I love the irony that this has reached the 2nd from top on HN in three hours.
Presumably from all of us using HN to get a dog procrastination fix.
>Edit to clarify fix in the junkie sense, not as in fixing the issue.
How to be more productive without forcing yourself
51–60 of 133 posts
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#52This 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…
Not everyone procrastinates for the same reasons. I wish I could do more, but after reading that article I'm fairly sure I'm just exhausted, not procrastinating.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you have any specific type of professional to suggest?
I'd assumed from the context it was clear that I was referring to a psychiatrist.
It could also be worth talking first to a clinical psychologist. They're less about the drugs and more about the analysis, and sometimes that's able to get you working with just a 'software patch.' Sometimes, though, when you've tried everything and your brain still isn't doing the thing, medication can be absolutely lifechanging.
As the saying goes, if you can't make your own neurotransmitters, store bought is fine.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#54I can't believe what I'm reading.
The first point is literally do less fun things so you get used to doing more boring things.
I'm genuinely shocked this article is being received so well. What happened to, work to live, not live to work?
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#55This 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…
>This seems like cheap advice that's trying to get me to buy into a lifestyle in order to sell me things.
Funny but I thought the exact opposite. People believe something much more easily when they want it to be true, so the typical sales approach is to tell people what they want to hear. Ridding your life of whatever seems most fun doesn't seem like cheap advice in that regard.
On the other hand, I think you're spot on with creative types too often getting exploited, and the involvement of ego being such a key factor in why/how we hackers get burned out.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#56How to lose weight without trying: Just stop eating everything you love, you wont overeat food you don't like. /s Sacrificing a huge part of what makes life meaningful isn't "without forcing yourself".
I believe that the point is that those things are relative. It would be more like, if you stop eating everthing you love now (sweets, fast foods etc) you might learn to love the alternative (fruits and vegetables).
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#57Good 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.
It's funny, but I feel in the opposite position. To me, computers had become associated with work-only, so much that I needed a change. I decided to assemble a new machine for fun coding and maybe some games (though I probably won't really have much time for it). starting up the new Flight Sim feels great and gives me a different perspective, after staring at a screen of e-mails and calendar and presentation slides for hours.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Also true. Remember, half of all (normally-distributed) X are below average, and one in 20 are two standard deviations below the mean.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#591. 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.
Great life. Live like a monk to work more. Thanks, I'd rather be less productive and watch some Youtube during work from time to time. As long as I'm delivering stuff on time I don't need to constantly push myself harder. How should I know how much productivity is productive enough? These articles never bother to explain that.
Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself
#60I can't believe what I'm reading. The first point is literally do less fun things so you get used to doing more boring things. I'm genuinely shocked this article is being received so well. What happened to, work to live, not live to work?
I think in this case "fun" is a bit of an overloaded word. In this context fun means low effort high dopamine rewards, things like gaming, TV, social media, porn, drugs and alcohol. What's weird is that these categories of activities when overused quickly become non-fun and just addictive.
The overall idea is to recalibrate your idea of fun towards higher effort rewards, which will often result in better work, which will then allow you to financially reach a position where you can work to live, instead of always having to worry about work.