Hi all, apologies if this is a bit random. I’m struggling a bit with motivation. Specifically, getting psyched and motivated enough to consistently work on self-study every evening after work or on weekends (pretty much the only free time I have). I feel tired out at those times and need to somehow get myself to focus, even if just for a short time. Can anyone recommend a place I might find a motivation buddy? Like someone who also wants to put in consistent effort towards a goal, so we can remind and motivate each other? Maybe one of you are in a similar place and would like to pair up? Or also, any apps, etc that might help? Or even a simple motivation technique? Thanks ahead of time for any help you can offer!

Hey! I have similar problem: I need to study after work and weekends for university application. I could be your motivation buddy, I guess. It also might be a bad idea due to timezone difference. I recently started to read a book called "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. Author says that people don't achieve their goals not because they lack motivation, but rather because they haven't organized their work properly, didn't adopted necessary habits.

I’m using an app called

Habits

(iOS, but I’m sure there are equivalents elsewhere) based on Jerry Seinfelds ‘one joke a day’ streak idea. I try to make my habits as small as possible (

Log my reading for the day, even if its nothing

,

stretch

,

write 20 mins

). The trick is to start doing the thing with enough time to extend it. So I start my 20 mins of writing an hour before I have to do anything else. And sometimes I quit after 20 minutes and thats all I’ve got. But sometimes I can do the full 60. and I forgive myself when I fall down, life happens 🤷‍♂️

I’m trying to install two new similar habits myself — (a) writing code daily and (b) publishing work in progress (aka blogging) — with limited success so far. I’ve been able to implement successful exercise and reading habits last year with the help of small apps like Seven (http://7minworkoutapp.net/) and Streaks (https://streaks.app/). Honestly, the apps just help a tiny little bit, and the main point is you need to somehow manage to install those activities in your day, ideally attaching them to something you already do every day (like brushing your teeth or taking a shower). +1 for Atomic Habits. Haven’t read the book, but I’ve been reading the author’s blog for a while. I’d love to see more happening here in this forum where we support each other with our projects or our output. Something like the #CCL5VVBAN channel is in that spirit, but I’m sure there’s more we could do. When I was at the Recurse Center (recurse.com) we did daily check-ins. That’s basically like a Scrum stand-up where everybody present just gives a quick overview of what they did yesterday, will do today, and challenges they could use help with or would like to pair(-program) on. That often surfaced helpful advice and spontaneous study groups and helped keep motivation levels up. Maybe there’s a similar format that works virtually and across time zones? I’m in London, UK and also happy to experiment locally, if anybody wants to meet.

I tried to make a #daily-checkins channel, but it seems I can only make it private (@stevekrouse, is it only admins that can make public channels or am I missing something?)

Thanks for pushing this forward so swiftly! Maybe it should just be #checkins and we’ll leave the frequency up to each individual’s personal preference?

good idea

I personally prefer analogue methods for productivity stuff: - I have a 7x7 grid per habit (assuming I want to do the habit every day, Nx7 otherwise) - I cross (X) off the day's cell when I've done the required thing. - For habits with 2 components, I'll use / and \ on each cell (e.g. waking up by ___: /, going to bed by ___: \). - I keep the bar for success low (e.g. read one page of a physical book) so that there's no barrier to starting - I find that once I've started I normally keep going. (I think I first came across this technique on https://www.reddit.com/r/theXeffect/)

@Vladimir Gordeev thanks for sharing. Will check out the book. I’m now wondering if I should set up some kind of Slack group or WhatsApp group for this, so potentially we could have a bunch of motivation buddies from many time zones.

Another book I really like is Charles Duhigg’s book on habits, identifying the habit loop, how to find your cue/routine/reward is important; and then learning how to form or change a habit. I find journaling helpful, and have been slowly deleting social media off my phone to dumb my phone down for deep work.

any of you guys listen to Developer Tea podcast?

@dev I have many interrelated and inter-dependent goals, and I’m constantly looking for the most optimal opportunities to achieve progress on one or more of them. I admit this can make deep focus a bit challenging. 🙂 And lately I’ve been feeling so overwhelmed and exhausted by the weight of them all that I’ve just completely slowed down and found it hard to even make a tiny dent. I get so tired after work that I can barely concentrate (for various reasons, I get very anxious at work; I’m sure many people can relate; deadlines, impostor syndrome, etc). A few goals, no particular order: • Savings/investment: To achieve enough savings to generate passive income sufficient to cover basic personal expenses over periods of time off work that may be needed in future, in order to pivot my career. • Design: Develop knowledge and competence in interaction design and user research in order to improve my effectiveness in developing user interfaces. So far I’ve worked toward this through university study, reading books/papers, attending meetups/conferences and lurking in Slack chatrooms. • Software Design: Specifically focus on the design aspect of software construction, because I find that most interesting and enjoyable. Learning a bit about design patterns, refactoring patterns, testing, algorithms and trying to get better at applying this knowledge in real-life projects at work, not just having it as head-knowledge. Reading books and trying to apply the knowledge and have discussions at my current job is generally how I’m pursuing this. • Work: Trying to find high-paying niches for contract work and broaden my offering by learning about cloud and Serverless development. I slacked off a bit on this; had planned to undertake AWS certification, but just got busy with so much other stuff it slipped me by. I’m looking to re-double my efforts and at least achieve AWS Developer certification, if nothing else. • Portfolio: Working on a small web application to showcase my skill in user interface design and well designed, quality code. And it might make me a little revenue, who knows? • Startups: Very frequently thinking about startup ideas and searching for any kind of niche or idea or field that might be under-developed and a good candidate for creating a startup around. However, these seem to be extremely few and far between. As Mark Andreeson says (paraphrase) “you probably shouldn’t be making a startup; the existing companies that provide that product/service are probably already very good at it”. These words ring very true. However, in the odd chance I do find a startup opportunity worth pursuing, the savings will help to cover my basic needs for long enough to give it a good hard go. • Work in different countries and cultures: I’ve taken a baby-step toward this by moving from Sydney to London; the culture is pretty similar though. I admit I’m terrible with languages, so I’ll probably have to stick to English-speaking. However, I’m researching visas in Ireland, Canada, Singapore, US and other places, and hoping to take up work in some of those places in future. In a globalized world, I want to get exposure to lots of diversity, perspectives and cultures.

haha thanks for sharing! I'm in the midst of reassessing my goals so would be glad to share when I'm ready

@Rui Min Sorry I didn’t thank you, thanks a bunch for sharing those readings, checking them out now

You’re welcome! Good luck :)