Ask HN: How do you motivate yourself?

In general I stay motivated by reaching a base level of healthiness - physical, work, and social. The motivation comes naturally if I've met those needs.

I'm not a superhuman kettlebell-swinging crossfit soylent paleo junkie by any means, but I walk to work every day and bike a good amount using my city's bike-share. And I've started (over the course of 2 years, it's so tough!) to eat less-unhealthy food.

Being happy at work makes a big difference to my motivation, I'm able to channel some of that extra energy I get from feeling like I'm putting good effort in, into my side projects. I work 9-5 most days (as a programmer).

I find I'm more motivated when I keep in touch with people, and also when I work on projects that get me interacting with people who are excited about what I'm doing. For me at least, it's not as fun to work on a project if people I know don't think it's cool. That was a snippet from a Paul Graham essay I took to heart and I think it's true.

I also occasionally journal my thoughts down, which makes me feel calmer and more ready to approach a task.

I have actually written about this a lot as it is one of those topics that I am fascinated with. The trick is not to try and motivate yourself but to build systems and processes to get things done regardless.

For me, it boils down to 3 things. Pre-planning, habits and elimination. I have written about each separately on my blog http://www.new2code.com/2016/06/deep-work/

I plan a lot of stuff on my Google Calendar. My whole days are planned in advance including free time. When I am learning a new language, I set aside time for study. If a friend asks me to hang out, I can just check to see if I have prior commitments. I also have the regular gym slot and after 2+ years, I am simply routine when it comes to exercising.

Next, learn how to build habits and routines. This saves a ton brain power. There is a great video on habit building

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8

Also, check out a book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit.

Finally, cut out the news and as much information as possible. Not watching the news added a ton of happiness to my life. This also cuts out distractions. Check out something called the Low Information Diet which goes into more detail as well as a book called Deep Work by Cal Newport

I also wrote a guest post on the blog Simple Programmer that goes into more detail on the willpower.motivation side of things https://simpleprogrammer.com/2016/09/07/limited-willpower/

I hope that helps. Largely I don't believe in long-term motivation, it is more to do with becoming routine.

"Discipline is remembering what you want" - David Campbell, Founder of Saks Fifth Avenue. So if you want to motivate yourself, then remember what you want. Then if you find you are not doing what is necessary, it means that you have to confront the fact that you may not actually want what you are telling yourself you want.

DHH once gave a talk at Startup School. Watching that talk invariably pumps me up and leaves me motivated for hours. (Specifically, it gets me motivated to work on personal projects that make money online.)

In general, reading about anyone's success is like a shot of motivation directly into my veins.

The easiest for me is to just start doing something, even if it is a little thing. It may have been in the Power of Habit or another place. The person said if you wanted to get in the habit of flossing, just start with the front two teeth. Derek Sivers I think said something like do one pushup and what ends up happening is that you get to thinking, I am already down here why not do another one. This leads to a habit.

I approach this the same way when it comes to motivating myself to work on a side project. Another good approach I picked up is the 5 minute journal. You invariably end up reflecting on things you could have done better. This helps you to focus yourself and pay attention to where you are not getting the most out of life.

I race bikes and train like crazy.

I wrote about it before here: https://medium.com/@kensodev/how-bike-racing-is-making-me-a-...

Racing bikes (and training for it) creates so much structure in life. What you eat, how you sleep, when you recover. Even though I work most of the time from home, it gives a clear order to the day.

Everything was handed to me in life. Not much but enough to get to middle class if I had just followed the rules and stuck with it. But I didn't. I failed out my physics/engineering program. I now work in a factory, and owe around 50K which I barely make 19K a year.

My life sucks. But I'm also young. I watch movies, sci Fi movies/shows which motivates me. I want that life. But then I try to program and I'm like "Holy crap. I'm so far away..."

I hate going to work I perform the same tasks over 6,000 in a day. Everyday is the same. I am wasting my life.

Motivation by fear isn't a good thing. Like the cliche, follow what you love.

Me I'm about trying to get out of my situation. Make money. I HAVE AN IDEA!!!

The problem is discipline. Sleep is a basic thing. Screw up your sleep pattern. You end up wasting time being awake and trying to fall asleep/not able to work.

Yeah discipline is the big thing. And true motivation from a desire/longing to do whatever it is with an internal driving force.

It's very simple for me I just think that one day I'll be dead and that I just wasted my life and the only option to change that is to create something that has value to me and that motivates me.

But the more I think about it ... I guess it's fear, it's the fear of a meaningless life.

Eat, shit, fuck, breath, die ?

No thanks

There is a popular comment somewhere in the internet (I would guess on quota, but not sure) about this subject.

The point of this comment is that you don't need motivation you need discipline.

Motivation comes and goes, discipline stick around which is what you need if you want to build anything meaningful...

I heard that inner motivation (motivation from the inside, in other word, yourself) has more impact than outer motivation.

That was my problem too when I was preparing college entrance examination. My teacher told me that you can get a motivation by categorizing what you love, what you fear, and what you hate. Someone can get a motivation because he hates something. So, write it down! Repeat what you've written regularly before and after you're going to bed.

Side note: I would recommend James Clear's reading list for motivation [1].

[1]: http://jamesclear.com/motivation

This is not very scientific, but it has worked for me. I have curated this list of YouTube videos some of which have helped me and some of my friends a lot in the last year. I watch 1-2 of these in the gym when I am doing my cardio (elliptical or treadmill) three times a week towards the end of my workout.

goo.gl/Xv4pwT

I am a very distracted person, and need constant reminders. I have designed my life in such a way to be constantly reminded of my priorities. Once, I decide I need to include an activity in my life (be it learning, workout, eating healthy), I set up a time and corresponding reminders/ alerts. This sort of planning and tracking helps tremendously stay focussed on only things that matter.

My motivation at my age: Make my primary job my second job and make enough money in my startup so that it becomes my primary job.

How do I stay motivated to keep at it with my startup? Aside from enjoying doing what I do, developing web apps, I write down the potential profit involved that I could be making every month. Those are the numbers I want to be making that I'm currently not making and that is what keeps me motivated.

Money isn't everything.. that is certainly true! But making enough money to pay off my mortage, my credit card debt, my bills, and still have enough left over to donate to a cause and have some peace of mind is the underlying motivator.

I think about the 24 hours in my day and see if the time I have spent/will spend expresses the priorities I have in my life. I create routines to ensure the decision-making is minimized as much as possible such that my habitual actions reflect my priorities. Lastly I consider the fact that will my future self think I am doing him a favor by the actions/systems I am putting in place. Motivation should be about putting yourself on the appropriate trajectory not just completing the individual action that leads to fleeting satisfaction.

There is no one single unfailing way for me to do this.

Some days it will be closing X issues, or a cold beer, or a gaming session with a friend, or tracking down that one annoying bug, or seeing that my numbers are low and I need to up my game (which can conflict with long work to find that bug of course), or reading a book, going for a bike ride.

There are other ways I do it but no single thing hits the spot for every day and every situation. Having a stock of various methods works though and I'm always happy to add another.

Shane Parrish recently gave an excellent review on motivation, good food for thought--

Daniel Pink on Incentives and the Two Types of Motivation > https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2016/08/daniel-pink-two-typ...

Eric Baker has some good insights http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/01/how-to-be-motivated/

I struggle to get motivated as well.

Leaving the world a little better than I found it. Find opportunities where you can and want to make a difference, then do your best.

Im motivated by my bills.