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How to be more productive without forcing yourself

deprocrastination.co

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Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#11

Post by taneq »

Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

All very true. Without diminishing this suggestion, though, I feel it's worth pointing out that some people can't just 'readjust their dopamine sensitivity' by changing some things in their environment. If you have chronic issues with regulating attention and they're strongly impacting you in multiple areas, seeing a professional could change your life.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#12

Post by Zealotux »

the_only_law wrote: post #10
Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

I would consider selling my expensive gaming PC if whatever I replaced it with had a reasonable similar CPU. Not sure if I can get that from any type of laptop though at least not without paying more than I paid for my PC. Also I kinda need PCIe lanes.

Amusingly, I had just built myself a pretty expensive gaming PC right before selling it all, and then got myself a second-hand 2015 MBP. I'd say the newest M1 MBP are worth the money, my metric shifted from raw performance/$ to experience/$.

And honestly, I will gladly sacrifice some CPU power just to keep myself away from gaming.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#13

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

taneq wrote: post #11
Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

All very true. Without diminishing this suggestion, though, I feel it's worth pointing out that some people can't just 'readjust their dopamine sensitivity' by changing some things in their environment. If you have chronic issues with regulating attention and they're strongly impacting you in multiple areas, seeing a professional could change your life.

Or, as is my experience with seeing professionals, it could just cost you a bunch of money.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#14

Post by yetihehe »

ramraj07 wrote: post #9
emsign wrote: post #5

I found the "get bored" astonishing. I used to lie down on bed when I was younger and just think and do nothing. That always motivated me to keep doing stuff throughout the day. I really got excited after a couple of minutes to continue or start a new task. Unfortunately that trick doesn't work anymore, now I'd just fall asleep. On the other hand I don't suffer from insomnia anymore.

When I had to prep for the GRE, for a month I would go in the early morning to my dad's office (he only uses it for a few hours) and study there. And there was nothing in the office. No other books, no tv, and the internet wasn't as much fun then. So I had only two options: study or sleep. Obviously I slept a lot, but there's only so much you can sleep! So I ended up studying very well and getting really good scores…

I think sleeping a lot helped with getting those scores.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#16

Post by throw14082020 »

the_only_law wrote: post #10
Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

I would consider selling my expensive gaming PC if whatever I replaced it with had a reasonable similar CPU. Not sure if I can get that from any type of laptop though at least not without paying more than I paid for my PC. Also I kinda need PCIe lanes.

A cheaper alternative to buying a laptop is install Linux on your existing machine, to add friction to the process. Or, buy a Mac mini.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#17

Post by [deleted] »

the_only_law wrote: post #10
Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

I would consider selling my expensive gaming PC if whatever I replaced it with had a reasonable similar CPU. Not sure if I can get that from any type of laptop though at least not without paying more than I paid for my PC. Also I kinda need PCIe lanes.

[deleted]

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#19

Post by laurentdc »

Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

I've quit toxic competitive gaming (League of Legends, Overwatch) and replaced it with Netflix and shortwave radio listening. I'm still procrastinating because I work a bullshit job, but at least I don't rage as much and I always have some topics for small talk and conversation, which I feel is boosting my mood by a lot.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#20

Post by Macha »

the_only_law wrote: post #10
Zealotux wrote: post #6

Good summary of what procrastination essentially is: an emotional problem, rarely about "laziness" or time management. Readjusting your dopamine sensitivity will most likely solve most of it, trading my expensive gaming PC for a Macbook Pro probably was the biggest game-changing (pun not intended) event of my life so far, and greatly improved my relation to work and life in general.

I would consider selling my expensive gaming PC if whatever I replaced it with had a reasonable similar CPU. Not sure if I can get that from any type of laptop though at least not without paying more than I paid for my PC. Also I kinda need PCIe lanes.

Someone commented but deleted on how they felt laptop CPUs have gotten worse in recent years, using the example of their U series cpu being slower than a much older M series cpu. Since I wrote the comment, posting it here:

The U series are "low power CPUs". They can do a lot more than they could in the past, but the H series are the actual successors to the M series. It's why the 10980HK is still the top performing of Intel's CPUs in a lot of workloads (quite significantly in some cases, we're talking 60% reductions in compile times for large C++ projects, like Chrome): https://youtu.be/pdO4u87UCYI?t=346 , and for that workload even an older 9300H handily wins against their current efficiency flagship in the 1185G7.

You are trading off a lot of power for improvements in power efficiency.

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