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There is an excellent post over at RobotII on what to ask yourself if you keep failing. You can see the post at http://www.robotii.co.uk/2011/08/whats-going-to-be-different-this-time
Basically, you need to ask what are you going to change from the last time so that this time it actually works.
I’m using a new technique to help me keep my blog more up to date. It consists of committing to writing at least 50 words each day.
To be honest, 50 words is not an awful lot, but the idea is to create a new habit, which will encourage me to write.
If you’d like to try this technique, some small tips and instructions can be found below.
Make it a daily habit.
Doing it one day in three, or every other day, makes it tougher to remember to do it. Feel free to ignore this advice if you want, but be aware that you’ll be swimming against the tide.
Tag it onto another habit.
Maybe you could do it while you drink your morning coffee, or after brushing your teeth. Building it into a chain will help the habit to become ingrained.
Start off small.
Don’t try to push yourself too hard in the early stages of habit building. The most important thing is to get the habit entrenched, not to produce voluminous output. Commit yourself to doing less than you think you are capable of. You can always increase the scope at a later date.
Record your successes.
Mark on a calendar, or devise some way of recording your progress. Once you see the progress you have made, it may motivate you to continue, especially on those days when you don’t feel like doing it.
Leave your tips on habit changes, how you approach writing, or general productivity tips in the comments.
I have a few different hobbies; writing is one of them. However, I find that motivating myself to write an be very difficult at times. Usually once I get started I am able to carry on, but getting past that initial hurdle seems almost insurmountable at times.
The following tips I have found useful in kick-starting my writing. They can probably be loosely applied to real life as well.
1. It doesn’t matter what you write with, as long as you get up early and write every day.
As long as your tools are up to the job, you should worry more about whether you are using them than whether they are the best.
When writing, you can be productive with just paper and a pen, or a laptop, or possibly even a tablet PC (I’m not too sure about that last one, but the point stands). What matters more is whether you’re using the tools you have, rather than constantly tweaking or faffing about with them.
You’re not going to find a set of tools that makes writing effortless, because the task itself requires effort. A good writer will be able to write with any tools, although they may be more comfortable using their particular set up. The point is that once you have something that works, it may be counterproductive to keep changing it.
A useful measure in order for you to ensure that you concentrate on the things most important to you, is to write down your top five priorities.
After you have the list of five things, evaluate everything on your todo list in relation to the five priorities you have written down. Chances are that most of the things will not be related to the priorities listed.
Divide the list into three categories.
1. Essential items for living.
2. Items that directly contribute to your priorities, or support them in some way.
3. Everything else.
For the first category think about how to eliminate as many as possible, by automating or reducing the effort required to complete.
For the second category, examine whether they actually contribute towards your priorities, or are actually part of the third category.
For the third category, dump as many as you can, and start reducing the number of items of this nature coming in. You may need to learn how to say no.
Note that you can do this for your life overall, or restrict it to a particular domain, for example, your job.
In this day and age motivation is key to success. Using extrinsic motivation properly to achieve desired levels of motivation in order to keep yourself, your staff and children/spouse motivated can be a tricky art.
Firstly we need to define what is meant by extrinsic motivation. Simply put, it is the benefit that will acrue to you by performing successfully in some endeavour, but which is not a consequence of the performance itself. An example may suffice here.
When cleaning your kitchen, or sorting out your paperwork, you will end up with a clean kitchen or tidy paperwork (hopefully). This is what is known as intrinsic reward. It may also be a motivation to do the task in question. If so, it would be thought of as intrinsic motivation. In contrast to this, if your spouse offered to take you out for a meal if you clean the kitchen, it is apparent that this is not a consequence of cleaning the kitchen, but of your spouse’s intention. This would properly be regarded as extrinsic motivation (assuming that it was something you wanted).
If you offer sweets to your children, on condition that they finish their dinner, that would be regarded as extrinsic, not being a direct consequence of them finishing the meal.
Under certain circumstances, rewards do not succeed in raising the motivation levels above the threshold needed to perform the actions required. Below are some tips on how you can ensure that your motivational hacks have a higher degree of success.
1. Reward is not sized appropriately to the results desired
When a reward is much too small, or disproportionally large in comparison with the requested action, the result may be demotivation. If the reward is not seen as fair compensation for the work carried out, the result will be non compliance or reluctant compliance.
Therefore you should not make the reward overly large or overly small.
2. Ensure that the reward does not negate the intrinsic benefit
The intrinsic and extrinsic benefits should not be in conflict because, if this occurs, the opposing forces will cancel each other out. It is easier to demotivate people than it is to motivate them. You may have noticed this already.
