talk-end-of-procrastination/slides/motivation.md

Motivation

-V-

Why do we do the things we do?

---

External motivation

Carrot and stick; someone else sets our path.

• activity feels meaningless
• makes it easier to procrastinate
• long-term: numbs our self-motivation

---

Internal motivation

We have our own target and we follow it.

• progress feels more rewarding
• brings good mood
• engages creativity and learning

---

Goal-based motivation

We want to achieve something in the future.

Two phases:

1. long displeasure from not reaching the goal
2. short rush of joy from reaching the goal
   • that quickly evaporates

-V-

Pros:

• it works!

Cons:

• it causes us damage,
  it is not sustainable

Joy fades, requiring more demanding goals.

-V-

Hedonic treadmill 🔗

Humans quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.

The reward for finishing a major goal
is not worth a long struggle to get there.

---

Journey-based motivation

Joy is found in doing an activity, not finishing it.

• We enjoy the activity itself.
• “Happiness now”, not just at the end.
• Unlocks a state of deep concentration known as flow.
  • Practicing flow brings contentment and mastery,
  • that in turn brings results.

---

Flow

State of deep immersion in an activity that...

• is challenging
• makes use of our strengths
• matches our skills
• is enjoyable.

We tend to lose our sense of time.

And it feels good.

---

Personal vision

How we’d like to spend our limited time.

• activities we’d like to be doing
• milestones we’d like to pass
• journey-based internal motivation

---

Meaning

When your actions have positive impact on others,
it gives them a deeper meaning.

• supporting the greater good feels rewarding
  • helping others,
  • being part of something bigger,
  • creating a legacy
• it creates a strong and lasting motivation

-V-

Group vision

Cooperation of individual visions.

• working together helps the group
• it also boosts one’s own potential

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

---

TOOL: Personal Vision

-V-

What is the direction of your journey?

What gets out of bed in the morning?

-V-

How to build a Personal Vision?

1. Personal SWOT analysis
2. List your Achievements
3. Analyze motivating activities
4. Define a Beta-Vision
5. Final Personal Vision

---

Step 1:

Personal SWOT

S

Strengths

W

Weaknesses

O

Opportunities

T

Threats

-V-

Strengths

• skills, traits and qualities you have
• using them supports flow
• personal vision makes use of these as much as possible

-V-

Weaknesses

• qualities you lack; limitations and negative traits
• using them retards flow
• personal vision avoids them if possible

These can be improved, but don’t devote too much time to it.

-V-

Opportunities

• possibilities today’s world offers to you
• using them supports flow
• personal vision builds on them

Only a few will be used.

The rest needs to be rejected and banished:

• to gain focus, clarity and mastery,
• to avoid decision paralysis or regrets.

-V-

Threats

• risks, possible negative impacts or scenarios
• take them into account
• recognize them and be prepared
• awareness helps with facing a potential fear

-V-

My SWOT

-V-

Strengths

• life-long programming experience
• perfectionist who loves creating nice and clean software
• persevering problem solver, especially with mysteries in tech
• open-minded and attentive listener

-V-

Weaknesses

• introverted, social interactions are taxing
• cautious in opinions

I spent way too much time fighting my social skills.

-V-

Opportunities

• switch jobs for...
  • better fitting role (SW developer)
  • higher pay
  • different tech stack
  • getting back to distributed systems
• contribute to an open source project
• build specific expertise on one topic
• get more exposure, share knowledge through talks and blog
• ...

-V-

Threats

• changed role or job
  • boring / stressful / annoying
  • annoying co-workers / toxic workplace
  • lower pay / long commute
  • having to use Windows
• more exposure leading to personal attacks

-V-

My Observations

• my SWOT felt misaligned with the current career (coding vs. people management)
• Threats already applied to the current situation

Change was apparently needed + low risk.

---

Step 2:

Personal Achievements

• things that brought you joy / you are proud of
• provides specific evidence of your strengths
• helps to gain confidence and think positively

-V-

My Achievements

• finished college, wrote a cool master’s thesis
• became a team leader
• self-hosting my services via VPS
• extracted ERP legacy tax functionality via a strategy pattern
• learned to type using the Workman layout
• ...

-V-

My Observations

• Nice! I did some cool things!
• Very little of it was connected to people management

---

Step 3:

Analyzing motivating activities

Find out what drives you; strengthen your vision.

Categories of activities:

• bringing personal growth
• creating legacy
• building relationships
• with deeper meaning

-V-

Growth : Legacy : Relationships : Meaning

An activity should ideally fit into multiple categories.

Goal: find groups of activities that support each other.

-V-

My Activities

• writing readable code, testing, refactoring
• exploring new technologies and approaches
• contributing to open source projects
• learning through books and conferences
• knowledge sharing through blog, mentoring, talks
• working with colleagues - reviews, discussions
• research of innovative solutions
• solving problems, making software more useful ...

-V-

My Activities Grouped

• collaborative software development (direct)
• exchange of experience (learning & teaching)
• research, experiments, investigation

---

Step 4:

Beta-Vision

Finding a personal vision takes effort and time.

Finding a beta version is easier
so you won’t procrastinate to start!

-V-

My Beta-Vision

• coding useful software on a daily basis, publicly
• learning from others and sharing my knowledge

---

Step 5:

Final Personal Vision

A few paragraphs of what you want to be doing.

---

Act Now!

*How can you incorporate your vision in the daily life?*

Starting small is fine, as long as you start!

-V-

My First Steps

1. Coding refresher:
   • Kotlin Koans
   • Go by Example
   • Learn Go with Tests
   • Personal React project
2. Fixing defects in the Android apps that I use (in Kotlin).

-V-

My Findings

• starting small & early was great:
  • for “prototyping” the vision
  • to experiment stress-free
  • to avoid overthinking it
  • to figure out if I need to scale it out
• I regularly experienced flow, improved my mood, raised my skills and really enjoyed doing it.
• having a vision for your life is nice, but acting on it is essential