Live data from Hacker News

How to be more productive without forcing yourself

deprocrastination.co

21–30 of 133 posts

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#21
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

It was me! Thanks for the tip about M -> H. Sorry I deleted the comment - I wasn't 100% sure about the models (I don't have the laptops near me at the moment and I didn't want to spread misinformation).

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#22

1. Have less exposure towards super fun things I cannot emphasize enough how powerful this is. If you're struggling to focus on your work/projects, try living a bland existence like a monk for a while. You won't be able to stop thinking about working.

Corollary, it takes truly awful times to appreciate the bad times.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#23
This seems like cheap advice that's trying to get me to buy into a lifestyle in order to sell me things.

"Have less exposure towards super fun things". "Get bored". These describe the same general concept as dopamine fasting. The third bullet point can be reduced to "focus on what you have to do, until you can focus on it" which is circular.

I'm not buying in. Maybe I'm getting old but "failure to start" is starting to sound like a meme to me perpetuated by vultures trying to exploit creative personalities, hackers included.

I think what we need to do, is to step back and appreciate ourselves for the effort we continually expect from ourselves. As hackers in one way or another, we are constantly putting up our ego as collateral in order to take on challenges that threaten to knock us down a peg or two if we fail. For many of us, failure is a threat to the core of our identity, yet we dive on in anyway. Exhaustion from that sort of loop is to be expected.

Most people don't live like this. Most people reduce the flux in their lives instead of seeking to increase it. Why? Because most people cherish their egos to the point where they cannot commit to a goal with an uncertain outcome. They would rather work a 9-5, which is fine, but it doesn't describe our community. We are addicted to risk if it means building something new and that we can call our own.

So appreciate yourselves more.

And get better sleep.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#24
post #15

In sum, have a job that lets you define what you do on a daily basis, don’t be depressed and make sure you’re not addicted to anything.

yeah, I was wondering about this as well: basically I have experienced times, where I could rightly sit there and watch the wall for hours. I guess this indicates depression and significantly hampers implementing these ideas...

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#25
Please donate ethereum to this address as I am being kept hostage by a psychopath called Satoshi Nakamoto. He has scattered all of my personal information and economical research all over youtube, cnbc, techcrunch, the local mainstream media in the netherlands. https://ibb.co/74qYknK

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#26
Progress over perfection is what I keep telling myself all day. My brain automatically goes on to investigating something else when I’m faced with my projects. “Oh wait how do we get our terminal to look that cool?”.

I’m working on my first project involving a DB and a CRUD Java program that will talk to a website, potentially. I am too concerned about “am I doing this the right way”? Things like how I’m setting up my db table, or “is one is enough or I should use more”, if people will look into it and say “wow this guy is dumb” or whatever.

They all prevent me from just pushing forward and improving later. I’m too scared of someone telling me to fix shit even though I actually enjoy learning so much I’d probably like that.

I wish I could just go in my brain and turn that off, I’d be living in the future.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#27

1. Have less exposure towards super fun things I cannot emphasize enough how powerful this is. If you're struggling to focus on your work/projects, try living a bland existence like a monk for a while. You won't be able to stop thinking about working.

In a similar way, hunger is the best spice.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#28

1. Have less exposure towards super fun things I cannot emphasize enough how powerful this is. If you're struggling to focus on your work/projects, try living a bland existence like a monk for a while. You won't be able to stop thinking about working.

Having too long of a vacation (eg.: more than 5 days on the beach) makes has this effect on me.

It is not about having or not having fun, but being removed from the usual “i could work but also choose not to” environment.

On the beach I cannot work even if I wanted to, and it kind of make me want to work.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#29

New years resolutions and other big changes tend not to work very well because they are big changes and we are very bad at big changes. Probably the most important piece of information I needed to make lasting changes to how I spent my day was the combined knowledge and idea: 1) I ran on habits for most of my day 2) I could change about 1% of my day every month Doing small changes continuously results in a big change…

Earning 1% every month on your investments would yield a ridiculous amount, like the wealth of the entire world in 3 years or something.

So even if it sounds like a small goal, getting better by any amount could suffice.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#30
post #23

This seems like cheap advice that's trying to get me to buy into a lifestyle in order to sell me things. "Have less exposure towards super fun things". "Get bored". These describe the same general concept as dopamine fasting. The third bullet point can be reduced to "focus on what you have to do, until you can focus on it" which is circular. I'm not buying in. Maybe I'm getting old but "failure to start" is starting…

I agree with your points on appreciating yourself and better sleep.

As for this seeming like cheap advice, keep in mind that A) many people have not heard it yet, and B) sometimes a new twist on an older concept drives the point home.

And you don't have to buy anything. Most of the stuff we create is free on our blog or Twitter. We're not "vultures," we're 2 guys helping people to stop scrolling and go do stuff, driven by our own past struggles. Fin.

Thank you for the comment.

Post reply on HN