Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction • Hacker News Board

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#31

Post by hosh » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:34 PM UTC

kareemsabri wrote: post #8

anotheryou wrote: post #6

I think self-control should be valued higher than self-restriction. With self-restriction I mean blocking bookmarks (hindering you), not muting the phone (removing outside distractions). To me this self-improvement through shedding responsibility is scary. It's the same for fitness tracker that tell you when to do. (I have to admit there is some grey area in between though. Some habit forming can be beneficial ((e.g.…

It's a nice sentiment, but the products/sites/apps that aim to suck our attention are designed to exploit human weaknesses via dopamine release, variable reward etc. (see the book Hooked), making it exceedingly difficult and potentially expending your finite store of willpower on things you could much more easily avoid altogether. Personally, cultivating the self-control to avoid checking facebook.com is less interes…

Concentration and willpower are not the same thing.

Concentration rests on a foundation of relaxed awareness. Concentration states include flow, zone, etc.

Willpower is usually thought of as having to force your way through things. However, there are disciplines that reframe and retrain that. For example, the Taoist principle of Wu Wei is a good example. Wu Wei is usually applied in the West as Fk It, but it's more that you become the person whose will is naturally aligned and in harmony with the environment and the universe, and as such, you naturally (Zi Ren) do the things. There is a similar idea in classical, medieval Tantra from India.

Having said all of that, I had removed the Facebook app from my phone years ago, only access Facebook through incognito mode without the benefit of passwords. I used to look at it once or twice a month, but now I kinda forget. Sometimes I want to level up my work and not level up my concentration skills.

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#32

Post by hal9000xp » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:40 PM UTC

Since February 2016, I started working with a timer.

I have an agreement with myself that if a timer on my phone is set for 15, 30, 60, 120, 180 minutes, I should work non-stop without any distractions (no food, no music, nothing except my work).

Since then, it's much more easier for me to work really hard and be very focused.

If I'm too lazy to set timer for 3 hours, then I set for 15 minutes. It's easy to convince yourself to work hard during 15 minutes. Then I usually become warmed up a bit and set a new timer for 30 minutes, then for 60 etc.

I also keep track of how much time I spend daily. For example, in October, I worked purely on algorithms like this:

01.10.2016 4

02.10.2016 6

03.10.2016 1.75 2

04.10.2016 2 0.75

05.10.2016 0.5

10.10.2016 0.5

11.10.2016 0.5

12.10.2016 1

13.10.2016 0.5 1

14.10.2016 1.5

15.10.2016 1 2.5

16.10.2016 0.25 2 2.5

17.10.2016 1.25

18.10.2016 0.5

Numbers are hours. I.e. 0.5 = 30 minutes. Several numbers mean that I had pause/time gap in between.

Algorithms/math and problem solving olympiad problems require a lot of really hard work. With a timer, I'm working much more effectively like I never did before.

P.S. Why timer on a phone instead of a computer? Well, it's easier for me to just click and close window on the computer. If timer rings on phone, I have to get up and walk to the phone (I intentionally put it on the next table).

By the way, it's very good to keep a journal because overtime your collected data about yourself become valuable. For example, I plan to draw a graph with moving average, so I would see overall picture how dedicated I'm. If you don't have such data, it's easy to fall into trap convincing yourself how good you are (like I did before).

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#33

Post by Arun2009 » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:41 PM UTC

A key skill in focusing on something is realizing when you have become distracted and bringing your attention back to the task at hand. The sooner you do this, the better. Usually we tend to get carried away by stimuli and become "lost" for long times at stretch. This not only eats up time, but also consumes mental energy that we could have otherwise used for productive work.

I have been successfully using meditation as a "model problem" to train my ability to become aware when I have become distracted and bring my attention back to the object of focus. A classic analogy of mindfulness meditation is that of an elephant (your mind) tied to a post (your breath or whatever is the object of your focus) through the rope of mindfulness. When the elephant strays, the rope pulls it back to the post.

While there seems to be some scientific evidence that meditation does indeed improve your ability to concentrate on any general task, my own conviction arises from seeing first hand the similarity between countering distracting stimuli during meditation and during general work.

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#34

Post by J-dawg » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:51 PM UTC

I only heard the term "deep work" yesterday, listening to Cal Newport on James Altucher's podcast.

It's a pretty good introduction and he talks about his own approach to work. He's also a professor of computer science!

They talk about his other book first (also interesting), so you need to skip a little way ahead for the deep work stuff.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-james-altucher-show/...

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2016/09/cal-newport/

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#35

Post by mitul_45 » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:51 PM UTC

Recently, I have been working on something exactly similar - An app to schedule your day: https://github.com/mitul45/ta-calendar

Check it out and let me know what you guys think!

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#36

Post by rpastuszak » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 4:52 PM UTC

Just realised I was reading this article whilst listening to a TED talk in a different tab. I guess he has a point here.

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#37

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 5:01 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#38

Post by adambmedia » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 5:27 PM UTC

The irony of Hacker News articles on productivity and focus is not lost on me.

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#39

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

anotheryou wrote: post #6

I think self-control should be valued higher than self-restriction. With self-restriction I mean blocking bookmarks (hindering you), not muting the phone (removing outside distractions). To me this self-improvement through shedding responsibility is scary. It's the same for fitness tracker that tell you when to do. (I have to admit there is some grey area in between though. Some habit forming can be beneficial ((e.g.…

[deleted]

Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction

#40

Post by qntty » Tue, Oct 18, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

anotheryou wrote: post #6

I think self-control should be valued higher than self-restriction. With self-restriction I mean blocking bookmarks (hindering you), not muting the phone (removing outside distractions). To me this self-improvement through shedding responsibility is scary. It's the same for fitness tracker that tell you when to do. (I have to admit there is some grey area in between though. Some habit forming can be beneficial ((e.g.…

Self-control is hard, and at the end of the day, most people don't care whether they've made themselves into a stronger person in the course of doing their work. They just care that they did their work.

If you have goals in life, you’re probably going to need some sort of organization. Even if it’s an organization of just you, it’s still helpful to think of it as a kind of machine. You don’t need to do every part of the process yourself — you just need to set up the machine so that the right outcomes happen.

For example, let’s say you want to build a treehouse in the backyard. You’re great at sawing and hammering, but architecture is not your forte. You build and build, but the treehouses keep falling down. Sure, you can try to get better at architecture, develop a better design, but you can also step back, look at the machine as a whole, and decide to fire yourself as the architect. Instead, you find a friend who loves that sort of thing to design the treehouse for you and you stick to actually building it. After all, your goal was to build a treehouse whose design you like — does it really matter whether you’re the one who actually designed it?

Or let’s say you really want to get in shape, but never remember to exercise. You can keep beating yourself up for your forgetfulness, or you can put a system in place. Maybe you have your roommate check to see that you exercise before you leave your house in the morning or you set a regular time to consistently go to the gym together. Life isn’t a high school exam; you don’t have to solve your problems on your own.

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/nummi