r/GetMotivated • u/[deleted] • Dec 15 '11
Practical Success Tips #2: Environment
[removed] — view removed post
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u/DrQian Dec 15 '11
Word. I used to have problems getting up in the morning. Real, chronic problems, compounded by staying up late on my computer everyday. A few things I did when finals approached me last year:
I would put my laptop in my locker in college. This was a 5/10 minute cycle away, and somewhere I went for hours everyday. I could check my email or wikipedia on my phone if I needed to, but social browsing (facebook, reddit) was no fun at all. I could get my laptop if I needed it for work, and occasionally took it home if I felt I deserved a break. I could also get it to work on if I needed it, but it stopped me saying "I'll just check Reddit for 10 minutes before I go to bed" and staying up til 3am.
I put £10 on our kitchen table and wrote a time by it. If I wasn't in the kitchen by that time, the money was up for grabs. It almost didn't matter how much I put down; the written declaration set a time I had to be there.
I truly believe that is one of the most important steps to being productive: changing your actions from 'discrete' to 'continuous'. What do I mean by this? Think of any failing on a long term project you've had, and I'm fairly sure your failure will come down to the fact you didn't set absolute boundaries. When I'm watching The Wire on my computer, I don't start watching another episode at 1am because I don't want to be up until 2. But I will happily stay on Reddit until after 2.30 am.
'Just one more Reddit page and I'll go to bed' at night, and in the morning
'Just five more minutes lie in" and you sleep until noon
'Some fast food just once won't hurt my diet'
'I'll stop half a mile short/only do 2 sets today'
You rationalise it, because it only seems like a small amount, but it all adds up, and it makes it so much harder to refuse in the future. If you had fast food yesterday, you probably won't object too much to having it today. If you haven't had it for 10 days, you probably want to keep that streak.
Not to say that you can never enjoy life, or pig out, or have a lie in. Just decide what you want before, otherwise you'll give too much power to now-you - and that guy's opinion will soon be meaningless.
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Dec 15 '11
That's money and something I've been doing myself.
Ex.
**Drink more water. ** I have a pitcher of water on my desk and a glass.
I wanted to play PS3 less
I put my PS3 in the closet after I'm done
I want to surf Reddit and other sites less.
I blocked them all on my laptop and only surf on my iPad
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u/LETS_BE_REAL Dec 16 '11
Man, please please please keep posting these tips. They are helping me out so much!!! THANK YOU!!
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Dec 15 '11
Reminds me of the Steve Pavlina article. Either way, GOOD ON YA!
I'm gonna try this. Need to exercise more and fix my sleeping pattern too.
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u/EzraPostAcid Dec 15 '11
Wow, this can be really useful, I'm definitely going to try thing from now on. Thank You.
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u/karilou07 Dec 15 '11
Great post! I was getting into this last year when I was really crunched for time. I was also stressed to the max then, and as a result was prone to making bad snack choices. Solution? Don't buy bad snack foods. If your emergency chocolate stash is not around the house, you're less likely to stress-binge-eat all the chocolate :) (Also helps to purposefully buy and prep good snack foods. Which in turn don't lead to guilt, and therefore stress. YAY!)
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Dec 15 '11
It's true, you can change yourself completely in a new environment. Just put yourself in positive places with positive people and the results will be phenomenal.
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u/HackMyHeart Dec 15 '11
I've done this for this semester, and it's helped me out a lot.
If I know I need to study and do work, but think I may get lazy sitting on my bed with my laptop, I put my books on my bed before I even sit down so they're right there and easy to reach for.
If I really need to study and think I may put it off, I force myself to go to the library (I've been doing this for the first time for finals). I admit, I'm not used to studying, and I tend to waste away the first hour I spend there, but then something clicks, and the next thing I know, I feel like I belong there 'cause I'm actually being productive and reviewing.
I've slowly moved things around in my dorm so it's harder to "forget" to do things, or keep things I shouldn't waste time on out of mind. It's a subtle change overall, but it's really worked out for me. =)
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u/ashleyw Dec 15 '11
#2's the oposite for me. If I had my desk in my living room, I'd get absolutely nothing done. What was your problem with it being in the garage? Was it just a case of not sitting at it in the first place?
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u/halcyondoze Dec 15 '11
It was a combination of:
1 - Sitting 6-8h a day vs. standing 6-8h a day
2 - Being in a naturally lighted room vs. artificially lighted "dungeon"
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Dec 20 '11
This reminds me a bit of the Happiness Advantage (Shawn Achor) and the 20 second rule. Either by making the task take 20 seconds more or less, you can change/create a habit. I think your point follows the same theme.
In any case, great post and I agree 100%. It's taking steps like these that will improve the situation in the long term. Thank you for this post and the others.
I wouldn't mind seeing an edit with links to the other posts of yours. I came here through the link you posted on tip#3. Given the response of the community, the links may be welcome by others also.
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