[HN Gopher] How I stay motivated as a solo creator
___________________________________________________________________
How I stay motivated as a solo creator
Author : HermanMartinus
Score : 77 points
Date : 2023-10-05 07:14 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (herman.bearblog.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (herman.bearblog.dev)
| tomaszs wrote:
| Nothing motivates more than empty bank account. It's beyond
| imagination how much person is able than do in 8 hours
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| > I'm not on traditional social media so don't have that eating
| away at my attention, but Hacker News is pretty good at derailing
| my day.
|
| How relatable!
|
| " - Coffee and a walk with my partner - Gym for about an hour -
| Journal and write - Work block 1 (about 3 hours) - Lunch and
| chill - Work block 2 (also about 3 hours) "
|
| That looks fantastic!
| dmitrybrant wrote:
| > I stay active on a Slack community of devs and creators in my
| country, as well as go to meet-ups and events in interesting
| communities
|
| How does one find these supposed Slack groups and meetups? I live
| in a major metropolitan area, but the meetups I've been able to
| find have been underwhelming.
| earksiinni wrote:
| Solo creator/dev/preneur here, too.
|
| OP mentioned a Slack channel for creators in his country. I've
| been looking for a similar channel.
|
| I'm in Arizona in the US. Anyone know of any similar channels
| that I could join?
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Been working on my own, writing software since 2005. Currently
| having a bit of a motivation slump. But I'm sure I'll push
| through, the same as I've pushed through all the previous ones.
| thewizardofaus wrote:
| A crucial point the post misses is the distinction between
| motivation and discipline.
|
| Ultimately it's easy to work on things when they are fun and
| exciting; but motivation will only last for so long... once that
| happens it's the discipline that needs to take over for you to
| keep progressing forward.
| c7DJTLrn wrote:
| Motivation and discipline can also move together. If you're
| motivated over a long enough period of time, discipline can
| form automatically.
| gagege wrote:
| I can have discipline, if I'm doing something for a purpose.
| Losing weight, getting a job, etc. My problem I always lose
| what the purpose of my solo project is. Or, I shoot so many
| holes in my own idea that I can't imagine it being useful to
| anyone.
| dtran wrote:
| >Working solo has its difficulties. For one, my income is
| somewhat tied to my productivity, and my productivity highly
| correlates to my state of mind.
|
| Since going back to being primarily a maker after organizing my
| days around being a manager[1], and being an avid runner, I've
| redefined my relationship with "motivation" in a way that can be
| summed up succinctly by author Brad Stulberg: "You don't need to
| feel good to get going. _You need to get going to feel good._ " I
| know that I am long-term _very motivated_ , but day to day or
| hour to hour, "motivation" is a tricky word, because my energy
| and creativity waxes/wanes.
|
| Agree with the author that structure is the most important thing
| for me to work around this. Even though makers dream of an open
| schedule, on the days where I'm off my usual routine, it's really
| tough to prioritize all the many things always on my plate. It's
| even tougher trying to decide to peel myself away from work to go
| for a run that I know will help me focus better after. Making the
| decision can be emotionally and mentally taxing, whereas if I
| rely on the default that I just go out for a run as soon as I
| wake up, the rest of the day just flows from that without the
| decision fatigue. Time-blocking or even just very simple
| structure like the OP has has been really effective for me. This
| includes a hard stop time each day even if it feels like I'm on a
| roll-- my younger self would often borrow against my future
| energy, and that seemed to rarely work out in the medium-to-long
| term.
|
| > This is combined with a lack of co-workers. Comrades in the
| trenches, if you will. And finally there's the ability to not do
| anything, which can be quite nebulous and dangerous if not
| managed.
|
| For anyone who is a solo-creator struggling with this, "body-
| doubling" is a term from the ADHD/neurodivergent community that
| simply means "doing a task in the presence of another person".
| Surprisingly, they don't have to be working on the same task to
| help you feel like you have "comrades in the trenches". If you're
| interested, check out Flow Club in my bio.
