For lack of a better title I’d like to get some insight on what results in consistent work habits.
Since I’m sorely lacking in work ethic at the time this would be considered a last ditch effort.
What used to work for me is complete isolation from the web, no entertainment and good eating/sleeping habits.
And since that now has changed perhaps some other Rituals are in order,
any hints?
Reward cycle. tell yourself no play till some achievable unit of work is done.
Make work and desire one and the same.
For some people, Yes.
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OP if all you have is negative emotions, then perhaps you should find a cleaver way to use them. I’m not saying it is the best option. But if you are going to be in a yukky place emotionally, you might as well be there with some cool artwork.
In any case it beats apathy.
Get a camera and go explore your environment, maybe get a macro lens or a microscope and explore a world you may be unfamiliar with.
Add exercise to your good food and sleeping habits.
Try to find a workflow where you can be spontaneous, find your voice.
I can say I’ve had a similar issue as of recent, I open Blender and sometimes just close it.
In fact, for me there’s times where I don’t really feel like doing anything at all (just sit there on my machine, browse the forums, randomly open websites, open and close Blender, and then just sit there, and if not just be completely useless). :spin:
Even the concept of reward doesn’t seem to work near as well as it used to.
You need to use all the willpower you have and more to just force yourself to put in the effort, I would recommend looking at past work you’ve done to help you realize what you’re capable of if you put in the effort, and remember that it might not be fun now but it will be worth it later and the motivation will come naturally.
Eventually we all hit that place where it’s unclear what needs to happen right? That’s sort of where that uselessness kicks in.
Sometimes distance helps although most often not much.
If anything the only sure thing that I’ve come up with is taking some reference and making a shoddy copy in 10-20 minutes.
original - > 
< - copy
It’s not great but it gets the synapses firing.
thanks for input
I suggest: “the way that Charles M. Schulz penned 17,897 original Peanuts comic-strips over the space of nearly 50 years.”
Schulz did not wait for inspiration to strike: he expected it to show up, and(!) he “prepared dinner for it” even on the days when it didn’t. Even when the demands of his burgeoning business empire demanded his attention, nothing stood in the way of his morning routine.
The loss of inspiration. It happens. It’s happened to me several times and I go to great lengths to kindle it back into life.
I study Engineering by day, and at my university that means a lot of math. After two or three months of math, you’ll find yourself unable to come up with new concepts to draw. Heck, I haven’t seen anyone doodle from my engineering classes for a very long time. So, I’ve come up with several habits to keep the art alive. Generally, if it’s really bad, I have to do these in order:
Currently I’m at #3. I finished my exams a couple of weeks back and couldn’t even hold a visal image in my brain for more than a few seconds. I am now kind-of motivated, but not enough to work on my long-running projects. It’ll take another week for that.
These things apply to all sorts of projects, not just art. I can’t program properly unless I’m above #3. I can’t cook interesting meals unless I’m above #1. Drawing doesn’t work properly until #4.
Maybe it’s just me, but this little progression (it doesn’t have to be done strictly in order) is very usefull.
What complexity, yikes, the devil in details… just discipline self.
We each find ways that work for us and the tools our personality/brain gives us. And they will not all be the same for each person.
It may be useful to find yourself a person (or a few people) as an ‘accountability buddy’. Find a person (it’s easiest if that person also does computer graphics, but it’s not necessary. They could be working on other creative pursuits) and arrange to meet on a regular basis… like once a week. When you meet, you each need to show what you’ve done/created since the last meeting. Often, that’s enough to get you motivated.
Similarly, you can do work sessions with other creatives. For instance, I have a group of people whom I’ll periodically ping to do “shut up and work hangouts”. It’s exactly what it sounds like. We get on a Google+ Hangout, put ourselves on mute, and work on our own projects for some amount of time (usually at least an hour). They’re there to bounce ideas off if you need, but it can really help to know that someone else is working when you are.
^True that. Why i gave a short answer… self discipline.
Know yourself, apply experience got onto self. Teaching other is only effective by helping others to teach them self. Discipline is for each individual different phenomena a closest synonym would be self-control.
From observation i noticed that more descriptive the advice is the more it tends to produce greater noise (chaos) in ones choices & decision making… namely self-control.
Deduce from knowing self what works best.
Nobody gets to be a better player by watching others play. Interact.
Perhaps the lack of motivation is an indicator of a lingering larger problem in life. Are you finding a lack of motivation to ‘work’ or an overall lack of motivation for anything and everything? The things you once enjoyed in life are no longer enjoyable? Maybe what you could use is some time off, a vacation, not just from work, but from your whole life as it is. Do something different, try some new things, meet new people, have an engaging conversation with a complete stranger from a different walk of life whom you may well never see again for the rest of your life.
Do something that makes you feel alive and maybe when you come back home, whenever that may be, you’ll feel like a new person with a whole new lease on life.
