5 ms·

"If you really deeply care about something, you will do it." Next time you're unmotivated to complete a task, think about why you're avoiding it. The answer is

by 54mf 14y ago

"If you really deeply care about something, you will do it." Next time you're unmotivated to complete a task, think about why you're avoiding it. The answer is usually fear or boredom/disinterest. If it's fear, great, you're in a good place. If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else. Sometimes I wonder if so many programmers need Productivity Hacks because they don't really love programming, they just ended up programming because of social awkwardness.

toadi 14y ago
Lot's of things I don't like doing at work. Still I love my work. So should I be doing something else?
- mseebach 14y ago
  If you're getting it done and you still love your work, then there's no problem. Caring about something as a hack to get it done does not imply that getting something done means you care about it.
  - 54mf 14y ago
    Right, exactly. A to-do list is certainly a positive, helpful tool; requiring one to function can be a bad sign, and obsessively seeking out Productivity Hacks is even worse.
stinkytaco 14y ago
>If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else. If only this were the case. So much of any work, even work you love, is boring, menial stuff you'd like someone else to do. You've got to find a way to power through those tasks in order to do what you love. Sometimes task lists are a good way of doing that, at least you get a sense of accomplishment for doing that one stupid thing you have to get out the way.
- 54mf 14y ago
  You're absolutely right, and perhaps I'm veering away from the original post a bit. Task lists are useful; obsessively seeking out productivity tips is a sign of an underlying problem. I guess I'm more concerned with the general obsession with capital-P-H Productivity Hacks as panacea for a bunch of other issues. The line between a helpful to-do list and being unable to function without one can get fuzzy. Given how popular these sites are, I'm just wondering how many folks have crossed that line, and why.
- king_jester 14y ago
  > So much of any work, even work you love, is boring, menial stuff you'd like someone else to do. The boring, menials parts of work are chores. If you are finding side projects and hobbies to be boring and menial, then said hobby is a chore for you and you should probably reevaluate whey you are doing it in the first place.
  - notJim 14y ago
    Side projects have chores. If you skip them and move on to the next interesting thing, you tend to end up with a lot of half-done side projects.
sunir 14y ago
I don't get your point, or maybe I do and I disagree. I hate doing my taxes. I hate mopping my floors. I truly hate weeding. These things are the cost of life. Adulthood means doing things because they have to get done, not because they are fun. They call it work or chores or taxes because it isn't play. We all come to grips with that if we are to survive. No sense denying it.
- edwinnathaniel 14y ago
  I viewed mopping the floors as a few things: 1) Maintaining the house value 2) Discipline 3) Exercise 4) Stress reliever which all are positive. I viewed doing taxes as one of the ways to know my financial situation. If you sprinkle the positive dusts around these chores, they won't be chores.
- 54mf 14y ago
  You missed my point, indeed. There will always be specific aspects of any job that are less than pleasant, but if the entirety (or, at least, most) of your job is so discombobulating that you need a rigid system to be able to function, you might not be in the right line of work. As a side note, I don't buy that "adulthood = being miserable" racket. You can do honest, income-generating work that's fulfilling and fun. In fact, you probably should be. None of this "coming to grips" nonsense. That's an excuse people tell themselves when they feel stuck in a miserable place.
mhd 14y ago
Not everyone has those awesome powers of introspection (which is why a whole rang of jobs starting with "psycho-" exist in the first place). Quite often we're not really that aware of our own motivations - and even if we are, they're not always that easy to overcome. Never mind that the task itself isn't always that simple. Some of them are outright impossible, some are just hard to do. Let's not even get into the "I wanna be at the next olympics in gymnastics, but I'm overweight and 47" bunch, let's consider something relatively simple like building something, like a website or a house. "You will do it" doesn't really get you there. You will try it, and you will most likely fail, nevermind what Vivek or Yoda are saying. Sure, some "productivity porn" is just along the motivational speaker line, getting off your butt etc., but there's a lot of stuff out there at managing your productivity, planning, etc. Granted, most of that is crap, too, but then again, most of anything is crap.
- 54mf 14y ago
  No one ever has gymnast's block. They spend time reading about the Top 5 Ways To Lose That Belly Fat instead of putting on running shoes because running is hard work and they don't really want to be doing it. If they wanted it bad enough, they'd be doing it. Likewise, there aren't dozens of Architect Hacks sites to help architects find the right paper for their blueprints. Indeed, do, or do not. There is no try. (14 New Ways To Try after the jump...) [Edit] On the other hand, we might just all be dopamine addicts. We spend 8+ hours a day using a tool that also contains everything ever in the history of the world, and wonder why we're distracted so often.
  - mhd 14y ago
    Productivity isn't just about programmers/writers block, it's also about ways to approach things. And there just wanting it bad enough isn't enough. Gymnasts do need to train the right way, i.e. train productively. Only part of it is about the gymnastics itself. It's not intuitively obvious to every practitioner. You might know every algorithm, API and tool you need for a job, but there's still some value in knowing good ways to utilize all that. Just running along with the will to power? If you failed, you didn't want it enough?
AznHisoka 14y ago
For me, I'm usually avoiding it if I feel burnout, or am really really sexually frustrated. If I take care of the 2nd, I find I am motivated to do almost anything :)
- 54mf 14y ago
  At the risk of adding MI to your TMI, I completely agree on both counts.
iSnow 14y ago
> I wonder if so many programmers need Productivity Hacks because they don't really love programming I doubt that is the real issue. Programming != programming. Those same programmers will happily hack and code a whole night on their pet projects. However, in their day jobs they have to implement some enterprisey enterprise solution which they don't care about in the least.
ctdonath 14y ago
If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else. I am in the process of teaching a 4-year-old to do what needs doing regardless of interest level. The above advice is not helpful to that end. There is much which we must do, be it chores or goals, which inspire boredom - but must be done nonetheless else at best no progress is made, or at worst grave consequences follow.
- gphilip 14y ago
  Bertrand Russell has treated this subject in his inimitable fashion in his essay titled "Boredom and Excitement", Chapter 4 of his book "The Conquest of Happiness". The chapter starts off with "Boredom as a factor in human behaviour has received, in my opinion, far less attention than it deserves." and is well worth reading (at least) a few times.

