Law of Blocking Distracting Websites: No how matter how many websites you block, you will always find one that is just as entertaining.
"True Do" - An idea.
11–20 of 29 posts
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#12If you are really trying to solve procrastination, you have to address the distractions. Now, here is what I would like to see: the OFF switch. Hitting a button that would block all electronic distractions (turning off television etc) and block distracting sites (like youtube/reddit/HN) and disable distracting apps (like iPhone games) for half an hour. This most likely will involve special outlets or plugs that can b…
Rescuetime does this sort of thing, blocking distracting sites http://www.rescuetime.com/tour "Block Distractions and Get Focused"
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#13This kind of defeats the purpose of even presenting a list. It should only display one task at a time if it only wants you to work on one task at a time.
Yep, this is true.
Now that j2bax provided a nice solution for the "on hold" problem, you could really just show one task at a time.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#14I cringe a little whenever I see someone try to solve an issue with planning and productivity that's already been covered years ago by awesome systems like GTD - especially when they try to solve it with technology. I want a tool, not an infomercial-esque "solution."
To be constructive -- in order to make this useful as a tool and retain the central value-adding idea, make sure you include tags and tag filters at the very least. That's all you need to make it both simple enough for casual users and versatile enough for power users. I can't tell you how many tools I would love to try but can't because they don't have tagging or replace it with something not versatile enough (like nested lists). Foremost among those is Google Tasks.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#15Make it free and monetize it like all the free-to-play games do:
If you want to cross of a non-top task, you have to pay increasing amounts of (real) money, e.g. 2nd task 0.50 $, 3rd task 1$, 4th task 2$ etc.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#16If you are really trying to solve procrastination, you have to address the distractions. Now, here is what I would like to see: the OFF switch. Hitting a button that would block all electronic distractions (turning off television etc) and block distracting sites (like youtube/reddit/HN) and disable distracting apps (like iPhone games) for half an hour. This most likely will involve special outlets or plugs that can b…
Off switch did not work for me because I could not switch off staring out of my window or biting my nails.
One day I watched a talk by Tim Ferris and he mentioned the so called flash diet - in order to lose weight you take a picture of every meal you eat which is supposed to make you aware of your decisions that were previously habitual or subconscious and change your behaviour.
I realized this could also work when you are trying to fight procrastination. I created a little anti-procrastination tool based on that idea: http://www.simplyeasy.cz/war-on-procrastination. It's dead simple to use... all I have to do before I start wasting my time is to press the "pause" button. To my own surprise it really works for me. Tim Ferris might be on to something.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#17The example given illustrates one of the flaws of almost all todo implementations: "Study for math exam" - you can never check this off the list because it can't be discretely finished.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#18This kind of defeats the purpose of even presenting a list. It should only display one task at a time if it only wants you to work on one task at a time.
Yup, good point.
I'm reminded of this: http://nowdothis.com/
(I believe this is a Jakob Lodwick creation.)
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#19If you are really trying to solve procrastination, you have to address the distractions. Now, here is what I would like to see: the OFF switch. Hitting a button that would block all electronic distractions (turning off television etc) and block distracting sites (like youtube/reddit/HN) and disable distracting apps (like iPhone games) for half an hour. This most likely will involve special outlets or plugs that can b…
Or magically sends you away from home without any of those devices.
Re: "True Do" - An idea.
#20If you are really trying to solve procrastination, you have to address the distractions. Now, here is what I would like to see: the OFF switch. Hitting a button that would block all electronic distractions (turning off television etc) and block distracting sites (like youtube/reddit/HN) and disable distracting apps (like iPhone games) for half an hour. This most likely will involve special outlets or plugs that can b…
SelfControl on OSX is game-changingly good --
Only one piece of the puzzle, but a big one.