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A receipt printer cured my procrastination

laurieherault.com

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Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#141

Post by laurieherault »

hliyan wrote: post #83

Not bad. I have a stack of unused index cards. I just tried writing down some recurring household chores, one per card, with some instructions below the title. I'm now thinking of hanging two boxes -- todo, and done -- in the hallway, so that I can just pick up a task, complete it and then move the card from "todo" to "done". I suspect the wife will have no trouble moving the full stack from "done" to "todo" at the e…

Ah, the idea of the two boxes is super interesting!

Your wife will have the easiest and most satisfying task :p

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#142

Post by laurieherault »

souvlakee wrote: post #119

> A simple solution is breaking tasks into smaller parts. Let's take an example everyone can relate to: cleaning the house. Cleaning the house is fundamentally boring. It doesn't matter how many parts you split it into lexically — it's just inherently boring.

Cleaning the entire house is first and foremost a gigantic task that many people tend to procrastinate. Cleaning your desk, on the other hand, is quick to do and much less likely to be put off.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#143

Post by karmakaze »

laurieherault wrote: post #76
n3storm wrote: post #57

Does anybody else feel like he has invented pomodoros and todo.txt

I am the author, and thank you for your comment! What I am talking about is really very different from the Pomodoro method. That method uses 25-minute sessions, while I am talking about micro-tasks of 2 to 5 minutes printed on receipt tickets. As for todo.txt, I mentioned in the article that this kind of tool with a hierarchy does not work for me at all, given the massive number of tasks I have. And I proposed a more…

I accidentally found an effective speedup tracking tasks to be done. Normally we make Github issues and Pull-requests to fix them with long descriptions in both.

Instead made a single issue with a table and each row having an emoji, item title, and when complete link to the fix. As new items were identified I added a row with emoji for 'not started'. Had emoji's were 'under construction', 'already done above', 'not needed', etc. This snowballed with me completing one item per day over 30 days until it was all done. I'm called it EDD Emoji-Driven-Development.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#144

Post by jaffee »

al_borland wrote: post #95
jvanderbot wrote: post #65

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

> I'm sure phones are just as stimulating for some. This is one of my big objections do 2FA. My work has been pushing it hard, and from a security perspective, I get it. However, it’s all via an Authenticator app on the phone. We can no longer set down our phones and simply work. To start working, and periodically throughout the day, we are now forced to pickup our phones to authenticate. This invites the chance to s…

1Password can be your 2fa and autofill those fields. It has a built in scanner which will look at your screen and read the QR code on the screen (no separate device needed).

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#145

Post by hbn »

Sanzig wrote: post #108
al_borland wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure phones are just as stimulating for some. This is one of my big objections do 2FA. My work has been pushing it hard, and from a security perspective, I get it. However, it’s all via an Authenticator app on the phone. We can no longer set down our phones and simply work. To start working, and periodically throughout the day, we are now forced to pickup our phones to authenticate. This invites the chance to s…

Hmm. I wonder if there would be a market for a super simple TOTP authentication device with an e-paper display. Kind of like those RSA tokens with the LCDs, but more modern and able to hold any number of TOTP credentials. Getting the credentials loaded could be a bit of a pain without a camera for QR code scanning. Easiest solution would be via Bluetooth to a companion app, which you would probably want anyway for pe…

Yubikey?

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#146

Post by laurieherault »

m3kw9 wrote: post #116

For creative tasks this won’t work, the issue is with the many branching direction and dependencies each new idea creates that affects the system. I’m having great difficulty with this

I am a developer and I actually struggle with this myself. That is why I use the app I showed in the video in the article. When I get stuck on a task, I break it down into smaller tasks. But at first, I only write basic logical steps. I do not try to plan my whole day in advance because that usually leads to failure.

And if something is really hard to plan ahead, like doing research, I can create 5 minute tickets.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#147

Post by souvlakee »

uncircle wrote: post #115
laurieherault wrote: post #2

Author here. It’s my first article. I’m a bit nervous but excited to get your feedback. If you deal with procrastination too, I hope this method helps you like it helped me.

I was about to be a little snarky but your comment reminded me to be kind. Thanks. I don't have a receipt printer, what helps me is an A4-sized whiteboard with marker when I feel like I'm falling behind my tasks. Also, to use todos sparingly, so they retain their effectiveness. It's actually quite underrated to forget and let go of tasks; what's important tends to stick around in your head and keep you up at night. T…

> serial procrastinators ride a particular high when they change their methods, especially if they spend money... It never lasts long, we return to baseline quite fast

That's probably why the author has beginner tasks on the whiteboard like making a bed, washing the dishes, etc. It's hard to imagine having such tasks throughout one's entire life while struggling with procrastination.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#149

Post by gofreddygo »

kamaal wrote: post #126
Helmut10001 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often trick myself imagining life is a game that throws boring or difficult tasks (boredom often equals difficult ) at me that I need to survive. It often helps because I I can picture finishing these things as rewards that help me get to the next "level". It was particularly helpful getting beyond difficult times (many bad events coinciding). Not sure if this can be transferred to others, or if it works because of…

This stops working after a while. The real deal is you begin the realise the 'points' you accumulate playing this game can't be redeemed to do something fun or satisfying. This game begins to appear totally pointless as you age(Points are less useful as you age, and dying with lots of points means time and effort was spent to acquire a thing that can't be spent now). Which causes even more procrastination. I think hu…

> This stops working after a while.

yeah and i figured thats fine !

I take time spent on HN as an example. I used to think if i limit my HN time to under 10-15 mins a day, would be ideal. But the slippery slope was stopping. It felt rude. And i had no one but myself to get angry on. Weird loop.

I then go the opposite, allow myself to binge. Kinda forced looking at HN every occasion i had a few mins. I get bookmakes to avoid typing the url. Browse on every device. Add comments, browse past lists, front page, best comments, etc. All the dopamine boosts. And I notice the dopamine effect reduces. The fun in comments, upvotes and finding something new just evaporates. A day or two of this makes me sick of the orange banner and the beige background. I delete bookmarks, remove everything. Make a new account to start fresh. Add a rule to block the domain, all out of a natural reaction, mind you.

i dont have real stats but it feels like over 2 years of this, i've spent less time on HN, than before. I'm not constantly fighting myself. It comes and goes in waves, like seasons of nature. Right now its spring and slowly getting into HN summer as explained by my flurry of comments past few weeks.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#150

Post by SoftTalker »

souvlakee wrote: post #119

> A simple solution is breaking tasks into smaller parts. Let's take an example everyone can relate to: cleaning the house. Cleaning the house is fundamentally boring. It doesn't matter how many parts you split it into lexically — it's just inherently boring.

I try to frame it as meditative. I can think about other stuff while I wash dishes. It can be a nice break from work, while actually being less boring than a normal break because you still have something to do.
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