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How I got to 200 productive hours a month

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Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#81

Post by eeZah7Ux »

beagle3 wrote: post #33
unfamiliar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that by the nature of ADHD telling people to "get off the internet" as a solution to the problem would be more akin to telling the insomniac "just stop staying awake all the time!"

Not really. Leaving a phone at home and taking a notebook or book with you while sitting outside is not like "stop staying awake". It will, in fact, get you off the Internet and is unlikely to result in withdrawal symptoms for most people. Unlike "stop staying awake" which is not actionable. A book might not be a good suggestion for everyone, and finding the right "off internet thinking environment" is not easy for s…

> Unlike "stop staying awake" which is not actionable.

That's the problem: you think "stop staying awake" is not actionable, while "leave your phone at home" is actionable for a person with ADHD.

Again, this is not different than saying "just be happy" to a depressed person. To that person, in that moment, "stop wasting time on the internet" is not actionable just as much, otherwise it would not be a problem in the first place.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#82

Post by amigoingtodie »

pasta wrote: post #25
kobeya wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have ADHD it’s not so simple. When I’m off my pills — which is to say every day of my life before I was diagnosed — I don’t really make conscious decisions about such things. I open my computer to work and find myself on Twitter or Facebook or HN or whatever 20min later without thinking about it. I mean that literally with no hyperbole. ADHD manifests from an under developed or under stimulated prefrontal cort…

I absolutely don't want to be rude, but the 'inventor' of ADHD (Eisenberg), when he died, said that ADHD is a pharmaceutical dease and the cause is social. Wrong food, bad sleeping habits, wrong teaching methods all influence the way we get stimulated. Studies agree with this. I am not saying you don't have a problem, because I also feel like someone who has ADHD and feel a lot like the author of the article. But I a…

The same argument can be made about user's of cholesterol and blood pressure medicine, as well.

Exercise more, eat 'better'.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#83

Post by beagleman »

boundlessdreamz wrote: post #9
wingerlang wrote: post #3

EDIT: Not that sneaky, just me completely blanking on the sentence after the actual link! Original comment below. ---- Sneaky. I clicked around on the links he had on his tools and found one that looked interesting (Qbserve) and it turns out it's one of his products which I felt would have been nice to have as a note. The only indication of this is the bottom footer header which also says Qbserve.

Did the copy change? It says "our automatic time tracker" and it is also on the same domain. It's an excellent tool. I have only tried the free trial though. $40 feels a bit high. $25 or below would have been an instant buy. I think he will also get better conversions if the free trial is 30 days instead of 10

I've been using Qbserve for maybe 6 months. It has saved me, I don't know, 4-6 hours a month ret-conning and tuning timesheets. It's also meant I've gotten paid for those trivial jobs that I always forget to enter into even the simplest manual tracker. The productivity boost (which I have absolutely noticed) is a nice bonus. I don't know what you charge for your time, but Qbserve paid for it for me several times over in the first month.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#84

Post by taway_1212 »

coldtea wrote: post #74
taway_1212 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They had plenty of "traumatic stress" before the 21st century, in all parts of the world -- huge wars, conflicts, disasters, even genocide. But those involved (like older friends and relatives that have survived bombings and wars and dictatorship) also could grow a pair and snap out of it, and even thrive afterwards. To the contrary, I think the past generations of my family who have survived WW2 and Stalinism were…

Dunno, we have had huge WWII impact, dictatorship, civil war, and other such things in my parts, and they didn't impact much the generations involved in everyday life. I know tons of people that survived those events. Speaking to friends and relatives it was just things that happened. So it goes, etc.

Maybe they were more lucky. In case of my grandparents, they were children whose parents were executed by Nazis or sent to Auschwitz to die, or who themselves were sent, as teenagers, to a Stalinist prison.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#86

Post by wainstead »

empath75 wrote: post #73

>Such news don't actually inform us but spread sensationalism, negative emotions, and outright lies to capture attention. What do you gain from following the latest political crisis or some scandal? You can't do anything meaningful about these events. They only depress you and occupy space in your mind. It's better to direct your focus toward things that we can actually impact and improve. This is a depressing point…

While I specifically disagree with the OP that "You can't do anything meaningful about these events," the rest of the advice is pretty dead-on. I've read it from a spectrum of authors as wide as Dale Carnegie ("How To Stop Worrying and Start Living") to Dr. Andrew Weil ("8 Weeks to Optimum Health") to Cal Newport ("Deep Work").

Think of it this way: it's good to be well-informed about the state of political affairs today and to understand the issues. What's not healthy is obsessively reading Twitter every hour, constantly being outraged and getting into flame wars (does anyone even use that term anymore?)

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#87

Post by Delmania »

empath75 wrote: post #73

>Such news don't actually inform us but spread sensationalism, negative emotions, and outright lies to capture attention. What do you gain from following the latest political crisis or some scandal? You can't do anything meaningful about these events. They only depress you and occupy space in your mind. It's better to direct your focus toward things that we can actually impact and improve. This is a depressing point…

I agree. There's a wonderful statement that says that even if you don't take an interest in politics, politics will take an interest in you. It definitely is the responsibility of every citizen in a democratic nation to stay informed of what the government is doing.

I think, however, the point here is to avoid obsessing over politics. If you learn of something that deeply disturbs or affect you, arguing about it on Reddit will not help, you need to take action. Contact your representatives, get involved in a PAC or political party, etc. You need to take as much action as you can.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#88

Post by mbrock »

nurettin wrote: post #62
mbrock wrote: post #26

TL;DR: Basically getting up early and doing 4 hours of deep work has changed my life from really stressful and bad to really productive and nice. One thing really fundamentally helped me, as someone who works from home on a large project in an asynchronous 100% remote organization. I work on a fairly involved project that demands a lot of hard work. At the same time there are other things I want to get done: some adm…

I miss the times developers would optimize their lives without all the online rants and the sensitive encouraging, nodding and enabling of said behavior. That said, don't you have banks which automatically pay your bills (electricity/gas/water)? Which country are you from?

You probably should stay away from comment threads about personal productivity then?

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#89

Post by mbrock »

lazyjones wrote: post #54
mbrock wrote: post #26

TL;DR: Basically getting up early and doing 4 hours of deep work has changed my life from really stressful and bad to really productive and nice. One thing really fundamentally helped me, as someone who works from home on a large project in an asynchronous 100% remote organization. I work on a fairly involved project that demands a lot of hard work. At the same time there are other things I want to get done: some adm…

Sounds to me like you had some issues with distractions during the day, amplified by working at home. Other people (like me) prefer to work late at night for the same reason, it also allows for a more social lifestyle (i.e. going out occasionally) than having to be in bed early.

It's less about distractions and more about never having the feeling of having done enough.

Being done with work by lunchtime is a way for me to be more social, but that's a matter of situation. I do "go out" sometimes; shifting my sleep time by a couple of hours isn't a big problem for me.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#90

Post by isolli »

dx034 wrote: post #78
tome wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add a counterpoint to all the apologetics, ADHD as a cause rather than as a symptom is a point of view dominant in the US and not shared by most of the rest of the world. If you're inclined to take drugs to try to fix it then so be it, but you might want to try behaviour change first. [FWIW this reply and "advice" is not directed at the parent, kobeya, but is a general point of information.]

What is most of the rest of the world? Most countries in Europe recognize it. International medical associations also recognize it. Are there countries where a psychiatrist would never diagnose ADHD?

I think this is about adult ADHD.
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