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Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

visakanv.com

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Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#81

Post by snoonan »

derwildemomo wrote: post #39
snoonan wrote: post #38

I do something like this with a script called "boss.py'. It regex matches time patterns from a dict and yells out the value by calling the mac 'say' command. I have it configured to yell at me to focus every 5 minutes and to lock me into a pomodoro-like work cycle. I run it on days I can't seem to get going.

care to put it on github? I'd love to give it a try (though I don't have too many problems focusing myself. I'm in the middle of a workday, just doing some..shit, HN).

Sure! https://github.com/snoonan77/boss.py -- Mac specific though easily tweaked if you have a working TTS command line tool floating around.

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#82

Post by PeterisP »

derefr wrote: post #71
ithkuil wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are unlucky enough to have such AI-complete entities, usually they call them "boss".

Well, in the analogy, this is a motivational service you're paying for. Agents are also, partially, a motivational service you're paying for. Bosses, on the other hand, provide a motivational service because they're paying you , and are incentivized to try to get their money's worth. (Then again, you could structure things so that workers are at the top of the corporate hierarchy, and have hiring/firing power over pe…

Think coaches for olympic athletes - in essence, you're hiring someone to order you when and how intensely do harsh stuff, so that it's done optimally and not at your whim..

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#83

Post by tehwalrus »

JTon wrote: post #77
tehwalrus wrote: post #72

I just set up a bunch of IFTTT recipes to trigger when random stocks go up/down by 1% in a day, and then get it to push-notification me a question like "what are you doing right now?" I should only get one every couple of days they way I configured it (I think,) so perhaps requires more stocks. I wrote a different question onto each one, so I could easily get different reminders on the same day. If anyone else knows…

Write a local program to send an email at a random interval? I don't use IFTTT but surely it has some sort of email integration.

I thought about using whenever a spam email arrived in Gmail, set up a rule to forward to IFTTT...

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#84

Post by lifeisstillgood »

jasonlotito wrote: post #49
kfk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True that. Part of the walk of life is learning dealing with ourselves.

It's been discussed before in my therapy sessions. Which, if you'll forgive me, is odd to openly talk about therapy sessions. But honestly, the more I've thought about this, I've wished that others had been open about their conditions. It's nothing I should be ashamed of. There is a stigma about seeing a therapist, but their shouldn't be. It's part of the reason I try to share my own stories about ADHD and OCD. I thi…

Thank you for opening up - I just took an online ADD test after your comments, and while it does look like a broad diagnosis, if there are options beyond my own coping mechanisms I want to know!

As for therapy - don't worry, I go myself and as well as helping me look at how I got here, I am pretty sure it is a worthwhile career to take up after I retire - what started as a therapy session is looking like life coaching and business coaching. I think the stigma will die.

take care

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#85

Post by throwaway_anon »

jasonlotito wrote: post #54
throwaway_anon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one exercises (treadmill) everyday intensely for 30 minutes. Do you think one can avoid medication?

I'm not qualified to answer that.

Can you tell me about your individual case. Does running help you if you don't use strattera?

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#86

Post by breadbox »

rb2e wrote: post #79

Okay, I have a crazy idea. I don't believe the answer lies in a digital solution. Our bodies adapt and can filter out a lot of background noise, our email boxes and phones are just the same. We filter them out. So you need a loud reminder. What you'll need: 1) 1x Egg Timer. Its need to be mechanical and loud. Crazy loud. An mechanical alarm clock is just as good but it needs to be loud. This has to be on your desk, w…

I can't see that solution working for most people. Maybe some, but it feels too involved and inflexible to become habit. The point about digital solutions is to find a way to make being productive a habit, despite your existing habits. If you've got the discipline to set aside time every day, scheduling around obligations to work/friends/family, with an egg timer and actually get work done, you probably don't need a solution in the first place.

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#87

Post by throwaway_anon »

Sindisil wrote: post #75
jasonlotito wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Strattera. http://www.strattera.com And yes, both Ritalin and Adderall both made me nervous because of what I'd heard.

Glad to hear you only have minimal side effects from the Strattera. I tried it for a while several years ago, and, while it worked wonderfully (first period of my life where I actually had any reliable sense of time!), the side effects I had were unacceptable. The mild dizziness, occasional headaches, and minor dry mouth were not a problem, but the main side effect was ... more troubling. Let's just say that, while t…

How long did it take for you to notice the effect of Strattera on your sense of time? Did you notice it right away or should one wait a few weeks?

I have non existent concept of time, so this might help.

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#88

Post by super-serial »

visakanv wrote: post #69

Several people have been asking me if I'm serious about the $100! Wasn't expecting this to catch on, but here's what I'm going to do- I'm going to try out every solution that people send or suggest, and I'll document it in my blog, and I'll paypal the $100 to whomever's solution works best for me. :-)

I'll take your challenge. Does a Chrome extension work for you?

I am going to add this feature to a new version of my Productivity Owl: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/productivity-owl/e...

Even if a Chrome Extension isn't what you're looking for - thanks for this idea. The way my owl works is that you schedule freetime, and during non-freetime all pages have a timer, and when the timer reaches 0, the owl closes your tab. It also has a block list for time-wasting pages like reddit or HN.

Lately my problem is that I delete the owl's timer, or schedule freetime when I shouldn't to avoid doing work. I was going to implement a "Respect Score" which I'm still planning on doing - but I really like the idea of the owl recognizing my 'workarounds', and prompting me with questions about my goals, instead of just berating me. Maybe I'll let users add their own prompts.

So I think your idea is a perfect addition to my current system. I plan to have a new version in 2-3 weeks.

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#89

Post by dreeves »

visakanv wrote: post #69

Several people have been asking me if I'm serious about the $100! Wasn't expecting this to catch on, but here's what I'm going to do- I'm going to try out every solution that people send or suggest, and I'll document it in my blog, and I'll paypal the $100 to whomever's solution works best for me. :-)

I see someone suggested Beeminder in the comments of your post (thank you, whoever that was!). Also by the creators of Beeminder (me and Bethany Soule) is TagTime, which is related to your idea of periodic prompts. We call TagTime "stochastic self-sampling" or "time-tracking for space cadets". It's not super friendly (a huge pain to get working on Windows, for example) but it's on github here: http://tagti.me

If you don't want to deal with TagTime (and I don't blame you) then just hooking up RescueTime to Beeminder is a great way to go. Here's what RescueTime says about Beeminder:

http://blog.rescuetime.com/2012/11/27/give-your-productivity...

Re: Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets

#90

Post by TheLegace »

Sindisil wrote: post #75
jasonlotito wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. Strattera. http://www.strattera.com And yes, both Ritalin and Adderall both made me nervous because of what I'd heard.

Glad to hear you only have minimal side effects from the Strattera. I tried it for a while several years ago, and, while it worked wonderfully (first period of my life where I actually had any reliable sense of time!), the side effects I had were unacceptable. The mild dizziness, occasional headaches, and minor dry mouth were not a problem, but the main side effect was ... more troubling. Let's just say that, while t…

Luckily for me I have more than enough of that by the end of day nothing is going to stop me ;).

I take the 100mg dose.

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