[khromem]

For my whole life, I have been dealing with bursts of motivation where I am extremely productive for several days, followed by weeks-long slumps. This yo-yo behavior does not let a person develop their skills or build anything substantial.

According to my observations, people usually start working towards a goal following a temporary spike in motivation. It lasts a few days at most. Usually, it is not enough for people to move past the hurdle that is the first 2 weeks. In the first 2 weeks of starting anything new, you are garbage at everything. It’s hard work, and not very rewarding because you are constantly getting things wrong and not being able to get in flow.

However, after 2 weeks so, People start appreciating the task. They finally see hints of progression in their abilities. Are able to work for longer stretches at a time before running into something frustrating. This allows them to get into flow. Together this starts to produce consistent internal motivation that allows the person to actually stick with the new habit long term. But 99% of the time people give up before getting here.

To address this issue, I created WorkOrPay

WorkOrPay: Set goals. Form contracts. Pay the penalty if you fail.

We let you form contracts in which you agree to reach a goal before a deadline. You then deposit some money. If you fail to accomplish your goal before the deadline, your deposit is lost and donated to a charity of your choice.

Basically, we provide you with external motivation (by holding your deposit hostage), so you get stuff done even when you don't feel like it. In addition, we text you daily to keep tabs and make sure you stay on track.

WorkOrPay's mission is to bridge the gap in motivation from the initial spike and the more consistent motivation that appears a while later. The idea is that if you make a contract for the frustrating 2 weeks where you want to quit. The pressure of potentially losing your deposit will provide enough external motivation for you to continue until you reach the promised land of consistent internal motivation.

I hope others who have the same problem I had, can use this service to break out of the loop. Without wasting years of their life.

Promo Code for HN members: hackernews

[mynameisvlad]

> Is this for me? / Who is this for?

Half joking, but you could have simplified these entire sections to "you have ADHD".

Speaking as someone who is diagnosed with it, you more or less described the dopamine ride of a person with ADHD.

The "deadlines give you superpowers" bit definitely reminded me of this video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CcHQDI8NYzF/

[laurencei]

Can I ask a bit more about your experience with this? My son has ADHD, and I'm rapidly realising that many aspects of my life correlate with the symptoms, especially in adults.

But then I get worried I'm trying to make my square peg/round hole fit the the diagnose.

Are you medicated or having any other treatment? Did it have any meaningful impact/change to your adult life?

[mynameisvlad]

In classic ADHD fashion, I had definitely intended to reply, started to reply, and then failed to reply, sorry!

I would say as an adult, I have built coping mechanisms and excuses for what were clearly symptoms of undiagnosed ADHD. Hyperfocus was just "being really passionate about a project", I had a million unfinished projects, both software and physical (not that I've finished most of them, but I have gotten better at it!), and I still chase the dopamine like there's no tomorrow.

What really had sealed the deal was one of my good friends getting their diagnosis and talking about it, combined with a really well timed Twitter post that said something like "an ADHD person's worst nightmare -- a 4PM meeting". Coming out of a late afternoon meeting where I physically could do nothing the entire day except think about that one meeting really pushed it home.

I am on Adderall, and it helps to an extent. It definitely plateaus, and while I'm on a low dose I'm also not keen to increase it unless needed. Another piece of it is just learning more about what ADHD is, and figuring out what's happening and what you can do about it.

One surprisingly helpful resource has been a person on social media, Connor DeWolfe (https://www.instagram.com/connor.dewolfe/) who posts comical videos that both resonate and are just eye opening because they made me second guess things I've done all my life. Things like "out of sight, out of mind" and why people with ADHD tend to leave cabinet doors open, "chasing the dopamine", the intense amount of focus you get when you are right up against a deadline, etc. It really helped me to start pointing these out in my day to day life when before they'd just be things I did.

[itake]

I think you are correctly identifying the problem, but implementing the wrong solution, by your own admission.

> People start appreciating the task. They finally see hints of progression in their abilities. Are able to work for longer stretches at a time before running into something frustrating.

This part hits the nail on the head. Appreciating the task and enjoying the progression.

To me, trying to make this experience happen earlier is the solution to the problem, not creating artificial constraints that dance around the problem.

[nathanaldensr]

Where are you incorporated? Are you a non-profit? How do you make money?

[khromem]

We are a New York LLC. We're not incorporated at the moment.

We make money through a subscription model. We do not make anything from the contracts because it seemed wrong to profit from our users failing. We want our incentives to be aligned correctly!

[gnicholas]

> We do not make anything from the contracts because it seemed wrong to profit from our users failing. We want our incentives to be aligned correctly!

I assumed that the monthly fee was on top of a percentage fee on lost bets, which other platforms charge. You should make this more prominent on the site — aligned incentives are great!

[khromem]

Good point. Just updated the site to make that clear. Thanks!

[klyrs]

> We do not make anything from the contracts because it seemed wrong to profit from our users failing.

This is how naive good-meaning founders start evil parasitic businesses that don't realize their true potential until the buyout...

[trhr]

Since you're allowing people to donate to charities or "anti-charities," you should just allow the user to specify a % fee that goes to you. If I set up a $1,000 contract to go to some Nazi org if I fail, I'd much rather $1 go to the Nazi org and $999 to you.

[zarmin]

Sounds like you'd be more motivated to hit that goal with the payment distribution as is.