Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to get yourself to do things (2015)

raptitude.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 86 posts

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#71

Post by Xunjin »

legitster wrote: post #40
carlmr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I almost envy countries that focus on almost militaristic rote practice. For some of my foreign educated colleagues, there is little in the way between wanting to accomplish something and accomplishing it. It has its downsides. I had mostly bad experience working with software developers from rote learning cultures, because you may guess it, they tend to execute but not think about it. IMO the main worth of a softwa…

I don't disagree with that assessment at all. I just wonder if it is possible to get the best of both worlds.

I will play the devil's advocate here which also express my opinion tho...

Choices have trade-offs, business believe, in general, that things are simple and should be done fast. However, IMO, good design ( independent being software, etc... ) takes time and effort.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#72

Post by andrei_says_ »

armchairhacker wrote: post #46

The 10 minute rule: if you want to do something, really force yourself to do it, but only for 10 minutes. If you want to build a daily habit, commit yourself every day no matter how you feel, but only for at least 10 minutes. More generally, if you have a bunch of tasks, commit yourself to at least one. Don't necessarily push yourself to do everything but force yourself, no matter how hard, to do at least one. If it'…

Also even if I don’t finish the task (think debugging), often I get over the big scary unknown horizon and learn enough to make sleeping on it potentially productive.

Then I sleep on it :)

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#73

Post by andrei_says_ »

yumaikas wrote: post #61
pmoriarty wrote: post #2

At one point I spent a couple of days watching dozens of videos on procrastination, and this video [1] by Tim Pychyl was by far the best. I strongly recommend it. It's ostensibly focused on helping grad students with procrastination, but the tips and techniques he gives in the talk can be applied by anyone. [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA

So, listening to this talk, he doesn't spend any time addressing ADHD? That seems like a pretty glaring omission to me.

This video on ADD/ADHD was very beneficial for me. With Thomas E Brown, PhD

https://youtu.be/ouZrZa5pLXk

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#74

Post by sva_ »

denkmoon wrote: post #62
DoreenMichele wrote: post #26

Not a bad piece, but for me it turns out almost all of my so-called procrastination and laziness is rooted in a congenital medical condition. When I can manage to take good care of myself, energy and mental focus lead to productivity. When I can't, then I look like some kind of loser to the outside world. I suspect that under recognized health issues are a common factor in such patterns. I knew a guy who swore he was…

>an entire pot of coffee and ended it with up to an entire bottle of wine. Uppers in the morning and downers at night is a common medical approach to managing severe allergies Pardon? Can anyone elaborate on this idea?

Allergies cause tiredness through inflammation caused by release of antibodies and histamines, afaik. Hence the use of an upper as a workaround for wakefulness.

On the other hand, allergies may also cause restlessness through symptoms such as itching, a runny nose, burning eyes, etc. So a downer might help someone ignore those symptoms.

That's at least how I understood it. I never thought about it like that before - quite enlightening.

On the other hand, not everyone who regularly drinks coffee in the morning, and alcohol at night has allergies. I'd guess it's probably the minority.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#75

Post by carlmr »

closeparen wrote: post #70
moate wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you personally feel that it would be valuable to have the high authority/rote people in place to execute and low authority/creative thinkers in place to plan?

There's not that much space between a sufficiently thought-out plan of what software to write, and source code in a modern high-level language.

Exactly, and I do think the tinkering of the execution part is an important part of the creative process. A lot of requirements mismatch becomes visible when implementing.

We don't ask artists to describe the painting and let someone else do the execution part. Working with the pigments, and seeing how they interact on the canvas is important for getting a good result. An intermediary would be detrimental.

In music maybe there's such a thing when you have somebody who can sing well, that has a team of songwriters doing the creative work.

Maybe the question is what other jobs rote learning is good for. I think there are enough jobs that don't ask for creativity, but instead require discipline.

And as with all things, there are probably shades of grey in between. A mix of discipline and creativity might be better than the extreme for many jobs.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#76

Post by DoreenMichele »

sva_ wrote: post #74
denkmoon wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>an entire pot of coffee and ended it with up to an entire bottle of wine. Uppers in the morning and downers at night is a common medical approach to managing severe allergies Pardon? Can anyone elaborate on this idea?

Allergies cause tiredness through inflammation caused by release of antibodies and histamines, afaik. Hence the use of an upper as a workaround for wakefulness. On the other hand, allergies may also cause restlessness through symptoms such as itching, a runny nose, burning eyes, etc. So a downer might help someone ignore those symptoms. That's at least how I understood it. I never thought about it like that before -…

Please note the large quantities consumed with great regularity. Most people aren't doing that.

I'm not comfortable with how much attention that detail got. It's speculation on my part and there could be other explanations for the behavior, though it fits with what I have heard from people who were on prescription drugs for their serious allergies.

I think the general point that "under recognized health issues likely contribute to so-called procrastination" is solid, but I'm not really comfortable with the direction this went in comments.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#77

Post by n1000 »

imgabe wrote: post #47

For those who resonate with this post, it might help to know that the author more recently announced he was diagnosed with ADHD and that he started receiving treatment (including medication) for it. https://www.raptitude.com/2021/03/what-raptitude-has-always-...

Thanks! That is so funny. The article was screaming ADHD at me all the time while reading it. Especially this feeling of vague anxiety. He basically comes up with typical ADHD coping strategies.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#78

Post by tarruda »

armchairhacker wrote: post #46

The 10 minute rule: if you want to do something, really force yourself to do it, but only for 10 minutes. If you want to build a daily habit, commit yourself every day no matter how you feel, but only for at least 10 minutes. More generally, if you have a bunch of tasks, commit yourself to at least one. Don't necessarily push yourself to do everything but force yourself, no matter how hard, to do at least one. If it'…

Any chance you're related to Griffin Johnsen the Armchair Historian? Really nice YouTube channel, and I really admire that guy's productivity.

Re: How to get yourself to do things (2015)

#79

Post by ArcturianDeath »

zigzaggy wrote: post #9
bserge wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eyeroll . Read it. I read everything. Look, my brain is broken. It would literally be easier for me to off myself than do everything I need to do every single day. It's simply hell. A mediocre life is the best I can hope for without modern medicine. When I had access to it, I felt normal for the short but brilliant time it lasted.

I feel this pain deep inside my brain. My head is like a million points moving in several directions at once, all the time. In fact, I just set up another appointment where I am going in full throttle for whatever medication I can get. I am completely exhausted trying to keep these points all lined up in a straight line.

"pain"
Post reply on HN