Will add one point that helped me through procrastination. Learned this from writers, applies well to programming.
1. Make it your aim to write as horrible code/prose as you possibly can. It will get you started.
1.
Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
231–240 of 370 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#232I don't care what other people think.
This sounds a bit too anti-social. I do actually care what people I care about, think. And I care what people with well-informed opinions think. But a random hater? Annoying class mates/co-workers? People with an obviously stupid opinion? If they think badly of me, that says more about them than about me.
This does a lot to keep me calm, sane, and free from anxiety that would otherwise turn me into a wreck. It's probably the one attribute my wife most admires about me.
It got started as a defense mechanism against bullies and other annoying class mates, but it has served me well since then.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds like it could develop into unhealthy behavior. Glad it works for you though. Personally I do the 3 pocket pat down every time. Left, right, back. Keys, phone, wallet. If either pocket is empty then something is seriously wrong.
You should probably stop keeping your wallet in your back pocket, though. I downgraded to a smaller one so I could keep it in my front pocket with my phone.
I know it’s supposed to be bad for your back or posture or something rather but it feels impossible to stop that habit.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#234When I am stuck on a issue/decision/bug I just stand up and go "walk about it" with my dog.. Most of the times I come back with something to get started.. All of the times my dog comes back with a wagging tail.
Hammock Driven Development by Rich Hickey touches on this subject. Great talk.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#235Oh, there's another one.
Prioritize Information Exchange: I hope to provide useful information to other people. I don't want to convince them, just to give them what I know. In exchange, I try to find people who will give me what they know. Essentially, enable the Postel principle for yourself, and always invoke Crocker's Rules upon yourself. If other people don't or persist in being wrong then allow them to be so.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#236Heres some algorithms that I actually use in my life. I don't know if they fit the bill, but whatever, I'm sharing them.
A) SCHEDULING.
If there's a thing that you want to do but you can't do it now, set a reminder to do it, and include how long you are waiting to do it in your note. If the reminder comes up and you can't seem to fit it into your schedule before the next wait time is up, set a new reminder but double the wait time.
This ensures that you don't forget about the possibility of doing something just because you don't have time, but also ensures that you don't spend excessive amounts of time worrying about finding time to do something if you don't really want to do it, or can't prioritize it.
Moreover it allows you to schedule many events without worrying about your schedule getting too crowded.
B) TRYING NEW THINGS. (using a menu at a restaurant as an example)
1. set n = 2. 2. Every time you go to the restaurant, pick a random natural number between 1 and n. 3. - if it comes up 1, pick something you've never tried off of the menu to try. If you don't like it, increase n by 1. otherwise add the item to your list of things to get and set n=2. - otherwise select an item at random from your list of favorite things. You can optimize selection from this list as well, but I don't.
This is hard to keep track of, naturally, so I only use it when I feel like I'm in a rut, but I trust the algorithm, more or less, and it pushes me out of my comfort zone in a way that I am, paradoxically, very comfortable with.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, you do three times as many checks, and you're concerned about someone else developing a habit, lol? FWIW, I do the same things. I never shut my truck door without physically verifying I have my keys (lesson learned). ;)
Any time I am sitting in my car, my keys are in one of the following places: * The ignition (my car plays a chime if I open the door with the keys still in the ignition) * My pocket (self explanatory) * My lap (they will fall and make a racket if I stand up without grabbing them first) My father's system: Only lock doors from the outside, using a key. It's hard to lock yourself out that way. (Not helpful if you live…
If you had an automatic key starter you’d never even need to take the keys out of your pocket. My new car has a keyless system and I never take the “key” out of my pocket. I just need to be nearby to click on a button on the door to open it. To lock, I put my hand in my pocket and click the lock button.
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#238Write 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 w…
If you go a bit further with this, it becomes documentation-driven development :-) Also fits the first point of Simon Peyton Jones’s talk on writing a research paper: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/wr...
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#239My hacks: * Productivity: every day do at least one measurable thing that puts forward your project, even if very small. * Expectations: don't care about the outcome of your work, as long as you tried to put a lot of good efforts into it. Focus on trying to do the thing instead of focusing on the result it will have, or what people will think. * Stress: instead of being preoccupied about things, try to take care of t…
Really sharp. Will you please by my guru?
Re: Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations?
#240Write 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 w…
I found a simple 3 columns list to be useful to visualize tasks. | To Do | Doing | Done |
Wouldn't this be hard to move items if it's written down? Unless you're using some sort of program like Trello?