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I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

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Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#41

Post by chalmovsky »

niyazpk wrote: post #29

I don't understand the problem here. If you cannot focus, just focus more? More structure/checklist to force you to focus will have other side-effects like you found out. When you get rid of the structure, you still need to have a rough map in your mind of where you want to go. To me, this is similar to being honest. You don't want to depend on a system or checklist for being honest. It is something you always need,…

While I agree with this (and what a refreshing thing to say indeed!), I would like to offer this as well:

If you can’t focus on some task - you can also treat it as a signal that maybe the task is not worth focusing on in the first place…

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#42

Post by niyazpk »

joemasilotti wrote: post #37
niyazpk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, so I am probably completely on the wrong here. :D A question to advance the discussion. What I am wondering is, if you can remember to go back to your time tracking system, why can you not remember to go back to your main goals?

Here's the thing: sometimes I forget the timer is running and I wake up to "You've been working on [project X] for 28 hours".

Interesting. Thanks!

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#43

Post by Kaliboy »

joemasilotti wrote: post #37
niyazpk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right, so I am probably completely on the wrong here. :D A question to advance the discussion. What I am wondering is, if you can remember to go back to your time tracking system, why can you not remember to go back to your main goals?

Here's the thing: sometimes I forget the timer is running and I wake up to "You've been working on [project X] for 28 hours".

I just turned off my phone's voice recorder after 4 hours and 28 minutes. I needed the first 15 mins.

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#44

Post by politician »

joemasilotti wrote: post #5
politician wrote: post #3

Hey Joe, I think the solution to your problem is in your post. You said that when you were tracking your time it killed your idea, and that when you stopped tracking your time you became unfocused. Try letting AI classify your idea into a time-tracking bucket for you, and to generate a beginning of day report describing how you spent your time yesterday. If you write down your idea, then it'll be harder to forget it.…

I don't disagree that that might help. But I think this is more of a realization that I want to use AI... less?

Hahaha, ok yeah I see where you're coming from.

It helps me to think about it like a different type of function call. We've got normal functions, async functions, there's a Go project that turns HTML templates into "templ" functions. JSX functions. LLMs are just a new `infer` function type.

A few years ago if I suggested that you should write a program to help you with time tracking, I imagine that might get a few responses with pointers to some existing open source projects. In a few years, someone might point to support for infer functions in nightly rust.

In other words, I think that we're dealing with really poor packaging right now and it's stressful, and that in the future this will all be normalized and integrated into our existing workflows.

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#45

Post by Kaliboy »

chalmovsky wrote: post #41
niyazpk wrote: post #29

I don't understand the problem here. If you cannot focus, just focus more? More structure/checklist to force you to focus will have other side-effects like you found out. When you get rid of the structure, you still need to have a rough map in your mind of where you want to go. To me, this is similar to being honest. You don't want to depend on a system or checklist for being honest. It is something you always need,…

While I agree with this (and what a refreshing thing to say indeed!), I would like to offer this as well: If you can’t focus on some task - you can also treat it as a signal that maybe the task is not worth focusing on in the first place…

I currently can't focus on my work that pays the bills. Given your logic I should probably quit my job.

I kid you not, that's literally the thing I've been considering all day, maybe it's a sign. So this is great confirmation.

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#46

Post by talktalkmake »

As someone who helps small businesses leverage their labor efficiency, I can definitively say that nothing gets better without tracking time and working out what's working (and not).

The great thing here is that OP worked something out. My suspicion is that they were simply working on the wrong things (intent vs. actual benefit were incompatible), and therefore felt strange recording time for the sake of it — there was no gratification that the decision they made to spend time on something, the act of laboring over something they felt was meaningful in the moment, and the resulting benefit were never congruous.

Remember: recording time isn't the benefit. It's the tell that gives us a hint as to how we spent time and a smoking gun if we're not doing anything worthwhile. My suggestion for OP: do what works for you, even if it's batshit in the moment. Maybe you're better at jazz than most of us.

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#48

Post by hashmap »

joemasilotti wrote: post #21
hashmap wrote: post #7

i looked at the overall shape of the words and punctuation on this page and thought, oh this looks like adhd, let me scroll down... yup adhd. didnt read any of it though cause it reminds me of something that i need to do that ive never thought of before, so now i have to go do that thing

Sorry for triggering you :(

do not apologize for existing!! that was just my way of relating to the experience. and keep posting, i like how your page just does the thing it's supposed to do and isn't hostile to attention. i wish the rest of the internet was like that

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#49

Post by hashmap »

connectsnk wrote: post #25
hashmap wrote: post #7

i looked at the overall shape of the words and punctuation on this page and thought, oh this looks like adhd, let me scroll down... yup adhd. didnt read any of it though cause it reminds me of something that i need to do that ive never thought of before, so now i have to go do that thing

Lol. BTW how did you figure out the writing style is ADHD

i think mostly just opening the page felt a little like looking at a mirror

Re: I stopped tracking my time. Now I can't focus

#50

Post by Kaliboy »

niyazpk wrote: post #34
joemasilotti wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you cannot focus, just focus more? I'm guessing you don't have ADHD, right?

You are right, so I am probably completely on the wrong here. :D A question to advance the discussion. What I am wondering is, if you can remember to go back to your time tracking system, why can you not remember to go back to your main goals?

Well the truth is we forget the time tracking system too. The solution is to keep the system in your face.

Maybe a programming/assembly analogy can help you understand the issue.

In my case, ADHD makes my brain want to work in a parallel way.

While I'm busy with task A it's like HEY CONDSIDER TASK B. Did you see C?

On good days, we see that and say NO OP - BUSY WITH TASK A. And refocus our mind.

Say it's a bad day...

Instead of CONSIDER TASK B, it's more like GOTO TASK B. And here it's equally harmful.

What should happen is the registers (context) of the CPU (brain) should be saved when task A stops. Likewise before task B starts it should be fully loaded into the brain.

None of these things happen for us.

So task A is left in an unfinished state, the context to finish it dissolved into thin air. Task B is started without properly being prepared which negatively impacts efficiency and performance.

And the moment the going gets hard, dopamine release decreased, you can feel it coming...

INTTERUPT - GOTO TASK C.

So it's managing that that's hard. Writing things down helps a lot, but good luck remembering to write :D

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