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Productivity Is About Attention Management

nytimes.com

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Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#121

Post by dhimes »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #18

Interesting take on it, I certainly resonate with the "Michigan weather making work the only thing to do" anecdote. I struggle with productivity, and feeling productive. and when I look back on times when I felt productive the attention thing does stand out. It occurred to me when I thought of myself as a younger programmer that I used to love the time between midnight and 3AM, there was literally nothing on TV to di…

There's an interesting hack that works for a lot of people, including me- I've even included it in Study Swami: Keep a time log. Just log what you are doing throughout the day (I also log when my concentration breaks). You only need to do it a couple of times and, just like a food log when you are dieting, you will automatically power through your distractions because you don't want an embarrassing log entry.

It really works, and in a couple of days you'll likely have your focus back.

I started doing this "how long can I concentrate for" game in grad school in the 80s, and tried it again a few years ago when I was struggling. My concentration span started at a super-embarrassing couple of minutes at a time. In a couple of days I was back in the hour range, and before long it was as long as I needed. These days I, like you, seldom have tremendously long blocks like 4 hours available. But I effectively use what I can.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#122

Post by fma »

netwanderer3 wrote: post #28

There's a general misconception between being productive and being effective. One can fill their days by completing many mindless tasks and consider themselves as productive, but in the end hardly any of those tasks really matters. On the other hand, another person may only complete one or two tasks in a very short time during their day but these were critical tasks that could generate much higher values. This subseq…

I've started an audio book on essentialism. "I can do anything, but not everything" struck out at me.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#123

Post by kieckerjan »

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #119
kieckerjan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels more artificial to me.

I also get a lot of joy from all of the things you describe. The fact that the pleasure you get from sex or exercise feels artificial in comparison to writing a piece of code might be something worth thinking about. Is this really how you feel, or is it how you were programmed to feel?

I guess what I mean to say is that sex and exercise (not to mention drugs) are more like quick fixes. You can just do it and feel happy for a while. On the other hand, producing something involves more investment and when this investment pays off, the resulting "high" feels more earned or deserved. To my mind it also feels less buzzy or chemically induced (although I am well aware that triggering your reward centres by making something is a chemical process as well).

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#125

Post by adamisom »

netwanderer3 wrote: post #28

There's a general misconception between being productive and being effective. One can fill their days by completing many mindless tasks and consider themselves as productive, but in the end hardly any of those tasks really matters. On the other hand, another person may only complete one or two tasks in a very short time during their day but these were critical tasks that could generate much higher values. This subseq…

>it's imperative to spend time only on tasks that require critical decisions to be made, and to delegate the rest.

Nobody ever points out the privilege in this statement. Someone has to be the unfortunate grunt getting delegated to, instead of delegating. If a delegator depends on the grunt, can we really attribute super high productivity to the delegator but not to the grunt? That certainly seems to be implicit when CEOs receive 100x more than the average worker. Perhaps they would be equally competent as delegators given the same opportunities some x years back.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#127

Post by appleflaxen »

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #119
kieckerjan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels more artificial to me.

I also get a lot of joy from all of the things you describe. The fact that the pleasure you get from sex or exercise feels artificial in comparison to writing a piece of code might be something worth thinking about. Is this really how you feel, or is it how you were programmed to feel?

when you say programmed, do you mean biologically, or culturally?

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#128

Post by wccrawford »

skrebbel wrote: post #92
normalhuman wrote: post #85

My favorite anti-productivity introspections: - Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy? - There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be? - Remember the last time you felt glad…

> - Remember the last time you felt glad to be alive? Was it related to being productive? Actually, yes. Is that weird? I can't be the only one here who loves their job.

You're not alone.

I love creating things. Software, metal models, lego models, house improvements... I just love creating things, big and small.

Sure, there are parts of all of those things that suck and I work to get through them and on to the good parts, but there's nothing else in life that gives me a high like creating something.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#129

Post by derrida »

Busyness is not a virtue. The consequences of your actions being good... that has always been the classic definition of virtue.

Do good things. 1 small action can have massive consequences. Creating something good and useful to others, it does not matter if it took 20 minutes, for sufficiently good actions, if you did 1 a decade, nobody cares how busy you are or if you were "productive".

This is called being constructive. Rather than productive or rather than optimizing busyness (a fake appearance of doing work or "good") instead we just do things that are good. This takes cultures of trust and requires belief products actually benefit people create viability & wealth.

We can define a good action as one that has good consequnces.

Busyness makes nobody happy... it doesn't even make your boss happy. It's just... something you're meant to be, I guess. It's stupid and dumb.

Do good things. "make something other people want"... is a good description of viability, only problem is people also want crack and being a crack dealer is pretty stessful (I imagine) so if you don't want stress or to be to busy and still manage to do great stuff... let's narrow this down. Make something other people want... people want good stuff, don't they? :)

Do good. Don't do not good.

There, simplified everything.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#130

Post by douglaswlance »

kumarvvr wrote: post #3

What the author means by "attention management" is, perhaps, the ability to concentrate for a long period of time. Personally, for work that i love to do, concentration is rewarding. For mundane, routine work, I usually go on auto pilot, getting work done, but, doing it while my attention is somewhere else. For mundane work that requires concentration, my output falls off the cliff. Its here that many tips and tricks…

No work is mundane if you can find a higher reason why you're doing the task.
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