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Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#91

Post by 8note »

wingerlang wrote: post #72
fratlas wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear every iPhone 4 has their home button and mic broken eventually. I think the battery life dives dramatically after some point which I haven't reached. Will probably upgrade after that happens.

Actually the mic works, I just get/give no sound when in a call. Works perfectly everywhere else. Home button works as well, but I mainly use something like Assistive Touch anyways.

i had that happen on my nexus 5. for me, it was a bug in the headphone jack, though i didnt bother to go about fixing it.

in a call, the phone thinks theres another mic installed, and tried to use that instead.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#92

Post by freek4iphone »

muse900 wrote: post #30

Personally speaking, no apps helped me beat procrastination. What actually helped me a lot is figuring out that I am unhappy and depressed in my life and why is that. Once I figured that out I set for big changes, and stopped caring a lot for things that made me unhappy. I appreciated things I got, I started going on trips around the world and met my wife. After being happy in life I found my self in a very positive…

Agree with you, one of the first thing for me to beat procrastination was to stop wasting time on useless things like checking facebook/twitter every 5 mins and getting rid of the FOMO completely, this is easier said that done, but feels great once achieved. i removed facebook and twitter from my phone, put your phone to Do not disturb and suddenly i have all the time in the world. I use this time to think/plan and create efficient habits/methodologies to beat procrastination.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#94

Post by mettamage »

Here's a meta comment.

When I look this thread as of now (11 July 18:00 in Amsterdam), I see almost no nested comments in the middle.

Typically when I read nested comments I see: agreements, disagreements or new perspectives. In most HN threads the most upvoted comments have the most nested comments, but it is also quite common to see a lot of nested comments somewhere in the middle in topics that have this many upvotes and I don't see them.

The upvoted comments and the nested versions are quite original -- 'soul searching'/self therapy, broken iPhones, blackberries and chess clocks. I haven't seen half of it in productivity books, perhaps variations of it, but the variations wouldn't allow me to think of a chess clock.

I'm thinking of why there are fewer nested comments in the middle. It might be because: 1. big enough personal differences in habit formation (my hunch) 2. we're all saying the same thing but we don't recognize it or we do but don't react 3. there's simply no need for further comment

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#95

Post by michaelsealy »

The best app is probably sitting in front of you. It is called an old fashioned calendar. Intention and discipline are the keys to getting stuff done. You have to develop a powerful WHY. Why do you want this change so bad? Once done the next thing is to not leave it to will power and chance. Schedule the time on your calendar. I believe in starting small and using the lowest barrier to entry. Plan your day the night before and time block what needs to be done. Don't worry about perfection. You need consistency first. You need to become the person that shows up when you say you will. You have to develop character. The last piece of the puzzle is understanding that motivation is not a prerequisite to creativity and taking action. You will find both of these bubbling from within as you start to act in a consistent manner. Do it later translates to do it never and robs energy from your creative genius that can and should be spent on the task at hand.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#96

Post by snehesht »

avindroth wrote: post #87
pdq wrote: post #13

Pomodoro technique [1]. Break your time/tasks into 25-minute chunks, where you focus on a single task (no context-switching, pauses, breaking). Rinse, repeat. I use Flat Tomato on the iPhone, and I can track how many pomodoros I complete each day/month, which gives a good feedback as to my goal tracking. [1] http://caps.ucsd.edu/Downloads/tx_forms/koch/pomodoro_handou...

I tried the pomodoro technique multiple times, and it failed. The reason for its failure was the lack of emphasis on setting up the right atmosphere. Now a pomodoro (I use Productivity Planner, made by the guys who made 5 Minute Journal, so I keep track of my pomodoros) doesn't "count" unless I check everything off of the pomodoro prep checklist. 1. Airplane Mode / Turn Cellular Data Off (for urgent calls) 2. Freedom…

I used to do this during exams, suits me perfectly.

Another suggestion, If you're working on a side project or studying, try to do it early in the morning ( for me it's 4am ), you'll feel less distracted.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#97

Post by chatmasta »

vonnik wrote: post #2

Read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. He has some good suggestions. One of the best ideas in there is that certain small habit changes create behavioral cascades. For people trying to lose weight, just writing down what they eat at each meal has a huge effect. When you make up in the morning, making your bed increases the likelihood that you'll do other things that require discipline. The idea is to get many sma…

The best takeaway from that book is the "cycle" of habit: cue -> routine -> reward. The message of the book is that if you have a bad habit, e.g. smoking, there is a "cue" that causes you to engage in the "routine" of smoking, for the "reward" of nicotine. Unfortunately, these cycles are hard wired into our brain, so once they're fully established, we can't change them. The author offers the solution: keep the "cue" and the "reward," but change the "routine." The first step is recognizing the cue. Once you know what it is, you can replace the "routine" with something more benign, that also leads to a reward.

So for procrastination, maybe the "cue" is your code compiling, and the "routine" is typing "n -> down -> enter" into your address bar to get to hacker news, and the reward is some sort of stimulus. You can fix this habit by recognizing the "cue" of code compiling, and swapping it out for a new routine, like 30 pushups, to get a stimulus reward of energy.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#98

Post by vonnik »

chatmasta wrote: post #97
vonnik wrote: post #2

Read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. He has some good suggestions. One of the best ideas in there is that certain small habit changes create behavioral cascades. For people trying to lose weight, just writing down what they eat at each meal has a huge effect. When you make up in the morning, making your bed increases the likelihood that you'll do other things that require discipline. The idea is to get many sma…

The best takeaway from that book is the "cycle" of habit: cue -> routine -> reward. The message of the book is that if you have a bad habit, e.g. smoking, there is a "cue" that causes you to engage in the "routine" of smoking, for the "reward" of nicotine. Unfortunately, these cycles are hard wired into our brain, so once they're fully established, we can't change them. The author offers the solution: keep the "cue"…

totally agree! digging in a little more, he talked about the cycle of:

cue -> craving -> action -> reward

and the whole question is, how do you find rewards that instill craving which will lead you to an action that changes your lifestyle?

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#99

Post by antisthenes »

ksikka wrote: post #14

Constrain the time you have to do something. Work often fills the time you give it. If you try to achieve something in a short amount of time, you'll be forced to work at 100% with full focus to get it done ASAP. I'm always amazed at how sometimes a dreadful task takes 10-20 minutes when I'm forced to do it in that timespan, but if I have an hour to do it, it'll take an hour. To make the constraint feel real, put you…

This may work for some things, but fails spectacularly for creative and learning tasks.

Re: Ask HN: How do you create productive habits?

#100

Post by mrxlnn »

vonnik wrote: post #2

Read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. He has some good suggestions. One of the best ideas in there is that certain small habit changes create behavioral cascades. For people trying to lose weight, just writing down what they eat at each meal has a huge effect. When you make up in the morning, making your bed increases the likelihood that you'll do other things that require discipline. The idea is to get many sma…

Charles Duhigg changed my life.
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