Why something is done. The reasons and rationales for one's thoughts, feelings or actions.
46
votes
15answers
3k views
How do I make myself stop doing addictive activity?
Some examples of such activity:
browsing this site without a particular goal
browsing your friends' profiles on social networks
reading news
hugging with you spouse (endlessly)
watching TV
You can ...
34
votes
12answers
2k views
Good at writing Todo lists, but awful at doing them
At night, before going to bed, I write a TO-DO list to remember what I want to do tomorrow.
It includes everything I wish to do, like what I wished to do when I was a child!
When I get up in the ...
33
votes
7answers
1k views
What is a good way to begin your work day?
I work for a very small company and most of the time I work alone and manage my own work and don't get much feedback. I'm not completely used to this and though I have projects and to do lists and ...
20
votes
9answers
2k views
How to motivate people to self-improve themselves?
I'm the curious type of person that likes to learn more, do things in less time, do things better, etc. I take that as a personal challenge and I honestly love it. Of course, it IS a challenge, not ...
19
votes
11answers
1k views
Why do I start wasting time when I am excited about learning some technical stuff?
I make plans, todo lists, etc. about the technical stuff which I have to study.
I am not, but I do wish to become an excellent C++ programmer.
Now, *
(when I am pretty excited about learning the ...
19
votes
5answers
950 views
Why am I not motivated in this excellent situation?
I am working as a freelance contractor. For a long time I have been paid by the hour. This has worked fine and my motivation has never been a problem. Now, I have gotten a deal where I get half of any ...
18
votes
2answers
473 views
What methods exist to keep yourself motivated when working alone?
When I studied, I went to the library to have some form of social control. The social pressure made me work better.
I'm now working from home for a living. It's my first week and my motivation isn't ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
How to overcome lazyness and procastination?
My greatest defect.
Present in almost all aspects of my live... Like my house, it's a mess right now, but I have time to clean, I just don't do it. I'd rather stay in bet and do nothing (high ...
16
votes
3answers
432 views
Why am I wired to be motivated to go to work everyday and not motivated to do other things?
I have wondered for some time why I find it so hard to keep motivated to do things like exercising, reading, looking for business opportunities, getting up early etc. I have tried a raft of different ...
15
votes
9answers
764 views
How do I get my motivation going?
Often, tasks are delayed till a reasonable time before the deadline. Just because you feel like you can do it later; so, you are basically procrastinating by surfing the web, chatting with people, ...
15
votes
2answers
449 views
How to profit from quitting gaming? (aka how to overcome the quitter's anxiety?)
It always seemed to me that gaming itself was counterproductive, and I've always struggled to spend less time on it, but really never managed to. That is, until now. The only way I found to keep the ...
14
votes
7answers
1k views
What could I do to convince myself to finish my projects?
Here: you can read : "Often, tasks are delayed till a reasonable time before the deadline. Just because you feel like you can do it later; [blabla] ..."
This is not the real problem I've been facing ...
13
votes
4answers
692 views
Dealing with Existential Crisis
I was reading a comic on PhDComics and although it is funny, sadly, it is also true. Grad students I know (including me) usually fall into one of these existential crisis at least once a semester. And ...
11
votes
8answers
368 views
When I'm going back to an old complex project, how can I restore my focus and motivation?
I've had a few weeks break from a large and difficult project that I've been working on for two years. The project could be a few weeks from shipping, if I can manage to focus on it.
I've noticed a ...
10
votes
6answers
405 views
How to keep oneself from feeling dejected?? — Student's point of view
I am a student who is introverted and I believe in making my own success
I set goals, plan my time well and work towards the goal. However, of late, I feel that I am moving towards my goals at a ...
10
votes
5answers
267 views
How to enjoy trying to solve hard problems?
How do I enjoy solving hard problems? I love learning--reading and understanding textbooks or papers, for instance--but I am slower to try to solve problems or apply what I've learned. I am naturally ...
10
votes
6answers
314 views
How to get motivation to do important things in the morning?
I have developed a very bad routine of checking my emails, twitter and few other websites after waking up in the morning. Generally, i wake up at 8 AM and start with my important things very late, ...
10
votes
4answers
293 views
Losing Motivation during project
I am a Computer Engineer and working at a Software House as Software Engineer for the last 2 years.
I usually observe things a lot and try to get an idea from everything to do something ...
8
votes
7answers
389 views
Are there techniques to stop fearing confrontation so intensely?
Confrontation is a huge part of my life.
For example, in my job as project manager I need to confront clients about things that might make them upset or I need to talk to them when I know they are ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
How to stop talking LOUDLY to myself?
I have a habit of talking "loudly" to myself. I get an immense satisfaction by doing so.
At the same time, I tend to do this in the market, while driving the scooter, working on a C program. ...
7
votes
3answers
116 views
How to better switch gears between tasks?
I can never get myself to start things. When I do, however, and there's an unsolvable problem that needs solving, if I pick up even a little momentum in trying to solve it, I will stay on the ...
7
votes
5answers
211 views
Are artificial incentives a good idea to boost productivity?
If there's projects or tasks I've been meaning to get around to doing, could adding a reward or incentive program provide me artificial motivations to completing these projects or tasks?
(In general, ...
7
votes
1answer
183 views
Erratic productivity
I consider myself a productive person. I get most of my things done to a level which I'm happy with.
But sometimes my productivity just goes down the drain. I sleep in to the point of oversleeping ...
6
votes
6answers
284 views
How do I prevent myself from feeling too relaxed during the uneventful weeks preceding big deadlines?
The situation goes like so: big deadline one month from now. So I make some plan. But it gets too easy to procrastinate early on, to put one thing off, to allow a distraction here & there.
How ...
