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Journal FortKnox's Journal: Motivation.... 15

Journal by FortKnox
I think my biggest problem has always been motivation. If I start getting something done, it usually gets done. I'm really good at working hard once I start something.

The problem is... how to get motivated enough to start. My attitude reminds me of a Simpsons episode when Bart is trying to write a history paper and sees a math book and says "Hey... I'll just work out some math while I get some inspiration!" How do you motivate yourself? Just force yourself or do you do anything specific. I'm really looking for any suggestions on motivation....

Yeah, writing journal entries is no form of motivation, but I thought I'd ask. And for the record I didn't work last night... I played a quick 30 min game of desert combat (final release!) and went to bed. I'm much more refreshed today.
And thanks for all the birfday wishes :-)
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Motivation.... More

Motivation....

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  • violence... oh wait that's my advice to blinder... sorry.
  • Just read a piece of advice I love from the guy that does gapingvoid.com: lose the props. In order to write something you don't need your favorite chair at your favorite desk in your favorite spot with your favorite pen. In order to write code you don't need the latest patch of the latest plugin to the latest IDE. In order to write fiction, you don't need 57 different fonts and a table of contents just to write the opening sentence. Ok, that last one is for me. :)

    Seriously, I've found this to be true.

    • "Throw away the props" he says...then he suggests Emacs.

      I've never tried Emacs; vim has worked well enough.

      Still, if you feel "more attached to the code" using Emacs, you're obviously not distracted by its feature set. Which I think is your point.

      As for diagrams and graphics, I still find that a pencil and paper is the easiest way to record my ideas. The bitch of it is that there's no effective way to import on-paper drawings into a computer and have it still be reasonably editable.

      That's why I bought
      • Emacs as prop...you're right, it could easily be a distraction unto itself. And when I did go down the path of trying to install things like JDE (java dev environment) I would inevitably get stuck in that loop where my work computer is not config'd the same as my laptop, and damnit I can't even *start* unless the configurations match!

        True story: I first got introduced to Unix my first year of college. They gave us a couple of pages describing how to create and edit a file, compile it, and so on. One set

  • while not self.decided:
    opt = self.get_possible_option()
    likely_result = self.future_pace(opt)
    if likely_result == MAKE_PROGRESS:
    self.move_towards(opt)
    self.decided = true
    else:
    self.move_away_from(opt)
    self.act()
  • I start boatloads of projects and can never seem to finish them up. For me starting is easy, it is the finishing up part that I can't seem to do. I am too busy going off on my next "whoohoo cool shiny thing" to bother finishing something. Actually I had a bunch of great ideas I was gonna post for you but I am too lazy to type them all in....

  • We have a gang of four on my Teamspeak server now that play pretty regularly. Or maybe you were there when I wasn't.

    DCF is a whole heck of a lot of fun, I have to say. The sounds are *much* better. The RPG and Stinger are much better. And the trucks (not just any vehicled, the *trucks*) are reason alone to switch over.

    Anyway, hope you finish soon.
  • Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance [amazon.com] called the problem 'working up enough gumption'.

    One way to tackle such things is to not try to tackle the whole thing. Find a small part that looks easy to do, and just do it. You will tend to find that the rest of it comes easily once you have the momentum going....

    • I'm an engineer... its not about not being able to break down the problem, its about taking step one and just starting on it. I find distractions too.... distracting ;-)
      • Sorry - I did not mean to imply that you didn't know how to break projects down. I apologise if that was the impression I left.

        For me, distractions are only distracting when I want them to be.... ;-)

        The book addresses procrastination as a symptom of a lack of gumption (not as a lack of knowledge). And rather than working up a bunch of gumption to tackle something big, all you really need is just enough gumption to tackle something pretty small.

        It's the action of working on the small thing that leads to t

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