brainqm

So, here I am. I just canceled my 10th attempt to finish a “do daily x task”– challenge. * Do 30 push ups daily * Code 1h a day * write one bog post a day There are simply endless possibilities for such challenges. I begin to realize, that this kind of 'challenges' doesn't work for me. In my mind they feel like homework, things I have to do, something 'uncool', something my parents have told me to do. Those challenges terminate the joy I normally have during those activities and this is really contra productive as you can guess.

There is a difference between meditate 5 minutes daily and meditate daily. The more specific the challenge is, the less I tend to accomplish such task. I can't really tell, why this is the case, but it is the case (at least for me).

At the beginning I am really motivated and want to achieve my goals, BUT I've never enjoyed doing such tasks and – so far – nothing could change it.

What I've tried to change it

Rewards. I am not a a big fan of rewards for challenges as the achievement of the challenge should be rewarding enough. Due to the challenge even the chosen rewards are getting really unattractive which is really annoying.

Create social pressure. Share your goals with the world. Share it on social media platforms, with your friends and family or some stranger on the street, just don't keep it for yourself. So, there is chance I am getting lazy now, right? – Wrong. The more pressure there is, the more my mind shuts down and this – again – really counter productive.

Doing it in a group. You can't plan everything in your life and new projects often have the least priority. So, in my experience, if one person in a group stops, the whole group is going to stop after this. I may give it a try again at some point.

Have reminder everywhere. Put reminder in your calender, set up a wall calender to track your progress and mark dates with red 'X' if you have done the task yada yada. It annoys so much. I simply hate it.

What may will work

Target a goal, focus, work on it. Don't focus too much on the documentation of the progress and get shit done. I will write more in a separate blog post about it.

I know what to do, I don't need pseudo challenges for this.

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This is just my personal opinion or/ and experience. Feel free to reach out and talk to me.