6
votes
5answers
208 views
Burnout in the middle of semester
I am a student studying the last semester of a 2-year Master's course. My performance in the last three semesters has been according to my expectations. In my last winter break, I had spent almost all ...
6
votes
7answers
496 views
Putting limits on one's time online
As per Piers Steel's "procrastination equation",
Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay)
I find that most of my own procrastination tends to involve the Internet and the easily ...
6
votes
2answers
202 views
What motivators can I use to encourage my team to track their time?
Our team has repeatedly tried to implement time-tracking tools to help us more realistically estimate the effort required for our development projects. Unfortunately, regardless of the tools we try, ...
5
votes
9answers
260 views
How do I start working even having scheduled my day and long term tasks?
I have read things about productivity techniques here and in other places but I still can't get focused. Currently I am searching my first big paid job as I am a recent graduate. I also am designing ...
5
votes
5answers
241 views
How do I get back to doing what I love?
A little background. I started coding in C++ about 5 years ago. Ever since then, I was sure that I wanted a life in code :) In my last 2 semesters, I wrote quite a bit of code for varied purposes.
...
5
votes
3answers
207 views
How can I get rid of the psychological effects of bad experiences from the past?
As a college student, I had my shares of failures in exams, courses, quite a handful of it, so much that it resulted in my one year extension in the university. With this I feel that my past failures ...
5
votes
4answers
388 views
How to live a life that doesn't require constant tension for livelihood? [closed]
When I was jobless, for days I used to search for a profession that will give me a balance of relaxation, monetary solvency, education and social status in the context of my country.
Then after much ...
5
votes
5answers
321 views
What Android applications schedule tasks which appear each day?
I have some tasks to complete everyday (the same task every day) or on a weekly basis (e.g. every Saturday) and during a particular period (e.g. January 10 to April 20). Are there any applications ...
5
votes
3answers
356 views
Working before breakfast--for how long should one go?
I find that my absolutely most productive time is right as I wake up, especially if it's early--5am-ish till probably 7am is that sacred window of time.
I always do things that I really want to do ...
5
votes
6answers
155 views
Nudges - to achieve personal change?
I have tried a system of sending myself timed emails daily (using virtual meetings in Google Calendar), each containing a self-message; e.g. at 6am 'stay positive', at 8.30am 'break work down into ...
4
votes
8answers
315 views
The flow phenomena
Short: How to trigger so called "flow" phenomena during everyday work routine (which is not really challenging)?
A bit more detailed:
On Wikipedia site about flow we can read:
Flow is the mental ...
4
votes
5answers
234 views
What can help me be happy about my work?
Before I choose to commit to a project, I'm usually very excited about it. But as soon as the commitment actually requires me to put an effort in, the excitement is partly replaced by stress or the ...
4
votes
3answers
479 views
Excel Spreadsheets for Time/Project Management?
I have tons of stuff to do, and I get bogged down. I end up doing nothing for hours, sometimes even days. I have personal projects to complete and books to read, but sometimes I'm just flailing around ...
4
votes
2answers
170 views
How to overcome productivity/daytime-correlation
After reading some threads here on PP.SE, I've encountered that a lot of people seem to be more motivated and focused in the late evening/night to do challenging and work-intense tasks.
...
4
votes
3answers
261 views
How do you manage several major goals?
I purchased the 59 Seconds book I've heard so much about on here. I'm going through the Motivation section, specifically the goal writing. In thinking about this, I realized I have so many things I ...
4
votes
2answers
114 views
How to avoid losing my motivation during long periods of inactivity?
When I started university, I was really excited about learning new things. My first 2 years were harsh but with a lot of effort and discipline I managed to get good grades and got into all the ...
3
votes
4answers
240 views
How to overcome cold/allergies/mild sickness?
I am often very productive and motivated. However, this is destroyed when I have a cold or allergies or am simply not feeling well. I am not talking about having a very obvious illness - I am ...
3
votes
3answers
370 views
Why am I productive but not motivated?
I've got a problem. I'm pretty productive, I have a zillion methods to make me pretty uber productive, however at the moment I have almost no motivation.
Productivity and motivation are different ...
3
votes
5answers
287 views
What books are helpful when I'm in a rut, creativity and productivity-wise?
I often feel like I'm "in a rut" - going through the motions at work, generally lazy once I get home, etc. There are various projects/activities that I know I want to do (examples include recording ...
3
votes
2answers
1k views
How to get past feeling defeated?
I have a couple of passions in life, one of them is music. I love playing drums and really want to play in a band. I've moved to LA about 3 years ago and have been searching for a group to play with ...
3
votes
6answers
342 views
Being motivated for self study
I am a software professional. I have reached a stage in career where I will have to do something apart from regular coding. I am very confused about what that extra thing should be. Sometimes I think ...
3
votes
1answer
107 views
Improve productivity in a non will job
I need help. I am a software engineer but i didn't opt for this career by will. I did it because of family pressure. I wanted to be a cricketer.
I have got good results in all my exams and also been ...
3
votes
4answers
277 views
How to handle short-term high workload?
Occasionally, I have several important, high workload tasks to be done within a short period of time. Some examples would be (as a student) several assignments released at the same time and due at the ...
3
votes
1answer
889 views
Why do we waste time? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How do I make myself stop doing addictive activity?
I know that I should be working now. Yet I watch funny videos, read the news and browse interesting links.
Why is it ...
2
votes
5answers
147 views
Will my workplace benefit from a stack exchange clone on the intranet?
I am thinking of proposing to setup a stack exchange clone at our company intranet. The idea is to have a place where anybody can ask a question about anything work related, especially about our IT ...
2
votes
4answers
212 views
How do you usually look for inspiration to move on?
Imagine the situation when you stuck with your everyday duties: you have a clear ultimate goal for this week/year/life, but the initial motivation you had when a project started is totally used up. In ...
