Anyone know any motivational techniques?

[Member_15691213]

Sounds like the old me. I apologize if this comes across as anything other than honest advice from my own personal experience, but what helped me the most in terms of motivation/willpower to get things done (in life, in general) was losing weight. I had to be honest with myself about the fact that I was getting fatter and fatter every year, so I went on a consistent diet for 4 months (and going) and I lost 40 lbs. It has been a game changer in all aspects of my life, let alone having the drive to finish programming assignments. The one thing I still do struggle with is getting myself to exercise because I’ve never been an active person and I have asthma (if you know, you know), so working out is literally painful. If you’re interested to know, I just cut back on all the sugar/carbohydrates that I was consuming and replaced it with it protein and fat. So nothing sugary at all. ever. Ever ever. And no foods that break down like sugar either, so essentially no carbs (bread/pasta/cereal/cakes/rice/starchy stuff). Aside from the diet I can recommend taking as long of a break as you can, and when you return, change your work environment. Something as simple as taking your laptop to another desk or another room, and getting right to it with a fresh perspective. Taking breaks and changing environments has been helpful for me too.

[jochance]

"One thing" is probably the best I've ever heard. Momentum is paramount.

[Cpichols]

I have learned to just lay things down and come back to them later (or even never, telling me how important or not a project is to me). Start something new. It's my personality type to adventure seek, so new projects are always a siren song at the end of a lengthy old project. I know this is not what you wanted to hear - me either, frankly, but making peace with my ENTP also helps me leverage my secondary traits to boost my flow state for longer, so there is that. Have a look at what the folks at PersonalityHacker have to say about your personality type using the car model.

[Gary Wheeler]

Get older. I had that problem when I was in my 20's through my early 40's. The early parts of a project were fun because they were new. I liked the middle parts because I was coding and debugging, watching the end product start doing what it was supposed to. I didn't like the last part, because it was always the Moment of Truth. The code had to handle the edge cases, the user who did things I wasn't expecting, etc. What started out so wonderfully met the grim sandpaper of reality. Since I'm The Great Procrastinator, this phase of things really dragged. In my 50's and now that I've turned 60 there's a curious satisfaction in completing a task, and I don't procrastinate nearly as much. Part of it stems from the fact that I know when I go back to this in the future, I won't have a mess to deal with. In recent years I've been saddled with maintaining a lot of others' code, and that's not a lot of fun. The other part is that given our current workload, there's always several new things waiting. The sooner I finish an existing task, the sooner I can look at the new stuff.

Software Zen: delete this;

[Kirk 10389821]

I, too, have Asthma. I would wheeze just walking hard enough... Here is something to look into. "Body By Science". It's weight lifting. You can get away with 1-2 sessions per week. And, you do ONE set to exhaustion (60 to 90 seconds). It's okay to split the routine so 1/2 on one day and one half the other day of the week. Some people call it slow-slow. Drew Baye on YouTube shows a lot of the technique. Dr. Ben Bo has videos on it. It is "keto" for exercise. The minimal effective dose. FWIW, I've taken people from "gym haters" to "gym rats"... With 1 simple philosophy. Go to the gym regularly (even if once a week), and ALSO STRIVE to feel BETTER when you LEAVE than when you got there. If you can do that (and that is done BY NOT over working yourself), then you are on the path. After a while, a missed day at the gym will have you "feeling it"... Just like binging on carbs will have you "feeling it"... LOL

[Kirk 10389821]

The Simplest Technique is the Pomodoro Technique. If you are like me, getting started is the hardest part. You will get "busy" making lists, rewriting lists, or being distracted. This is a TIMER technique. Basically I set the timer for 5 minutes or 10 Minutes (sometimes higher). I use a smaller number if I am VERY unmotivated (2 minutes). The requirement is that before I hit the timer, I load everything up. If I need the motivation to even load the VMs, I will set a short timer and do that. I have a webpage I wrote for it. As well as a phone app (count down timer). Here's what I find. It's all about getting started. SOME of it is a fear that I am doing it wrong. (And now I tell myself that may be true, but I will adapt once I PROVE IT) Many times, I have to do a 10 minute task, and I am rolling. Some times, I trudge through it. When the timer goes off. I get a break (I use a complex timer to time a break, if needed). But if I find that I "distracted myself" with something else, I reset the timer and start again, focusing on the task at hand. This combined with Sander's solid comments on breaking it down into small enough chunks SHOULD get you through it. I would be curious to hear how it works for you. FWIW, the name comes from the old (Pomodoro) Tomato Timer on the stove being used. I will use it for cleaning the house, and the garage, and MANY chores I don't look forward to doing (My daughter would add here: playing with her, petting the dog, having a normal human interaction, LOL)

[Choroid]

Small bites like Chris said and my complete off the wall method The WebSite "Dream in Code" sparked my unscientific process At bedtime I try to visualize how to code a function or procedure YES I know you know how but when I wake up I code that small snippet of code AND feel motivated to move on to the next lines You can send the code to me and have an absolute laugh when I reply with VB.Net code Just a novice compared to yourself and all the talented coders here My triple Bypass last week has me looking for a small project perhaps time to learn C# so I can run with the BIG dogs

[honey the codewitch]

C# isn't so hard to learn if you have a VB.net background and you've maybe tinkered with java or javascript before - just enough to kind of feel out the general syntax of it. The language is essentially functionally the same** but with different syntax. The runtime libraries are the same (with the exception of some things VB.net adds). It's really just a different dialect of what you've been doing all along. ** C# does support things like iterators that I believe VB.NET does not, but for most things it's the same functionality.

To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.

[PIEBALDconsult]

C# can also make an event from a non-void delegate -- which is rarely useful, but when it is...

[John Wellbelove]

You have motivational burnout. If it's not crunch time then a week or two's holiday. It's great for motivation recuperation. Just make sure that you do NOTHING to do with work during that time, no calls to work, no calls from work, no taking work away with you.

[YahiaEQ]

What works for me in such cases: Find a new really exciting project BUT have the discipline to only start working on it AFTER the current/old one is finished.

[Owen Lawrence]

This isn't actually a motivational technique, but whenever I find myself doing this it's usually because there's something distasteful about the remaining chunk. Often that means I have yet to find an elegant solution or structure to apply, or maybe it requires contacting a lot of people to get missing information, or maybe it's just boring. What works best for me is to resolve to power through it, holding my nose if necessary, get it done and turn my back on it. No reward, celebration, nor admiration. Make it history. - Owen -

[Shmoken99]

+1 on Maunder's suggestions. Small tasks, fake deadlines, and micro-rewards have shown to work well. "If I get this changeset checked in by noon I'll walk to the corner for a cappuccino after lunch".