Jul 24, 2007
Brain Hacks: Staying Motivated
Read a good post over at Lifehacker today on how Seinfeld stays motivated to keep writing jokes. Some things in life get better with daily attention, anything which is normally called a “skill.” A lot of bullshit out there attempts to convince you that you need “talent” when often “practice” will yield the same or equivalent results. Try some daily practice instead. Jerry has a trick for you to stay motivated.
The short-form: Have a calendar with a wide enough view (like a year) and check off days that you complete a task that requires daily practice (like any skill: mathematics, music, coding, whatever). Your brain will like seeing that long chain of “I did that” marks on your calendar which will help keep you motivated to grow the chain even longer.
Get started right now. Print your calendar today.
In my typically overcomplicated way I’m using one calendar to track: bass practice, learning new skills and working out using a schema of different hash marks on the calendar. Maybe later I’ll post a follow up.