3. Use when the intrinsic benefits are not well understood or accepted
This one works well on kids! Offering a reward for good behaviour is quite acceptable, and works very well. However, once the intrinsic benefits are understood, it is appropriate to stop the rewards, in order to allow for growth and development opportunities.
4. Avoid using extrinsic rewards when the intrinsic is sufficient
If the intrinsic reward can be used to motivate sufficiently, then it is usually better not to try to reinforce it by external rewards. Doing so is likely to diminish the value of the task in question.
Instead, a good method is to neglect to mention rewards initially, but to reward the effort at the end. This can result in a double rise in motivation, if it were quantifiable.
When trying to get something finished, perfectionism can be a deadly foe. Sometimes, things do need to be perfect, but for the vast majority of cases, there is an acceptable trade off between time spent and quality.
For instance if you are crafting a website, or blog post – does it need to be perfect, or is there a point in time when you can let it go, put it up there for the world to see?
Admittedly you could use this as an excuse for sloppy, ill-conceived ideas and poor writing. To be honest though, if you are a perfectionist, you are not likely to come across this problem. Rather the reverse.
You could tell yourself that you will go back to it later and improve it but, for most people I suspect that will never happen. However, it will take it off your plate for the time being at least, freeing you to move on to other things.
Will the world be a worse place because your idea hasn’t been realised in the exact way you imagined? Will you contribute your ideas to the world, or will they be hidden away in a folder and destroyed when you leave this world because no one else has the same passion for them that you do?
If your ideas are that good you must share them, don’t let them be lost by insisting on perfection in the execution before you unleash them on the world.
Feedback is an essential part of many activities. For instance, when driving a car you rely on visual feedback from the road ahead to ensure that you are driving in the correct direction, that you are maintaining a safe speed and so forth.
Likewise you rely on feedback when communicating with other people. Subtle changes of facial expressions and body language indicate when you might want to change your approach.
Building feedback into your life is relatively straightforward and there are many ways you can do this.
You could ask for feedback from other people, you could look at stats from your website, or gauge the reaction of people using surveys.
I would suggest that the best form of feedback is from individuals, preferably from those who care enough to give it. Someone who seeks you out is likely to either point out the flaws in your work, or point out what you are doing well.
You can use the former to improve, and the latter to confirm what is going well.
If you’ve ever had a good idea, but haven’t followed it through, you are certainly not in a minority. Many good ideas fall by the wayside due to poor execution, lack of time, or simple lack of interest.
The truth is that you need to be committed to your big idea in a way that matches the potential of the idea. If you are not committed, it may be better for you to release the idea in order that you can move on to other things.
If you realise that you are committed to realising the idea, you will almost certainly encounter resistance, possibly from other people, and often from the struggle to actually implement it. This is an important part of rendering your idea – a way that weaker ideas, or those you’re not ready to being to fruition, are discarded.
If you really want to push through and implement the idea, you must learn to treat the resistance you experience as a natural part of the process. There will always be something that stands in your way, be it time, money, people or even yourself.
Take a look at the obstacles. Can they be overcome or otherwise rendered impotent? You will usually find that the resistance can be removed, worked around, or otherwise ignored.
Remember that there is no rule that says it has to be easy.
Write stuff down. 
The first and most important means to getting things done is to keep a todo list. It also needs to be organised, so that you know in what order things need to be worked on, and what you need to complete the tasks.
Work long hours on Monday and Tuesday.
This especially applies if you’re a contractor. If you can only bill 40 hours per week, working 12-14 hours on Monday can get you an early-departure on Friday. Furthermore, by staying late early in the week, you’ll get your productivity ball-rolling early. People often say that their most productive work-day in a week is Wednesday. As long as you are actually getting the work done, and not just putting in the hours you should be fine. Note that some employers are not flexible with time, so you may have to adapt this somewhat.
Reading is a great way to learn most things.
If you want to learn something new (for your current or next career), the best thing to do is read. The world’s knowledge resides in books and increasing now, online. You can learn a lot from just reading. Of course, reading is no substitute for actually doing, and you will retain the knowledge better by applying it, but reading is a great first step.
Sleep is important.
While working late nights can be productive in the short term, doing it consecutively will burn you out quickly. Getting a good night’s sleep can often lead to greater productivity because you’re refreshed and ready to go. I find that if I don’t get enough sleep the night before, it dramatically decreases the amount that I get done.
Work on something you’re passionate about.
If you don’t like what you’re doing for a living, find a new job and quit as soon as possible. It’s not all about the money, it’s about being happy doing what your currently doing. It is always best to have something lined up before you take the drastic step of leaving your current job, but if you really can’t stand your current situation, or it is making you ill, I would say quit immediately. Of course, the best balance is both money and happiness. It’s unlikely you’ll realize this unless you have a job that absolutely sucks, but pays well.
The above also applies to personal projects as well.