by 54mf 14y ago

toadi 14y ago

Lot's of things I don't like doing at work. Still I love my work. So should I be doing something else?

mseebach 14y ago
If you're getting it done and you still love your work, then there's no problem. Caring about something as a hack to get it done does not imply that getting something done means you care about it.
- 54mf 14y ago
  Right, exactly. A to-do list is certainly a positive, helpful tool; requiring one to function can be a bad sign, and obsessively seeking out Productivity Hacks is even worse.

stinkytaco 14y ago

>If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else. If only this were the case. So much of any work, even work you love, is boring, menial stuff you'd like someone else to do. You've got to find a way to power through those tasks in order to do what you love. Sometimes task lists are a good way of doing that, at least you get a sense of accomplishment for doing that one stupid thing you have to get out the way.

54mf 14y ago
You're absolutely right, and perhaps I'm veering away from the original post a bit. Task lists are useful; obsessively seeking out productivity tips is a sign of an underlying problem. I guess I'm more concerned with the general obsession with capital-P-H Productivity Hacks as panacea for a bunch of other issues. The line between a helpful to-do list and being unable to function without one can get fuzzy. Given how popular these sites are, I'm just wondering how many folks have crossed that line, and why.
king_jester 14y ago
> So much of any work, even work you love, is boring, menial stuff you'd like someone else to do. The boring, menials parts of work are chores. If you are finding side projects and hobbies to be boring and menial, then said hobby is a chore for you and you should probably reevaluate whey you are doing it in the first place.
- notJim 14y ago
  Side projects have chores. If you skip them and move on to the next interesting thing, you tend to end up with a lot of half-done side projects.

