My takeout from this: positive unknowns are addictive to your brain. Everytime you checkout a website too often you're mostly like a kid before christmas. For a second it defused my own behavior pattern, I may be able to stop losing hours of void refresh per day.
Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
61–70 of 77 posts
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#62I 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.…
The way I do it is with a technique from Buddhist meditation. I watch the urge to switch to something, and intercept it by making note of it.
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#63Like what people are saying about mindfulness. Ideally, we can notice ourselves drift and self-correct at that moment.
Also think fear plays a role. Hard work can be scary. This video on procrastination from School of Life comes to mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QetfnYgjRE
Personal favorite tip: Breaking things into bite-sized tasks! I have a whiteboard for just this purpose.
Timewarp is going to help me. Set some wormholes up with quotes like "Stop playing the slot machines"
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#64I recently had to go through the process of "re-learning how to work." I didn't realize how bad I was at deep work, as the article references it as, until I quit my job and set out on my own full-time. I found that I was replacing the normal interruptions of the office - meetings, email, phone calls, lunch; with getting distracted on social media, general reading, checking alerts, etc. It was like my brain was condit…
whew! you're nailing it, good thing you're not taking silly breaks like going on hacker news and posting comments instead of working!
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#65I 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…
Yes. Whether you have self control or not, a bouncing widget on your screen, accompanied by sound effects (or not), is distracting.
I do several things to help me maintain focus at work:
- No email notifications. Not even a visible count of unread messages. I check email at natural stopping points in my workflow.
- No social media notifications at all.
- No chat programs.
Those simple things really work to help minimize distractions that could break my focus. The only one I haven't managed to kick is the habit of people to just walk up to my desk and interrupt me (the biggest downside of an open office plan).
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#66I 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.…
> Do people really have a problem just riding the flow and not heading off to hackernews mid-task (honest question)? I find myself seeking distraction everytime I hit the compile shortcut and have to wait 10-20 seconds to test my code. The later in the day, the harder it is for me to resist the urge. I think I need a faster machine or to compile less often.
Have a simple physical task that you do during those times, e.g. standing up and stretching, touching your toes, etc. Such things are not mentally distracting in the way reading news headlines or checking email is.
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#67I 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.…
This. I tried StayFocused [1] and Forest [2] (both excellent btw) but self-restriction is no substitute for self control. I'd be restricted, but still unable to focus. And when I could focus, those restrictions were distracting. Interesting you mention Bach. My background music as we speak... [3] -- [1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej... [2] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fores…
Forest is hardcore.
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do people really have a problem just riding the flow and not heading off to hackernews mid-task (honest question)? Yes, lots of people have problems staying focused. I have on more than one occasion even caught myself thinking "now I'm really in the zone, maybe I should check reddit"... But why would that help anything?
Indeed. The "ALT+TAB, CTRL+T, n " combo is something I execute before my conscious brain notices it. However, I'm increasingly better at following it immediately with "CTRL+F4" and thinking "not now; after I finish this".
It's quite terrible. I have this habbit even with pages that I blocked via browser extension months ago. It goes away very slowly for me.
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#69For macOS users, there is a very lightweight app called, appropriately enough, SelfControl [1]. Add the domains you'd like to block to the blacklist, then set the amount of time you'd like them blocked.
Another thing that helps me focus is Chrome's user profiles (and the main reason I haven't migrated to Safari). I maintain both 'Work' and 'Play' profiles -- that separation helps limit the urge to cycle through my bookmark bar.
Re: Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction
#70I 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.…
(Disclosure: I have ADHD, I've been using pretty much all the ideas in this article, and some others, for ages to supplement my meds.) Perhaps you're of the minority who has discipline and self-control to resist all the modern world has to offer. Chasing dopamine hits, from net and phone distractions, is habit forming. As it has become a habit most people aren't realising how often they're doing it. It's easier for m…
Thanks for adding your perspective.
regarding: > Do you think the many who use headphones and music in office are self-restricting and should use some self-control too?
Avoiding disturbances coming to you from the outside is another thing.