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Tell HN: My best productivity hack

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Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#61

Post by ropeadopepope »

ci5er wrote: post #45
Trundle wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to restore access gives you many more seconds of time between impulse and gratification where you can catch yourself in the process and have the internal "the fuck are you doing? Is that video even going to bring you a modicum of happiness? Get back to work and we can do something actually fun later you adhd fuck" talk.

Does that work for you? Do you think it works in general? I do get the impulse to click on a link - and you are claiming that having to activate something (like I would do with uMatrix, I suppose?), makes you cognitively pause? I guess we're all wired differently. That one doesn't seem to be a challenge to me (although, I can assure you that there are other unhealthy things that I wish I could figure out how to stop…

It doesn't work for me. Editing a file isn't nearly enough friction to dissuade me. Even more advanced blocking programs didn't work for me. Instead of spending time browsing the internet, I spent lots of time figuring out how to circumvent the blocker. No work was done either way.

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#62

Post by ci5er »

ropeadopepope wrote: post #61
ci5er wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that work for you? Do you think it works in general? I do get the impulse to click on a link - and you are claiming that having to activate something (like I would do with uMatrix, I suppose?), makes you cognitively pause? I guess we're all wired differently. That one doesn't seem to be a challenge to me (although, I can assure you that there are other unhealthy things that I wish I could figure out how to stop…

It doesn't work for me. Editing a file isn't nearly enough friction to dissuade me. Even more advanced blocking programs didn't work for me. Instead of spending time browsing the internet, I spent lots of time figuring out how to circumvent the blocker. No work was done either way.

You sound like me. I'm not really very social (but I like people), so just unscribe works for me. I use LinkedIn as a rolodex.

What did (if a anything) work for you?

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#63

Post by ci5er »

Trundle wrote: post #49
ci5er wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that work for you? Do you think it works in general? I do get the impulse to click on a link - and you are claiming that having to activate something (like I would do with uMatrix, I suppose?), makes you cognitively pause? I guess we're all wired differently. That one doesn't seem to be a challenge to me (although, I can assure you that there are other unhealthy things that I wish I could figure out how to stop…

Briefly, then it gets undone and left undone for a good while. List making is the best option I've found so far but I still have issues with staying on track. It's the middle of my work day right now and here I am.

I give myself 90 minutes (or more, if I am lucky enough to get into "the zone") and then 30 minutes to farf off. Repeat. I don't often go to the office, so this usually continues for well over the 8 hours of work-time they pay me for.

(I also heavily use lists)

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#64

Post by mayreck »

movedx wrote: post #46
isaiahg wrote: post #2

The single thing that has had the largest impact for me has been simply making a list of things I need to do the next day on the night before. In the morning, often the hardest thing to do is just to get going. Having a ready made list takes out a lot of the factors that lead me to procrastinate.

I create two lists: needs and wants. I prioritise them as such: 1 = no harm if not done; 2 = annoying if not done; 3 = disappoint someone if not done; 4 = financial or emotional harm if not done; 5 = financial and emotional harm if not done. This is applied to both sets of items on each type of list. Now I know what I NEED to do above all else, and then I can get to what I WANT to do later.

awesome!

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#65

Post by ekr »

marikio wrote: post #10

Step 1: sudo nano /etc/hosts Step 2: Type at bottom: 127.0.0.1 facebook.com 127.0.0.1 youtube.com 127.0.0.1 twitter.com 127.0.0.1 instagram.com Step 3: ctrl+"O"

This can be improved a bit:

Step 1: sudo vim /etc/hosts

Step 2: Go

127.0.0.1 facebook.com

127.0.0.1 youtube.com

127.0.0.1 twitter.com

127.0.0.1 instagram.com

Step 3: ZZ

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#66

Post by client4 »

kgwxd wrote: post #43
client4 wrote: post #5

Coffee in the morning, hike in the afternoon, beer in the evening.

That's great for you, but the rest of us have to put "work" somewhere in that list :)

Haha I work during coffee, conference call during hiking, and then work during my first two beers :)

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#68

Post by ropeadopepope »

ci5er wrote: post #62
ropeadopepope wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't work for me. Editing a file isn't nearly enough friction to dissuade me. Even more advanced blocking programs didn't work for me. Instead of spending time browsing the internet, I spent lots of time figuring out how to circumvent the blocker. No work was done either way.

You sound like me. I'm not really very social (but I like people), so just unscribe works for me. I use LinkedIn as a rolodex. What did (if a anything) work for you?

I'm still working on it. I fear the only viable solution is going to be to drastically change how I interact with computers and the internet.

There was a period of about a week where my home cable internet was down and I had to pair my phone with my computer in order to work. I don't have an unlimited plan and I was constantly afraid of running out of data, so I didn't go to any website I didn't absolutely have to. The fear of not being able to work when I needed to and getting fired was a good motivator. I immediately reverted to old habits when my internet came back for good.

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#69

Post by tunesmith »

aditij wrote: post #54
tunesmith wrote: post #25

A while back I set a goal to have a happy, fulfilling life, and then asked what five elements were individually necessary and collectively sufficient to produce that. Then I went one level deeper, taking care to be strict with the boolean logic. I eventually got to actionable items. The surprising part was the amount of priorities I had in my life that weren't in that life graph. Stuff that was urgent but not importa…

Any chance you'd be willing to share more details on what your life graph ended up including?

Any time you break something down into a collection of "mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive" elements, there's going to be a bunch of different ways you can slice and dice that. What worked for me was something that was kind of like maslow's hierarchy. I think mine broke down into physical environment, financial security, being socially well-rooted, being healthy, and working on "meeting my greatness" (kind of like actualization).

If I were to redo it now, I'd probably collapse being socially well-rooted into being a subcomponent of something else that would include service, giving back, etc. But at the time I created it I was very much invested in developing friendships after moving to a new place for a new romantic relationship.

Re: Tell HN: My best productivity hack

#70

Post by czottmann »

For me it was taking a very long and very hard look at all the different notifications I was getting, and then cutting them down as much as possible. It sounds like a minor thing to do, but in effect I became more focused, as I spend almost no mental energy on useless distractions. I have only so much mental juice per day to begin with, and not wasting it on unimportant notices allows me to allocate more of it on stuff that actually matters.
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