Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack • Hacker News Board

Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#1

Post by twampss » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:05 PM UTC

Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack
al3x.net

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#2

Post by edw519 » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:31 PM UTC

My Keep-Working Hack: 2 computers. One for work. One for internet. In different rooms. An egg timer. 48 minutes of work. 12 minutes of break.

http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/09/the-power-of...

http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#3

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:36 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#4

Post by ptn » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:44 PM UTC

Even better would be if when you tried to open a web that's a distraction, the browser opened your text editor.

I'm kinda dreaming...

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#5

Post by mrduncan » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:46 PM UTC

The best get-back-to-work hack I've ever had is to work on something that interests you. If you're able to do that, you won't need any hacks.

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#6

Post by 3pt14159 » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:50 PM UTC

I use rescue time. It is amazing. Having fun to do work also helps. Well that is it for this comment, I need to get back to work.

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#7

Post by gila » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:55 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #2

My Keep-Working Hack: 2 computers. One for work. One for internet. In different rooms. An egg timer. 48 minutes of work. 12 minutes of break. http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/09/the-power-of... http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html

An alarm would ruin my train of thought so much, this idea probably works better for those of us that can't control our procrastination.

I know I have used my hosts file (windows and *nix) to block those domains that server such good distractions.

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#8

Post by jreposa » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 1:58 PM UTC

So, everytime I take a break and actually don't mind wasting time on reddit, I have to comment out parts of my /etc/hosts ?

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#9

Post by unalone » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 2:03 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #2

My Keep-Working Hack: 2 computers. One for work. One for internet. In different rooms. An egg timer. 48 minutes of work. 12 minutes of break. http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/2006/09/the-power-of... http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html

That works for those of us with two computers. I wish there was a way of routinely disabling the Internet, rather than having me manually do it.

Re: Alex Payne — My Get-Back-To-Work Hack

#10

Post by pxlpshr » Tue, Sep 15, 2009, 2:04 PM UTC

Pretty cool app I found for Mac. http://getconcentrating.com

Concentrate helps you work and study more productively by eliminating distractions.

To start, create an activity (design, study, write, etc) and choose actions (shown below) to run every time you concentrate. When ready, just click “concentrate." All your distractions will disappear and a timer will appear to help you stay focused.