I need just one thing: a way to get rid of a bad habit that doesn't involve changing the circumstances in which I have that habit. I'm a Web developer with a mindless tic-like habit of opening sites like Reddit and HN all the time. Even a second after closing it. I can't very well get rid of Web browsers. Edit: ohh, but the tip of going to a place where I've never procrastinated before and sitting down to think what…
Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
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Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#102I need just one thing: a way to get rid of a bad habit that doesn't involve changing the circumstances in which I have that habit. I'm a Web developer with a mindless tic-like habit of opening sites like Reddit and HN all the time. Even a second after closing it. I can't very well get rid of Web browsers. Edit: ohh, but the tip of going to a place where I've never procrastinated before and sitting down to think what…
What's worked for me every time I get in that routine is to force myself to do one to five push ups every time I think about switching tabs. During that time I think about what it is that I really want to be doing. After a while I automatically skip to this step without having the desire to refresh HN.
I used this to quit Facebook. It's an almost Pavlovian trick. You start to associate your habit with a negative connotation because you know that a short workout will follow.
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#103I looked at the guy's pie charts of working time, and unless I'm reading them wrong, he _never sleeps_. He has all 24 hours of the day marked as mostly work.
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they are windsurfing for someone else, probably... But it doesn't seem like top pro athletes and olympians procrastinate. They are intrinsically driven.
> But it doesn't seem like top pro athletes and olympians procrastinate. I don't think you can become a top pro athlete or olympian if you're not the fraction of a fraction of the world's population with immense intrinsic motivation, passion, ambition, and drive -- so this seems like survivorship bias.
And your coaches are the fraction of a fraction of the world’s hardest hard-asses.
There’s a lot of external motivation there as well. That’s three people doing a tremendous amount of work to avoid one of them crying in the corner.
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
If they are windsurfing for someone else, probably... But it doesn't seem like top pro athletes and olympians procrastinate. They are intrinsically driven.
Some selection bias there. People who procrastinate at stuff don’t become olympians, I’d guess.
Survivor bias for sure. Lots of parents would rather have a happy child than a gold medal. Once the kid is miserable it becomes a hobby.
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#106RE: 11.3 Browser tab management
No manual, rule-based tab management ever worked for me, which is why I took over development for Tab Wrangler a while back and have been continuing to update it. Garbage collection for old tabs without me having to intervene.
This has been the best system for me, and it has worked well for years. Old tabs are automatically cleaned up when I haven't looked at them in a while.
It's all open source: https://github.com/tabwrangler/tabwrangler
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#107The simplest productivity hack is finding passion. I never seen a windsurfer procrastinate. If you are truly enjoying your work and can't wait to do it, there is nothing going to stop you.
Unfortunately, that's not an easy thing to do. It's not practical for 90% of people. Being software developers, we're lucky, but even though I love what I do, I often hate doing it for other people.
90%? You think 1 in 10 people out there are passionate about their job and love going to work on Monday?
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#108> provides me with 625 minutes of work, interspersed with 275 minutes of breaks (provided my workday is 15 hours)
Who the hell works 15 hour workday?
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Audiobooks have been my savior since I switched to them from podcasts. I'm making my way through a backlog of must read sci-fi and fantasy classics I never would have read otherwise because I have little time to read a book as it is. I have to wait a bit and have a somewhat limited selection with my library card, but overall it's worth it.
You should try Scribd.com for audiobooks (disclaimer: I work there)
Thanks for the suggestion. Not really looking to add another subscription to the budget at the moment though.
Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible
#110Most of the items on that guy's "todo" list wouldn't even qualify as "work" for me. For me meaningful work can only be accomplished in uninterrupted chunks of 2 hours or longer. There's so much mental context, and it's so complicated, it takes a lot of time to rebuild it. I do gnarly low level C/C++ and assembly (for Intel, ARM and MIPS). "Write a blog post", "clean up one note". If I used One Note or wrote blog posts, those would just be background tasks while stuff compiles or tests/benchmarks run.