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Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

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Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#41

Post by Ensorceled »

elsherbini wrote: post #20

I really love the idea. I use pomodoro timing for my work, but I always have to decide on the spot what I want to do for that 25 minutes. If I'm working on one task, that's easy, but after I'm at a good stopping point with that task it's hard. I like the idea of mindfully making the todo list every day or week. Three pieces of feedback: 1) I have to click "done" after editing anything and if I forget and click on som…

Love the idea and giving it a shot.

My biggest initial recommendation is this:

"Give breaks" is broken as implemented. As somebody who uses pomodoro: a task is 4 hours or 8 pomodoro sessions; it's an estimate that includes my breaks. Don't make me do the math and don't make me have weird 2 number estimates for no reason.

e.g. If a plan is about 4 hours I need to enter 4 hours - 8 x 5 breaks or 3 hours and 20 minutes. Estimates of 3h20m seem really exact when it's really how you represent "about 4 hours" in your app.

If I start the plan and realize it's really going to be more like 6 hours I have to do that all over again and change two numbers again.

Other issues: 1) Same as the OC. e.g. changed all the times on the hours per day but didn't click any of the dones, 7 changes lost. UX principle: don't require confirmation on easy to correct changes. 2) No keyboard navigation. 3) I have to double or triple click all the time. e.g. change name of "untitled plan" is 3 clicks. Change number of hours in a plan 2 clicks

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#42

Post by runeks »

rguzman wrote: post #32
staticelf wrote: post #6

I don't see how this differs from a normal calender in terms of killing procrastination? The problem I have is not that I haven't planned correctly, it's that I do not follow my plan.

> The problem I have is not that I haven't planned correctly, it's that I do not follow my plan. reply if you don't follow the plan, you haven't planned correctly. a good plan has built-in mechanisms to make you follow it. OP's project tries to give you one potential mechanism for that.

Sometimes, not following the plan is exactly the right thing to (not) do. Remember: you always have more information now than when you made those plans.

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#43

Post by dageshi »

jbmorgado wrote: post #22

My issue with this method and most other methods, is that I have no good idea on how much time I need to actually allocate to each project/goal. I work in research, when I start a project I have no really good idea on how many hours I'll have to put into it in order to complete it. Same goes for some of my personal projects. Let's say, I want to learn Data Analysis in Python... I can't really come up with a good idea…

Personally the only method I've ever found that reliably works for me is to have a rough idea of what I want to tackle the next day, then first thing in the morning after a good cup of coffee I open up notepad and attempt to plan out the things I need to do for the rest of the day. I try as hard as I can to break them up into as many individual tasks as possible. Then through the rest of the day I implement them.

Those first few hours in the morning are typically when I'm at my most mentally able to come up with good solutions for whatever I'm doing and the rest of the day I find it relatively easy to follow the plan.

In terms of pomodoro I use the opposite method, I don't time myself when I'm working on individual tasks from the list, instead as soon as I finish one I give myself 10 mins before starting the next.

My mind absolutely refuses to change context too quickly, it's almost as if I have to go defocus my mind on reddit or HN/youtube for 10 mins before it'll suddenly snap back to the next task.

But I'm a lifelong chronic procrastinator, I sometimes think I'm the equivalent of a runner who's trying to run a marathon in 100 meter sprints...

I'm productive enough in my own terms :) I get things done and mostly meet deadlines.

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#45

Post by mataug »

lintiness wrote: post #27
mataug wrote: post #25

I've come to realize that no tool is going to help me solve my procrastination problem. It has to come from within and if I bring myself to stop procrastinating then the tool doesn't matter.

this tool looks like a great way for you to waste time instead of doing what needs to be done :)

by `this` did you mean using the tool or trying to solve the problem from within ?

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#46

Post by hal9000xp »

I already wrote how I manage my time in this post:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12736194

I'm training hard for algorithm contests (mostly on CodeForces.com and acm.timus.ru). It requires very intense focus without any distractions. Also, it's very energy consuming (at least for me) and can be frustrating if you get stuck.

But I have a problem with procrastination. To solve that, I agreed with myself that I will work on my algorithm stuff only when I turn on timer for 15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes. But if timer is turned on, I must work without any distractions at all (in complete silence, non-stop).

