This is a followup post to my Pay Attention! post. Here, I want to discuss not the HOW of being realistically productive, but the WHY of it.

I previously discussed how it is important to kill off distractions when doing important, or large, tasks. That's all fine, but what about those tasks that you just don't really feel like doing? Everyone has a classic example: cleaning the garage, washing the dog, scrubbing the toilet, etc. Things you know you should do, and want to do, but you simply would rather do something else at any given time.

It's easy for some outside to say "Just suck it up and do it." But we all know that doesn't work when it's us yelling at ourselves. Let's face it: we simply don't want to do these things. Should is not the same as would.

One size does not fit all

Motivation is an confusing notion that sits somewhere between psychology and self-help. There are seminars and books out there that will teach you how to "be the best you" and all that other rubbish.

And that's exactly what it is: rubbish. Unless a book is written specifically for you, you may end up taking only one thing away from it. What motivates one person will probably not motivate another. If you're expecting some motivational panacea from this blog, you came to the wrong guy.

Considering I can't tell you how to motivate yourself, I will tell you what works for me.

• Talk about it

  Nothing works better as a motivational tool than other people. People who are passionate about the same thing you are doing. This is all the more easier to find in the age of instant-communication. Baking a casserole? Find a cooking website, chat room, or IM buddy. Call your mom. Writing some code? Find someone else who has worked on something similar. Find an IRC channel for the language or topic. Get a partner interested.

  Having others who are interested, not only in the topic, but in what you are doing, is very important. How did that casserole turn out? Any leftovers? Did you ever finish that wiki-engine you were writing? Take a look at mine, I implemented [feature-x].

  It's easy to be impersonal and read web pages, mailing lists, and/or books about a topic, but "Cleaning your Garage, for Dummies" isn't going to actually make you get off you ass and clean your garage. Get someone else involved - significant other, your kids, your friends, someone.

• Pride

  Ah pride. Too much of it, and you look like a tool. Too little, and you seem weak. But pride motivates us. It can be a powerful tool.

  Pride is related to the above point about involving others. Do a good job on that casserole? Take some pictures, tell some people about it. Take pride in the fact that you did this and it was a good job.

  This is one of the main things that makes open-source software so fun. Showing people your code. The "look what I did" aspect. Think about when you were a kid. You'd make some puppet out of glitter and popsicle sticks, and couldn't wait to show you mom/dad/sister/brother. "Look what I made!"

• Advertising

  What? Like that Coke commercial I saw yesterday?

  No, no, no. Advertising your work. This is the third point in a little trickle-down of points. It relates to getting others involved and taking pride in your work. You're not going to get either of those without actually advertising that you did something.

  I'm not saying "show off." Don't invite people over to show them what a great job you did organizing your garage. That will just make you look like a knob. But you have to tell people. Only the people that eat your pork-chops are going to know how good they were. Give out the recipe, post pictures on the internet, write an article for a cooking blog. Advertise. Be vocal.

Are you paying attention?

No, I do not need to clean my garage, bake a cake, or scrub toilets. I have many different on-going projects for Arch that I constantly need to motivate myself to do. Backend stuff that no one ever sees, and the developers usually don't even fuss with.

Regarding the last point (advertising), expect to see posts here regarding some of the internals of the ArchLinux world. Feel free to ignore them, but, if you were reading, maybe you want to throw some e-highfives my way :)