43 Folders

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Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Motivation: count the money

I'm one of the laziest people I know. And I procrastinate a lot. Today I tried something new, and it seemed to work.

I counted up how much money I'd earned.

Yeah, sounds dumb, sounds obvious; but it's not something I've been in the habit of doing before. I'm a freelance writer and some days earn me more than others. But today I made a point of keeping a mental tally of how much money the work I'd done will have brought in (once all the invoices have been sent, paid, and banked).

At the end of the day I walked out of the house feeling somewhat satisfied that a Good Day's Work had been done.

jethro.'s picture

My occasional kick-start, on particularly...

My occasional kick-start, on particularly motivationless days, is to log my time to the minute. First, I feel guilty for dicking around when I actually see "dicking around" ascribed to me in print. Second, when I actually record my time spent on blogs, etc. I can see how much it cost me. The method loses its effectiveness after a day or two, but sometimes that's enough to get me moving again.

 
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