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Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

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Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#21

Post by ANTSANTS »

mattraibert wrote: post #4

This article got me thinking about places in my life where there's friction. My computer stands out as a huge source of friction. I already try to close unnecessary windows/tabs, but after reading this, I realized that, because I use it for so many different habits, my desktop fails as a friction free starting point for work. So I've identified a few ways I use my computer and I'm setting up a user account for each o…

This seems a bit overkill, like trying to prevent yourself from wasting time on a site by blocking it in your hosts file. I worry it would make "mental context switches" too expensive, which might help to discourage you from wasting time on HN, but also get in the way of your work. I imagine that if I tried to separate my activities into separate accounts, I would get tired of switching users and end up with a de facto main account very quickly.

Have you looked into a virtual desktop solution yet? I use virtual desktops for very similar reasons (tuck all the real time wasters away in one desktop, put music playing controls and such in another, and use every other one for a different task), and I find it does a very good job of keeping me focused on the task at hand without getting in my way when it's time to do something else. Each one of my desktops is just two keypresses away, but there's no indication that anything is even running in any other desktop but a tiny square in the bottom right corner of my screen.

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#22

Post by w33ble »

thirdsun wrote: post #19
mattraibert wrote: post #4

This article got me thinking about places in my life where there's friction. My computer stands out as a huge source of friction. I already try to close unnecessary windows/tabs, but after reading this, I realized that, because I use it for so many different habits, my desktop fails as a friction free starting point for work. So I've identified a few ways I use my computer and I'm setting up a user account for each o…

Maybe you don't even need individual user accounts - today I noticed this app to start (and close) different groups of applications. While I don't need it, this may be an alternative to your multiple account approach: http://www.flyingmachinestudios.com/foreman/

Thanks for this! It's a little buggy wrt hiding/showing applications from the popup dialog, but overall it's working pretty well and was worth the purchase. Hopefully future updates iron out the minor issues.

There's a free version on their website (scroll down a bit) if you'd like to try it. It lacks the toggle hotkeys, but it'll let you know if it suits you before buying.

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#24

Post by CamperBob2 »

tptacek wrote: post #14

A variant (I think) of this idea that I've been using for years: when I stop coding, I jot down what I was doing, whatever problems I was dealing with, and what I felt my next steps were going to be in a little Emacs buffer. It would probably be even smarter of me to take 20 seconds to figure out exactly the right set of Emacs tabs/frames to keep open alongside them, so when it was time to start up again, I'd get suc…

A related trick I find valuable is to do the exact opposite of what the article suggests. Never finish anything at the end of your workday. Leave yourself a small mess to clean up, or some simple and finite wrapup task that you can afford to postpone. Bonus points if it's going to be fun or interesting to work on.

The idea being, it'll be much easier to get back into the groove the next day if you aren't confronted with the proverbial empty screen or blank sheet of paper the minute you walk in the door.

After you spend 30 minutes wrapping up the work from yesterday, you will already be in the zone, and it'll be easier to move ahead to the next big thing on your list.

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#26

Post by scott_s »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #24
tptacek wrote: post #14

A variant (I think) of this idea that I've been using for years: when I stop coding, I jot down what I was doing, whatever problems I was dealing with, and what I felt my next steps were going to be in a little Emacs buffer. It would probably be even smarter of me to take 20 seconds to figure out exactly the right set of Emacs tabs/frames to keep open alongside them, so when it was time to start up again, I'd get suc…

A related trick I find valuable is to do the exact opposite of what the article suggests. Never finish anything at the end of your workday. Leave yourself a small mess to clean up, or some simple and finite wrapup task that you can afford to postpone. Bonus points if it's going to be fun or interesting to work on. The idea being, it'll be much easier to get back into the groove the next day if you aren't confronted w…

I do this, and I find it's invaluable. If it's the end of the day, and I have a writing or coding task to do that is small in scope and I'm looking forward to doing, I put it off to the next day.

I think of it as leaving work "hooks" for myself to pull me into work the next day. Work hooks are small in scope, and satisfying to accomplish. The next day, not only do I know exactly what I'm going to do, I'm looking forward to it.

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#27

Post by scott_s »

kiba wrote: post #3

Nice hypothesis, but where's the lab result? I highly encourage people to think skeptically and scientific as well using the self quantitative approach to self improvement, even when they're certain when their theory is right. For example, I am measuring blood pressure, steps count, weight, blood sugar level, awake and sleep time everyday. I also just recently concluded that walking 10K steps have almost no effect on…

"Weight loss" is not the same as "fitness improvement."

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#28

Post by scott_s »

mattraibert wrote: post #4

This article got me thinking about places in my life where there's friction. My computer stands out as a huge source of friction. I already try to close unnecessary windows/tabs, but after reading this, I realized that, because I use it for so many different habits, my desktop fails as a friction free starting point for work. So I've identified a few ways I use my computer and I'm setting up a user account for each o…

A less radical approach is to use multiple screens/desktops, but all under one account. Under OSX, they're called "Spaces," and I can't remember what the Linux term is. I'm not sure if Windows has them.

Re: Stop Procrastinating by “Clearing to Neutral”

#29

Post by saraid216 »

kiba wrote: post #3

Nice hypothesis, but where's the lab result? I highly encourage people to think skeptically and scientific as well using the self quantitative approach to self improvement, even when they're certain when their theory is right. For example, I am measuring blood pressure, steps count, weight, blood sugar level, awake and sleep time everyday. I also just recently concluded that walking 10K steps have almost no effect on…

> The ugly environment in my house doesn't appears to deter me from getting things done, though.

The article is not very good at expressing its own point, unfortunately. This wasn't it.

Take periodic task A, such as making dinner or sitting down to work. You do this task on a mostly regular basis. Doing this task creates waste: a dirty sink, an unclean workspace, and so on. When you complete the task, it often seems like yet another task (B) to accomplish when tired to do the cleaning. Thus your workspace starts to degrade. The next time you need to do task A, you have to do task B first. You're psyched and ready to do task A, but you can't, because task B wasn't done. And task B is not what you're psyched for.

All the article is pointing out is that you need to do task B as soon as you're done with task A. That way, when you come back the next day to go for task A, you don't have a preliminary step to go through before you can really get started.

> Although how one could test the idea proposed in the blog is unclear to me.

Take any such pair of tasks and measure the time it takes to get started on the task pair over the course of a decent period of time, such as a month. Try to have a balance of which task is performed first. By "time it takes to get started", I mean the the delta between the time you say, "I should do task A", and the time you actually start doing either task.

Of course, that's subject to the observer effect: noting down the time at which you say you should do it will probably in itself incentivize you. Thus, it may be helpful to regularly schedule a task pair and note the offset from the scheduled time.

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