Thread by @benskuhn

This is another great takeaway from last thread, which I *should* have learned from changing jobs, but actually took ~20 more cycles on the motivation roller coaster to realize.

For me, bad focus was ~always a response to circumstances, even when I wasn't consciously aware!

https://twitter.com/DRMacIver/status/1374807645534756868

My first years at Wave, I repeated variants of the following ~monthly:
- notice I'm stressed/unfocused
- "huh, having an off day"
- go climbing, read books, etc.
- still stressed
- gripe to boss eg "accounting sucks"
- boss helps fix accounting problem
- ✨happiness returns✨

Eventually I started interpreting stress/unfocus as a sign, not that I was having a bad day, but that I was working ineffectively or on the wrong thing. Eg, I'd know I needed to be hiring faster, but kept getting distracted by other, less important, more urgent projects.

That meant demotivation became a cue to reflect on priorities and get rid of whatever was distracting me from hiring—rather than "oh time for some self-care." (The self care was important too but better if it came *after* solving the upstream problem.)

This still happens to me, too! For instance, I was in a really bad mood 3 wks ago. That Fri, we figured out how to reorg our product teams to move way faster on some important projects. I suddenly got way happier. Wait so THAT'S why I felt bad?! I was totally consciously unaware.

I've gotten better at figuring out what the upstream causes are, but it can still take a lot of introspection and thinking sometimes. My literal trigger-action plan is actually "feel bad -> take a walk," where the walk forces me to re-assess what + how I'm working.