[HN Gopher] Could a randomness machine help you fight procrastin...
___________________________________________________________________
Could a randomness machine help you fight procrastination?
Author : arnejenssen
Score : 109 points
Date : 2020-05-10 12:20 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (excelerity.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (excelerity.com)
| LifeLiverTransp wrote:
| Just quit and find meaningfull work. Procrastination is your
| subconcious protesting whoring yourself out to the man for
| trinkets.
| TACIXAT wrote:
| This sounds really cool. The other thing I would like is more
| sound effects on real life goals. I play Overwatch, and I always
| say I wish the stuff I want to be doing would make that sweet
| headshot ding.
|
| Patch in a bell into AFL for everytime it finds a crash. Maybe
| even a generic function I can throw at the end of main so when my
| code builds and runs I'll get that audio stimulation.
| tomcooks wrote:
| I use the same method to force myself to do exercises.
|
| I do standing desk coding for 1 pomodoro, then exercises
| (alternating pushups, squats, wall sits, mountain climbers,
| jumping jacks) during the 4 of the 5min breaks. This way I can
| intermittently break a sweat and find time to exercise during the
| day.
|
| Much like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QqoSyqckqA but spread
| across working hours.
| [deleted]
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| Slight offtopic: The web site's GDPR notice is worth a read. It
| caught my attention by actually having an equally-sized decline
| button, which is sadly so rare that it stands out. (TL;DR: They
| make clear that it's your choice and that they use analytics with
| privacy-friendly settings to make the site better for readers.)
|
| And it's incredible what an effect such a small gesture of
| respect has. On any other site I'd have CTRL-W'd such a long-
| winded explanation much earlier.
|
| The TL;DR of the article - Adding randomized rewards to the
| Pomodoro technique by randomizing what fun/distrating thing
| you'll do during your break, later mixing in other "healthy"
| activities in with the "fun" stuff.
| boffinism wrote:
| I think he got distracted while typing 'Indesctractible' in the
| first sentence, and procrastinated instead of proof reading...
| arnejenssen wrote:
| Thanks :)
| oh_sigh wrote:
| What does it mean when I pull out "Muhammad hands you a salmon
| football helmet" out of my machine?
| bobblywobbles wrote:
| No, I don't think it can (completely).
|
| If you procrastinate, you lack discipline. No technology can
| change or give you discipline. You have to work on it and you
| can't let yourself say no, it's a mindset.
| nitrogen wrote:
| Procrastination can be caused by any number of things separate
| from a lack of discipline. It can be a subconscious signal that
| we doubt the importance of a task. It can be a signal that we
| unconsciously know we aren't prepared for a task. Maybe it's a
| strategy to wait until the last possible moment so we have the
| best possible information and maybe even find an alternative
| task that is better.
|
| I don't believe "discipline" is a useful concept for everyone.
| We all have different brains and different circumstances. Some
| are motivated by discipline and duty, others by novelty and
| randomness. To an extent most of us can exert our will to build
| more of one side or the other, but it's much more efficient to
| exploit our supposed weaknesses at the same time as we build
| our strengths.
|
| I feel like I've seen examples of the "discipline" crowd and
| let's call it the "gamification" crowd preaching their one true
| way, so it's clear that both seem to work for some people, and
| maybe we can all try to apply some of each to solving problems
| of motivation and procrastination. But speaking for myself,
| discipline is rarely the tool that works for me, and it's just
| that after some amount of waiting I suddenly feel ready to take
| on whatever it was I was delaying. I think that some kind of
| randomness might actually help if I can summon the discipline
| to do just one thing if I don't yet know what it is (I haven't
| read the article yet so I don't know if what they describe is
| similar to what I've been noodling on the back burner of
| ideas).
| afarrell wrote:
| > No technology can change or give you discipline.
|
| If you don't believe that the shape of technology can change
| people's behavior....
|
| https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/10/24/user-interface-des...
|
| ---------
|
| As someone whose entire profession is meticulously-crafting
| metaphors to enable organizations to better interpret and act
| on information, I think discipline _itself_ is a thing you
| craft. Discipline is a mental techne. You can design what ideas
| and habits you want to try to plant in your brain.