|
| [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html
| chiefalchemist wrote:
| > For one, my income is somewhat tied to my productivity, and my
| productivity highly correlates to my state of mind.
|
| What it highly correlates to is your health - mental and
| physical. I have a friend / colleague who is a successful
| creator. YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. He does well. But the
| stress is endless.
|
| Being solo, pardon the cliche, but he's like a rat in the social
| media platforms' wheel. There's no room for error (i.e., getting
| sick). Even his "vacations" are driven by what content he can
| create. The wheel never stops.
|
| From time to time we chat about his "business model". To me it's
| not sustainable, or it is until it isn't, and then the bottom
| comes up fast. I've suggested he start to think of himself less
| as a recording artist and more as the record label. That is., to
| somehow try to figure out how to be less dependent on being the
| only rat running (for dear life) in the wheel. He agrees. But in
| no time at all, he's gotta get back on the wheel. There's no exit
| other than to shut down, which is no exit at all.
|
| The focus is admirable. But it can also be blinding, and perhaps
| eventually unhealthy. For as successful as he is, I wouldn't
| trade places with him.
| greybeardednyc wrote:
| How do you generate enough income to survive?
| whartung wrote:
| First, I'm easily distracted.
|
| But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that is
| engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on this
| for?". It's all very fleeting.
|
| It's not like I have some other burning passion to work on
| instead, some "if you do this you'll make lots of money instead
| of those toys you make thing". I don't.
|
| But, especially being older, it can be a trick at times to
| persevere, not say "F it" and fire up "distraction du jour" (HN,
| YT, video game, etc.).
|
| My recent project, that I actually released, documentation, cross
| platform installers, and everything, took a year of calendar time
| (but not a year of effort, it was idle for some months). It felt
| good to get it out, put it in the hand of other (I think only one
| person has actually used it). But, that actually doesn't deter me
| (sure, I'd like folks to use things, that's why I finished the
| project to make it, ideally, easy to pick up).
|
| But, still, there are those times when that hopelessness of "why
| bother" creeps in and takes the wind out of my sails.
| packetlost wrote:
| Same boat here. I've yet to find something that I feel
| _warrants_ full attention. It 's sort of opposite to the common
| SV "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" attitude. Maybe
| I'm just too distractable and pessimistic.
| elwell wrote:
| I feel like I would be more motivated if I were to work on
| something that helps people. Making money is fun at times, but
| (especially as a Christian) I can't ignore that voice that
| selfish gain is mostly meaningless.
| gagege wrote:
| I have the same problem. I see all these hackers out there
| making (something like) the millionth travel blog and sticking
| with it for years and somehow ending up making a decent income
| off of it. But I'm sitting here wondering if my potentially
| cool game idea that has never been done before is something
| that the world really needs, then I quit after about a week
| because of those thoughts.
|
| What drives people?
| c7DJTLrn wrote:
| >But, the real issue in working on something, for myself, that
| is engaging, and pushing back the "WTH are you wasting time on
| this for?". It's all very fleeting.
|
| Similar for me. I'm generating and validating ideas at the
| moment, but it takes almost no time for me to convince myself
| an idea is rubbish, not worth exploring, or already done.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| You probably already heard this, but if you are doing a
| product, not "research", that something has been already
| done, needn't be a deterrent.
|
| It just as well may indicate there's room in the market for
| yet another twist on a similar thing.
| ekanes wrote:
| Your scenario makes me think of The Lean Startup. It's a book
| but you can find podcasts, talks, etc. It's worth thoroughly
| understanding it as it makes it much harder to ship something
| people don't want, but also pushes you to engage with people
| earlier so you're co-building. I'm also older :P and this is
| the biggest idea to change my approach to this game.
| soupfordummies wrote:
| What's the project? Can you share it here?
| jddj wrote:
| I'm sure you've already heard/read it said a bunch of times,
| but you shipped a thing out there. The vast majority of
| people/projects don't.
|
| You probably actually enjoyed it too, just not the whole time.
| That's fine, that's the treadmill.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-10-05 23:00 UTC)