Get other people involved so that if you were to fail, you'd get a lot of disapproval from said people. Disappointment from human beings = huge effect on emotions. If you know you're seriously going to make your friend Sally Smith upset by not completing your goal, you're more likely to go through to completion.
Quote:
This expression loses me. What do you mean? I get planning my day, but what do you mean "to the nines"?
By the way, do you recommend actually scheduling the day, or doing something more like GTD where you just choose an action and work on it? Maybe a little bit of both?
|
Schedule the day to the point where you
know exactly what you're supposed to be doing at any given time. Break up large tasks into 10 to 15 minute blocks. I've done this before with periods of ~3 hours when I know I have to get through some unpleasant tasks (like... blog advertising). Each block is like a mini-benchmark, and after I complete a couple of blocks I don't want to quit until I'm completely finished.
So... kind of like GTD, deciding on
all your action steps in one swoop, but also scheduling them out in increments.
Quote:
|
This sounds like a good idea, but what sort of punishments? Alternatively, I could give rewards for actually doing some set amount of work. Read 10 pages of this; work on problems for 2 hours.
|
You could always use money.
Make a pact with your friends; "If I don't do X, I'll give you $50.", or some obnoxious amount where you
don't want to lose the money. Or you could promise to do humiliating things in public... like "If I don't do Y, I'll go to McDonalds dressed up as The Hamburglar!"
(The latter might not work if you have low self-confidence!
)
Quote:
|
It's at home, or at home.
|
You can always take control of what you own yourself - for example, you could change your bedroom to be more motivating by making a "look book" of pictures that inspire you, read inspiring quotes while online, make your room look more "serious" altogether, etc.