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Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

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Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#51

Post by raju »

kristiandupont wrote: post #39

If you are on Windows, you can download CherryTomato which is designed to help you with procrastination even though it sounds like your condition might be severe :-) http://www.beatpoints.com/cherrytomato

CherryTomato uses the Pomodoro technique, and I have found it handy (occasionally).

If you are on a Mac, here is one that I use - http://pomodoro.ugolandini.com/

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#52

Post by GrayRoark »

I'm working on something real. The trick for the overload:

1) http://jeffmiller.github.com/2010/07/23/a-cure-for-hacker-ne... 2) Never read it immediatly, use instapaper first, and only read at the end of the day.

- sometimes I just go take a peak, just like this story =)

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#54

Post by dschobel »

JeanPierre wrote: post #53
pierrefar wrote: post #2

Yes, which is why there is a useful noprocrast setting in your profile.

Which is easily bypassed through private mode in any webbrowser.

If you've gotten to this stage it may be time to get professional help.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#55

Post by daflip »

AgentConundrum wrote: post #5
pierrefar wrote: post #2

Yes, which is why there is a useful noprocrast setting in your profile.

I've never used the noprocrast option on HN, but I've tried other things. The problem is that pretty much any roadblock you put up can be trivially defeated. For example, if I were to put sites like reddit or HN in my hosts file, and point them to 127.0.0.1, it really wouldn't take me more than 30 seconds or so to get around it. It should work as a reminder that, "oh yeah, I should be doing something else" but that n…

I find the Stayfocusd (sic) Google Chrome extension quite useful for a friendly "you should be working" kick in the pants: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/laankejkbhbdhmip...

Sure you can overcome it using various ways, but for me the fact that it gets in the way is enough to prompt me to go back to what I should be doing (i.e. something productive)

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#57

Post by duck »

I would recommend Rescue Time (http://www.rescuetime.com/ - YC08). You can try to block HN (and other time wasting sites) multiple ways, but they are easy to get around. However if you see the total time spent it might make you change your ways. Plus you can see how much time you are in programming mode and have a couple weeks can really see some trends and work on them.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#58

Post by Apreche »

Yes, I do this. However, the reason is not because I am unproductive or distracted. It's because I'm at work. If I have work to do at work, I do it. Then I have no work to do. I would work on my own personal projects, but then they would be works for hire. I have to work on them at home in order to own them. Even if I get them to agree to let me work from home, I have to work on the things outside of work hours to get them to be my own property.

I would be glad to quit and just work on my own personal projects. Will you pay my rent? Didn't think so.

Re: Do you read HackerNews all day and never actually do anything?

#60

Post by piramida »

Click on your username, set "noprocrast" to yes, then you will find yourself often staring at the "Sorry you can't view this site" text but you will get more productive. You can even select how long you want to work between reading HN there. It really helps and I can't thank PG enough for this :)
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