How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome

Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by krschultz on Thursday April 26, 2012 @09:23AM (#3893747)

Don't knock it until you try it. I've found this to be the most effective technique for keeping myself on track.

It has far more to do with creating a habit than anything specific about this 'chain'. The book "Switch" covers this really well, you basically have a limited amount of self-control to use each day. Habits do not tap the self-control bank.

So in my case, I really want to make working on my sideproject a priority. For a while I tried to work on it as much as possible, but I failed to really motivate myself often.

Now I have a chain going. Everyday I wake up before work and do something. Whether its 5 minutes or 3 hours, everyday I boot up my computer and make a little bit of progress. The alarm goes off and a couple minutes later I have my dev tools open and a bowl of cereal in front of me and I'm working, no thought required.

I notice my progress has improved dramatically because of this.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by tuxguy on Saturday April 28, 2012 @04:48PM (#3904059)

This with a capital T :)

Brilliant insight. Great advice.

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Re:How I Tricked Myself Into Being Awesome by its_so_on on Thursday April 26, 2012 @10:36AM (#3894111)

well, that's fair. do you think it works for "parallel chains", i.e. more than one major 'project' or 'initiative' you're trying to get ahead in?

to extend your example, a chain in the morning before work and a completely different project/chain after getting home from work?

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