Hacking Goals
This article is about how to hack personal goals, not goals I have set in the field of hacking.
General
I have read a lot of good articles related to setting and meeting goals and I would like to track some of the details. In particular, our brains seem to have a lot of heuristics that can lead us to failure or be exploited for success.
- People remember interrupted tasks better Ref
Delayed Gratification
We like goals because they give us a sense of purpose and meeting them gives us a sense of accomplishment. But there ways in which we can short-cut that sense of accomplishment.
- Fantasizing about completing the goal
- Telling others about the goal
Seeking that sense of accomplishment is our motivation. Getting it depletes our motivation. Instead of fantasizing about the goal, think about how it might fail. This creates anxiety and we are motivated to resolve the anxiety. This helps us avoid the forms of failure we envision.
Planning
Planning helps (but needs to not be "fantasizing about success"). Set clear, measurable goals focusing on the near-term. Also, have contingency plans. When things go wrong, our first instinct is to give up. If we have a contingency plan, we can default to this.
Defeating the Monkey
To beat the instant gratification monkey, exploit his weakness - reason. Go through and figure out every thing the monkey wants to do and why not to do it, or get it out of the way. Then start. Anything that wasn't on the list probably isn't important, so adding stuff later isn't allowed.
Remember that Future-Adam can be mean when pissed off. Much better to make him happy. Don't delegate bad things to future-Adam, he's much better at fun, interesting things.
There are 7 conditions for "flow", most I don't have control over. But what I can control can be summarized as "figure out what to do and how to do it, then setup a distraction free environment". From this, apparently, I am "autotelic".
Procrastination
In my experience, procrastination is almost always a symptom of an unmade-decision. If you are procrastinating because there is something else you want to do, strike a deal with yourself using that as the reward, if not, just convince yourself to take one step.
- Set aside 5-20 minutes for "planning"
- Find your short term goal and work backwards trying to fill in as much detail as possible
- Create a plan you can step through and check if each step needs a contingency plan
- Do step #1 and then reward yourself, but set a strict contract on when you will come back to step #2
Logging
I'm always amazed by how well this works when I bother to do it. Logging what I'm doing helps keep track of where time is going, how it's actually being spent as well as tracking the direction of my effort and helping me see when I've gone too far afield. It's a simple, but powerful technique.
Thoughts
I hate the whole "envision success" but certain thoughts do actually help.
- "Flow" I love getting in a state of flow. Thinking about that makes me want it, and I know the only way to get there is to push through the startup
- Winning: not proud of this, but I want to win. Not the personal, self-satisfying victory, but the kind where I am the best.