The Motivation Machine: How to Get & Stay Motivated for Any Goal - Nat Eliason

Tim Ferriss wrote about a similar curve in The 4-Hour Chef to describe his progress learning languages:

There's a pattern here. Across language learning, company building, and any kind of creative project, there is a dip. A long period of low motivation, little excitement, and unrewarding challenges. Most people quit during the dip. But if you can manage to not quit, you can make it to the end and reap the rewards.

What the book highlights is that the biggest problem we face with completing our projects isn't productivity or time management , but motivation management . When you're sufficiently motivated to accomplish something, you'll move heaven and earth and start a war with Troy to do it.

When you're not motivated, no amount of SMART goals or Pomodoros or screaming affirmations in the shower will help you.

In The Motivation Hacker, Winter designed a system to ensure that he would accomplish his goals over the three months. I don't want to spoil the ending, but he was mostly successful, and his book outlined effective motivation techniques any of can employ.

There were a couple areas he didn't cover as much, though. First, Nick is a self-starter, so there wasn't as much focus put on The Start as there was on surviving The Dip. Further, it was a system built for those three months, not an ongoing motivation system, though I'm sure he incorporated many of the lessons into the future.