103 lines
5.1 KiB
Org Mode
103 lines
5.1 KiB
Org Mode
---
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title: "Thoughts on Motivation"
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author: Chris Hodapp
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date: "2020-07-18"
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tags:
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- technobabble
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- motivation
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draft: true
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---
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"Motivation" is a topic I will sometimes talk endlessly on, and
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reading [[https://www.danpink.com/books/drive/][Drive]] by Daniel Pink only made this more interesting.
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It might just be the way I'm wired, but motivation can be tricky for
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me to navigate when it comes to my personal projects. I'm at the
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whims of my own moods and energy levels, and of what time I have
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available. Sometimes I will have large blocks of time to work on a
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project, but most frequently, it is smaller blocks of time - perhaps
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15-30 minutes spread out in between other chores.
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When staring into the void a few days ago, I started analyzing how
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this seemed to work for me when I was trying to find a task from a
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project that I could progress on:
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1. How _inspirational_ do I expect this task to be? How much will it
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motivate me? How interesting is it?
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2. How _nearby_ is this task? How quickly can I *start* working on it
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and start getting results or feedback? Do I have to go purchase a
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bunch of tools or supplies, set up a workspace, set up software for
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a development environment, or make a lot of design decisions,
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before I have even started doing what I think I want to?
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3. How _relevant_ is this task? As I progress on it, do I expect that
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this progress fits into some kind of bigger picture?
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It seems weird to talk about - personal projects are supposed to be
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enjoyable pastimes, not drudgery. However, projects of technical
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nature, particularly when they involve programming or new-to-me
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mathematics (and my projects often involve both), can have some unique
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hurdles - see [[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yak_shaving][yak shaving]]. I might be able to understand at a
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rational level why I have to do some boring work in order to get to
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the "interesting" work, but I also know how quickly this work can feel
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like beating my head into a wall.
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This isn't about deciding whether a task is worth doing or not - it's
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about trying to orient tasks in such a way that I'm motivated to do
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them. Not all tasks are "inspirational"; some are just grunt work.
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Sometimes, a bunch of up-front work needs to be done to bring any
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tasks "nearby", and this might take the form of an hour or two just
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looking at artifacts of an old project and re-reading old notes in
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order to re-familiarize myself with something I haven't touched in
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months and seemingly making no progress - but putting myself in a
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better position to resume work.
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A few habits seem to help me with this.
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- Keeping good notes on the state of a project, especially with a
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regularly-updated list of relevant to-do items. When I find myself
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with a large block of time (often unexpectedly), especially after
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having neglected a project for weeks or months, having these notes
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can be indispensable for making good use of that time.
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- Related: regularly writing down *small* project ideas as they come
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to mind - the sorts of projects that I could easily start, except
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that it would mean interrupting what I'm already doing. When I've
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hit a point on something else where I feel like I can't easily
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progress, these small projects are easy to pick up and progress on,
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and sometimes will get me past whatever snag I hit or give a
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different perspective on it.
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- Having a source of "easy" inspiration ready - things like websites
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where people showcase pictures and videos of projects I'll find
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interesting. Sometimes they are just a source of new ideas; other
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times, when I'm knee-deep in details that make it really hard to see
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the bigger picture, they help remind me of why I find a topic
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interesting.
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- Breaking decision paralysis by just trying to dive in and do
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something. This is easier said than done. Seeking out *feedback
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loops* is a big part of this, and they can take many forms - simpler
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tools that give quicker results (even if they're only drafts or
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prototypes), the aforementioned smaller projects, or just having a
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workspace already prepared that makes it easy to start something
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new.
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If you've worked much on fairly involved projects, perhaps on a team,
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you have probably had the realization of how the speed with which you
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can on new ideas when you have such a workspace already prepared -
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whether that's a lab bench with everything already connected and
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arranged, or a software development setup with everything ready and
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waiting - and your mind is in sync with it and with the project at
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hand. It is cases like these where you can hear an idea and begin
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building and testing on it in a matter of minutes.
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You might also be keenly aware that this context doesn't last forever.
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If you are distracted from this for just a few minutes, perhaps you
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can return immediately and still be this efficient. If you are
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distracted from it for several weeks, likely you're quite a bit slower
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to find your old place. If things aren't how you left them, that's
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another issue still - perhaps you then are spending time just tracking
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down what moved, or figuring out what changed, or fixing things.
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# How 'nearby' affects ability to work (as projects drop from memory
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# over time)
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# TODO: Link this to 2012-08-16-some-thoughts.md
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