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“Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

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Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#21

Post by cmwelsh »

gndp wrote: post #18

But I will loose it all, that's why you should bookmark everything, have terminal bookmarks of paths, use git worktrees to allow leaving workspace messy. Use a lot of notion docs, .md docs, notebooks. Places where you organize stuff, so that you can come back easily when you need it again.

Yes, I do believe you own the correct answers - however, can you make a long form blog post about this and share it on Hacker News? We need the rest of the information.

My room should be messy when I come back to it - how else would I find anything if it wasn’t where I left it?

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#22

Post by dasil003 »

Um, I guess this might useful to some number of readers, but I don't think it's universal and I don't think it's a secret—more like its one of a few dozen pithy focus hacks that regularly make their way through the blogosphere and social media for those interested in "productivity".

To try my hand at reductive advice, I would say this: know your strengths and what work you do has the most value. The structure exists to serve the work and not the other way around. Habits and processes can serve the work, but can quickly become a form of procrastination for certain types of personalities. Reading about productivity on the internet will not generally make you more productive. Only through honest self-reflection can you actually improve your personal productivity and impact.

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#23

Post by mrmuagi »

gndp wrote: post #18

But I will loose it all, that's why you should bookmark everything, have terminal bookmarks of paths, use git worktrees to allow leaving workspace messy. Use a lot of notion docs, .md docs, notebooks. Places where you organize stuff, so that you can come back easily when you need it again.

A running txt file for each project/work capsule has been wonders. Then common txt files for anything you learned or, things you need to learn, notes/todos, etc.

I think I would be half as productive as I'd like without this.

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#25

Post by softwaredoug »

When I write book chapters I write, throw away, write, throw away. Mostly with no a-priori outline

But eventually I get to a point where all the failed attempts crystallize and it flows out of me start to finish in one sitting. Every piece of knowledge from those failed attempts crystallizes into one gestalt of how it’s supposed to be.

Those final “easy” 20 pages always come after 100 pages of discarded, frustrating, exploratory work that feels like it’s going nowhere.

Also a deadline helps.

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#26

Post by aeternum »

Having the right context is far more effective. Context-switching cost is a major component of procrastination. At least for development work, having the right set of tabs open, the right project loaded in the IDE with the right console windows open is far better than "Nothing".

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#27

Post by robertclaus »

aeternum wrote: post #26

Having the right context is far more effective. Context-switching cost is a major component of procrastination. At least for development work, having the right set of tabs open, the right project loaded in the IDE with the right console windows open is far better than "Nothing".

I think that's sort of what I got from the article - open the right tools for what you're actually working on, not everything you might need for all the tasks in your backlog.

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#28

Post by kleinishere »

Nevermark wrote: post #13

Every day I work on my main project, I clear my desk completely, take out a small notepad and write my overriding goal, and my next step goal, and then make a list of tasks for that next step goal. Then I work. Writing the major goal every day is important to not let sub-goals overshadow it. Writing the immediate goal every day is important because together the two goals create a very clear direction of action with a…

This kind of daily goal setting reminds me a lot of this podcast, if of interest. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/invest-like-the-best-w...

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#29

Post by torben-friis »

I’ve always have wanted a clean project area on my computer, never managed it though.

I try to keep a space for organization (slack, jira, whatever) and another for the ide, for example. Start working, and pretty soon I need to check an old pr on GitHub, and see it side to side with the ide, next someone sends a link in slack that opens a chrome window which is a doc with links that go into tabs. Hold, I have to hop in zoom for the daily… aaand we’re back at 20 windows and 15 tabs.

I wonder if it’s just the mess imposed by modern workflows. Picturing an engineer decades ago working alone and disconnected in its own office sounds like a dream, but I might just be idealizing it from today’s mindset.

Re: “Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work

#30

Post by paulcole »

The idea of clearing physical and digital workspaces is part of the system discussed in Work Clean:

https://workclean.com/

I’ve been using a personal variation of this system for over 4 years now and it’s outstanding for me. I firmly believe that for the vast majority of people (myself included), working without a plan is one of the dumbest things they can do.

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