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The brain hates to start things and loves to finish things. This can be hacked in that a working session should always leave something unfinished. Say you're w
by bambax 5y ago
The brain hates to start things and loves to finish things. This can be hacked in that a working session should always leave something unfinished.
Say you're writing a novel. Every writing session (but the first, obviously) should cover the end of the last scene and the beginning of a new one, AND THEN STOP, i.e. not finish the new scene.
Your brain will want to come back to the work to finish it, which overcomes the friction of "starting" something new every time.
It's easier said than done. It's surprisingly difficult to leave something unfinished at the end of each work session. But that's the trick.
- xyzzy_plugh 5y agoThe brain you describe is not the brain I possess. Starting is easy.
- bambax 5y ago"starting" is ambiguous. I really meant "getting to work". Thinking about new things and maybe throwing down a few ideas is indeed easy and pleasant. But deciding to spend a few hours to move a project (instead of not) is what the brain hates. It hates commitment, and is very afraid of the opportunity cost.
- jjk166 5y agoNah, I'm with parent commenter on this. When I'm excited about something I have no problem diving into it for hours on end. But when I know that something is 90% done and it just needs to be tidied up, I will do anything other than working on it. Either everything from solving the hardest problem to being completely done happens in one sitting, or it never gets finished.
- MaurizioPz 5y agoI've adopted this sort of trick ending my programming session with a failing unit test. I works quite well (When I remember to do it)