| Your mind is a garden of your own to terrace and
| irrigate, to plant and to graft, to water and
| weed and repair, -- and yes, to artificially fertilize
| if needed -- so that whatever the weather, out of
| your impulses will grow the actions which bear fruit
| according to what you truly value.
|
| Every push-up and pomodoro is weeding the garden.
| james_s_tayler wrote:
| Side note: If you chronically procrastinate, and have your
| whole life, you probably lack dopamine.
| Scarblac wrote:
| Everybody has limited discipline. The trick is to not _need_
| discipline. By making work more fun, perhaps. And this sounds
| like a bit of fun.
|
| A better way is to only do what you actually, really want to be
| doing, but
|
| - most of us don't always have that luxury
|
| - often we would like to have something _done_ while not really
| wanting to _do_
|
| - fear of failure, fear of success etc can make us
| procrastinate even on things we actually want to do.
| AlexCoventry wrote:
| I need to make the breaks more structured than that. I find
| meditating during the breaks is helpful to keep me on course, and
| also improves my attitude during the work.
| karaterobot wrote:
| I'd like to see a followup after 6 months or so. Are you still
| using the method, and is it still having a noticeable affect on
| your productivity and well-being?
| symplee wrote:
| Unfortunately there's only a 50/50 chance he'll follow up.
| james_s_tayler wrote:
| This. Always see so many "I've been doing X lately and I'm so
| productive!"
|
| How long you been doing it?
|
| "Oh, about 2 weeks"
|
| I'm guilty of the same thing. We probably all are. But it makes
| me all this stuff with a sceptical eye.
| UweSchmidt wrote:
| I don't like convoluted schemes to make myself "productive". Hold
| a carrot on a stick in one hand, a whip in the other and feel bad
| about myself? That's no way to live.
|
| I try to find better reasons why I do the things that I do - why
| isn't it exciting right now? I try to check my emotions - is
| something bothering me so I flee to Instagram? I actively try to
| enjoy small pauses to reflect on what I just did, read or
| learned, how to generalize, memorize and improve it.
|
| And I want to smell the flowers along the way, just like all
| humans have done before us.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| > _I try to check my emotions - is something bothering me so I
| flee to Instagram?_
|
| What do you do when you _know_ what 's bothering you, but it's
| not something you can really fix?
|
| I know why I'm stressed, but the dishes still need to be
| cleaned.
| afarrell wrote:
| Then I explicitly talk to myself about how I am choosing to
| endure the discomfort.
|
| If I have to go into a situation: "This is hard. This is
| scary. This is worth it and I am stronger than I feel."
|
| or
|
| If I really have no power over it: "This is hard. This is
| scary. This too shall pass and I am stronger than I feel." I
| find repeating the Litany against Fear to help too.
|
| --------
|
| Sometimes I choose to distract one half of my working memory.
| Doing the dishes only requires visuo-spacial working memory,
| so I'll put on a non-mathematical podcast or call a friend.
|
| https://www.simplypsychology.org/working%20memory.html?fbcli.
| ..
| UweSchmidt wrote:
| Well, I'm currently taking some time off, working a bit on
| two unpaid, fun projects. I am learning some Docker, I take
| _long_ walks and practice yoga.
|
| My stress level has reduced.
| grawprog wrote:
| I try to remember that if there's nothing I fan do about
| something, there's no point in worrying about it. Worrying
| should be a call to action, the energy you spend worrying is
| better spent solving.the thing you're worrying about, if you
| can't, or can't until a later date, then it's pointless to
| worry.
|
| The other thing is, at least i've found anyway, i've usually
| been wrong about whatever i've worried about, either the
| severity of my worries were excessive or I ended up being
| blindsided by something totally different than what I was
| actually worried about.
|
| That being said, it's hard, I still find myself overwhelmed
| by things I'm worried about, so that's when I follow what
| UweSchmidt said and focus on hobbies and activities and
| stuff. But, i've found that can be kind of dangerous because,
| at least, me personally i end up becoming focused on these
| things to the detriment of the rest of my life and I still
| end up not washing the dishes and stuff.
