Motivation stimulation method (old school)

Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we have to do something, but we can’t convince ourselves to do it. And the time is running out. Every time we try to sit down and concentrate on work, thoughts run and nothing can be done about it.
Of course, you can force yourself, but this does not guarantee at all that in this way we will work as productively as possible and not distracting. So we are arranged - one half of us are constantly unhappy. For example, when we hear an alarm clock in the morning, we have a choice: we can please our responsible half, get ready and go to work. In this case, the half responsible for comfort will protest all the way, and even at work will begin to pester with whining. Alternatively, we can ignore the alarm. Then the half responsible for comfort will be overjoyed, but the responsible part of us will wake up and protest. For complete harmony will have to compromise.
In this case, psychology can help. This is a more flexible and effective way than simple self-conviction. There are a number of “about psychological” methods on this subject, some of NLP, time management, but I prefer the methods of building schools.
The beauty of such methods is that they do not include any tinsel, such as visualization on paper, a list of cases or diaries. The latter in some situations really make life easier for us, but only not when it would seem that the only thing left to do is just make yourself take up work. But not everyone can, in any situation, so easily say “Stand up and go!” To yourself. It is for such people that this topic is mostly written.

This method, after which the post is named, works directly and without intermediaries. This is a kind of auto-training or self-hypnosis. There is nothing superfluous and distracting. And most importantly - with proper use, it creates not an illusion of motivation, not some other deception, but exactly motivation itself, self-confidence. Some sports teams even have a full-time psychologist who conducts such sessions. But it applies not only to the sport. In particular, I will describe its use for working with motivation to solve problems (of course, those tasks that really require it).
To begin with, you need to reach a certain state of consciousness, or speaking Russian, to calm down and relax. We take a comfortable body position (you can lie on the sofa), close our eyes and relax (concentrate on breathing and all that). When the head clears up, we begin to imagine how we will solve our problem. Here the sequence is important, details, images, movements are important.
Suppose we need to sit at the computer and write an article (program) or something else. We start with the fact that (with closed eyes) imagine the environment: the walls of the room, pay attention to their color, texture, some interior items. Next, we get closer to the workplace - imagine how we are already sitting at the table. We concentrate on the position of our body, the sensations that will arise when we sit down. Then we will present those items that will be in sight: the size-color-shape of the table, all the nonsense, which he littered, and then the computer itself. Detail after detail, we first draw the periphery, the monitor. Now we switch to the interface. We reproduce in imagination with cinematic precision (the closer to it, the better) the necessary preparatory operations (opening the editor, etc.). For now.
This, so to speak, is a preparatory stage. Consider what you need. Notice that we start with the general (room) and end with the private? Thus, we smoothly focus our attention on the goal, reproducing all actions in order. This does not allow the unconscious to lead us away, since these small successive transitions (room-table-computer) are fairly simple. We just imagine how we will approach the workplace and start working. Thus, the subconscious (cache of our processor) is filled with consistent and fairly detailed information.
Due to the fact that this information is logical and true, its subconscious, as it is called, is hawking, does not protest. And due to the fact that it is detailed, it is filled with it, with its details, and not with any distracting garbage.
So the main thing in the preparatory stage is to first clear the subconscious as much as possible, then gradually and consistently fill it with the details of the working environment. The main thing to remember is that when you are already “drawing” a computer in your head, you do not need to continue rendering walls — the cache is not rubber. It is necessary to focus attention on the goal itself (the picture on the monitor in this case). But the more details directly related to the work that will be in sight - the better, but this is secondary.
So, we begin the second stage. I must say it is much more complicated than the first. Now that we have the whole environment in our head (the eyes are still closed), it is time to shape the interior. We begin to gradually recall what information we need. For example, when a billiard-player is trained according to this method, such information is the blow technique: sight, stand, bridge, cue movement. In our situation, it is a bit more complicated, since in this case consciousness is involved in work to a greater extent than in sports.
What kind of information could it be? If we need to write an article, it can be a topic, a goal, a reason for writing. If the main content is not yet thought out, but there are already some ideas, then you can first recall the situation when they arose, and then reflect on the ideas themselves, detail them. If you don’t remember the situation, you can simply try to develop them by imagining that the ideas are the designer. First, we have one Circuit, and then, relying on intuition, try to build up Circuits so that they dock as it should. In other words, to begin with, imagine a solution to your problem, only a solution, not a process itself.
Next comes the modeling of the actions themselves. For example, in a car race a person should be aware of how he will drive on the highway, enter turns, turn the steering wheel, change gears and everything from the first person. That is, when you specifically know what you should do, then you begin to experience these actions in your head in real time (you can even drive in the air with your hand, depicting mouse movements, if you are alone in a room :) If you are a programmer, then you must visually imagine how the program code will appear block by block on the screen.
Consider what this gives us. To begin with, we filled our short-term memory (RAM) with information accompanying the solution of the problem. Thus, we mentally (the eyes should be closed!) Created in the head a complete working environment. Since by this time we have already circled the subconscious around the finger and it is occupied only by the fact that it obediently keeps imitation of sensations in the workplace, it does not prevent us from gradually loading the RAM, namely gradually.
Now we are ready for the virtual execution of the work itself. At this stage, the subconscious should also not interfere, as a fairly accurate copy of the working environment has been created, which is familiar to the subconscious, which in turn is not very smart. It is just the same as a guard dog who took the robber, who had distracted her from eating the delicious bone, for the owner and continued to work on her dessert.
And now the most important thing. When in our head we scroll the execution of the work itself, thereby we achieve two effects at once. First, we gain experience, albeit a virtual one, but in many respects it is indistinguishable from the real and, in any case, better than someone else’s. The second is that despite the fact that we represent everything from the first person, at some moments we may (involuntarily) look at the process from the outside, which is undoubtedly useful.
In the end, when we are really going to approach the task, we will have a strong feeling that we have already done this, there will be a fresh memory of all the feelings accompanying the whole process, there will be self-confidence. They say that the experience thus obtained is unique (it has unique details), it cannot be obtained in any other way. It is also said that such an experience is better than doing the same task (if it is more or less of the same type) in reality. This is partly due to the fact that we ourselves manage the process, its speed, we can slow down something, wind it up. In the analogy with billiards, it is better to score a ball in your thoughts once than at a real table several times (of course, if you have the necessary knowledge and experience to present everything in detail).
In conclusion, I will say that the main thing here is to consistently and in good faith follow the rules that I singled out and present everything as detailed as possible. And the process itself will take 5-10 minutes, maybe a little more - it depends on the task.