How do you reward yourself for completing a task?

Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. A related quote from management guru Peter Drucker goes something like: don’t hire people and motivate them; hire motivated people.

There have been studies. Intrinsic motivation is always better. That said, if intrinsic is missing, for extrinsic, they say rewards should come often and timely. Eg, giving $100 for passing a midterm is not as effective as $10 for passing the weekly quiz.

To help myself accomplish tasks I’m not interested in, I leverage the rule of threes. I set 1-3 accomplishable tasks for a time period (say before lunch). Instead of “rebuild a deck,” I have much more fine grained milestones: tear out the old deck, take old debris to landfill, level the ground, place footings... The reward is moving onto the next task. By limiting how many projects I have, I don’t get to start a new one until I get something else “done enough.”

Some examples I’ve heard from others where external rewards helped: someone would buy the next $item in $set (game pieces for a table top game, or car part for a restore, or anything that let them do more with a hobby), would add $funds to $project (dollar in the music instrument fund, n minutes of video games, time to decompress), and my favorite, they would do something nice for someone (write a quick love note, or let someone know you appreciate them and why, a small compliment; give themselves the joy of helping others).

I've never found rewards compelling, for myself or from others.

While dieting I had cheat days. But that was never a lifestyle that stuck. The only thing like that that stuck was a slight change in timing and veering towards less sweets and booze.

The only thing I've found compelling is my own internal drive and sense of accomplishment.

I have a hard time with tasks I don’t want to do or feel big and undefined.

The best thing I’ve done is break up the work into smaller milestones and get regular feedback from a stakeholder.

Feeling I’m making progress will be a reward in itself, but also the feedback will help steer the direction of future steps. It saves more face if it’s noticed earlier I'm not well suited for the task rather than letting it drag on.

This applies to any kind of work. Even if I’m taking on a home improvement project I can ask my wife what she thinks of my progress thus far and get a sense of how I should adjust course (up to giving up and calling an expert).

I am trying a pomodore method for myself and my son. Although I am not sure 25 minutes is ideal. I find the logic of, 'I can do almost anything for 25 minutes' appealing, because you know you wont have to do it again, today.

I recently picked up a nice friendly clock for this: https://www.amazon.com/KeeQii-Minute-Visual-Silence-Countdow...

I liked this as it was easy to see how much time there was. I avoided the red one as I found the blue to be more peaceful. So I have one at home, will buy another one for work.

I don't usually "reward" myself for completing a task. But i set my goals all the time – daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and ongoing goals influence me every day.

The rare time I was seriously productive, the simple feeling of having done a duty with high time/return efficiency was enough.

Stop distractions in the first place. (Instant) Reward(ing) with another distraction sounds counterproductive for me.

Atomic Habits might give you some ideas for how to get stuff done. Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it rewarding. If making it rewarding isn't working, maybe work on those other things.

What is the question, again?