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Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

jakobgreenfeld.com

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Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#11

Post by criddell »

nottorp wrote: post #5
_benj wrote: post #2

I loved the article! Over the years and after burning out I’ve learned observe my state of mind, but mostly for the distracted mode, and when I finding in it I’ll just stop whatever focus work I’m doing because very few good things come out during that mental mode, and a ton of frustration is built. The part that I haven’t been able to accomplish is a good use of the low filter mode. For me in this mode I have little…

> I’m trying to figure out how to use low filter mode better. How about some brainless exercise dosed so it's not very straining? Couple of pushups, base technique that you know well if you do a martial art etc.

I have a guitar beside my desk that I will pick up and run through some scales or something like that to distract me. Works great.

Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#15

Post by ozzythecat »

> The goal is to have moments of clarity where you’re able to see “ah that’s what’s going on in my mind right now”.

I think this is valuable advice, and it applies not only in this productivity context but in any day to day situation.

I feel worked up, angry, disappointed with those around me in certain situations. Whereas 5 years ago, I might get worked up and complain about all of it to my manager, I’ve learned to recognize my own emotional state. I feel X because of Y reasons.

In 30 minutes after I’ve had a snack or maybe just a glass of water, I’ll feel significantly better and will want to take back anything I say now. Not because I’m wrong or that what someone did or didn’t do is actually right, but because I need to control my emotion and how I respond. There’s a correct way to approach the problem.

Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#16

Post by jakobgreenfeld »

kache_ wrote: post #14

I disagree that programming isn't done well in robot mode. Lots of things like test coverage & braindead text editing doesn't require analytical thinking. Hell, analytical thinking is overrated. Just pick a direction and go!

Agreed. There are definitely programming tasks that work really well in Robot mode.

Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#17

Post by [deleted] »

jakobgreenfeld wrote: post #16
kache_ wrote: post #14

I disagree that programming isn't done well in robot mode. Lots of things like test coverage & braindead text editing doesn't require analytical thinking. Hell, analytical thinking is overrated. Just pick a direction and go!

Agreed. There are definitely programming tasks that work really well in Robot mode.

[deleted]

Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#18

Post by nojito »

ozzythecat wrote: post #15

> The goal is to have moments of clarity where you’re able to see “ah that’s what’s going on in my mind right now”. I think this is valuable advice, and it applies not only in this productivity context but in any day to day situation. I feel worked up, angry, disappointed with those around me in certain situations. Whereas 5 years ago, I might get worked up and complain about all of it to my manager, I’ve learned to…

That's a concept called Flow researched heavily by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

I highly recommend checking out his works to get through these fluffy blog posts into what the actual research says.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000W94FE6/

Re: Effortless personal productivity (or how I learned to love my monkey mind)

#19

Post by bitexploder »

kache_ wrote: post #14

I disagree that programming isn't done well in robot mode. Lots of things like test coverage & braindead text editing doesn't require analytical thinking. Hell, analytical thinking is overrated. Just pick a direction and go!

Cal Newport essentially calls this "Shallow" vs. "Deep" work and I think it is a more useful sorting practice of chores for me. I know I can intensely focus only so many hours in a day. The rest of my day is structured around that notion. That deep work, every day, is sacred. Shallow work happens around my scheduled, uninterrupted deep work blocks. Shallow work is everything else. While it is helpful to let the sub-conscious dictate what sort of work goes on to a degree, I have found you can also steer the ship in the direction you want with good habits. It takes some time and scheduling discipline, but ultimately it has allowed me to be more productive.

Many programming tasks, refactorings, and documentation writings are shallow work. Much of planning and preparing for deep work is shallow work in programming. Learning how to optimize the deep focus time is really helpful. Grease the gears, prime the pump, etc. etc.

There is wisdom in acknowledging a particular mental state and understanding it, but it is also wise to know how to guide your mind to the state you want when you can best use it based on your schedule and other factors. There is a lot of push and pull here, but discipline in habits will let you control the monkey mind, as the author calls it, in my experience. Though I think of my "me" as a monkey and the rest of it as an elephant to properly put it in scale (thanks Joscha Bach + Lex Fridman). The monkey tries its best to guide the elephant to the right place :)

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