How do you motivate yourself to work?

Listing every step of a task is actually quite the best you could do to unload those heavy "mental stacks". As you said, they feel much bigger than they really are. But then, it just unfolds quite easily when you dive deep into those things, which at first, felt impossible to achieve. I used to be into the "motivation" trend a few years ago, but they were mostly a burst of energy to tackle some particular task. I have often left burnout from those extremely high-intensity periods, and couldn't keep a constant pace toward my ultimate goal. But I think, everyone will have to pass through those "moments". I believe they are necessary to kickstart the raw concept of the product. It's actually a learning curve. Only those who gave enough time to understand their own hectic behaviors may get to the next level. For me, it only worked on data that was already available to me, and I only had to organize, compile and develop my own lecture toward new solutions. In the long run, IMO, it's not the right strategy. It's actually more complex than it may be explained here. I think It's all about attaining efficiency in your time and energy spent. You got to be in the middle, between feeling good about checking stuff in the morning and taking action toward them. And this is without crossing the "hyper" notes where it will turn you into a vegetable the next days. Of course, deadlines are your worst enemies, since it doesn't give you any choice other than finishing on time. As a solo-maker, I got the benefit of not being restricted on time. If you built a team, that may be a very different story. I am also probably able to be productive because I am learned almost every aspect of what could go right and what could go wrong in my actual setup. That's 6 years of getting the different tasks done in different ways. I believe, at the very start, the curve will tend to go on the high notes, highly motivated, high energy, high expectations, etc. Then it all goes down, then up, and so on. My longest burnout was 8 months. After this, I learned to manage myself much better. Ultimately, some "qualities" are only earned when you hit a wall pretty hard! No amount of advice will prevent anyone from being "risk-free" during their journey. I guess it could only help in knowing the most probable pattern in your adventure as a startup/maker and prevent you to not get easily discouraged. I found an illustration that points out those things extremely well. If I am not mistaken, it was produced by Paul Graham, founder of Y-Combinator: Link: https://postimg.cc/4YwXKJjh For some, it may take 3 years, and for others 5, up to 7 years, and maybe more. But at least, your mind is really more adjusted to the expected curves you may encounter, which will probably help you stay "motivated" and not just panic or get depressed about the "process". Hope it helps! ;D (not a native speaker, sorry!)