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Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#41

Post by ozzythecat »

> The task is so boring that I just can't put any effort into it. I've never wrote any documentation before, and always struggled with writing descriptive content. The last time I did it was for my internship report and it was so daunting.

Try to make the writing exercise less about yourself. Who is the documentation for? A new hire or someone else whose never worked with this product before. Try to make the documentation exercise more about them.

If you were asked to ramp up on this product, what information would you want to know? How can you help others be successful?

A good technical leader isn’t just about to churn out code and make trade offs in design. A good technical leader is able to take a complex space and drive clarity for others.

You have an opportunity to disambiguate a topic here to help others. You get to choose what’s the right level of detail to provide.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#42

Post by chrsig »

theonemind wrote: post #37
chrsig wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Look at "Getting Things Done" Is there a link you could share? seems like a pretty vague thing to google, and it’s not immediately clear if you’re referring to a book, blog post, video, etc.

Probably the book/system by David Allen. It has a cult-ish following. The google results aren't very vague about it: https://www.google.com/search?q=getting+things+done I tried the book. It seems nigh unreadable due to fluff and the author's ego. (I think some reviews say the first edition is better.) However, the system seems good for what it is in principle. (It looks like a well-thought out to-do list system with…

Thanks! I haven’t ever heard of it before.

Could any cultist comment on if it has useful suggestions for maintaining said system?

I’ve got a cycle of organization/chaos, where I organize myself, but then over time start to lose the motivation to maintain it and it deteriorates into chaos…until I get fed up with the disorder and build up some method of organization.

It’s mostly adhd/o.d.d. fueled, and I’ve been struggling to find a sustainable way to find some sustainable quasi orderly middle ground

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#43

Post by valbaca »

I saw this a while back and it's really helped:

How to fight procrastination

Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Trigger

If you're lacking motivation: build motivation by remind yourself "why" (even if it's just "so it's done" but could be "do my taxes so I don't go to jail"). Add personally meaningful reasons to the tasks. Remind yourself why you took on the task.

If you're lacking ability: break down the task, make a timeline, build the timeline backwards from the due-date.

If you're lacking a trigger (like a task that can be done "whenever"): Create a cue. A cue is what+when+where. Take <15mins to decide which subtask to start with. If you still can't decide after 15mins, pick one at random.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#44

Post by brtkdotse »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #40
brtkdotse wrote: post #5

Editing is easier than creating (blank page paralysis). When I wrote my masters thesis I auto-generated 50 pages of Lorem Ipsum, properly formatted, and started editing it. “The title is clearly wrong, I’ll change that. Oh look, the first heading is also wrong, let’s put something else in here. Now the paragraph doesn’t match the heading, better fix that” By the time I get to the paragraph I’m mentally invested and c…

Right now they could probably use gpt3 to generate like actual text that's probably 75% of the way there.. get a lot further than lorem ipsum ... and easier to edit.

Back in ‘07 lorem ipsum was all we had (easily available) :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#45

Post by icedata »

theonemind wrote: post #37
chrsig wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Look at "Getting Things Done" Is there a link you could share? seems like a pretty vague thing to google, and it’s not immediately clear if you’re referring to a book, blog post, video, etc.

Probably the book/system by David Allen. It has a cult-ish following. The google results aren't very vague about it: https://www.google.com/search?q=getting+things+done I tried the book. It seems nigh unreadable due to fluff and the author's ego. (I think some reviews say the first edition is better.) However, the system seems good for what it is in principle. (It looks like a well-thought out to-do list system with…

I tried to use GTD for quite a while. I abandoned it in favor of Timeboxing, using Work Clean for the precise implementation. I used org-mode to put it to use, it's flexible enough even though GTD was a big influence on its design.

https://www.amazon.ca/Work-Clean-life-changing-mise-en-place...

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#49

Post by DarylZero »

chrsig wrote: post #35
DarylZero wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cocaine?

Tends to wear off too quickly - amphetamine salts are cheaper, definitely last longer, and even come in extended release forms. they can also be prescribed, so that’s nice. cocaine’s more fun though, I’ll give you that. and would probably make for a good reward system. Write a paragraph, do a line. I wouldn’t recommend a 1:1 write a line to do a line ratio.

Easier to get cocaine than a prescription for amphetamines.

Re: Ask HN: How do you force yourself to do boring tasks?

#50

Post by chrsig »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #40
brtkdotse wrote: post #5

Editing is easier than creating (blank page paralysis). When I wrote my masters thesis I auto-generated 50 pages of Lorem Ipsum, properly formatted, and started editing it. “The title is clearly wrong, I’ll change that. Oh look, the first heading is also wrong, let’s put something else in here. Now the paragraph doesn’t match the heading, better fix that” By the time I get to the paragraph I’m mentally invested and c…

Right now they could probably use gpt3 to generate like actual text that's probably 75% of the way there.. get a lot further than lorem ipsum ... and easier to edit.

You just made me consider how gpt3 might impact things like school assignments.

e.g,. Have it write 75% of an essay and modify from there

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