Ask HN: How to stay motivated on solo work? Although I enjoy my own project more than my day job I often find myself less motivated than in work. With work, I know I'm getting a paycheck simply for getting tasks (sometimes meaningless ones) done - there's loads of small wins along the way in work and obviously I worry less about the big picture as I'm less in control. Has anyone else experienced/overcome this as an entrepreneur? |
Your diet fallback position now consists of chicken and broccoli and one meal per day. No sauces no famcy drinks, no coffee. You must walk the equivalent of 15000 steps. That is your "little hell". You come up with a different scenario for "little heaven".
There's your fallback position when you don't deliver on daily or weekly goal. If you do deliver you know what happens as well.
Now do your thing. Set goals etc.
The actual choice of food etc isn’t important. Hell: Make it spartan / Make it limited. Heaven: make it fun / expansive. Don't even need to make it food/exercise. Plenty of other options. Use your imagination.
Most people would see it as severely limited because they'd want to add some sort of poison like alcohol or ice cream etc.
The idea is you propose a talk for 6 months out on your idea. You thus give yourself a deadline and consequences.
(And it’s not HUGE consequences - “I tried X and failed, here’s what I learned on the journey” are some of the best conference talks)
I'm also motivated by small wins. However, at some point you have to face the realization that you need to power through some drudge work to get to those wins. I don't know if there's an easy workaround.
What I found worked best for me was:
1. Being passionate about the goal. This in isolation is not enough, but when you're already working on something, it helps for coping with the inevitable roadblocks and the frustration that follows.
2. Launch asap. Then iterate. Iteration is more fun than launching because the former provides quick wins while the latter requires expending enormous energy upfront before you see a win. The approach that worked for me is to pick the minimal features I need for the end product and build towards that with (metaphorical) blinders on w.r.t. all other features. Really think about the bare minimum features you need, and then slog through till you hit it. It's basically the path of least resistance to get to your MVP. Once I hit that, iteration is more fun.
3. Consistency beats extreme bursts of productivity. Try to improve things a little at a time. This isn't always possible, but still attempting to tackle things in digestible chunks helps me with procrastination. Whenever I do bursts of work, I get the results but also burn out on that particular project. I can't look at it for a while afterwards. It's like squatting five reps of 150kg at the gym and recovering for the rest of the week vs. lifting five reps of 75kg for three days in the week. The difference in total weight moved at the end of the week is huge.
4. Energy management. The above point is one example of energy management over time management. Attempting to micro-manage my time to gain efficiency never seems to work for me in the long run. Instead, thinking about it as managing my overall energy tends to be more fruitful. Eat healthy, daily exercise however little it might be, good sleep, and some social interaction all help. All those will improve overall energy and psychological outlook. Beyond that, work during your peak energy hours and temporarily remove distractions that will waste them.
5. Get feedback. Show it to your target community and gather feedback. This is the best form of external motivation you can get. (Of course this may also be very hard to get depending on the community you're targeting.)
Good luck!
Something that I find encouraging in my personal projects is to stop for a while, take breath, and realize of how much I have accomplished so far. It is probable that a little voice in your head will say "there is still a lot to be done". And maybe it is true. However, I think that satisfaction must be found in the daily task, not in the final outcome :)
Its probably that "there is still a lot to be done" thought is actively demotivating and that's the issue.
Perhaps having too many plans and goals for a given project rather than just enjoying the task as you mention can get in the way.
My recommendation is that what you work on has to have deep purpose and meaning to you. My recently released product is a productivity app that I had to build for myself. Once I started using it, it was game changer for me. Next step was to productize and make it available for others.
The point is what you work on as your side project has to have a clear payoff to yourself. That will drive you, and pull you forward.
Good luck!
- Mastery: the feeling of exercising and gaining skill.
- Autonomy
- Purpose
- Relatedness
I’d advise you go talk to someone (probably your product manager) to get a better sense of the “why” behind your project and the humans it helps.
Meetups are pretty informal and usually eager for talks & speakers. There's not a high bar.
Conferences (depending on the conference) feel a bit like a bigger deal, and I'll commit to them if I feel I can have a bit more polish.
Some conferences/meetups also have shorter time slots if you don't want to commit to the classic 45 minute talk.