Set your heart, or light your ass, on fire
I absolutely had days of dragging it out, but today wasn't. Today focus was easy, I was in the Flow State, in software developer terms: "in the zone". I didn't check my phone, didn't look at the time, 100% of my brain power was on building a feature.
Because I had a deadline. There were expectations on me.
External expectations and pressure has always been a key ingredient to get into the flow state. This applys to non-software as well. In school or in the army for example, if it is a time-boxed task, achieving flow state was easy.
But there has to be a more voluntary way of entering the flow state.
Set your heart on fire
Time passes by the fastest when you are doing something you are passionate about. If we are able to find the thing that lights our heart on fire, go and do it. It is a priviledge to be able to find that thing, to be crazy and live every day as an adventure instead of dragging it out.
Find a strong why
Or, light your ass on fire
We can't always find what sets our hearts on fire. Then the next best way is to force ourselves to do it by setting expectations and deadlines. External deadlines are much easier to induce urgency, but to induce urgency by ourselves, we need to find another way. Many people broadcast what they are doing on social media to induce that pressure on themselves, largely populated by the #BuildInPublic movement. I quite like that.
A solution I am testing out
I am not a fan of broadcasting everything, I am an extroverted introvert. But I will test a solution of telling a few close friends of my progress to hold myself accountable, and after a period of time, move on to self-imposed deadline and urgency.
I believe this is all a way of setting habits. Consistency creates habits. It is similar to going to the gym, start off with a gym buddy keeps your accountable, then slowly, you go to the gym everyday by yourself.
So let's see if it works!