| agumonkey wrote:
| Same. After a long period of my life where I was driven by
| unquestionned motives.. I started to realize that I stopped
| feeling normally happy for 20 years.
|
| It was either an unhealthy desire(fear?) for excellency, or
| social anxiety, or maybe a fantasy that going deeper would lead
| to a better life but it's not.
|
| I now do simple things, and progress slowly on stuff I like. If
| it's not a simple cool feeling inside I drop it.
| LeifCarrotson wrote:
| Feeling like I accomplished nothing (or at least not what I
| could have accomplished) in a given day when I go to sleep due
| to procrastination is enough of a whip already. We all have our
| favorite distractions that feel like carrots at the time but
| are unfulfilling.
|
| My emotions are untrustworthy. If I follow them blindly I will
| end up addicted to dopamine and simultaneously depressed.
|
| There's nothing wrong with manufacturing your own carrots and
| whips to help you get somewhere you want to be.
| jhrmnn wrote:
| Agreed. I find that the original cause in most activities
| producing procrastination is lack of purpose. So in my case the
| ultimate solution to procrastination is to do only things that
| I find purposeful (both on short-term and long-term scale).
| arnejenssen wrote:
| I agree. Purpose is important. However most things that are
| worth doing are hard. As a result we will experience moments
| doubt and uncertainty even when when the purpose is clear,
| and then it is easy to slip into procrastination. In addition
| for most people we also have tasks we can't avoid. Like
| filling out tax reports or travel claims.
| afarrell wrote:
| ADHDer here. I've found that the core of having a productive
| day is:
|
| 1. Take care of my health: sleep, exercise, food, medication,
| socially-bonding conversation.
|
| 2. Connect to Why -- That is why a good Product Manager so
| valuable for programming and a clear picture of my audience
| curiosity so valuable for writing.
|
| 3. Recognize signs of success -- Thats what makes Test-Driven
| Development so valuable for programming and Question Driven
| Drafting so valuable for writing.
|
| 4. Get into rhythm which balances focus and exploratory de-
| focus -- The pomodoro technique is useful here. Also, talking
| with Test Engineers.
|
| I like what Jocko Willink says; Accountability is a crutch:
| useful to notice and endure a problem, but something you should
| then you should then drive you to find the cause of the problem
| and incorporate a fix. That fix is part of building your
| personal discipline. I think the mistake a lot of people make
| with discipline is that they imagine it harshly -- like a drill
| sergeant whipping you into shape. But whips only make sense to
| enslave someone to do something they don't want to do. Healthy
| discipline feels like something effortful which nurtures you.
| Your mind is a garden of your own to terrace and
| irrigate, to plant and to graft, to water and
| weed and repair, -- and yes, to artificially fertilize
| if needed -- so that whatever the weather, out of
| your impulses will grow the actions which bear fruit
| according to what you truly value.
| ruricolist wrote:
| What is question driven drafting?
| afarrell wrote:
| A technique for writing getting words onto paper when
| you've got writers' block.
|
| Step 1: Ask a question.
|
| Step 2: Give the first answer that comes to mind, including
| "I don't know."
|
| Step 3: Ask a follow-up question like "how do you know
| that?" or "what makes this hard to know?" or "really? Why
| is that?" or "why does that matter?"
|
| Step 4: Answer it
|
| and just keep going like this for 20 minutes until you've
| gotten used to typing and have started to picture an
| audience that is curious about the topic.
|
| I've only used it for nonfiction, but I imagine that it
| could work for fiction too if you put a video of a campfire
| on.
| svat wrote:
| It's great that you're sharing what works for you. And indeed,
| that's the ideal to aspire to: procrastination is a sub-optimal
| response to emotions, so if you're able to check your emotions
| and reflect, that's what you should do! Also, feeling bad about
| oneself can be counterproductive too. It's useful for every
| discussion of procrastination to have these reminders.
