Productivity Is About Attention Management • Hacker News Board

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#161

Post by andrei_says_ » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 5:44 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #142

tylerhou wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is quite similar to the cognitive and decision fatigue principle which indicates that each of us only has a limited pool of cognitive resources and so we must be very selective in choosing what activities we engage in. Watch out — many of the studies which displayed “cognitive fatigue” (I assume you actually mean ego depletion) have not been replicated successfully. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_sci…

Really? Dammit. Everything really is a lie.

Maybe not everything but pretty low replication rates for most psychological experiments.

IMO that matter is extremely fluid and dependent on many factors. Just consider the fact that lots of the experiments are done with available volunteers which at Harvard or Stanford or Yale are white uber rich privileged young adults. And that’s only one of the many factors.

Another one is the pressure to constantly publish research in order to move forward or be anybody in academia.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#162

Post by agumonkey » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

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…

There was a post recently about a mindset where you'd try your luck in life sorting options by ROI. I found that interesting because I spend aeons on things that will be almost useless right away, instead of doing that maybe simpler, maybe less exciting but a lot more rewarding in terms of comfort. I guess my brain should be rewired from artistic perfectionist pride to capital (cough) pride.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#163

Post by WhompingWindows » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

revskill wrote: post #14

For most of technical works i do, concentration only happens AFTER i figure out what i need to do to solve the problem. Else most of the time, the "researching phase" is the most daunting task.

Absolutely, it can take hours to learn how to do a very straightforward 5 LoC or less task, especially when you start off not knowing what the "task" even is or what your goal/aim even should be. Much of this planning/research is implied in every knowledge job, and the ambiguity and vagueness of instructions/someone else's plans often feel like they are a Valles Marineris away from your input/starting point. Someone can tell me "Just join those values onto our data, easy left join" and 2 weeks later it is finally done.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#164

Post by razzimatazz » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #100

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 a matter of definition. I guess some people define productivity as effectiveness.

I think I define them in a big blurry overlap. Somewhere in there is the guy who leaves the communal kitchen in a mess because he is too busy, and the countless people who wont prepare properly for a meeting or respond to admin style requests.

I guess those form the category of selfish-effective and selfish-productive people.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#165

Post by razzimatazz » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:37 PM UTC

kieckerjan wrote: post #123

TelmoMenezes wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I like this, I think this sort of investment gives you(me) a foundation for happiness feelings to sit upon. Which otherwise can deflate quickly if it comes at the end of an unproductive(ineffective) day

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#166

Post by dlivingston » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:43 PM UTC

quickthrower2 wrote: post #10

alexanderdmitri wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did it teach you? I'm having trouble seeing the relevance.

Maybe don't autofire your 0.1Xers?

What's a 0.1Xer?

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#167

Post by Bekwnn » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:45 PM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #43

Bekwnn wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "attention management" might not apply to everyone, too. I'm most effective when I'm in the zone, which usually comes easiest when I'm listening to music and rapidly flicking between things. My thought process works best when there's a fraction of distraction and when I'm in a playful mood, not when there are no distractions and not when the only thing in front of me is the task at hand. My thoughts slow dow…

Very interesting. Are you in a digital creative field or traditional creative field?

Games development as a programmer. Lots of writing new code. Parents were artists and I very nearly majored in English. There's a lot of lessons I took from traditionally creative fields.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#168

Post by webXL » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 6:54 PM UTC

cpeterso wrote: post #59

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…

For anyone who wants to read more on the difference between productivity and effectiveness you highlighted, I recommend Stephen Covey's classic "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7_Habits_of_Highly_Effec...

It's funny that the author ends with a bit of a knock against the book, and mentions that there should be an 8th habit:

> I’m pretty sure there’s an eighth habit of highly effective people. They don’t spend all their time reading about the seven habits of highly effective people.

Turns out, Covey came up with an 8th habit years ago: 'The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness ... The 8th habit essentially urges: "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs."' [1] I need to read both, but it seems like Covey's 8th might cover not being obsessed about the first 7.

BTW, my kids' elementary charter school has actually incorporated the 7 habits into its curriculum. It will be interesting to see how the graduates do over the course of their careers.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey#The_8th_Habit

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#169

Post by dwinston » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 7:19 PM UTC

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…

> To remain highly effective, not just being productive, particularly for a project manager, it's imperative to spend time only on tasks that require critical decisions to be made, and to delegate the rest.

This mirrors Andy Grove's practice (detailed in his book High Output Management) of focusing on "high-leverage" activities, where "leverage" he defines as the ratio of output/impact versus time spent.

Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management

#170

Post by fwip » Mon, Apr 01, 2019, 8:09 PM UTC

adamisom wrote: post #125

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…

I feel like it's really self-serving, too.

"The important work is the work that I, specifically, am good at. Other work that I do not find compelling is unimportant, and should therefore be delegated to less important people."

The routine work done by "grunts" is critical to keep any organization running, whether it's a Fortune 500 company or a family of four. Lots of jobs (customer support, widget assembly, laundry, dishes) are unglamorous but vitally important.