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Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

guzey.com

61–70 of 162 posts

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#61
post #50

I highly recommend Jean Moroney's blog. She digs deep into the psychology behind productivity and goal-setting. I found many unique insights in her articles. Thanks to her writing I've come to believe that procrastination often stems from deeper emotional issues or an unacknowledged clash of priorities (for example, when you try to force yourself to do something that you don't, in fact, want to do, the deeper issue i…

More and more research is showing procrastination to be an emotion management problem. [1] That's why it's been really helpful for me to start keeping a journal. It helps increase self-awareness and helps when I get off-track on my side projects. I can can realign my goals and ease back into being productive again. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90357248/procrastination-is-an-e...

Have you guys ever read the "War of Art"? It comes from a place that understands Procrastination as an emotional problem, and has a fully developed solution for dealing with it in that way.

At the end it gets REALLY artsy and religious in a way that made me very uncomfortable. But its still the most helpful book I've ever read on productivity.

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#63
post #57

> If you aren’t working from home, your workplace should be at least a couple of minutes away (better: an hour away) One great hack for this is if you work from home, get up and get dressed, then go out for a walk around the block as your "commute" to work. At the end of your work day, take a walk again in the opposite direction as your commute home. Even though the ploy is totally obvious, it will put your mind in a…

This is a great idea and I used to do it for a while when I tried working from home. The problem for me is that I usually give on this ritual after a week or two. How long have you been able to sustain it for?

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#64
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More and more research is showing procrastination to be an emotion management problem. [1] That's why it's been really helpful for me to start keeping a journal. It helps increase self-awareness and helps when I get off-track on my side projects. I can can realign my goals and ease back into being productive again. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90357248/procrastination-is-an-e...

Have you guys ever read the "War of Art"? It comes from a place that understands Procrastination as an emotional problem, and has a fully developed solution for dealing with it in that way. At the end it gets REALLY artsy and religious in a way that made me very uncomfortable. But its still the most helpful book I've ever read on productivity.

Jean Moroney would say that War of Art is based on the "duty mentality" - a mentality where there are certain things that you simply need to do, that are considered intrinsically important, and that your own personal desires are irrelevant and should be squashed. This mentality leads to problems. It's not surprising that the author is religious.

https://www.thinkingdirections.com/join-the-thinking-lab/ - ctrl-F "ineffective thinking habits"

"5. Duty Mentality: you treat your desires as irrelevant to your conclusions about what you should do.

Symptoms: You describe the obstacles to your goals in terms of temptation and resistance. You often feel you have to force yourself to do what is right. If you don’t, you feel guilty.

Practical Obstacles Created: You over-commit. You feel unmotivated. You work well only under pressure."

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#66
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More and more research is showing procrastination to be an emotion management problem. [1] That's why it's been really helpful for me to start keeping a journal. It helps increase self-awareness and helps when I get off-track on my side projects. I can can realign my goals and ease back into being productive again. [1] https://www.fastcompany.com/90357248/procrastination-is-an-e...

Have you guys ever read the "War of Art"? It comes from a place that understands Procrastination as an emotional problem, and has a fully developed solution for dealing with it in that way. At the end it gets REALLY artsy and religious in a way that made me very uncomfortable. But its still the most helpful book I've ever read on productivity.

Also read the book and found it deeply inspiring, I’d recommend war of art to anyone that is pursuing creative endeavors.

I’m curious though why did it make you uncomfortable?

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#67
post #63
post #57

> If you aren’t working from home, your workplace should be at least a couple of minutes away (better: an hour away) One great hack for this is if you work from home, get up and get dressed, then go out for a walk around the block as your "commute" to work. At the end of your work day, take a walk again in the opposite direction as your commute home. Even though the ploy is totally obvious, it will put your mind in a…

This is a great idea and I used to do it for a while when I tried working from home. The problem for me is that I usually give on this ritual after a week or two. How long have you been able to sustain it for?

I don’t actually do it. :) my problem is that I work too much when I work from home. I can’t pull myself away. My solution was to have children who draw me away with their siren song of, “lets play legos daddy!”

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#68
post #65
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or in this case, tomatoes. (My first hn joke. Not sure if jokes are allowed but sure was worth it.)

I don't get your first HN joke.

Pomodoro timers are shaped like tomatoes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#69
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that there's only 625 minutes of working during this "15 " hours work day. So working 5 days a week this is less than 60 hours of work per week.

... Without breaks. That's more or less insane. However that's easily adjustable, the article is the same if we read half that number. It's the complete absence of influence of other people (be it in the form of SOs, kids, coworkers, office environments, meetings, bosses, customers, what have you) that makes it alien to me. If I could have 4 hours of real, concentrated, productive work on important things each workin…

https://guzey.com/personal/how-to-use-your-wife/ :-)

Re: Every productivity thought I've ever had, as concisely as possible

#70
post #31
post #10

I would definitely recommend against having an hour’s commute to work. It is a really strong predictor for life dissatisfaction. Fifteen minutes is the number I heard to be a good balance.

I currently have an hours commute, which I find works quite well for me. It is a little bit unusual though - it is a train journey with no changes, I always get a seat, and I live about a 2 minute walk from the train station, and work about a 2 minute walk from the train station at the other side. The train journey is about 50 minutes. It's a good period of time to slowly engage and disengage - I do the things that m…

Let me guess, Cambridge to KingsX to work at Google?
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