How to maintain the motivation to work hard.

Advice that has resonated with me personally:

"Create Small, Bite-Sized Goals"

"Stop Caring About the Things That Don’t Matter"

(I'm reminded of the advice when approaching software optimization — "Your program can [almost] never gain extra clock cycles. Rather, you must try to do fewer things. Whenever you can eliminate the requirement to accomplish some small thing, the faster the rest of your program will run.")

"Remember your WHY". Specific reasons that I might have for maintaining motivation at work:

• positive motivation: [2] [3] [4] [5]
  • JOB SECURITY — Maintaining this job adds stability to my life, that I didn't used to have.
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT — "This is part of making myself into who I want to be."
  • GOOD WAGES
    • I want to pay off my debts and save more for retirement.
    • Having some money for nice-to-haves is really pleasant.
  • CHALLENGE — I enjoy tackling and mastering technical challenges.
  • ACKNOWLEDGEMENT — I like it when other people recognize me as intelligent, capable, and hard-working.
  • PURPOSE — "Feeling a sense of meaning and purpose in my work", having something to accomplish that feels worthwhile to society.
• negative motivation:
  • If I really slack off, I could get fired.
  • "If I don’t finish this task, my colleagues will be frustrated with me."

"Set deadlines, even if they’re arbitrary."

"Find effective rewards"

"Sustain Progress ... with "short middles""