My journey to find motivation started a long time ago. When I was a child and later, as a university student, I had motivation to do some things, like playing computer games. But later on, I lost most of my motivation. Even things that gave me joy, like watching anime, I’d have no motivation to start doing. I had read books and went through psychotherapy, but nothing would stick. I’d feel excited right after reading yet another book, but a few days after it would all return back to normal, and I would struggle with motivation again.

It has really changed, when I read The Heart to Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating. This book has stuck, and I’ve been re-reading highlights since I had first read it.

What’s wrong with my motivation?

The truth is not that I don’t have motivation, but that the motivation I’ve been using is bad. I would use the following as motivation:

  • If I don’t do it, something bad will happen.
  • Perfectionism (to polish what I created, while I may not be interested in the project).
  • It’s useful for my career (even though I chose technologies based on how much I like them, it was still bad).
  • I started it, so I have to continue.

All the above reasons don’t make for good motivation, and I would feel bad about them, but I had no other motivation (except for very short random bursts).

New kind of motivation that I’m using

When I started doing a brew timer, I was curious about using images as a part of UI, and I wanted a timer that allowed me to wait for my tea to cool down.

Today, when I thought about continuing with the project, I thought of things I can polish (perfectionism), how I could use it to find a job (useful for my career), and a bit of finishing it since I started it. But that motivation is bad, and I realise it now.

So, I tried to find better motivation. And I found it:

  • I’d like an ability to just wait for cool down, without brewing first. Because I brew some herbal teas in a thermos, when I pour from the thermos, it’s already brewed and I just need to wait for it to cool down.
  • I’d like to play with the idea of using HTML range element (a slider) to enter brew time.

And so, I was able to change my motivation this time.