What is a Motivation? « General Discussion « Forum

The12thKind

Hey everyone!

So, for me, it’s 5:18 PM on a Sunday as I write this. I’ve been trying to stay motivated to do some of my projects, and even putting them into rotation so I don’t hyperfocus on one (and consequencially burn myself out), but sometimes I find it hard to stay motivated.

I think part of it is because we’re constantly living through “unprecedented times” or moments that will be “etched into history forever.” It probably also doesn’t help that my job as a math tutor can pretty emotionally taxing at times.

I guess this brings me to the point of this thread… What do y’all do to stay motivated on your projects? How to get yourself going when you just don’t feel like getting started in the first place?

Do you work in a specific area of your abode? Do you go elsewhere to work on your projects?

Any and all suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated! ^_

My carrd: https://da12thkind.carrd.co/
pronouns: they/them
name pronounciation: callie-us

Musical witch of funky proportions

I usually picture the end product in my head, and get excited imagining who ever it is meant for experiencing it.

I take breaks. Playing other video games, watching movies, and reading books are all great ways to be inspired content wise and drive you finish your projects like all great creatives have.

I think that I personally try to imagine everything about my project and why I started it in the first place. “Why do I care?” “What if this really cool thing was included?”
Of course, avoiding scope creep is important too.

Drake Inferno
Court-recognized cheese yoinker

I am both a perfectionist and a rather bad procrastinator, which as you can imagine is a lovely combination for getting things done. But what I do when something absolutely must get done, when 10 poems are due at 8 AM the next day, it is midnight, and I have nothing done, is this. First, you sit somewhere out of range of a bed or any comfortable sleeping position. Secondly, play some punk you enjoy. Not distracting enough to get you off-task, but intense enough to keep you awake. Maybe get a snack and a drink, and then shut out all else.

Then, take the hellfire burning you, the panic and desperation that are important but do not help you, and try to weave it into resolve, into scrambling for a framework of what you can do in the time you have. Ramble at yourself, toss ideas against the wall, go for the happy medium of achievably easy and quality. Not sure precisely how to communicate what one does to their mind to achieve that, but hopefully it’s otherwise achievable. But that’s more for a desperate rush rather than demotivation with plentiful time.

For when you have as much time as you need and just aren’t feeling it, just make yourself promise that you’ll do some small, achievable piece of it, and keep coaxing yourself into doing just a little bit more. Take breaks and switch regions of focus if you’re starting to get overtaxed or bored or so on.

What is love, if not sharing food with someone, and then running away from that someone,
as they chase after you, shouting “That was my food, give me back my food”?

The12thKind

Drake Inferno:
First, you sit somewhere out of range of a bed or any comfortable sleeping position. Secondly, play some punk you enjoy. Not distracting enough to get you off-task, but intense enough to keep you awake. Maybe get a snack and a drink, and then shut out all else.

Oh wow… I keep hearing that having your workspace away from your bedroom, or even just a bed as you suggested, does wonders…

Do you think if I isolated my bed by putting some sort of cloth partition that that would help?

That comment about putting on punk you enjoy – Can it be any genre that’s equally high-beat?

BurnOut:
I usually picture the end product in my head, and get excited imagining who ever it is meant for experiencing it.

I take breaks. Playing other video games, watching movies, and reading books are all great ways to be inspired content wise and drive you finish your projects like all great creatives have.

I think that I personally try to imagine everything about my project and why I started it in the first place. “Why do I care?” “What if this really cool thing was included?”
Of course, avoiding scope creep is important too.

Oh yeah… I know all too well about letting scope creep get the better of me… Your note about taking breaks reminded me that, yes, breaks are indeed important. I’m not sure why I still struggle with accepting breaks myself while I tell others that taking breaks is okay…

If anyone else has any advice, I’d love to hear it!

My carrd: https://da12thkind.carrd.co/
pronouns: they/them
name pronounciation: callie-us

Drake Inferno
Court-recognized cheese yoinker

Oh yeah, I think any appropriate genre works, that’s just what I do. Game soundtracks often work for me too.

What is love, if not sharing food with someone, and then running away from that someone,
as they chase after you, shouting “That was my food, give me back my food”?

“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” -Douglas Adams

Due to almost always being sick, I get nothing done unless there is a strict deadline with consequences associated with it. Even then, it is almost a 50/50 I won’t need to request an extension due to my life blowing up every other week.

I will say that it is much easier to get stuff done when I am excited.

When you have an idea, write it down.

DO NOT WAIT.

It is better to have something to come back and edit rather than keep thinking about it until you run out of momentum and lose the energy.

“Never be cruel, and never be cowardly.
Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise.”
-The Doctor

The12thKind

Drake Inferno:
Oh yeah, I think any appropriate genre works, that’s just what I do. Game soundtracks often work for me too.

