10. Pick Good SoundsI really wonder if any of these work or if they are just more work. Comments are welcome while I procrastinate.
9. Use Minor Distractions to Fend Off Big Distractions
8. Set a Timer and Crank Until It Beeps
7. Move and Breathe Like You're Excited
6. Make Your To-Do List Doable
5. Don't Check Email for the First Hour of Work
4. Create a Fake Constraint
3. Move Quickly on New Skills and Great Ideas
2. Have a Status Board (of Some Kind)
1. Understand and Overcome Your Fear of Failure
Showing posts with label GTD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GTD. Show all posts
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Do These Mind Tricks Work??
In my world, work is work and play is work. I don't really like work, hence I frequently procrastinate. I also muse about methods to motivate myself and others. Lifehacker, a website of much goodness, has posted the Top 10 Motivation Boosters and Procrastination Killers. The list includes
Thursday, March 25, 2010
A Question
I have read Stephen Covey's book and dozens of articles about David Allen's GTD. Both methods have their strengths. I think that I prefer roles to contexts; as a teacher, I have one work context, @classroom.
I wish one of these methods or any other method would explain how one can motivate oneself to do hated tasks. If everything relies on will power, then any system is only as good as a user's will and his or her ability act on that will. More importantly, all systems are as weak as any person's will to do whatever it is that they don't want to do. If that analysis is accurate, these guys their publishers, and the marketers of all their productivity gear are really ripping people off.
As a teacher, I wish that one of these systems would help teachers explain to students how to do work that they don't want to do. A fellow teacher who was fortunate enough to retire about 10 years ago claimed that he had never worked a day in his life. I feel as if I'm working every second of the day, and I think students feel the same way. I'm old and afraid of starving or being homeless or not being able to help my kids pay for college, so I force myself to work. I'm not sure that my students are ever afraid, so they need some other form of motivation. (My wife will probably say that a method that doesn't rely on fear and its related stress might be more healthy as well.)
I'm not sure any answer exists. If I find it, I'll write a book.
I wish one of these methods or any other method would explain how one can motivate oneself to do hated tasks. If everything relies on will power, then any system is only as good as a user's will and his or her ability act on that will. More importantly, all systems are as weak as any person's will to do whatever it is that they don't want to do. If that analysis is accurate, these guys their publishers, and the marketers of all their productivity gear are really ripping people off.
As a teacher, I wish that one of these systems would help teachers explain to students how to do work that they don't want to do. A fellow teacher who was fortunate enough to retire about 10 years ago claimed that he had never worked a day in his life. I feel as if I'm working every second of the day, and I think students feel the same way. I'm old and afraid of starving or being homeless or not being able to help my kids pay for college, so I force myself to work. I'm not sure that my students are ever afraid, so they need some other form of motivation. (My wife will probably say that a method that doesn't rely on fear and its related stress might be more healthy as well.)
I'm not sure any answer exists. If I find it, I'll write a book.
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