Earlier quoted context omitted.
i picture a chair covered with metal spikes
I think a good compromise would be a table of sitting-height, but without a chair.
Learning to sit seiza will obsolete this solution.
PG: Disconnecting Distraction
141–150 of 208 posts
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#142I'm going to say something unpopular now, so be warned. Is wasting time on..TV, MMORPGs, the Internet, senseless magazines etc. really that much of a problem for us as individuals? Procrastinating obviously robs time from "useful" activities like working, but how much use are these activities, really? Work applied correctly certainly brings humanity as a whole to new and better pastures, but I'm wondering whether thi…
This is a good point. I don't mean to imply one should do nothing but work. The problem with many types of procrastination is that they're not even all that fun. I think the right thing to do is when you work, really work, and when you're just having fun, really have fun.
a.k.a Work Hard, Play Hard
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#143I am getting really sick of people ragging on TV. "Visual crack"? Really? Have you been watching TV lately? Sure there is show that are just mindless fun but everyone needs a chance to relax these days. TV is more and more producing great works of art, try The Wire if you're doubtful. TV writing is getting better all the time. I'm of the belief that narrative is important which is why so many people gravitate towards…
"I am getting really sick of people ragging on TV."
I would suggest getting a bucket then.
"Have you been watching TV lately?"
Have you observed the people who regularly watch TV? As a general rule, people know far more about what diet plan their latest football jocks are on than they know about world geography. I particularly loved this demonstration of this simple fact: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qUYm50jQscw
Heh, all I can say is, "Poor Australia."
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#144I've found that it never works long-term. Your habits just adjust to the new situation. Every year ('cept the last couple, when I've been working) I go on vacation for 2-3 weeks to my parents' summer cottage, where there is no Internet access, no cell reception, not even a touch-tone phone. I find that I'm super productive for about the first 3 days, and then I end up playing a lot of Hearts. Without the different en…
Any recommendations for good HP fan fiction?
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#145I wonder how I could translate this to the shopping problem. I keep buying sweets in weak moments. Perhaps using two different purses could do the trick, one for forbidden stuff and the other for everything else?
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#146I've found that it never works long-term. Your habits just adjust to the new situation. Every year ('cept the last couple, when I've been working) I go on vacation for 2-3 weeks to my parents' summer cottage, where there is no Internet access, no cell reception, not even a touch-tone phone. I find that I'm super productive for about the first 3 days, and then I end up playing a lot of Hearts. Without the different en…
Any recommendations for good HP fan fiction?
I assume you've read Cassandra Claire's Draco Trilogy by now, since just about everyone has. If not...well, I think it's been pulled off the Internet since the author got published with real books...
I loved D.M.P's Sin of Lycaos (http://www.fictionalley.org/authors/d_m_p/SOL.html). Still do, actually...the ending still gives me chills.
There's also Nemesis's I Am Lord Voldemort (http://www.spookamania.com/Quills/viewstory.php?sid=36), which is a little amateurish but still a pretty good story. The author's actually incredibly ashamed of it (she wrote it when she was 13), but it's better than anything I could do now...
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
> then I quit [whatever] because I got addicted to computer websites. I suspect that's where most people reading this site are.
It's a solid step up from WoW.
My ex-wife left me for her WoW guild leader. It's a rather addictive game, but I wouldn't exactly categorize it as social, because the 'social' atmosphere evaporates as soon as you quit the game. Social as long as you keep playing, perhaps, like drug addicts' societies, or IRC.
As for avoiding distractions, I agree with Paul that the Internet is like crack, it's really bad. Like Paul, I never watched TV. (As an aside, I think the reason most people are so dumb is because they watch a lot of TV). The Internet is like TV -- it makes one dumb, it's like crack, but it's also unavoidable when working as a programmer. I used to deal with the Internet by removing the wireless card from the laptop, and physically walking to my 'work location', which didn't have a LAN port, to get work done.
The problem with that now is that I need to use the Internet frequently to SSH into servers, download libraries, programs, and so forth, simply to get work done. I suppose I only have about 15 libraries that I use with the typical program that I'm writing. So maybe the overhead cost of me browsing the Internet and wasting time doing so is high enough that it would be better to go back to the old setup.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#148I'm going to say something unpopular now, so be warned. Is wasting time on..TV, MMORPGs, the Internet, senseless magazines etc. really that much of a problem for us as individuals? Procrastinating obviously robs time from "useful" activities like working, but how much use are these activities, really? Work applied correctly certainly brings humanity as a whole to new and better pastures, but I'm wondering whether thi…
This is a good point. I don't mean to imply one should do nothing but work. The problem with many types of procrastination is that they're not even all that fun. I think the right thing to do is when you work, really work, and when you're just having fun, really have fun.
> The problem with many types of procrastination is that they're not even all that fun.
There was a period in my life, at my first job, where I was so fed up and bored with what I was supposed to be working on that I just avoided it by surfing the net all day, for months. You would think that goofing off all day on the internet and getting paid for it would be fun, but honestly it made things even worse.
Procrastination seems to be like a drug... it can be refreshing (or at least not painful) in small doses, but after a while you just get strung out and depressed. I had this huge weight over my head about what I "should be doing," but absolutely no motivation to actually do it. It took a conscious act of avoiding my web browser to stop that pattern of self-destructive behavior and get some work done again.
So yeah, anyway, just wanted to add my data point. Procrastinating can often make your mental well being worse off, by throwing in guilt on top of whatever was bothering you in the first place.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#149In high school I started doing something that has worked really well for me and helped me to create good habits for college and work in general.
What I would do is keep a notebook by the side of my bed. Every night I would think of ~5 things, 'goals' maybe, that I wanted to do for the next day. Maybe they're school related, work related, or related to something else, social perhaps, whatever. If there was something bugging me that I had been putting it off, I would plan out a timeline or schedule, and come up with a reasonable 'goal' for what I thought I could - should - accomplish the next day.
Then, the next night, I would review my day and 'check off' what I had done, maybe write down comments to myself or revise my plan if I needed. But I would either feel happy and pleased with myself if I had done what I thought I needed to do, or I would feel disappointed and frustrated with myself if I hadn't.
Of course, everyone is different, but this worked for me. I don't like the idea of setting up firefox tools, different computers, whatever, to try to trick myself or punish myself or block myself from the Internet or some other 'time sink'. It seems too easy to simply flip a switch, turn that all off, and slip back into a bad habit.
Instead of even thinking about wasting time online, in front of the TV, whatever it is you waste time on - stop yourself and save it for later. Just do it. As it happens, for me anyway, if I can do this, then by the end of the day I don't really even care too much for those time wasting activities - they really aren't all that entertaining. (-:
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#150It seems that the bottom-line regarding procrastination goes something like this. You can use any of many available tools to try and keep you from being distracted. But if you 'do not want' to do what you need to do, then its very difficult. I read a statement a while back which has stuck with me to this day....i cannot remember the source.
"Some people are unfortunately motivated by stress, rather than being motivated by discipline"