The key idea is that it's much easier to convince myself not to be distracted for specific time frame.

If it's hard for me to start working non-stop for 120 minutes, I start with 15 minute timer, after that I usually warm up and can setup timer for 30, 60 or 120 minutes with less psychological resistance.

Another key idea is that in order to start working hard, it's easier to convince myself to work hard only for 15 minutes. Then after that, you become warmed up for longer work.

I also record all my time to a journal. So I know exactly how much time I spent on algorithms last day, week or month.

I like simplicity and keep my journal in plain text.

I also wrote very simple program (C + X11 Xlib) to display histogram.

Here is how it looks like:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmd198jr17dlt1t/hours_resized.png?...

Displayed data collected since February 2016.

Vertical black/grey (color alternating to differentiate between days) segments is how much time I spend each day.

Vertical blue lines mark 7 days frame.

Horizontal red lines mark 1 hour time.

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#48

Post by BeetleB »

Over the years I've tried many planning methods, with very low success.

I tried GTD (https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Produ...) for 7 years before declaring it a failure. It does have some good ideas that I still use, but the TODO management didn't work for me. I think it'll work only for people who have fewer goals than I do. It doesn't handle large lists very well.

Some things I kept from it:

1. Filing cabinet - Instantly useful from day 1.

2. Calendars are only for hard deadlines. Don't put stuff in there that you merely want to do. I know this is the opposite of the submission here. For me, planning everything in the calendar, including things I could ignore, led to a mess. Keep it for things you really cannot ignore.

In general, any obsessive time based planning like this submission fails for me. GTD is not time based. I prefer planning my tasks for the week, not for the hour.

I like the idea behind Kanban, but I do not think it fits most of our personal lives. Very good for certain work environments, though.

Pomodoro technique: It's good, but not really for task management. It's just a good technique to stay focused. Worked for a few months until I got used to it. Now it does not keep me focused and I can easily get distracted by the web, etc.

These days I'm trying this:

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Your-Workday-Now-Strategies/dp...

I think it works better than GTD, and fills the gaps in it. If you do not want to buy the book, a condensed, down to Earth version is available as the 1 Minute Todo List:

http://www.michaellinenberger.com/TheOneMinuteTo-DoList-Eboo...

Personally, I feel the book is better than the PDF at explaining the rationale behind the 1 minute todo list. Reading it was very calming. It explained all the problems I had had with GTD and similar techniques.

Basic ideas:

1. If you cannot examine your todo list inside of a minute, it is too long. So spend a lot of effort ensuring your daily todo list is not long.

2. Urgency and importance are not the same. We're hard wired for focusing on urgency, so do not try to make a TODO list purely based on importance.

3. Every week, identify everything that must be done in the next 10 days and put it on your list that you'll examine daily. Things you decide not to do in the next 10 days, keep in your "list to examine weekly".

4. Every day, multiple times of the day, look at the short list and do tasks from among them. If new tasks come in, add them, but keep the list short (no more than 20-25 items). If your list is getting too long, identify things to move to the "list to examine weekly" and get them out of the way.

5. If something needs to be done today, put it on the top of your list!

6. You'll also have "the list to examine monthly" as well as quarterly.

Very simple idea - works a bit better than GTD.

I think my biggest problem is that I need to reduce the goals in my life and focus on only a few. I have more goals than time in my life, and I keep jumping from one to the other. No task management system will work until I do this. Tough decisions need to be made!

Re: Show HN: Killing Procrastination by Making Everything Fit

#49

Post by [deleted] »

dlss wrote: post #29
noir_lord wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven't planned correctly, it's that I do not follow my plan. I use Any.do (which I like the UX off a great deal) with Reminders for this, at first it felt like it was nagging the hell out of me since I was snoozing so much stuff but then a strange thing happened, I stopped snoozing stuff and started doing it so I could kill the task if it was a quick task. On the UX side something like that has to be so effortle…

I think you're talking at cross purposes. I sounds like your main problem is that you knew what to do, but forgot to do it. This is different from knowing what to do, but doing something else instead (an issue I am quite familiar with myself, my sympathies to GP). Todo list apps work great for remembering what to do, but don't solve GP's problem one bit.

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