[aidenn0]

The reason for the discomfort wall's existence is important to figuring out the best way to get over it. Certainly being required to do something day-in and day-out that you find purposeless is one way that the wall might be created.

For me, a lot of times it's boredom. It's boring to have to do 2 hours of work sometime in the next week; it's far less boring to have to do 2 hours of work in the next 90 minutes.

(Note I'm not recommending this, as it's basically medicating your boredom with stress, and stress has a lot of well documented side-effects).

[notheguyouthink]

That's another good point. I work far better when I have a challenging work-load with real goals. As I mentioned in a nearby post, I found micro-todos to help me visualize my workload (which is usually bigger than I imagined lol), and cause me to understand the weight of the work ahead of me.. thus, giving me a kick to get it the hell out of the way.

[projektfu]

Googling failed me. Is micro-todos a term you use to describe what you do, or is it a technique I can learn more about?

[notheguyouthink]

Apologies, it's a made up term. It seems fitting though. Rather than plan the todos like it's something anyone else could read, I write them for me. And because they're just for me, I can make them as tiny as I want. My general rule of thumb for writing them is:

1. As I'm writing, if it's in my head as a "oh, that needs to be done", I write it down. Tiny or large.

2. If it's really large, I tend to word the task as to break it up. Otherwise I'll spend a day working on that one item, which defeats the purpose of trying to give my brain dopamine/etc.

3. If at any point in code I think of those "oh, I gotta remember to fix/refactor/add that" I write it down.

It's quick because I don't need to give others context. It's short, because it's just for me and it shouldn't be too far away from my current context anyway. And finally it helps me actually take breaks, and come back getting right into it. I try to never leave without writing what I should do next.

To pair with that, I chose a todo app (Dynalist atm) that I enjoy using. It should be quick to get ideas onto paper so to say, and not bogged down with features. This is more of a notebook, than a todo.

Anyway, it's all an experiment for me. I'm on week two or so of it, and it's been great so far. Good luck if you try it :)

edit: fix stupid list formatting.