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 to do it.

Motivation Management

In any goal that has to be accomplished, there is a Start. It usually gets overlooked, as it's always there. The Start is a much bigger problem since you can’t reach The Dip if you don’t get through The Start, and many more people fantasize about doing something than actually do it and give up.

The Start Before the Dip

<ul>
<li>Maintain your sense of Expectancy in the project using small wins and accomplishments.</li>
<li>Reward yourself.</li>
<li>Maintain a sense of value by finding a way to remind yourself of the bigger picture of the small, everyday bouts of effort.</li>
<li>Build positive habits.</li>
<li>Find flow.</li>
<li>Set clear follow-on goals.</li>
<li>Maintain energy.</li>
</ul>

How To Keep Going

Motivation is “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way,” or rephrased, “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.”

Motivation Defined

<ul><li>Increase your reason to start a project, by increasing the value of starting it.</li><li>Increase your expectancy of succeeding at that project.</li><li>Decrease your reasons to delay, by increasing urgency, using a deadline.</li></ul>

Getting Motivated to Start a Project

Across language learning, company building, and any kind of creative project, there is a dip. The Dip is the long stretch between beginner’s luck and real accomplishment. Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most.

The Dip

Many people use a commitment device or game their surroundings to get and stay motivated.
You can physically help your goal by things like throwing away your junk food, only showering at the gym so that you go there, and similar activities aimed at focussing on your goal. People also use public commitments in social media to stay motivated by peer pressure.

A Commitment Device

“When you quit something that you had initially wanted to do, it’s because the reasons to stop eventually came to outweigh the reasons to continue. Thus, to maintain your motivation you can either strengthen the reasons to keep going or weaken the reasons to quit. Successful motivation efforts generally include both.”

“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”

Set small, incremental goals that are sufficiently exciting to be motivating and for which you have a reasonable expectation of completing.

Stay Motivated 

It states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Parkinson's Law

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." - Einstein Stop me if you've heard this one before. Ryan has decided to learn Spanish.

Getting Motivated to Start a Project

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

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Motivation: The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated

Motivation: The Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated

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