Hey friendos! Let’s start off with a question today. How do you deal with reluctance? How do you get yourself to do the things you don’t want to, but have to? It’s something we all have to deal with, but I’ve found that people manage it in different ways. Let’s get into it!

How Am I Doing?

Good! I got completely back into my rhythm, though I should take my daily walks again. It’s getting pretty cold, so I need a little extra encouragement to actually go and do it. Luckily I still have my spooky stories podcast to listen to, but it’s almost finished, so I need something new after that! If you have recommendations for audiobooks or fiction podcasts, let me know!

Parallel

So, I guess that’s one way to motivate yourself to do a thing you don’t want to: do something in parallel that you do enjoy. It’s pretty common for people to listen to music while working to get in the flow. I have to put on some music while cleaning, otherwise it’s a thoroughly unenjoyable experience for me. Some people also like to put on TV or content on their second monitor in the background. I think fidgeting and self-soothing also fall into this category.

I think it’s one of the reasons that made GPS-based games, like Pokémon Go, so popular for a while. A lot of people need some extrinsic motivation to go outside for exercise or to visit specific places.

The Environment

I’ve also found myself doing the “unfun” work during the morning. Updating socials, checking email, administration and more recently, video editing, are all things I have to push myself to do. I always try to make my morning a good time. It’s quiet, I’ve got my mug of coffee and I’m still a little groggy and fuzzy from waking up. By making the environment and occasion pleasant, it feels less draining to do tedious work. This can include: making your workspace cozy or comfortable, finding a convenient time of day,

This is mostly to reduce friction to start the tedious thing, more than motivate to finish the thing. Still, I much prefer doing paperwork in a place I actually like to be physically present in, as opposed to a cold dentist’s office or something.

The Reward

And then lastly, there’s the reward. A lot of people take this approach. You set a goal and promise yourself a gift at the finish line. A piece of cake, some play time, a bath, that sort of thing.

Every Friday night, we go bouldering with some friends. After the session, be it good or bad, we have a beer. It’s a little reward for making the effort to go out and exercise. To be completely transparent, I like bouldering, so I don’t need any extrinsic motivation, and it’s also just a night to hang out and catch up. The beer is just the cherry on top!

For chores I don’t look forward to, this method does not work for me particularly well. During the work, my attention is completely fixated on the reward. I tend to do a sloppy job, or unfinished work, or skip the task entirely to get to the reward as soon as possible.

The Problem

So those are some methods to make things we don’t look forward to more manageable. But there are many tasks that I can not motivate myself to do with said methods. For example, I have a rendezvous with France Travail (formerly Pôle Emploi, the French unemployment agency), in February. It’s pretty likely the communication is going to be… rough. Even if we somehow manage to speak the same language, their administrative terms are foreign to me and my business plan is foreign to them.

I don’t want to go, but I have to. I’ve been suggested methods to make it easier, which I greatly appreciate. I’m going to make a cheat sheet for example, with all the stuff I’ve researched, so I can just point at a term and go “I want this.” But even then, it doesn’t motivate me to want to go. Even the potential amount of funding I can receive from it, which is pretty substantial, doesn’t motivate me to want.

Is there some kind of mind hack for this? How do you manage your reluctance? I’m genuinely curious for answers, so please let me know!

What Am I Doing?

So, other than all that stuff I don’t want to do, I’m also doing stuff I like! I’ve been slowly chipping away at Clysmoids. It’s still very much in that early phase where the game only works in the debug logs. This week I took some time to improve and officiate the framework I usually build my games on. For the tech nerds of you, it’s an MVC framework for Godot I tend to reinvent every other month.

For people who like artsy things instead of cody things, I have something for you too! I drew the first concepts for each of the Clysmoids clans: Goopy, Bony, Glowy, Hairy, and Fleshy.

I’m pretty happy with the results! I haven’t drawn for ages so I figured it would be an uphill battle getting into it again, but… It wasn’t. This only took me about 1 hour per concept. That’s pretty decent in my book! I think from the next newsletter on, I want to add something like a Pokédex entry for a single Clysmoid, outlining some of their behavior and such. Look forward to that!

Why Am I Doing? (this)

Well for the questions about reluctance, I’m curious! I could do with some advice on that kind of subject. For Clysmoids, I don’t really know why this is the project that’s suddenly the one I want to put effort into. I started a lot of small-scope projects that focused on narrative that felt were more suitable for the path I’ve chosen.

Clysmoids though, wandered onto the middle of that path and just sat down. Either I have to call animal control to remove it, or gently coax it off the road. We’ll see what happens in the long run!