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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

#111

Post by Bakary »

This post echoes some of my own personal findings, but the biggest problem remains. It's difficult to live a narratively meaningful life, especially in a professional setting. There comes a point where you would love nothing more than to just contribute something useful to the world and not just learn interesting things for their own sake, or to have novel experiences and make decisions that matter as a free agent in a wide world. These possibilities are so fragile and hard to maintain.

On a more positive note, the effectiveness of reducing addictive activities cannot be overstated. Essentially, you have to remind yourself that you can access a more pleasant neurological state if you first start by getting some of your daily activities under control.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#112

Post by Bakary »

peach45 wrote: 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…

From your own description, it sounds as though the self-perception as a creative and continual risk-taker different from the nine to fivers is where the ego maintenance lies, so it might not actually be put in danger by failure.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#113

Post by Bakary »

virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #103
vitabenes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, driv…

Where do you think depression fits into this model? I have depression and take antidepressants, but I still experience an undercurrent of inescapable ennui that appears to be resistant to even the most interesting, well-defined and meaningful work.

YMMV but it's generally possible to improve that sensation over time by conscious appreciation and a return to less information-intensive activities.

Generally philosophical visions of the world are a product of emotions and neurological and physical conditions that are sometimes as mundane as bad digestion.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#114

Post by Sinidir »

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #46
adtac wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re sleep: is it common for sleep schedules to "drift"? I'll sleep at 11pm on one night naturally and wake up refreshed at 7am in the morning the next day, but I won't naturally go to sleep until 12am that night. This leads to a 8am wake up time the next day. You can see how this will quickly lead to an bad sleeping pattern. is it possible to fix this with a few weeks of consistently sleeping at the same time somehow?…

It is called Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder [1], and is very common in blind people. I have it (though not blind). The Wikipedia article suggests some treatments. It's impossible to fix in my experience by forcing myself into a consistent cycle; I'll just grow more and more tired over time until I simply fail to wake to alarm. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-24-hour_sleep%E2%80%93wake...

How do you manage a job with this?

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#115

Post by Zealotux »

loceng wrote: post #98
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.

Is that due to you reducing your gaming (did you completely eliminate gaming?) or is it because the laptop gives you portability to work at different places - whether that includes cafes or different spots in your home that may have less distractions of whatever sort? Just curious about what the before/after looks like for you.

Primarily cutting off gaming –the only gaming I have left are the occasional chess games on the week-end – I haven't got much opportunity to work outside comfortably yet with lockdown. It changed my relationship to computers: sitting at my desk is now about work, and I do much more things outside of it.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#116

Post by keyanp »

peach45 wrote: 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…

> 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.

I've never really heard this feeling described this way, but it totally resonates with me. What a beautiful way to put it. Thanks.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#117

Post by mleonhard »

viklove wrote: post #109
laurentdc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Similar but less drastic -- I traded League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Valorant for games like Minecraft, Rust, and Valheim. I can play at my own pace, and even doing "nothing" in those games is calming and fun. I'm definitely a much less anxious and angry person because of it.

Do you know if any scientists have studied the effects of intense games on mood when not playing?

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#118

Post by dundercoder »

virgil_disgr4ce wrote: post #103
vitabenes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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, driv…

Where do you think depression fits into this model? I have depression and take antidepressants, but I still experience an undercurrent of inescapable ennui that appears to be resistant to even the most interesting, well-defined and meaningful work.

ennui ennui /ɒnˈwiː / ▸ noun [mass noun] a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement: he succumbed to ennui and despair. – ORIGIN mid 18th century: French , from Latin in odio(n-), from mihi in odio est ‘it is hateful to me’. Compare with annoy.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#119

Post by avidiax »

adtac wrote: post #36
peach45 wrote: 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…

re sleep: is it common for sleep schedules to "drift"? I'll sleep at 11pm on one night naturally and wake up refreshed at 7am in the morning the next day, but I won't naturally go to sleep until 12am that night. This leads to a 8am wake up time the next day. You can see how this will quickly lead to an bad sleeping pattern. is it possible to fix this with a few weeks of consistently sleeping at the same time somehow?…

a) if you feel sleepy anytime after, say 8pm, don't fight it, just go to sleep. Yawning is sleepy.

b) if you ignored a) and now you're not sleepy, take a melatonin, and then don't fight a) again

c) Get some exercise. Try to get some sunlight when you wake up. Use a SAD light if you can't get natural light.

d) Don't stress about your sleep unless it's actually causing a problem.

Re: How to be more productive without forcing yourself

#120

Post by LZ_Khan »

pca006132 wrote: post #40

Sometimes I just wonder, is the frequent burnt-out we see for programmers caused by not having a fast feedback loop. For me, I feel excited when doing performance tuning work, front-end stuff etc. However, I would quickly become bored after working on work that take more than 5 days or so, even if I love the subject. Although I'm not really into TDD, but I think sometimes using TDD could help you get some more feedba…

Totally agree, at least anecdotally.

Working in ML for a large company has really tested my liking for programming. The amount of plumbing/testing/code reviewing needed just to get a tiny feature usable for a ML model is absurd. Taking 6 months to push one model improvement is really draining.

The pay's nice though.

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