Advice on motivation

[Penumbral]

I have just moved to Los Angeles, and have been struggling to find a job. I usually have to fight for free time, and use it as best as possible when I have it. Now however I have almost entirely free time, and am really struggling to accomplish anything productive. Its not that I don't have things to do either. I have a book written. I am on the second rewrite and I have notes from an editor I just have to buckle in. I have a number of writing projects to work on from scripts to shorts to jokes; all of them need to get done I just don't have a strict time line.

When I move towards working on projects I feel almost like the north pole of a magnet trying to link with another north.

In the past when I would hit these bumps I would just take adderall or a similar type of medicine, but this tactic has started making me sick.

Any ideas what I should do to help me get over being a lazy bastard?

[Telarus]

How physically active are you? Commit to 20-40 minutes of stretching, light aerobics a day. (break it up) It doesn't matter what exercises you are doing, what matters is you have told your subconscious "Every day, sucka", and you have to follow through.


Speaking of, I walked four blocks twice today.... going out for some aikido stretches, lunges, and chi exercises...

[Jenne]

Continue to stop the drugging to kick yourself into gear, for one.  There's a REASON you're getting sick from it, just saying.

The next is to maybe reward yourself for meeting little goals?  Keep a list prominent where you can read the goals daily and mark them off when you meet them, rewarding yourself in some way when you've accomplished them.

Last is to make sure those goals you're setting are ATTAINABLE.  Set them at a height you can reach.  And if they're too high up, set goals lower that are on the WAY to those higher ones.  You can either reach them more easily or see your way to staying on course that way.

[East Coast Hustle]

I have just moved to Los Angeles

I have identified your biggest problem.

[Penumbral]

I have just moved to Los Angeles

I have identified your biggest problem.

You might be right, but this is where I have to be for the time being.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Speaking as someone who is self-employed, the best thing you can do for yourself is write a schedule and stick to it. Frame it to yourself and everyone else as "If I don't stick to my schedule, religiously, I WILL FAIL". If you were making a living off your work, failing to produce would equal losing your job... see it the same as getting up and going to work every morning, even when you don't want to.

If you want fuck-off time during the day, schedule it in. It could be the hour after lunch, or 45 minutes while you drink tea in the morning. Just make sure it IS scheduled, and not random.

Write your schedule and post it somewhere that's visible to you as a reminder.

For example:

7:00 am - Shower
7:30 am - Walk
8:00 am - Tea and breakfast/internet time
9:00 am - Writing
12:00 pm - Lunch/reading
1:00 pm - Writing
3:00 pm - Stretches/walk, internet time
4:00 pm - Writing
6:00 pm - Done for the day

[Hoser McRhizzy]

(EDIT - Nigel just posted when I hit preview.   Really excellent advice!  This is just an alternate route.)


short story - what Telarus said, but get someone to pay you for it. 

My suggestion is to hook yourself up with a cleaning gig.  For the sake of this post, I'm assuming you haven't had this work yet. 

If you've got contacts, subcontract if you can, but signing on with a cleaning company works alright, too (just watch your ass/soul*).  You could substitute landscaping, house painting, small repairs or whatever else for cleaning.  Because you have times where you can't work on your stuff, you will want to work on it more.  The (possibly crap) idea is that you currently have too much access.

This work is something that shows visible change over the course of your workday.  Plus, it's repetitive, so it's meditative.  Last thing - it'll give you a routine time when you *have* to get up, shit-shower-shave, and be out the door, which a bunch of human brains seem to respond well to.

This sounds ridiculously specific because it's exactly what I did back in 2003-7 (all the jobs listed above, subcontracted).  Walking into a mouldy, buggy, trashcan of an apartment and walking out having everything shine - I can't entirely express what this did for my brainspace.  Maybe, How we benefit from spring cleaning times eleventy.  Or it could always have been the bleach.  Speaking of which, it also cut down the amount of time I had to smoke and increased the amount of time I spent exercising (Telarus' point).  Which is only useful information if you remember that your brain likes oxygen and good circulation. 

tl;dr - You could get a job that has nothing to do with writing.  The time you spend not being able to write will motivate you to write differently than you currently do.  If you have to drug yourself to write, maybe you don't want to be writing this stuff (in this way, at this particular time, under these circumstances, etc).  At the very least, not having access to time to write might give you space to figure out what's sapping your motivation.

[/preachy]

* ancient philosophers understood well that the soul of a body is located in the ass. hence the interchangeability of the two warnings: watch your ass & guard your soul.

[Kai]

Pen--

Besides healthy habits of sleep, hygene, nutrition and exercise, I have found the greatest motivator to be accomplishing things. When I accomplish something, I get a burst of energy which pushes me towards the next thing.

So...set yourself up for success. Start your day by accomplishing a small task, something you are good at. While I was at El Museo, the best motivators were curating a small tribe of beetles, or IDing a small sample of caddisfly adults. Something that never took more than a few hours, and when it was done, it was really done. The days I could do that, I usually got massive amounts of stuff done and left work happy, head full of ideas. If something that large is too much, start smaller. Even a bit of cleaning is good.

