EA - List of how people have become more hard-working by Chi

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: List of how people have become more hard-working, published by Chi on September 29, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.I've recently asked how people have become more hard-working. I compiled the answers across the EA Forum and LessWrong (and some private messages) in a list for myself to make it easier for me to experiment with the suggestions. I thought I'd share the list here in case it's useful for anyone else. I also list the things that people said didn't work and a couple of other things.This wasn't done to be "proper", so the list is sloppy in many ways: I liberally paraphrased what people said; often I could have easily counted something two people said as the same or two different things, which would change the way I counted how often something was mentioned; I very roughly grouped the things that were said into categories but easily could have categorised many things differently.Notable pointsIndividual points that were mentioned the most:(Soft) accountability (deadlines, beeminder, accountability buddy, posting about your goals, boss as a service, promising friends) (9)Working on interesting problems/enjoyable work (and in an enjoyable work environment) (8)Focusmate/Coworking (often poms) (7)Some things that weren't mentioned a lot but that I found interesting:Identifying (or being thought of) as hard-working (3)Categorising work as "not work" and instead as something enjoyable, adjusting work environment accordingly (1)Other thingsAge at the time of the shift in hard-workingnesswas usually not mentioned, but when it was mentioned, it was between 20-30Some people managed to become permanently more hard-working after experiencing one period of working hard, even when they switched to less enjoyable or just very different work. That initial period would either be induced by external pressure or by working hard on something they didn't consider work. (3)Full list of what made people more hard-workingHere is the full list, ordered by how often things in a category were named. (Note that often the same person would list multiple things in the category, so the sums aren't summing over people)Thing that workedHow many people mentionedSocial Focusmate/Coworking (often poms)8(Regular) contact with other people to talk about work, debug, check-in etc.4Identifying (or being thought of) as hard-working3Surrounding yourself with ~hard-working people in life in general3Supportive work environment2Having a manager1 21What kind of work Working on interesting problems/enjoyable work (and in an enjoyable work environment)8Feeling like you're good at what you're doing, getting positive feedback4Working on things you consider important3More clear tasks, feedback, endpoints etc.2Less pressuring work1Autonomy1Making work more fun1At least one (work) thing you like per day1 21External pressure (Soft) accountability (deadlines, beeminder, accountability buddy, posting about your goals, boss as a service, promising friends)9Children/poverty: External motivation to do work2Almost being fired1 12Learning more about yourself and your goals Figure out which work hours are most useful, scheduledifferent kinds of work for different times to work more efficiently3Thinking about what you want to do with life and what (work) motivates you3Experimenting with what actually makes you (less) productive e.g. via tracking and realising that productivity advice is very personal2Repeated experience of joy from achieving big things1Deciding how many hours you endorse working1 10Misc. specific techniques Productivity books2Productivity systems2Having policies for ways of making time productive when there are trade-offs e.g. with money1Physical Kanban boards1Walking meetings with yourself1Leverage momentum: Start the day with a small experience of success and let that spiral1Work ...