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31 Comments

Please help, Why I fail every day

My major reason of why I fail everyday to finish my tasks is I don't have that urgency to go ahead and make things happen.

Lots of runway and nothing urgent to solve for either.

So I tend to postpone my schedule toxically forward.

I don't waste time either I read articles and learn about "better ways to code" or sometimes code to make my app better but that one thing that needs to be done.

How do I deal with this ?

  1. 5

    At some point you have to switch from learning full time, to start building something and filling the knowledge gap as you go.

    I took one JS and VUE class on Udemy last year, plus watching a few YouTube videos and then I got started building my app. I learned about mongo when I needed to setup a database and GraphQL when I needed to setup APIs for my frontend to talk to my backend. But that came after I had already started building my app.

    I try to code a little bit everyday, even if it just refactoring, commenting or debugging. Don't break the chain aka The Sienfeld Method (https://blog.doist.com/dont-break-the-chain/).

    Another technique is gamifying your tasks. Setup rewards that you will only claim after you've hit a certain milestone.

    Don't expect to work for long stretches of time. Just commit 5-10mins. If you keep going on after 10mins, good for you but you don't be disappointed and disheartened if you only do 10mins since that was your goal to begin with.

    Hope this helps. All the best.

    1. 2

      Wow that was really helpful @ksp. gamification is really good. I do it at a macro level should try for micro tasks and should really start small 10mins chunks. Great advice. 🙏

  2. 4

    I think the best thing is to look for a partner, loneliness keeps you eternally unmotivated.

    1. 1

      I can try that, I've been thinking of getting a accountability partner. I guess I can ask my friend to take my daily updates.

  3. 3

    I had a similar issue and what I found helps is having a long term vision of where I plan to go and make milestones along the way. And make sure to celebrate those little milestones, it keeps you excited to reach the next one

  4. 3

    I get it, I'm a procrastinator myself.

    The thing I learned is that if you force yourself to do 15 minutes of work, even if you don't feel like it, most of the time you will get into the flow and keep working.
    And if you don't get into it? Do something else.

    1. 1

      I experience this sometimes, when I have to build a big feature which I have to do a lot of google search to find libs and what works. I tend to just postpone it by 30 mins. I think I'm going to follow scheduling my tasks in 10- 15 mins chucks, hope it works. Thanks for your time and help @TimVanDijck

  5. 2

    Stop thinking and just do it. Allocate time on your calendar for tasks and do nothing else but those things you have allocated time for.

    1. 1

      I've to follow a system which will make me accountable and which I can see and make change. Thanks for the help @segmond

  6. 2

    You need to be aggressive towards success and handle things with urgency. Let there be a unique reason why you want to accomplish a certain task. Have a clear idea of what you after and the repercussions if you fail to achieve. This article further demonstrate how you can stay motivated as a developer and hope it helps: https://www.blog4dev.com/how-to-stay-motivated-as-a-developer/

    1. 1

      Thats a really great read. I'll follow the things in that. Thanks for the help @akiwams

  7. 2

    Everyone is a different man. Why are you even doing what you do? Money? Do you love coding? There is no right or wrong answer.

    If you're doing it for the love of it then maybe you're doing something you're not passionate about. Find a new niche?

    Working in public also creates a sense of urgency and responsibility. Joining a community such as WIP and Makerlog is motivating since you lose your streak if you don't do anything. And the environment is very productive.

    1. 1

      I kind of work in burst mode, one day I work 10 hrs and deliver more than I expected and the next day I just think, "what if all this is waste of time and I'm making a mistake". I think I'll build a system to divide my time for just doing what helps and thinking about the changes. Thanks for the help @frizurd

  8. 2

    I would say, start doing. Perhaps start with smaller goals and build from there. Small wins over time will feel like big ones, eventually.

    1. 1

      Just do it. Yes i think that should be my main task. Thanks for the help @Paolo

  9. 2

    What I find helps when I have trouble getting started, or moving forward, is putting together a To-Do list, with the very first item of that To-Do list being "Create To-Do List". Fill it with a bunch of small tasks that lead to big tasks. Things that can take 5-10 mins. Simple things. Once you're done with this to do list, cross off that first item "Create To-Do List" and start working on the little 5 minute tasks. You'll get a rush of adrenaline every time you cross off one of these items, and you'll start to feel more productive and motivated once you get to the bigger items. You get addicted to crossing things off this list. It may sound silly, but it honestly helps me every single time.

    1. 1

      I recently started using todoist. I'm still catching up on defining crisp task and which makes me do work without distraction. I'll make my tasks more granular. That should give me a step-by-step no chance for me to waste time in this. Thanks for the help @seanfarrell

  10. 1

    Take a separate chunk of time, and write really concrete, tiny chunked tasks on a pad of paper, away from your computer. Write at least 20 of them - just relax and think about them.
    There are 2 parts of the brain that deal with 1.) thinking about what needs to be get done, and putting that into words and 2.) actually implementing them in code.

    Check out on youtube: steve pavlina day 14 action steps ( i'ts one of his 30-day series on his water fasting and just talking about various things ). He was a game developer

  11. 1

    I sometimes have the same problem, what about doing a challenge ?

  12. 1

    These are probably effects, not causes. To solve your problem, you need to uncover the underlying thought patterns that drive your procrastination (most likely some form of fear) and address those directly.

    Having a crystal clear end goal and mission can also help, especially when you extrapolate this backwards into a step by step plan.

  13. 1

    Look up temptation bundling it seems to be quite a useful technique.

    Also set yourself constraints if you don't have any. Goals, deadlines anything that you can attach a date to and use to challenge yourself

    1. 1

      Thanks for sharing it. I'll google it. It was so good to get so much help from fellow hackers.

  14. 1

    Set a small goal and try to use the Pomodoro technique to accomplish it.

  15. 1

    Procrastination!

    Trust me, that runaway will run out sooner or later, and you won't realize. Speaking from the experience of eating up 15 months of runaway.

    Work out a system to move your focus on things that matter more. Divide weekly time budgets for what you wanna do. I am running an experiment with my focus time (I even made a small custom app, its on Github) to track how much focus work I am upto as compared to the productivity theatre of doing things that are going to matter. Sure, learning will help, but learning X is really the best use of your time right this moment? Probably not. Audit your routine to catch such habits and force your awareness to something that you wanna bring into the world.

    https://twitter.com/ashfame/status/1348171963475267584 (Week 3 is turning out good, 15/40hrs protected)

    1. 1

      Yeah buddy that's true. I'll make a system and stick with it and I hope it helps in building with more clarity. Thanks for help

  16. 1

    In my opinion there is no rulebook for being productive always, it depends upon multiple factors of every day life, though ill try to give my cents.

    I've started following Getting Things Done (GTD) recently which seems most effective so far. You can find a lot of videos about it, I've been using the tool https://www.rememberthemilk.com

    How do like this method?

    1. 1

      I think it is similar to todoist. anyways I'll give it try. Thanks for the help.

  17. 1

    Use SCRUM. Period.
    This is the best methodology to get S**t done.
    You can start by signing up to Trello. And then, if you want to get more professional, signup for a Jira's free account.

    1. 1

      That's great advice @Joaocanada. Thanks for the help.

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