I continue to be amazed by what motivates me. One day I’d just wake up and want to get stuff done. On another, seemingly identical, occasion, I would feel a deep lack of desire to do anything.
Over the past month I’ve had several discoveries. While I know that they are likely different for different people, I encourage everyone to think about what motivates them. Often the factors seem completely arbitrary and are unlike what many self-help publications purport to convince us of.
- Sometimes I need to be lazy so that in the medium term I can get stuff done. This, I think, is the most important thing that people overlook. I think that this is partly due to the need for my brain to relax (or stop concentrating on one area such as the area responsible for planning and achievement), and partly due to the fact that the desire to get things done is a function of our overall state of mind: spending some time being lazy makes me more motivated to get stuff done later (the “broccoli and ice cream” effect)
- The most surprising of all was the discovery that if I get home from work before 7pm, I am significantly more motivated to get “life” work done. I haven’t figured out why that is; but this rule seems to work very well for me
- Several small successes in a row incentivize me to get more done
- What reduces my anxiety the most is not (in general) getting things done but having a good grasp of what needs to be done and the priority of these things. One thing I therefore tried to do was not organizing my todo list but instead just knocking things off the list so I don’t become complacent having a well-formed todo list
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Motivation is pretty tricky. I’ve spent the last year learning about what motivates myself and have realized it’s just unbelievably complicated. Here are the things I’ve learned:
Physical health is important. Cardiovascular stimulation, good sleep and nutrition will always impact your motivation. Maybe not immediately, but things will trend downwards if you don’t treat these right.
Positivity and possibility. I can’t do anything if I’m a negative state of mind, even if that negativity is just at the back. The moment I start thinking I’m not good enough for the task at hand, or that failure is possible (maybe certain) then I’m just going to quit. I’m too well trained to actually quit; I’ll just mentally check out. Procrastination, getting lost in the weeds and task-doing instead of goal-accomplishing becomes the pattern. I usually recognize the symptoms not the cause.
I think you want to get life work done because you realize you actually have a large enough window to accomplish something interesting. There is a universe of opportunity, and you have at least 5 hours to accomplish lots of things. At least that’s how it was for me when I was working at ******.
Successes reinforce positivity. Also, they are nice little dopamine kicks, and you might start getting some of the adrenaline-filled-maniac behavior with it.
This excellent video highlights three important factors to motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. This rings true with me and is a good way to help me understand what motivates me (although it does not present the full picture). I recommend everyone to watch it.