Paul, I definitely feel this pain and realize I waste a good chunk of time. With all my programs moving into the cloud however, it's impossible to make this separation.
PG: Disconnecting Distraction
191–200 of 208 posts
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#192We all get distracted and specially when we are not really interested or enthusiastic about what we should be doing.
I read in Flow (the book), procrastination happens when either the task is too challenging (for one's skill) or too mundane.
I have noticed, when I am really interested into work, I never get distracted and have total control over things (IMs, Twitter, etc).
I have recently started doing some side projects (small ones), so whenever I am kindda loosing focus on main task, I switch to other tasks.. So eventually, I am getting distracted but the outcome is positive, learning and being in flow state.
As someone said, addiction can replaced by something else, for smoking can be replaced by chewing gums or chocolates, but if you stop it doing all of sudden, it's not gonna work out..
my 2 cents
-abdul
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#193Nostrademon's comment about making work more fun than the distraction seems right.
My latest STRATEGY is to move my work (writing and elearning game design) into the cloud since that's where I live anyway. I have 5+ private blogs (all connected of course, through WordPress dashboard) that I use to manage content (categories are king, tags are pointless since I don't want publicity) and as a place to do my real work (planning, designing, collating, editing, researching) and keep a record of my progress... and SO FAR I'm effortlessly spending most of my hours in this artificial work-world I've created and much much less time on the wild untamed Net.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#194I change my hosts file for this purpose. It works when I actually feel bad when I'm on a site but go to it anyways. It takes some effort to change the hosts file, and I tell myself that I shouldn't do it.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#195I am supposed to be working on my thesis now but any thing seems to be more interesting than it after having worked on it for almost the entire day. I think an approach to beat procrastination is to "accept" it. If I know I spend generally an hour surfing the web for every two hours of work, then I will start working on a project sooner if I can. I guess this can be called a "know thyself" approach.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#196Most people can only afford one computer, let alone two of them.
But I do agree with what is being said here. The only time I watch television these days is when a good game is on ESPN. Even then, I watch while sitting at the computer, working on my blog (PaulsHealthBlog.com) or writing email.
Okay, back to work now...
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#197I wish I had time to read this, but I have stuff to do. :(
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#198hi Paul,
I have translated this post into chinese for noncommercial use. Following is the link:http://www.yeeyan.com/articles/view/pestwave/13301
Please tell me if there is any problem with this, I will remove the translation.
To be frank, your words inspired me a lot, though I am neither a programmer nor a hacker, the principles and the way you analyse how to start a startup is applicable to other industries than programming, too, Thank you, dude.
Best regards,
pestwave
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#199Hi PG
With quite a number of months past, are you still following this routine - have you made adjustments/improvements? I'm very interested to know since I have this problem as well -in my case it's with Wikipedia.
I can spend whole days reading on the site about computers, science & politics, and although I learn alot and it does benefit in whatever work I do, it's definitely not financially viable in the long run.
Re: PG: Disconnecting Distraction
#200Hi PG With quite a number of months past, are you still following this routine - have you made adjustments/improvements? I'm very interested to know since I have this problem as well -in my case it's with Wikipedia. I can spend whole days reading on the site about computers, science & politics, and although I learn alot and it does benefit in whatever work I do, it's definitely not financially viable in the long run.
BTW, I'm going to try your suggestion of having another PC - or maybe it's an excuse to buy a new PC :-)... just wanting to know whether you changed anything since writing the article.