Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A receipt printer cured my procrastination

laurieherault.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 634 posts

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#471

Post by ascorbic »

laurieherault wrote: post #316
kortex wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love it. Using a thermal printer to print physical tasks you can crumple on completion and throw in a bin is absolute madlad goblin energy and I'm all for it. I think you've actually perfectly distilled the essence of "game-loop" and operant conditioning, and mapped it to the real world. I have been using a whiteboard for tasks, which is better than nothing, but the problem with that approach is the feedback is min…

Thank you for your comment. Seeing the tickets in the jar really helps you feel like you actually got something done. I cannot wait for you to try my app :)

As a former chef who lived by tasks on paper tickets for several years, I recommend getting a tab grabber and spike, for an extra little dopamine hit. It's very satisfying to pull the receipt from the grabber and spike it

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#472

Post by kstrauser »

laurieherault wrote: post #176
souvlakee wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yes, that is exactly why this method works. Because breaking tasks down into micro-tasks really does work. And the ticket printer helps remove as much friction as possible. That is what makes it a method that requires very little time and energy, and therefore something that can be sustained over the long term.

That matches my experience. “Write the report” will sit in my inbox forever. “Add 10 items to the outline for the report” will usually break the inertia and end up with me finishing the whole thing.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#475

Post by neoden »

I had a similar experience when I decided to use a pencil and paper, along with a few simple rules, to manage my to-do lists. This method worked so well for me that I started thinking about the reason for its success. These are my conclusions:

- It was MY method

- It was simple enough to fit entirely within one piece of thought

- It provided a clean feedback loop when I could strikeout the completed task

- I like handwriting

So it relied on things that my brain finds pleasurable

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#476

Post by kiliankoe »

whalee wrote: post #7

Cool idea! I would note there are some known health hazards in handling thermal-paper receipts(BPA/BPS)[1] with your bare hands if you do so often. I don't know much beyond this, I would look into it. [1] https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-...

It's come up every time something related to thermal printing has been mentioned on HN lately, but this is honestly great stuff if you're in Germany: https://www.oekobon.de/

These non-poisonous blue receipts have the added benefit of being able to be marked with a fingernail, which is nifty if you're using them to print your shopping list, crossing things off is very satisfying.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#477

Post by Elaris »

Thank you for sharing, this is a very useful article. I believe I have procrastination; many times I prefer to put things off and don't want to do them until it's absolutely necessary. After reading this article, I think I should try to change this.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#478

Post by flakeoil »

SamPatt wrote: post #465
heygarrett wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it is important, you will remember it at some point during the day. As someone with ADHD I’ve never found this to be true. I often forget to eat. I’d forget to file my taxes without reminders.

Serious question: in those scenarios, do you never have awareness about your need to eat? Or does it occur at some point, but then you decide not to eat at the moment, and after making that decision then you never revisit it? I ask because I often realize I'm hungry or it's time to eat, but I'm too engaged in the task I'm doing and I think "I'll eat a bit later" and then once I've done that the first time I often nev…

How do you get so engage in the tasks you are doing so you forget to eat? I suppose most people here have the opposite issue, we do not engage in the task at all and once we start, we stop doing it after a short while because we find a more interesting things to do such as eating, grab a coffee or reading HN, news etc. We would love to be able to stay on the task and not go and eat.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#479

Post by chrz »

plumbees wrote: post #323
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.

The first two paragraphs made me realize I have ADHD. I had thought I didn't have it.

I realized after 40 years. I had a talk with a guy with ADHD about how drinking coffee makes us sleepy

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#480

Post by freetanga »

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.

Hello! I did a similar thing - however I use TXTs and command line scripts to keep track of things (similar to task warrior). It's a great approach to pick up the list every morning as I have breakfast, put it in my notebook as I leave for the day.

Calendar, weather, to-dos, all in a single thing I can keep in my wallet if needed. I recall somebody posted a project for printing daily news on the roll too (I don't)

Post reply on HN