talk-end-of-procrastination/slides/motivation.md

Motivation

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Why do we do the things we do?

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External motivation

Carrot and stick; someone else sets our path.

• activity feels meaningless
• makes it easier to procrastinate
• long-term: numbs our self-motivation

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Internal motivation

We have our own target and we follow it.

• progress feels more rewarding
• brings good mood
• engages creativity and learning

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Goal-based motivation

We want to achieve something in the future.

Two phases:

1. long displeasure from not reaching the goal
2. short rush of joy from reaching the goal
   • that quickly evaporates

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Pros:

It works!

Cons:

It causes us damage,
it is not sustainable

Joy fades, requiring more demanding goals.

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Hedonic treadmill 🔗

Humans quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.

The reward for finishing a major goal
is not worth a long struggle to get there.

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My past goals

I'll build a cool website for generating artwork and sell the art and the code!

• I built the website!
  • I enjoyed this part.
• I never went through with any selling.
  • I didn't like this part.

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Journey-based motivation

Joy is found in doing an activity, not finishing it.

• We enjoy the activity itself.
• "Happiness now", not just at the end.
• Unlocks a state of deep concentration known as flow.
  • Practicing flow brings contentment and mastery,
  • that in turn brings results.

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Flow

State of deep immersion in an activity that...

• is challenging
• makes use of our strengths
• matches our skills
• is enjoyable.

We tend to lose our sense of time,

and it feels good.

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You know the feeling

of staying up late

trying to recompile the code just one last time

with the help of this random person's forum post

hoping the app will finally start working.

Right?

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Personal vision

How we'd like to spend our limited time.

• activities we'd like to be doing
• milestones we'd like to pass
• journey-based internal motivation

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Meaning

We like working on meaningful things:

• supporting the greater good,
• helping others,
• being part of something bigger,
• creating a lasting legacy.

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Group vision

Cooperation of individual visions.

• working together helps the group
• it also boosts one's own potential

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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Meaning for me

Fan of free and open source software:

• I use it daily:
  • OS & apps
  • fixes & features
  • documentation, tips, help
• I contribute back:
  • releasing code, fixes
  • sponsoring useful projects and individuals

Everyone benefits.

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TOOL: Personal Vision

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What is the direction of your journey?

What gets out of bed in the morning?

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How to build a Personal Vision?

1. Personal SWOT analysis
2. List your Achievements
3. Analyze motivating activities
4. Define a Beta-Vision
5. Final Personal Vision

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Step 1:

Personal SWOT

S

Strengths

W

Weaknesses

O

Opportunities

T

Threats

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Strengths

• skills, traits and qualities you have
• using them supports flow
• personal vision makes use of these as much as possible

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Weaknesses

• qualities you lack; limitations and negative traits
• using them retards flow
• personal vision avoids them if possible

These can be improved, but don't devote too much time to it.

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Opportunities

• possibilities today's world offers to you
• using them supports flow
• personal vision builds on them

Only a few will be used.

The rest needs to be rejected and banished:

• to gain focus, clarity and mastery,
• to avoid decision paralysis or regrets.

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Threats

• risks, possible negative impacts or scenarios
• take them into account
• recognize them and be prepared
• awareness helps with facing a potential fear

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My SWOT

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Strengths

• life-long programming experience
• perfectionist who loves creating nice and clean software
• persevering problem solver, especially with mysteries in tech
• open-minded and attentive listener

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Weaknesses

• introverted, social interactions are taxing
• cautious in opinions

I spent way too much time fighting my social skills.

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Opportunities

• switch jobs for...
  • better fitting role (SW developer)
  • higher pay
  • different tech stack
  • getting back to distributed systems
• contribute to an open source project
• build specific expertise on one topic
• get more exposure, share knowledge through talks and blog
• ...

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Threats

• changed role or job
  • boring / stressful / annoying
  • annoying co-workers / toxic workplace
  • lower pay / long commute
  • having to use Windows
• more exposure leading to personal attacks

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My Observations

• my SWOT felt misaligned with the current career (coding vs. people management)
• Threats already applied to the current situation

Change was apparently needed + low risk.

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Step 2:

Personal Achievements

• things that brought you joy / you are proud of
• provides specific evidence of your strengths
• helps to gain confidence and think positively

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My Achievements

• finished college, wrote a cool master's thesis
• became a team leader
• self-hosting my services via VPS
• extracted ERP legacy tax functionality via a strategy pattern
• learned to type using the Workman layout
• ...

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My Observations

• Nice! I did some cool things!
• Very little of it was connected to people management

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Step 3:

Analyzing motivating activities

Find out what drives you; strengthen your vision.

Categories of activities:

• bringing personal growth
• creating legacy
• building relationships
• with deeper meaning

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Growth : Legacy : Relationships : Meaning

An activity should ideally fit into multiple categories.

Goal: find groups of activities that support each other.

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My Activities

• writing readable code, testing, refactoring
• exploring new technologies and approaches
• contributing to open source projects
• learning through books and conferences
• knowledge sharing through blog, mentoring, talks
• working with colleagues - reviews, discussions
• research of innovative solutions
• solving problems, making software more useful ...

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My Activities Grouped

• collaborative software development (direct)
• exchange of experience (learning & teaching)
• research, experiments, investigation

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Step 4:

Beta-Vision

Finding a personal vision takes effort and time.

Finding a beta version is easier
so you won't procrastinate to start!

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My Beta-Vision

• coding useful software on a daily basis, publicly
• learning from others and sharing my knowledge

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Step 5:

Final Personal Vision

A few paragraphs of what you want to be doing.

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Act Now!

How can you incorporate your vision in the daily life?

Starting small is fine, as long as you start!

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My First Steps

1. Coding refresher:
   • Kotlin Koans
   • Go by Example
   • Learn Go with Tests
   • Personal React project
2. Fixing defects in the Android apps that I use (in Kotlin).

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My Findings

• starting small & early was great:
  • for "prototyping" the vision
  • to experiment stress-free
  • to avoid overthinking it
  • to figure out if I need to scale it out
• I regularly experienced flow, improved my mood, raised my skills and really enjoyed doing it.
• having a vision for your life is nice, but acting on it is essential