Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#11

Post by sanj » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

Utilize laziness:

It works like this: 1. Realize that most of the world is out to distract you. 2. Realize that part of the way to do this is to make distraction, and access to distraction, as easy as possible. 3. Actively set up "friction" to reduce that ease.

In practice: I don't install FB on my phone; I have to use the crappier web version. I block reddit on my laptop, so I have to use my phone. Just by making stuff not ubiquitous, you add a little mental friction to using it that dissuades it usage.

One more: I always log out of FB and any other "easy-to-use" distractions. The act of logging in is costly enough (given my long passwords) that even if I open up the tab, I'll bail because I'm too lazy.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#12

Post by Insanity » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

Write down what I'm going to do.

It happens that I can't really 'start' with work due to having too many things to choose from, or by not knowing how to really get started with it.

What always helps is writing down on a piece of paper a step by step guide of what I will do. this can be very general. But just having the steps written down helps me get started.

Kind of like a "todo list" except that I don't update it when I'm done.

This helps me when I need to make a choice for what to work on, but also to compartementalize the problems that I get stuck on.

For example, on my paper it says this at the moment:

     -> Extend importsystem
        -> Write parser for text-data
            -> check if data in system!

It's just a rough outline for what I should be working on at the moment (instead of being on HN, probably).

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#13

Post by holdenc » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:28 PM UTC

How to speed up your epiphanies:

- Quiet room in the afternoon, with a bed

- Lay down but don't sleep. Drink coffee first if you need.

- Close your eyes, picture the problem, and relax. Visualize it existing in the world. Tweak it. Imagine others' reaction to it.

- Give yourself 20 minutes. If it takes longer, go for a walk.

This technique works well with large architectural decisions, and occasionally helps with debugging stubborn problems.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#14

Post by random_kris » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

tlackemann wrote: post #6

Simulacra wrote: post #2

Two things: I use brown/white noise a lot to quiet my ADHD and general mental chaos. Whenever possible I steal myself away and just bask in the low, dull roar of the noise in some earbuds. The other, cannabis.

I'm glad to see someone else mention cannabis. It honestly has helped me so much with slowing down and making sure I put in the time to search for answers. It's helped me creatively and passionately. It's helped me calm down my anxiety in stressful situations and be clearheaded with my thoughts. It's not for everyone but for those that do use it, I sincerely believe it works.

what is the dosage? are you smoking joints mixed with tobacco? do you smoke daily or just once or twice a week. can you elaborate? i've been a daily user for past few years but I think i see only negatives but I am too into to it to quit the drug for good.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#15

Post by ArtWomb » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:29 PM UTC

Do the daily Mind Dump!

I try to start every day by opening a GSuite doc. It's synced to my phone so I can edit wherever. It's a running stream of minutiae.

What I've discovered is that by logging my ideas, no matter how trivial. It instantly frees my cognitive load for new thoughts to take hold. I no longer have to cling onto the old to remember them.

It also represents the first step in transmuting the abstract into something physically manifested ;)

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#16

Post by option_greek » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:30 PM UTC

tlackemann wrote: post #6

Simulacra wrote: post #2

Two things: I use brown/white noise a lot to quiet my ADHD and general mental chaos. Whenever possible I steal myself away and just bask in the low, dull roar of the noise in some earbuds. The other, cannabis.

I'm glad to see someone else mention cannabis. It honestly has helped me so much with slowing down and making sure I put in the time to search for answers. It's helped me creatively and passionately. It's helped me calm down my anxiety in stressful situations and be clearheaded with my thoughts. It's not for everyone but for those that do use it, I sincerely believe it works.

Having never tried it, I'm curious, isn't there a chance that it turns into an addiction ?

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#17

Post by mkio » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:31 PM UTC

I just started using a todo app, instead of the note app i used for years.

Now i can give each thing i think of a priority and a deadline.

I sort my todos by priority and make sure i get the important things done, before anything else.

I start the day, by choosing which todos i want to get done today and then i work my way through the list in no particular order.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#18

Post by padolsey » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:35 PM UTC

bsaul wrote: post #9

1/ Whenever you can’t motivate yourself to start working on something, think about the smallest thing you can perform and make it your only goal for the day. It can be something as simple as « open the ide and compile the project once ». The trick is that after that first step you will naturally begin to do some real work, because the movement started. 2/ when learning a new skill or trying to improve , focus on one…

> "you will naturally begin to do some real work, because the movement started"

This works. But only if there is a cadence that you comfortably settle into. Slow feedback cycles in your tools, real world blockers or other problem-domain bureaucracies can kill whatever sense of cadence you have, a bit like when a Parkinson's patient can walk forward quite well until they reach an obstacle -- and even upon removal of the obstacle, their motor cortex can't provide the necessary neurological oomph to get them back to cadence. This is how I currently feel where I work. I'm used to quick feedback cycles and a quick cadence. But am weighed down by endless blockers. It's a large company with lots of entrenched tooling, too, so not so easy to remediate the situation.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#19

Post by AznHisoka » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:36 PM UTC

If I am stuck in a problem, and I'm close to mental exhaustion, I turn off the computer, do something entirely different, get some rest, and come back to it tomorrow.

The next day, I often discover a solution I didn't realize before, or that same problem/bug goes away somehow, most likely because I was too tired and overlooked something.

Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?

#20

Post by scarejunba » Mon, Dec 03, 2018, 2:37 PM UTC

Decision-bias: More situations are made worse by not making a decision than making the wrong decision. Most decisions can be rapidly undone. Therefore, always bias to making a decision.

Anti-schlep-blindness: Look for the thing you're avoiding thinking about. It's probably the most important thing.