Behavioral economists have shown that making good choices is easy if you don’t have to act on them now. Hyperbolic discounting — the tendency to overvalue rewards now and undervalue them later.

Be faithful to your calendar; if it says I'm supposed to do something, I tend to...

When I have long tasks to complete—ones that will require multiple work sessions—I’m careful to stop my work at a place that makes it easier (and more pleasant) for me to pick it back up later.

For example, if I am in a groove and have a story going that I am enjoying writing, I intentional...

One of the reasons people lose their enthusiasm for being efficient and productive is that it can feel like a relentless grind—there’s always more to do

If I have a lot to get done, I’ll make some reasonable commitments to get things done but I also allow time for renewal before diving back...

Psychologist Roy Baumeister has shown that your motivation is a finite resource. I find this to be especially true in the grind of tasks that are hard to enjoy.

Think of yourself in third person. Rather than forcing Joseph into a writing death march on Monday, I focus on some amount of a ta...

Develop a habit of stopping and feeling the earned satisfaction from getting a block of work finished.

This creates new neural connections that associate productivity with pleasure rather than resentment.