11–20 of 26 posts
Example: your server crashes, two ads are linked incorrectly, your API provider has suddenly started returning 30% 503s. You are at a Bosselman Travel Center in Nebraska with a cell phone.
You won't get more done, but you will feel productive. It's possible to be inspired by the intensity of such endeavors.
"And, with the exception of nethack, there aren't many ways to waste a lot of time at the console." Clearly, Matt has not yet fully learned the Unix lifestyle!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely off topic but "Wikipedia, brought to you by Orange"? What is that all about?
This. It is impolite to link users to spammy wiki-scrapers, unless your post is: "Hey, someone made another spammy wiki-scraper!"
Divorce yourself from all contact and live on a pillar somewhere in the Sinai desert. I think those folks were called anchorites http://wikipedia.orange.co.uk/wiki/Anchorite I'm surprised that a connection to the internet is allowed on a more than---oh say weekly basis. As you might guess, I don't particularly agree with the article. Only cure to the problem at hand is self discipline. Anything else will fail...
My feeling is that the traditional definition of self discipline is kind of a fake thing. To me, self discipline is knowing yourself well enough to know where you will fail, and taking appropriate counter measures - not being strong-willed or something.
I think that the real value of the article's tips is that as you get used to not going on HN/Reddit or just avoiding other types of procrastination you will get used to not doing that and thus won't do it even if you remove the barriers.
Here's my logic: If you want to be productive (i.e. you have prioritized the current task/goal above all else), you just do it with full attention. If it's not very important or you can't align the task with a significant outcome, then you will be prone to distractions.
These tips boil down to negatively reinforcing distractions (not being productive) and positively reinforcing accomplishments (being productive). If you have the ability to apply all these reinforcement techniques in the first place, then you have the self-discipline to just do what you should.
Maybe I just personally prefer advice and tools that helps with prioritizing tasks since that tackles some of the underlying issues.
These productivity hacks always really confuse me. Maybe it's just me. Here's my logic: If you want to be productive (i.e. you have prioritized the current task/goal above all else), you just do it with full attention. If it's not very important or you can't align the task with a significant outcome, then you will be prone to distractions. These tips boil down to negatively reinforcing distractions (not being product…
On the contrary, it is the only helpful advice that anyone could give you. I don't expect people to believe this, I certainly didn't. It takes guts to admit that maybe, just maybe...it's you who is at fault, not the distractions.
"And, with the exception of nethack, there aren't many ways to waste a lot of time at the console." Clearly, Matt has not yet fully learned the Unix lifestyle!
Indeed, irssi or other console IRC clients are very effective time wasters.
I do minimize external distractions (IM, SMS, etc), but that's because they annoy me even when I'm interested in the work. I don't know how people can stand all those notifications popping up.