Tuesday, March 18, 2008

You Earn a Gold Star

As a way to motivate myself to work on my thesis, I created this start system (a la kindergarten). Unfortunately, I never had the time to buy gold star stickers, so nothing ever came of it. But I'm posting it here, cause you may be more diligent than me. Let me know if it helps you out...


To earn a star:

- one hour undistracted work or 2 hours distracted work
- waking up without snooze
- waking up at 8 am (2 stars)
- waking up at 8:45 am (1 star)
- saying no to an invitation in order to work
- at least 5 hours of work in one day
- reach a milestone on project
- in bed by 1:30 am
- say no to unhealthy food temptation/eat a healthy meal
- going for a walk instead of snaking when stuck
- riding bike instead of driving
- ordering plain tea/coffee instead of sugary drink


Star rewards:

Five Stars
- one hour reading a fun book
- one hour nap
- buy a magazine

10 stars
- meal at restaurant
- rent a movie
-write a blog

15 stars
- go hiking
- buy a CD
- go to bookstore

20 stars
- buy a book
-rock climbing gym
- hang out with a friend

THESIS PROGRESS: 23.99 of 40 pages written*
*That's only for chapter 3, the full thesis is much longer.

2 comments:

Valerie Loveland said...

It's so juvenile, but this kind of thing really works for me. It's true that I reward myself for every little thing I do that I don't want to, but I get a lot more done this way.

I just got back from exchanging something broken at the store (annoying), and my reward was buying myself some candy.

C. Moon Reed said...

I completely agree with the theory behind the system, but I have difficulty with the follow through. I need some sort of cosmic vending machine that only dispenses candy (or the cosmic version thereof)when I deserve it. Otherwise, I binge on the candy, have a stomach ache, and still don't get the work done.