This trick, which I have been using for about 8 weeks now, was my way of borrowing from the motivational iPhone app, Epic Win, which rewards you for getting things done. Since I haven’t jumped on the smart phone bandwagon just yet, I decided to take a plain old notebook and write down bullet points of the things that I have done. On days where I feel accomplished, I might only jot down the big ticket items (installed dishwasher); on the less satisfying days, I will include more mundane tasks (brushed teeth).
The point is, in contrast with the techniques that capitalize on cognitive dissonance and anxiety, to raise awareness of your actual accomplishments so as to reduce the activation cost of doing the things you want to get done. For me, the sheer magnitude of my To Do lists have on many occasion crippled my motivation to actually do anything. I might go so far as to say that it helped keep drinking booze as my #1 hobby for most of my 20s.
But having this pen-and-paper game of filling out as many entries in a day as possible has given me a tactile understanding of all the things I actually do get done, and allows me to move past my oft-crippling anxieties. It has also provided a good media for certain types of info-logging, like cataloging my sleep schedule (oh to have a stable schedule, like Rationalist Harry Potter), and noting the effects of caffeine, exercise and booze on the quality and duration of sleep.
This trick, which I have been using for about 8 weeks now, was my way of borrowing from the motivational iPhone app, Epic Win, which rewards you for getting things done. Since I haven’t jumped on the smart phone bandwagon just yet, I decided to take a plain old notebook and write down bullet points of the things that I have done. On days where I feel accomplished, I might only jot down the big ticket items (installed dishwasher); on the less satisfying days, I will include more mundane tasks (brushed teeth).
The point is, in contrast with the techniques that capitalize on cognitive dissonance and anxiety, to raise awareness of your actual accomplishments so as to reduce the activation cost of doing the things you want to get done. For me, the sheer magnitude of my To Do lists have on many occasion crippled my motivation to actually do anything. I might go so far as to say that it helped keep drinking booze as my #1 hobby for most of my 20s.
But having this pen-and-paper game of filling out as many entries in a day as possible has given me a tactile understanding of all the things I actually do get done, and allows me to move past my oft-crippling anxieties. It has also provided a good media for certain types of info-logging, like cataloging my sleep schedule (oh to have a stable schedule, like Rationalist Harry Potter), and noting the effects of caffeine, exercise and booze on the quality and duration of sleep.