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Comment by krono | Hacker News Reader

Many people try to solve their procrastination by trying to renew their motivation. I find this to be very unreliable and it also has the potential of leading you down the rabbit hole of less important things like watching videos or reading articles like the one linked to here.

The only solution that worked for me and keeps me from relapsing into procrastination behaviour is the non-zero-days concept: Every day you do at least one thing to help you get closer to your end goal (whatever that is, can be multiple). It doesn't matter how much you do or how big the task is that you completed, just do something. Small things add up and before you know it you're already halfway there.

More often than not, this gets me in the right mindset and I end up accomplishing more than just the one small thing I set out to do.

This was a bit off-topic but hopefully it helps you.

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I used to be frustrated that I would go to work, code for the better part of the day and not feel my project was moving to the end.

I dedicated myself to finishing this sentence: "Today I accomplished....". Basically the same as finishing or doing one thing a day. Just like you I usually ended up with more than one thing, but I wouldn't leave for the day until I could finish that sentence.

It changed my life.

> non-zero-days

This is wonderful advice. I've been using the same concept for the last month or so. When I get home from work I walk the dogs and then sit down and commit to putting in a little work on whatever personal project I'm working on. More often than not my 15 minute commitment turns into an hour or more of progress.

Procrastination is actually just a mild form of discomfort about what one perceives to be an overwhelming task. The "no zero days" mindset is excellent because it gets you past the initial discomfort and gets you into the stage where you're actually working on the thing. Once you are working on it, it becomes easier to keep working on it because you realize it isn't as bad as you perceived before you started.

The pomodoro technique is another thing that's commonly recommended, which is essentially the same. It helped me big time.

The great thing is that it applies to pretty much anything. Having trouble picking up a new programming language? Just look at the wiki on it and you'll probably find something that sparks your curiosity. Having trouble keeping up with exercise? Just walk for 1 minute and you won't want to stop. It's all about consistency over time.

Not off-topic at all! I actually have a (very productive) friend who ends every day by making a list of the three things he's going to start the next day working on. That way he doesn't waste time in the morning switching back and forth between a dozen tasks, completing none of them.

This reminds me of Carol Dweck's "growth" mindset instead of "fixed pie" mindset

This is so simple but sounds really promising. Many thanks for the suggestion. I'll give it a shot.

This is what I do too. At the very least I'll open a few files, launch some terminals and cd into the requisite directories, start the development server, etc.

I also highly recommend trying the same with exercise. On days when I am sleep-deprived or too sore to do something more strenuous like lifting or sprinting, I take an hour long walk and then almost always feel rejuvenated by the next day. It really helps because you'll still feel like you haven't broken your routine.

That's right, people often talk about motivation, but motivation is overrated. It's a fleeting and elusive feeling, and if you rely on it to get things done, you'll most likely get burnt sooner or later. Having the discipline to do things no matter what is the right approach, not only when coding but for other areas of life (like sports, dieting, or anything that doesn't give an instant reward and prone to be procrastinated).

That non-zero day concept reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's calendar: https://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-s...

I believe I ready that somewhere else on Hacker News. At that time I wanted to learn guitar for a year. I've seen so many videos where people recorded themselves everyday for a year learning things and wanted to try it.

So, I got a notebook and created a daily log. The plan was to play at least 30 mins of guitar a day. I was to record myself every once in a while to keep a record of my progress.

So far I've made it to day 30! I broke the streak once because of prior commitment. It becomes a part of you and you feel bad/let down when you do not complete the daily ritual.

I'm planning on blogging the progress soon. Perhaps it may inspire others to pick a goal and seize it.

The Japanese concept of Kaizen to beat procrastination is similar: everyday at the same time, commit to working on your goal for 1 minute.

If you pick "do 1 pushup" as your goal, you'll be more inclined to start, and very likely to do more than 1.

(Can't remember where I read this 'hack'.)

Aka, "getting started is the hardest part."

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