[Penumbral]

Speaking as someone who is self-employed, the best thing you can do for yourself is write a schedule and stick to it. Frame it to yourself and everyone else as "If I don't stick to my schedule, religiously, I WILL FAIL".

In the past when I have used this strategy. It seemed to help me produce a lot of mediocre material instead of something sell able. However now that I have been more educated on such things it might be time to give strict scheduling another shot.

Because you have times where you can't work on your stuff, you will want to work on it more.  The (possibly crap) idea is that you currently have too much access.

I think this might sum up the problem I am having well.

This work is something that shows visible change over the course of your workday.  Plus, it's repetitive, so it's meditative.  Last thing - it'll give you a routine time when you *have* to get up, shit-shower-shave, and be out the door, which a bunch of human brains seem to respond well to.

This is the course of action I have been pursuing because it has also been what has worked for me in the past. Unfortunately finding work out here has turned into a waiting game lasting a lot longer then I anticipated. Its a bizarre thing that I am looking for work more as a means to get out of the house and interacting with people then as a means of making money.

Besides healthy habits of sleep, hygene, nutrition and exercise, I have found the greatest motivator to be accomplishing things. When I accomplish something, I get a burst of energy which pushes me towards the next thing.

Agreed, however the types of things I am working on tend to not have the feeling of accomplishment for weeks or months after their completion. Even if I finish a piece of work I feel no validation until its sold or in demand.
I also find it frustrating that my own satisfaction does not, to me, count as an accomplishment and therefore hardly works as a motivator.


Thanks for the tips. A lot of useful insight.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

IME and also based on advice from professional writers I've known, if you write a lot, at first you write a lot more crap. Then the good stuff ratio starts to improve.

[Penumbral]

Sorry if that sounded like I was making excuses. Not my intention. You gave me great feedback, and I plan on using it.


I do need to get back into being physically active.
I need to interact more with people outside my industry.
I need to find out a measurable reward system. (beside just waiting until I write two pages to get another beer.)
I need to figure out a measurable accomplishment system.
And if I don't think I can keep to a strict hourly schedule I need to work on a daily schedule of goals.

[Penumbral]

IME and also based on advice from professional writers I've known, if you write a lot, at first you write a lot more crap. Then the good stuff ratio starts to improve.

I find this to be a known truth. It is just the physical and mental exercise of sitting and writing has, just recently, become almost emotionally if not psychologically difficult. I would be lying if I said asking for advice here was the most I had written in days however it feels to be the least forced my writing has been in days.

[Hoser McRhizzy]

This work is something that shows visible change over the course of your workday.  Plus, it's repetitive, so it's meditative.  Last thing - it'll give you a routine time when you *have* to get up, shit-shower-shave, and be out the door, which a bunch of human brains seem to respond well to.

This is the course of action I have been pursuing because it has also been what has worked for me in the past. Unfortunately finding work out here has turned into a waiting game lasting a lot longer then I anticipated. Its a bizarre thing that I am looking for work more as a means to get out of the house and interacting with people then as a means of making money.

This might be exactly the wrong thing, but how about focusing on finding people to interact with on a weekly basis?  I don't know what your sitch is in LA, whether you moved there with a net, knowing a few people or you're starting flat out bare bones.  But if it's more the latter and people is what you need [warning - moar unsolicited advice] find a community centre and join something free or close to it that doesn't sound terrible.  Friends come through experience, but lack of human interaction makes slugs of us.  Finding people and work first, but separately, will take more time off from the writing that you feel like you should be doing but aren't.  And there's a sentence to shake a fist at!

In the same subcontracting years, I joined a women's self defence course ("wen-do"!  awesome, yes?) for IRL people contact.  I highly recommend something similar.  And community centres are generally good places to get grounded and possibly find folks up for off-line shenanigans.   It takes no hunting - just a search engine and a visit to a building.

Job market generally sucks right now.  Much luck to you.

[Placid Dingo]

I suck at strict schedules but I have systems. So I do one job an hour big or small. If it's a longer than one hour job, I break it up with hourly small jobs. If I finish the job quickly, I have something achieved and can afford to use the rest of the hour as I'm inclined to.

[Triple Zero]

I also find it frustrating that my own satisfaction does not, to me, count as an accomplishment and therefore hardly works as a motivator.

Ouch. I feel the same way, often. Nearly always in fact. Most of the time finishing off a big project leaves me cranky and feeling down, even though rationally I'm all like "yay you're done, good job", my emotions do something else entirely. It's perplexing.

Solution: Make stuff you can show others. The Internet is good (but treacherous) for this. Maybe not. Sometimes I can get by on making stuff that is so damn pretty and ingenious that the bare thought of "fuck yeah people are gonna love this" is what propels me, even when I don't end up showing it to anyone (or maybe months later).
This is my equivalent of Kai's tip about "accomplishing things" being the greatest motivator. Slightly complicated by the fact that I can't get it to work for my self personally on my own, but once I get around that, it seems to work.

To add my own tip: if your time is so empty, fill it with things. Like McRhizzy's cleaning gig, or Telarus physical exercise. Or even just a hobby, drawing painting or singing class, charity/volunteer work. While exercise is good and you should do it anyway, I find it important for myself that these activities include IRL contact with people. Even if it's just the gym where you have a chat with someone at the bar, after your routine.