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Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

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Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#11

Post by Samathy »

jkot wrote: post #9

Had similar problem, now I can sustain 10 hours with no headaches. Here is what works for me. - get your eyes tested. I have small astigmatism, not enough for glasses, but it was causing headaches. I got glasses anyway. - Recheck your eyes every year. Eyes lens will flex once you wear glasses - Buy large sound isolating headphones, not in-year. - Play single song in loop - Get a bigger screen, even cheap 20" will do.…

How does playing a single song on a loop keep you focused on working and being productive. Doesn't the repetitiveness distract/annoy you?

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#12

Post by kozhevnikov »

A pomodoro timer app [1] did it for me, although I have not bothered with the whole method/technique with all its bells and whistles, just the dedicated uninterrupted 25 minutes of work 'sprints' and short 5 and longer 15 minute breaks that I do not skip.

[1] http://rinik.net/pomodoro/

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#13

Post by flarg »

FWIW I do this: gym 1 hour per day (improves health, skin condition, confidence - just don't run every day and do get good running shoes); plan my goals with GTD (listen to the original audio CDs - they are golden - online guides are usually missing huge chunks --- use paper or a simple note-taking app like Zim); Final Version (http://markforster.squarespace.com/final-version-faqs/) in a cheap notebook with side markers for context; Pomodoro to split up the working day.

All this has taken years to work out - and it will not click you to start with - but you'll eventually find yourself feeling less stressed and more satisfied with your day.

Whether you like it or not it's not sustainable to be in front of a screen for 16 hours a day - so make one of your life goals to get out of that situation as soon as you can.

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#14

Post by travis_bickle »

onion2k wrote: post #4

What have you done to measure your productivity? I used to do something similar to you - 12 hours coding every day, with a couple of hours of Counterstrike, for about 3 years. I thought I was being very productive. But then I started to measure my effectiveness (purely out of interest rather than any belief I wasn't working well) - I measured my billable hours, lines of code, commits, issues fixed, etc. Over the cour…

Thanks, do you have anything to add for the time slot? Should it be a single sitting or divided? Should it be all night or all day?

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#15

Post by mkagenius »

I use 1-hour-less principle. It is counter-intuitive but since I am not working for any company I can afford it.

Right before the work is about to finish, I realise that it will take me an hour to finish this - I call it a day.

The benefit apart from less stress is that tomorrow you are motivated for your next day's work, you know you can get something done right away without having to plan for anything.

And that 1 hour's work often takes only 30 minutes.

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#17

Post by amarraja »

One of the firsts apps I install is f.lux [1]

I put it on the "slow" setting, and it gradually adjusts my screen during the day. I stopped noticing it, however whenever I look at a co-workers screen, it feels like I am staring into the sun!

[1] https://justgetflux.com/

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#18

Post by fedesilva »

Samathy wrote: post #11
jkot wrote: post #9

Had similar problem, now I can sustain 10 hours with no headaches. Here is what works for me. - get your eyes tested. I have small astigmatism, not enough for glasses, but it was causing headaches. I got glasses anyway. - Recheck your eyes every year. Eyes lens will flex once you wear glasses - Buy large sound isolating headphones, not in-year. - Play single song in loop - Get a bigger screen, even cheap 20" will do.…

How does playing a single song on a loop keep you focused on working and being productive. Doesn't the repetitiveness distract/annoy you?

In my case its the contrary; it's the changes in patterns that distract me; the brain can move repetitive sounds to the background.

I don't play the same song but play repetitive music, also I use mid-tempo and up so I don't get sleepy.

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#19

Post by h_o »

Start weightlifting to increase serotonin levels.

My eyes started twitching - I needed glasses so watch out for this.

When you use a screen, you blink less. Actually try to blink more. Also look away and focus on far away objects - the usual tips.

The last tip I find that works is close your eyes gently while sitting down, and tense your whole body, as much as you can. Even your glutes, activate as many muscles as you can while keeping your eyes as un-flexed stressed as possible.

My eyes feel much better after doing this. I think I read this some time ago, and your body is using energy elsewhere - while relaxes the muscles not needed (around your eyes) and it feels amazing.

Good Luck!

Re: Ask HN: How to take personal care when you are in front of screen for 16 hours?

#20

Post by onion2k »

travis_bickle wrote: post #14
onion2k wrote: post #4

What have you done to measure your productivity? I used to do something similar to you - 12 hours coding every day, with a couple of hours of Counterstrike, for about 3 years. I thought I was being very productive. But then I started to measure my effectiveness (purely out of interest rather than any belief I wasn't working well) - I measured my billable hours, lines of code, commits, issues fixed, etc. Over the cour…

Thanks, do you have anything to add for the time slot? Should it be a single sitting or divided? Should it be all night or all day?

It should be what works for you.
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