Does anyone have any advice on how to get started doing something productive at work when you've got no tasks?
I feel so guilty spending endless time on reddit an HN.
The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
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Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#12>Time inconsistency refers to the tendency of the human brain to value immediate rewards more highly than future rewards. To me it seems this sort of reasoning suffers from the homuncular fallacy. Who is placing value on the rewards: are some rewards 'rewarded' more highly than others? What about those rewards, etc. >When you make plans for yourself — like setting a goal to lose weight or write a book or learn a lang…
> Who is placing value on the rewards: are some rewards 'rewarded' more highly than others?
I guess your own brain by means of producing dopamine?
And to the second question, obviously would depend on the amount of dopamine that gets generated (if that's at all how the rewarding effect of that substance works on the brain)
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#13I like that Victor Hugo's 19th century version of "deleting apps from your phone" is "deleting your clothes".
I have found that an easy, milder nudge, for either computer or mobile device, is to remain logged off of things by default and explicitly log out whenever you're done.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#14Useful things for those in the struggle... Deep Work , by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This is a must-read for anyone serious about work. Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without interruption, for 25 minutes. When th…
Any programmers here use pomodoro? I expect 25 minute interruptions would do more harm than good for my focus when writing code, especially the continuous expectation that I will be interrupted. I don’t have a pressing interest in finding productivity tips, just curious to hear about programmers who have tried this technique
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#15Does anyone have any advice on how to get started doing something productive at work when you've got no tasks? I feel so guilty spending endless time on reddit an HN.
Ask the question “How can I make the company better right now?”
Maybe there is some documentation that needs to be written, or some small bug you ran across the other day, etc
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#16HN changed their algorithm? I posted this a day ago and still got credit. This is the first time.
I saw this term in the Economics: The User’s Guide by Ha-Joon Chang, which was recommended by HN readers:
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#17Does anyone have any advice on how to get started doing something productive at work when you've got no tasks? I feel so guilty spending endless time on reddit an HN.
Ask the question “How can I make the company better right now?” Maybe there is some documentation that needs to be written, or some small bug you ran across the other day, etc
sorry, I meant productive for me, not for the company
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#18Useful things for those in the struggle... Deep Work , by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This is a must-read for anyone serious about work. Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without interruption, for 25 minutes. When th…
Any programmers here use pomodoro? I expect 25 minute interruptions would do more harm than good for my focus when writing code, especially the continuous expectation that I will be interrupted. I don’t have a pressing interest in finding productivity tips, just curious to hear about programmers who have tried this technique
I did use it for a while, because I had issues starting to work. It helped with that but like you said, 25m were not enough and the interruptions got quite annoying. I tried a 45m/10m work/pause ratio instead and it was a bit better, but I don't really use pomodoro anymore.
It helped me to form a "habit of starting" though.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#19Useful things for those in the struggle... Deep Work , by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This is a must-read for anyone serious about work. Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without interruption, for 25 minutes. When th…
Any programmers here use pomodoro? I expect 25 minute interruptions would do more harm than good for my focus when writing code, especially the continuous expectation that I will be interrupted. I don’t have a pressing interest in finding productivity tips, just curious to hear about programmers who have tried this technique
works well and doesn't have to be 25 minutes, it can be an hour. Experiment (test and learn)
The magic for me isn't seeing the timer as a distraction to my flow, but an enabler - that timer reminds me to go take a walk and let my "diffuse" mode thinking take over and all the sudden things start to click.
Re: The Akrasia Effect: Why We Don’t Follow Through on What We Set Out to Do
#20Useful things for those in the struggle... Deep Work , by Cal Newport. An excellent book on how to work on really big ideas/projects effectively, without losing your humanity in the process. This is a must-read for anyone serious about work. Pomodoro Technique. This is well-documented with lots of apps and tools online, but it's pretty simple. Set a 25 minute timer. Work, without interruption, for 25 minutes. When th…
Any programmers here use pomodoro? I expect 25 minute interruptions would do more harm than good for my focus when writing code, especially the continuous expectation that I will be interrupted. I don’t have a pressing interest in finding productivity tips, just curious to hear about programmers who have tried this technique
I use pomodoro and find it helps my productivity more than hinder it. Mind you I show signs of ADHD (working w/ a doc to get a diagnosis now) so pomodoro might no be for everyone but I find it allows me to slice out some time to really focus and not let myself get distracted.
When time is of the essence I simply skip the 5 minute breaks but continue to work using the pomodoro.