I've had trouble working on one of my research-related subproblems for more than an hour or two a day. I started visualizing myself explaining to a peasant farmer ancestor that, really, working for more than an hour a day on this subproblem was just too hard. That's been motivating me to put in closer to 4 hours (with a commensurate increase in results), but I don't know how much staying power that visualization will have. Probably enough to finish our this subproblem (I only have ~15 hours more work to do), but imaginary shame only goes so far.
This is the public group instrumental rationality diary for the week of October 1st. It's a place to record and chat about it if you have done, or are actively doing, things like:
Or anything else interesting which you want to share, so that other people can think about it, and perhaps be inspired to take action themselves. Try to include enough details so that everyone can use each other's experiences to learn about what tends to work out, and what doesn't tend to work out.
Thanks to everyone who contributes!
Previous diary; archive of prior diaries.