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A receipt printer cured my procrastination

laurieherault.com

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Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#91

Post by uxamanda »

jameshart wrote: post #69
voidUpdate wrote: post #12

I'm going to try and see if this works better for me. The daily printout of "things that need to happen today" is a fun idea, especially if I could keep it by my bed and have it print off when my alarm goes off. Are there any receipt-style printers that can directly print some kind of sticky note? I feel like that would be even more useful since you don't have to keep pins around, though I can see the running cost ge…

Many short order restaurant kitchens use an overhead bar you can clip orders into. Should work just as well for these tasks. Amazon search for ‘restaurant ticket holder’ reveals many options for under $20

Plus you could get one of those long pokey sticks and stab the finished tasks on it. Seems satisfying.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#93

Post by aaronbaugher »

sirwhinesalot wrote: post #21
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.

I'm glad you found a method that works for you, and as a fellow small-time blog author I can say I quite enjoyed reading your post. Sadly, I've tried the task breakdown stuff before and it hasn't helped. It's not even just the fact that I procrastinate doing it, but that even when I manage to do it, it makes no difference. Anything that requires more than a one off "session" of intellectual work is doomed. Even if I…

Nothing helps me procrastinate like trying out a new trick, a new tool, a new list-making method, etc. I've killed time on dozens of different solutions, and some of them were pretty good at getting me to focus and work hard on implementing that new method, but none translated much into getting more actual work done earlier.

Nothing really helped with that until one day I realized I was getting too old to keep being broke because I wouldn't finish work until I absolutely had to, so I got a job where other people give me stuff to do and expect it within a reasonable time frame. I still procrastinate more than I should, but there's too much to do for me to do nothing, so I'm always getting through something, and maybe that will become a habit.

But I hope tools and methods like this help others. It seems like every new method is a great fit for someone out there.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#94

Post by laurieherault »

fidotron wrote: post #44

It's increasingly strange how psychologically different something is when it's physically in front of you vs a representation of that exact same thing on a particular sort of display, especially given apparently some representations of activities on the display are addictive, while others become repulsive. As I mentioned yesterday I'm hearing more from people that attempt to avoid screens as much as possible, and thi…

You've started a very interesting discussion. I think that unfortunately nothing replaces paper. I understand Paul's comment, I have an infinite mess on my computer but on my desk I only have my paper tasks.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#95

Post by al_borland »

jvanderbot wrote: post #65

> Why can I focus for hours on a game but procrastinate when writing an email? OK I got a bit triggered by this sentence. Not at TFA, but sharing my own experience: Games are fun . And I don't mean Type 1 vs Type 2 fun and the email is somehow type 2 fun. I mean that the stimulation / "hit" from a game is just higher than 90-99%% of work tasks (writing a new CLI or optimizer excluded!!). We pile on much stimulation t…

> I'm sure phones are just as stimulating for some.

This is one of my big objections do 2FA. My work has been pushing it hard, and from a security perspective, I get it. However, it’s all via an Authenticator app on the phone. We can no longer set down our phones and simply work. To start working, and periodically throughout the day, we are now forced to pickup our phones to authenticate. This invites the chance to see other notifications, check and app quickly, or more generally, break flow as we have to switch to another device and back again.

All of this seems like a suboptimal solution.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#96

Post by graboid »

laurieherault wrote: post #37
graboid wrote: post #24

I like it! For me, I can confirm that the smaller the task, the less likely it is for me to procrastinate on it. I also didn't know that receipt printers don't need ink, that's cool. On a similar note: me and my partner recently also started using an app that divides up the household chores into small tasks and schedules them for us (e.g. "today you have to vacuum the living room"). For us, this prevents conflicts an…

Thanks for your comment! I have the same question as hyperific — which app are you using?

https://sweepy.com/

There is also one that is called "tody" that we didn't try out. Both require a small subscription fee though, which I really dislike. I wish I had found a nice open source alternative. Besides the subscription fee (which was like 18€/year for us both), I have no complaints yet about the app.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#97

Post by orphea »

laurieherault wrote: post #35
orphea wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I should have read your article further enough!

Oh, did you procrastinate finishing the article? :)

Yeah, I bookmarked it to read it later! jk :P

Seriously though, I'm going to try your idea with the receipt printer (I didn't need an excuse to buy it, no-no, that's not it, haha) and I'll see if it can help me. Sadly, even games cannot interest me for long enough; the longest I could play a game, recently, is a week, then I abandon it.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#98

Post by orangebread »

I truly appreciate how well thought out this post is. However, it's one of those things where if you didn't have motivation in the first place, it's not going to work. I've tried atomic habits. I've tried different ideas from social media of grouping rooms and things into piles to sort.

Sure, I'll get it done... eventually. But no amount of gamification will motivate me to put this much effort into habitual cleaning. I hope the author's strategy helps someone, but it assumes you have the motivation but not the methodology.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#99

Post by graboid »

hyperific wrote: post #32
graboid wrote: post #24

I like it! For me, I can confirm that the smaller the task, the less likely it is for me to procrastinate on it. I also didn't know that receipt printers don't need ink, that's cool. On a similar note: me and my partner recently also started using an app that divides up the household chores into small tasks and schedules them for us (e.g. "today you have to vacuum the living room"). For us, this prevents conflicts an…

What app are you using?

See my answer on the sibling comment.

Re: A receipt printer cured my procrastination

#100

Post by laurieherault »

sirwhinesalot wrote: post #53
laurieherault wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally understand! Just for this article, I restarted it 12 times! What really made a difference for me was starting very very very very very small, with almost no ambition. That is truly the most important point in my article, but I am not sure if I managed to communicate it clearly. The idea is really to say something like: my goal is to write for 5 minutes, and if that is too hard, I do 2 minutes. And if I mana…

Yup, I'm familiar, I've tried it, but my brain is somehow unable to treat the small accomplished tasks as separate from the larger task. It still costs me the same "percentage of willpower", if you will, as I would have spent tackling it as the first step of the larger task. And once the willpower runs out, it's out. With video games it's not that different. What keeps me playing aren't the small rewards. If small re…

I understand perfectly, when I'm curious or it's new it's so easy!
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