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Motivation

Motivation for me is being able to intrinsically make the right decision. This implies that motivation is not driven by external factors in this definition. By removing external factors, motivation simply becomes a function of want and mental energy.

Learning curve

I find the starting phase of learning new things often the most challenging. Getting past the plateau of despair takes time and effort and is often the place where I will fall off.

Discipline

There is a lot of literature on how to motivate oneself, all of which usually contain some of the same advice in different semantic settings. In my experience, there is just so much mental energy you can apply to do the "right" thing all the time. Doing things because of discipline makes you save this energy.

Restraint​

I try to exercise restraint to save myself from myself. If the chocolate is in the fridge, I am going to eat it. So if I should not eat chocolate, then I cannot have it in the fridge.

Learning to Relax

The book [[../Books/Book Reviews/Four Thousand Weeks Time Management for Mortals]] is a good book on why you should not always be "on". Having some mental break is always good.

I think a sure recipe for disappointment is being "on" all the time, taking the time not to be a superhero, to be a wreck and eating Ben & Jerry's on the couch is perfectly normal, as long as it is the exception. It is also a good way of recalibrating the mental mindset. Yes, I did do something that overall was bad for me yesterday but I feel bad and therefore will not continue with this.

Decision making

We are not rational. When making decisions, we, therefore, need to understand the state we are in when making said decisions. We always make decisions but it is also good to be more focused when making big decisions.

What constitutes a good decision process? A good decision process is when there is a decision that has a major effect on my life. When making big decisions, not only do I want to make the right decision, but also be able to look back on the reasoning behind making the decisions. All is clear in hindsight, hindsight is 50/50 etc. I am not concerned about making the right decision in hindsight, I am concerned about making the right decision based on all the information I had available to me at the moment the decision was made.

What makes the decision-making process different from OKRs? OKRs are more stable goals that influence smaller decisions. For example, limiting alcohol as an OKR influences the decision not to attend the party. Making a decision requires two (or more) potential routes where a choice must be made. OKRs can influence the decision.

Decision-making process Inversion in decision U-Mass Decision Making Process Finding Edges Moat of Low Status

Links

Thoughts

  • I feel like OKRs are best when you have time to validate the progress. When having year-long OKRs you don't have the possibility to adapt the OKRs to the fact on the ground. Leave the years to strategy and culture, and let OKRs be more on-the-ground concrete things to work on. As an example, I did an OKR on becoming a writer, and with key results based on articles, but halfway through, I started to work on the digital garden, and the metrics changed.
  • Accept that decision-making and motivation are inherently based on emotions. We are emotional creatures, and being logical is therefore quite normal.
  • You should chase the flow state whenever possible, it is the drug of working. It is almost more important to work in flow than just being present in the