This is great advice, even if it sounds cliché and obvious. I like to say that you have to set yourself up for success. That is, make it as easy as possible for your task to actually be easier and more straightforward (i.e. get the other stuff out of the way the day before, clean up, mute your phone, empty your agenda, etc) It’s very common for us to do the exact opposite, and then we feel bad later because we failed. Of course! We made it even harder for ourselves then it already is. I think that many people (especially coders) got used earlier in life to do things naturally, to have natural motivation to work and that was enough. If at some point that’s not the case anymore, because you’re older, has more responsibility, is tired, or a combination of all these, you lose your “method” and don’t know what to do. So: recognize the difficulty of what you are going to do, and set yourself up for success. And also learn to expect less from yourself and be happy when small goals are achieved (you’ll learn this the hard way anyway; after not doing anything, even a small thing will feel like success).
I try to get as far as possible without actually starting work. I'll get all the little things out of the way.
- Prepare clothes for the next day
- Prepare a mug with a teabag, sugar and a spoon
- Close tabs, launch the IDE, start the Docker containers
- Gather the addresses, emails or phone numbers I need to call
- Write a very short term to-do list to get the day started
- Clear small unrelated tasks if needed (inbox triage, small errands etc)
It's very similar to mise en place when you're cooking. You take care of the small tasks first, so that the main task goes smoothly.
It's really effective. In fact, it's sometimes hard to snap out of it and do other things.
