitely scrolling down on X or to click on "just one more" HN link. That keeps the dopamine hits coming, which feels good and predictable, whereas stopping brings short-term discomfort and uncertainty.

The rational brain sees the clock showing 3am and the finger that keeps scrolling and scrolling. It screams and shouts in protest and powerlessly laments the self-sabotage and broken promises. But all this negative self-talk is annoying. What better way to silence this party-pooper than a juicy unread X thread or fascinating HN story ? So the pre-actuator votes for that, hits the snooze button on the rational brain one more time, which soon comes back screaming and shouting again, and so on and so on until exhaustion ensues and you finally give in and crash into bed (or start doing whatever you were supposed to work on). ADHD is a real curse.

marcusbuffett
0 replies
1d

Yeah I think there’s definitely something to this. I’ve had periods of time working at companies that I wasn’t aligned with, where motivation was virtually unreachable.

That said even if you’re working on something you love, there will be weeks where the work just isn’t fun, and that’s where this stuff comes in. I love the project I work on now, a chess improvement site, but sometimes I need to take a week to move cloud providers, or deal with App Store review, or work on marketing. Can’t always be fun even if the overall project is directionally aligned.

mpalmer
2 replies
21h4m

Very good post. A lot of it rings true with my own experience and it seems like you've found a lot of good ways to work with what you've got, instead of around or through it.

I also like "addressing the pain" - a bit too much. I seek out pain just to build tools that address it, because that's almost always more fun than the task itself.

If someone paid me just to build things that improve people's personal workflows I'd take the job in a second.

kahmeal
1 replies
21h2m

Sounds like a great personality type for a platform engineer..

mpalmer
0 replies
20h56m

Yeah I agree, something like that. Honestly though I think it's more than that, I like building "toys" that are fun to use (and help with productive work). I don't think anyone's hiring toymakers, I might need to go solo myself if I'm determined.

And of course my deep fear is I'd find that perfect job and nothing about my habits would change.

oglop
1 replies
1d1h

Step one; log on

Step two; feel sad

Step three; hate your life choices

Step 4 repeat

meiraleal
0 replies
5h59m

Isn't this exactly what motivates people to quit corporate life and become a solo dev?

maddynator
1 replies
1d1h

Does anyone knows if there are any instructions on how do you configure the money bot?

marcusbuffett
0 replies
1d1h

Basically just setup a discord webhook, and most languages will have a discord client you can use. Just when you get a subscription webhook event from stripe/apple/google, send a notification to that webhook

gs17
1 replies
23h31m

For example, the Money Bots, which pop up every time someone subscribes.

Imagine not getting that message for a long time. Some people might say "that's encouragement to work harder so we get subscribers!", others "no one likes it, I should give up". It feels like this is much more powerful if you're already motivated.

residentraspber
0 replies
23h25m

I completely agree! The company I'm currently working on is pretty cyclical such that we get a bunch of new activity towards the middle of each month and nothing at the beginning or end. This leads to our notifications to go wild sometimes making us super happy then trailing off and making us worry other times.

franczesko
1 replies
21h1m

'Some days when I’m not getting anything done, I’ve got this lingering guilt that I’m having a “zero day”'

I had this and after many years of treating myself that way, I treat myself kindly. It's a toxic approach and the easiest way to burnout. It's OK not to do anything.

grugagag
0 replies
17h16m

It’s okay to have ebbs and flows. I would be worried only if that turns into a very long period of time. And even that is okay at times..

artemavv
1 replies
23h33m

Has anyone tried FocusMate or similar services? I have not used it myself but I think it may be useful to overcome procrastination. However, I doubt that having a random collaborators (a new one for each session) could do much for my motivation. I would prefer to keep collaborating with the same person for a longer period - a week or a month, to get better accountability

hu3
0 replies
23h7m

I haven't yet but I'm contemplating streaming work on Twitch / Youtube.

pizzalife
0 replies
1d1h

This reminds me of when me and some friends were selling "IRC bouncers" aka IRC VPNs around 2005. Whenever we got a new customer ($1 SMS payment) there would be an automatic announcement in our internal IRC channel.

Even though it wasn't a lot of money, it was a very rewarding feeling.

oars
0 replies
20h14m

Useful tips, thanks for sharing.

jerrygoyal
0 replies
13h47m

I really mean doing nothing; I’ll just sit in front of my screen for a few minutes

You can go one step further and focus on your breath instead of just sitting idle to calm your mind as well (mini-meditation). I do this instead of doom-scrolling and have experienced positive results.

imvetri
0 replies
1d

I pick weights over my head. It strenghthens the inner voice stronger, and it tells me, this gives me stronger mind voice, calm pace. slow and steady

hamasho
0 replies
1d1h

Thanks for the tip! I'll try leaving a task unfinished to start the next day with a small win. As a remote dev, I struggle to be productive all day. My company trusts me and gives me lots of flexibility, which sometimes allows me to procrastinate for days, leading to self-blaming and anxiety. I know starting the day in a good mood makes the rest of the day easier. Kicking off with a small victory definitely helps my productivity!

animal531
0 replies
7h25m

My whole life I thought that ADHD was that thing where there's a kid who runs around like crazy and can't calm down, which didn't really fit me.

But then I saw this great JaidenAnimations video about it and figured out how many of the ADD issues I have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0hL4mJInm0

Zambyte
0 replies
1d1h

I think these tips are really helpful for me working on a team but remotely also.

SeriousM
0 replies
20h36m

Do nothing > I get sucked into high-tech Skinner Boxes all the time. Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, etc. The best way I’ve found to get out of this is to do it in two steps. First I go from Reddit to doing nothing, then I get to work. > Going straight from Reddit to focused work is very hard, but doing nothing is much easier, and eventually your brain calms down and it doesn’t feel nearly as hard to start writing some code. > I really mean doing nothing; I’ll just sit in front of my screen for a few minutes and as if by magic, the consumption-fueled dopamine-overload fog will lift, and I can get excited about creation and problem-solving again.

Exactly that. I guess the hardest part is to close the browser tab of YT/HN/...

LZ_Khan
0 replies
21h23m

This is awesome, thank you. I feel like some of these tips could be substantial research areas in psychology in the future (like first go from nothing -> work rather than reddit -> work)