Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#21

Post by sanj » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

sanj wrote: post #11

Utilize laziness: It works like this: 1. Realize that most of the world is out to distract you. 2. Realize that part of the way to do this is to make distraction, and access to distraction, as easy as possible. 3. Actively set up "friction" to reduce that ease. In practice: I don't install FB on my phone; I have to use the crappier web version. I block reddit on my laptop, so I have to use my phone. Just by making st…

I use this around junk food too: place stuff in an upper cabinet.

I'm usually too lazy to go get it.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#22

Post by superhuzza » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

nikk1 wrote: post #3

I turn my phone off whenever I want to get anything done

I'd suggest going even further by placing your phone out of your reach:

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#23

Post by RankingMember » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

Simulacra wrote: post #2

Two things: I use brown/white noise a lot to quiet my ADHD and general mental chaos. Whenever possible I steal myself away and just bask in the low, dull roar of the noise in some earbuds. The other, cannabis.

For this purpose (ADHD quieting), do you tend towards a sativa or an indica-dominant product?

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#24

Post by insickness » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

Stay off all news, social media and any distracting websites until noon.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#25

Post by RankingMember » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:43 PM UTC

Rather than grinding away at a problem when stuck, get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink, anything to pull you out of that non-flow situation. Even just spacing out at the wall in front of the urinal while peeing for a moment will sometimes bring clarity to the problem I'm facing.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#26

Post by scottndecker » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:43 PM UTC

sanj wrote: post #10

Set your "new tab" to a page that has data you should be looking at daily.

Momentum extension on Chrome helps with this. Holds a todo list visible on each new tab as well as a place to put your top priority.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#27

Post by clueless123 » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:43 PM UTC

When I am stuck on a issue/decision/bug I just stand up and go "walk about it" with my dog.. Most of the times I come back with something to get started.. All of the times my dog comes back with a wagging tail.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#28

Post by beagle3 » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:44 PM UTC

scarejunba wrote: post #20

Decision-bias: More situations are made worse by not making a decision than making the wrong decision. Most decisions can be rapidly undone. Therefore, always bias to making a decision. Anti-schlep-blindness: Look for the thing you're avoiding thinking about. It's probably the most important thing.

Not taking any action is often better than taking the wrong action, in my experience.

Not taking an action, though, IS a decision so i’m not sure how exactly this compares to your statement.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#29

Post by insickness » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:45 PM UTC

mkio wrote: post #17

I just started using a todo app, instead of the note app i used for years. Now i can give each thing i think of a priority and a deadline. I sort my todos by priority and make sure i get the important things done, before anything else. I start the day, by choosing which todos i want to get done today and then i work my way through the list in no particular order.

The problem with only using a todo list is that you mainly prioritize tasks instead of projects. I use a todo list app (ticktick) in combination with a word doc that contains all my major projects. I sort the major projects by importance and time sensitivity. That helps me stay focused on the big picture. From there, I sort my todo list based on importance and time sensitivity.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#30

Post by mswiss » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:45 PM UTC

Insanity wrote: post #12

Write down what I'm going to do. It happens that I can't really 'start' with work due to having too many things to choose from, or by not knowing how to really get started with it. What always helps is writing down on a piece of paper a step by step guide of what I will do. this can be very general. But just having the steps written down helps me get started. Kind of like a "todo list" except that I don't update it w…

I do this with TODOs as well. It's really helped.