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Discussion on: How do you handle days where you just aren't motivated?

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Chris Raser

I do two things:

First, I start with a really little (less than 30 minutes) task that I've wanted to do for a while. This usually means automating something I do a lot, or creating a handy TextExpander snippet, etc. Just a little treat to jump start my day.

Second, I spend a few minutes sketching out a list of what I want to get done that day. My biggest drag when I'm not motivated is that I take longer making design decisions, or deciding what to work on next. So I get that out of the way up front, and can just work my way down the list for the rest of the day.

Big picture, I try to keep an eye on my general motivation level, and figure out why I'm not motivated. Sometimes what gets me motivated again is actually adding a couple of tasks to my plate, if they're the right tasks. (Ex: I'm more motivated if I get to fix a bunch of regressions and refactor the code or add tests to address the underlying reason why we had so many regressions.)