Oooo! I should get back to listening to mixes of the Splatoon OSTs and see if that works!

epoch5zz:
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” -Douglas Adams

Due to almost always being sick, I get nothing done unless there is a strict deadline with consequences associated with it. Even then, it is almost a 50/50 I won’t need to request an extension due to my life blowing up every other week.

I will say that it is much easier to get stuff done when I am excited.

When you have an idea, write it down.

DO NOT WAIT.

It is better to have something to come back and edit rather than keep thinking about it until you run out of momentum and lose the energy.

That’s actually really helpful. I’ll talk to a friend of mine about us setting up deadlines for each other to keep us (mostly me) motivated! Thank you so much!

My carrd: https://da12thkind.carrd.co/
pronouns: they/them
name pronounciation: callie-us

The12thKind:
Drake Inferno:
Oh yeah, I think any appropriate genre works, that’s just what I do. Game soundtracks often work for me too.

Oooo! I should get back to listening to mixes of the Splatoon OSTs and see if that works!

epoch5zz:
“I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” -Douglas Adams

Due to almost always being sick, I get nothing done unless there is a strict deadline with consequences associated with it. Even then, it is almost a 50/50 I won’t need to request an extension due to my life blowing up every other week.

I will say that it is much easier to get stuff done when I am excited.

I don’t always remember to check these forums, but I was hoping that this year’s Nanowrimo might be a year to try and get a starmen.net group going together over discord. I have been doing Nanowrimo since I graduated college in 2007. I’ve also done mentoring for groups.

I haven’t published any fiction yet, but thanks to Nanowrimo I have written well over 1.5 million words that would have never happened otherwise.

When you have an idea, write it down.

DO NOT WAIT.

It is better to have something to come back and edit rather than keep thinking about it until you run out of momentum and lose the energy.

That’s actually really helpful. I’ll talk to a friend of mine about us setting up deadlines for each other to keep us (mostly me) motivated! Thank you so much!

My pleasure.

What introduced me to doing deadlines for creative passionate pursuits is yearly event called National Novel Writing Month (or, Nanowrimo). It’s a self challange of writing a 50,000 word first draft in a month, typically November.

That introduced me to the concepts of structure for fun activities and the benefits of working with others in groups. Writing is a very lonely pursuit and having others to work with can help alot.

“Never be cruel, and never be cowardly.
Hate is always foolish, and love is always wise.”
-The Doctor

Sword of Dorks

eldritch enthusiast

OH MY GOD.

I remember I was messing around with an AI text generator and it wrote a message addressed to me about NaNoWriMo. Wow things really do come full circle, I didn’t know that was a real thing. Lemme see if I can dig it up from discord…

Sword of Dorks!

I am very sorry to keep you waiting.

As I have tried to prepare for my conference (and I think I’ve been doing fairly well, all things considered) I have not been at the computer.

Don’t be too discouraged, my two lovelies – I have not fallen into a black hole of self – indulgence that has sealed me off from the outside world.

I have been writing.

But first, you need to know that the dates for National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, have changed for this year.

You won’t have to wake up at 5: 00 a. m. on November 1st and throw up a blog post and start typing before you have even had breakfast!

I will still be participating, and I will post updates and get us both through the last few weeks of the month.

Our first challenge will be to recover from all of the excitement we will both surely have at that first post – NaNoWriMo post.

I’ll post more later this week, so you can see where I am on my writing journey.

What about you?

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

If not, why not?

How about when NaNoWriMo rolls around in November – will you be ready?

A boi who’s weird but still chill.

Causing problems since like 2006 I think

This just gave me an idea for a Starmen.Net NaNoWriMo challenge thing where we all follow a prompt for the whole month

Mad Duck is the best enemy in the Mother series,
and there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind

The12thKind

epoch5zz:
My pleasure.

What introduced me to doing deadlines for creative passionate pursuits is yearly event called National Novel Writing Month (or, Nanowrimo). It’s a self challange of writing a 50,000 word first draft in a month, typically November.

That introduced me to the concepts of structure for fun activities and the benefits of working with others in groups. Writing is a very lonely pursuit and having others to work with can help alot.

I forgot to let y’all know this, but I talked to my friend about this and now we’ve got deadlines for some of our projects set up! I gotta show her three sprites every Sunday and she has to show me at least half of a comic every Saturday (both well within our skills). Thank you again so much!

Squirrel King:
This just gave me an idea for a Starmen.Net NaNoWriMo challenge thing where we all follow a prompt for the whole month

That’d be so cool!!

Sword of Dorks:
OH MY GOD.

I remember I was messing around with an AI text generator and it wrote a message addressed to me about NaNoWriMo. Wow things really do come full circle, I didn’t know that was a real thing. Lemme see if I can dig it up from discord…

Oh wow! That’s crazy cool!

My carrd: https://da12thkind.carrd.co/
pronouns: they/them
name pronounciation: callie-us

Starmen.Net

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