|
| But if you're able to do that, I think what it amounts to is
| that you don't have it so bad. For someone suffering much more
| from procrastination, I'd like to caution against thinking "I
| ought not to need convoluted schemes; I should be able to fix
| my procrastination by just checking my emotions..." etc. Try
| everything, do whatever helps. To use your example, if I know
| it would be good for me to do X but it's too hard and I'll go
| check Instagram instead, then despite knowing that it would be
| good for me to reflect about my emotions... _that_ too may be
| too hard and I 'll go check Instagram instead too.
|
| I'm speaking from experience: a long time ago I had tried
| blocking my usual distraction sites except at certain times of
| day/week, then that method somehow stopped working for me, also
| at some point I guess I started thinking I ought not to do it
| -- but after starting to do it again last week (more or less:
| trying not to beat myself up for the times I bypassed it), I'm
| now _able_ to do things like journaling to check in with my
| emotions when I notice myself procrastinating, etc. Every bit
| helps.
| afarrell wrote:
| I have inattentive-subtype ADHD and I think
|
| 1. "I ought not to need convoluted schemes" is often an
| unhealthy thought. We are humans. We build tools to care for
| each other. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Spangler#I
| nvention_of...
|
| 2. Part of the systems we build are the metaphors and self-
| talk which acts as software in our own minds. But if you've
| grown up being distracted, you've grown up with people
| expressing how disappointed they are in you. It is worth
| questioning if you're taking that external narrative and
| trying to use it to motivate you...because it may just be
| pushing you not to predict[1] your ability to succeed. There
| may be much more effective software to install.
|
| https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/12/toward-a-predictive-
| th...
| UweSchmidt wrote:
| Maybe you're not in the right spot right now, not doing what
| you really want to do? Maybe a new job, new scenery would be
| good. Maybe taking a bit of a break.
| atian wrote:
| Maybe all one needs is a small dose of amphetamines, and
| all will get back on track.
| [deleted]
| jotm wrote:
| And sometimes you just need to hold a gun to the primitive
| brain and just make it do what needs to be done.
| ntsplnkv2 wrote:
| Which is often what procrastination results in. Pushing
| things off until the downsides outweigh the resistance to
| start.
| rantwasp wrote:
| Randotron, stop the procrastination!
| donquichotte wrote:
| You s.o.a.b., I'm in.
| rantwasp wrote:
| I'm in, I'm out. Who's kidneys are these?
| Scarblac wrote:
| I don't know how effective this will be but you sound exactly
| like me, so I have to try this.
| Torwald wrote:
| > " ...here's the method I am using at the moment with great
| success. You need a random-number generator to work it."
|
| http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-tim...
| rzzzt wrote:
| At first, I thought Nir Eyal is a partial anagram/pseudonym of
| Dan Ariely.
| beagle3 wrote:
| Both are unmistakably Israeli names.
| Jommi wrote:
| My original assumption based on the title was that the author was
| going to use a randomness machine to assign tasks to himself.
| Because usually procrastination isn't about not wanting to do
| something, but just getting over that initial hurdle.
| nitrogen wrote:
| I had the same thought, but the opposite strategy of
| randomizing the break rewards is actually pretty interesting.
| arnejenssen wrote:
| That is a good point. I realise the title is misleading.
| robotbikes wrote:
| I have done that at times, when nothing is particularly
| compelling but I have a lot of potential things I could work
| on. I would come up with a list of 20 things and include
| possibly some fun activities that aren't necessarily
| productive. Assign a number to each and roll a 20 sided die. It
| usually worked pretty well, especially if a focused on actions
| that I could actually do or next actions in GTD terminology.
| Maybe not the best productivity hack but a good way to break an
| impasse of being overwhelmed by too many things to do.
| XCSme wrote:
| This could be an app.
| seesawtron wrote:
| You should try Stretchly. Its a desktop application that forces
| you to work with the Pomodoro routine. It can get really annoying
| when you are coding and want to finish that last bit of code but
| otherwise I liked it.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2020-05-10 23:00 UTC)