Have you been in this situation and did you find something that "magically" made you feel good and productive? Please share your insight.
What you're looking for is therapy. It takes a long time. There are little things you can do, but generally motivation and happiness are deeply rooted in things like your personality, income level, and a myriad of external factors that can't just be "hacked".
You can, however, do the following, which are known to be done by happy people (causal relationship is not necessarily established):
1. Exercise daily
2. Eat food in moderation, and mostly healthy food
3. Maintain close relationships with friends and family (loneliness is very bad for your health)
4. Write down 5 things you're thankful for every day
5. Meditate, practice mindfulness, or otherwise clear and focus your mind for a non-trivial amount of time every day
6. Similar to #5: take time to be bored
I don't seem to have tested 4., 5., and 6. in my daily routine yet, and will therefore hang a sticky for these to my screen and start practicing on these.
A note on mindfulness: it's often intertwined with New Age-y bullshit, but the core of it is actually very powerful. It was studied scientifically in the 60s, forgotten about, and has come back into the scientific mainstream in the last 20 years. All research that's been done so far shows that it's beneficial, although how much depends on many factors. It seems to be better than placebo at treating depression and anxiety disorders.
So if you plan to look into mindfulness, try to find a scientific/secular approach that doesn't feed you the New Age stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-Go-There-Are/dp/140130778...
Was recommended on one of HN's threads about meditation.
- If I'm stuck I take a walk.
- Tackle the hard/unknown/risky stuff first.
- Do the boring/easy stuff after lunch when I'm sleepy.
- The hardest thing is getting started.
- Let the little things build up for a while so you can do a bunch at once.
- Sometimes ignoring a problem works really well! I'd never have accepted that when I was younger, but really, sometimes problems are not urgent and ignoring them makes them go away. But sometimes not.
- If I hit my revenue goal for the month I buy myself a bottle of scotch. Maybe this habit isn't so healthy. :-)
Writing todo lists helps too, but not immediately. It forces you into thinking mode and you may end up doing a lot of the work next day.
But there is still a limit. You cannot be productive 40 hours per week.
To help me I do Taoist Tai Chi, meditate, see a therapist and read books and blogs that is about being happier and balanced.
What has surprised me the most is how "silent" my mind and my life is now, happiness and getting things done is somehow inverse to how "busy" you feel and how much static noise is in your head!
I would say that every time I make a leap in my happines and efficiency it is because I am transparent and honest about something personal, I believe it is because by understanding and embracing myself I stop using energy being ashamed about who I am and release all that energy to create.
Anyway, my point probably wasn't clear enough. I am suggesting to work on things that are intrinsically important rather than extrinsically important. By this I mean, don't prioritize what you think other people think you should do and prioritize what you feel you must do because it makes you you.
As Socrates would say "γνῶθι σεαυτόν".