Motivation

Motivation and I do not get along. I try and find reasons to do things and I always struggle to keep with it. Here are a few tools that I have found to help me get work done.

1. Accountability - I just recently started going back to the gym on a regular basis. What is keeping me going is that I have about four friends that I go with. They each like to do different things, so I train with the one that shares exercise interests for that day. One friend likes to run, one likes to lift, the other likes to do classes. By the way, if you have never done a group class, holy balls those are tough depending on what you are doing. I did a core class, my abs hurt whenever I took a breath the next day. I digress, but if you can get somebody to do something with you, and even depend on you as much as you depend on them, you will create a habit. It might be a drug habit, but at least you are sticking to something right?

2. Gamification - Why is it that I am an expert at guitar hero, but people want to Dimebag me if I pick up a real guitar? It is because learning a real guitar is hard! There is no easy way to just get good at it. Unlike guitar hero where if I suck, I might still get a decent score. In real life you get told you suck. So how should I gamify life? Well for starters I use fitocracy when I work out. It is a simple tool that you can use to track your exercise and you get points, badges, and level up. There are even quests to complete to help you get in shape.

In Visual Studio there is an extension you can install called Code Hero. If gives you badges for code reviews, code checkins, etc. This makes it fun to code against other people and try to earn badges before the others.

Or even what I am doing right now, blogging. I started this blog a few months ago and that is where it just kind of stayed. Well this week we started Iron Blogging. About 5 or 6 of us now have to write one post a week, or stick $5 in the beer money jar. Once the jar reaches a certain point, you go out drinking. Simple enough right? It is good because it forces me to write things down that I would otherwise ignore.

3. Responsibility - This is strangely, for me anyway, is the most important factor in finishing work but often the most ignored. I know that it is my job to get this application fixed, yet why am I on reddit right now? Oh bills need to be payed? I would rather buy a video game. The baby crawled on the balcony? Terminal velocity isn't too high for him. It is strange to me that this factor almost has no effect on me. Need to fix that.

If there are any other factors, or you know of any other cool tools, leave a comment below. I like to try new shinny things that make life better. Especially if it delays responsibility.