sunir 14y ago

I don't get your point, or maybe I do and I disagree. I hate doing my taxes. I hate mopping my floors. I truly hate weeding. These things are the cost of life. Adulthood means doing things because they have to get done, not because they are fun. They call it work or chores or taxes because it isn't play. We all come to grips with that if we are to survive. No sense denying it.

edwinnathaniel 14y ago
I viewed mopping the floors as a few things: 1) Maintaining the house value 2) Discipline 3) Exercise 4) Stress reliever which all are positive. I viewed doing taxes as one of the ways to know my financial situation. If you sprinkle the positive dusts around these chores, they won't be chores.
54mf 14y ago
You missed my point, indeed. There will always be specific aspects of any job that are less than pleasant, but if the entirety (or, at least, most) of your job is so discombobulating that you need a rigid system to be able to function, you might not be in the right line of work. As a side note, I don't buy that "adulthood = being miserable" racket. You can do honest, income-generating work that's fulfilling and fun. In fact, you probably should be. None of this "coming to grips" nonsense. That's an excuse people tell themselves when they feel stuck in a miserable place.

mhd 14y ago

Not everyone has those awesome powers of introspection (which is why a whole rang of jobs starting with "psycho-" exist in the first place). Quite often we're not really that aware of our own motivations - and even if we are, they're not always that easy to overcome. Never mind that the task itself isn't always that simple. Some of them are outright impossible, some are just hard to do. Let's not even get into the "I wanna be at the next olympics in gymnastics, but I'm overweight and 47" bunch, let's consider something relatively simple like building something, like a website or a house. "You will do it" doesn't really get you there. You will try it, and you will most likely fail, nevermind what Vivek or Yoda are saying. Sure, some "productivity porn" is just along the motivational speaker line, getting off your butt etc., but there's a lot of stuff out there at managing your productivity, planning, etc. Granted, most of that is crap, too, but then again, most of anything is crap.

54mf 14y ago
No one ever has gymnast's block. They spend time reading about the Top 5 Ways To Lose That Belly Fat instead of putting on running shoes because running is hard work and they don't really want to be doing it. If they wanted it bad enough, they'd be doing it. Likewise, there aren't dozens of Architect Hacks sites to help architects find the right paper for their blueprints. Indeed, do, or do not. There is no try. (14 New Ways To Try after the jump...) [Edit] On the other hand, we might just all be dopamine addicts. We spend 8+ hours a day using a tool that also contains everything ever in the history of the world, and wonder why we're distracted so often.
- mhd 14y ago
  Productivity isn't just about programmers/writers block, it's also about ways to approach things. And there just wanting it bad enough isn't enough. Gymnasts do need to train the right way, i.e. train productively. Only part of it is about the gymnastics itself. It's not intuitively obvious to every practitioner. You might know every algorithm, API and tool you need for a job, but there's still some value in knowing good ways to utilize all that. Just running along with the will to power? If you failed, you didn't want it enough?

AznHisoka 14y ago

For me, I'm usually avoiding it if I feel burnout, or am really really sexually frustrated. If I take care of the 2nd, I find I am motivated to do almost anything :)

54mf 14y ago
At the risk of adding MI to your TMI, I completely agree on both counts.

iSnow 14y ago

> I wonder if so many programmers need Productivity Hacks because they don't really love programming I doubt that is the real issue. Programming != programming. Those same programmers will happily hack and code a whole night on their pet projects. However, in their day jobs they have to implement some enterprisey enterprise solution which they don't care about in the least.

ctdonath 14y ago

If it's boredom, you should probably be doing something else. I am in the process of teaching a 4-year-old to do what needs doing regardless of interest level. The above advice is not helpful to that end. There is much which we must do, be it chores or goals, which inspire boredom - but must be done nonetheless else at best no progress is made, or at worst grave consequences follow.

gphilip 14y ago
Bertrand Russell has treated this subject in his inimitable fashion in his essay titled "Boredom and Excitement", Chapter 4 of his book "The Conquest of Happiness". The chapter starts off with "Boredom as a factor in human behaviour has received, in my opinion, far less attention than it deserves." and is well worth reading (at least) a few times.