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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

I suffer from the exact same thing from time to time and I've learned to resort to lists when I am like that.

Anything I need to do goes on a list and I reward myself with some kind of distraction only after any item on the list gets completed.

Usually it's a sign that my mental batteries are running low or even past empty but some stuff still needs to get done. I find that after the third or the fourth item from the list gets completed habit takes over and I'm getting 'in to it' more and more and those molehills-turned-mountains disappear with greater ease.

Good luck combating this, it can be a real problem, especially if it persists for a longer time.

I've found that sometimes it is symptomatic of some underlying issue, something else in life that is deadlocked and needs solving first, not sure if that could be the case with you.

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Something similar solved the problem for me too. I used to spend most of the day reading HN, reddit and other sites. I even remember a week last year where I sat at work for the required 40 hours and didn't get a single thing done. Now I sometimes close my browser at the end of the day and realise I never got round to looking at the HN tab I opened first thing in the morning. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I'm at least 10x as productive.

All it took was to start keeping a log book. Any time I get something new to do (e.g. new feature, bug fix), I write it down, prefixed with "TODO" and highlight it to make it easy to spot as I flick through the book looking for unfinished tasks. Any time I solve a problem, I write down what the problem was, why it was happening, and how I solved it.

Having the book next to my keyboard serves as a constant reminder of what I should be working on, and that really helps to focus whenever I get the temptation to open my browser and get distracted. Keeping a record of how I solve problems always has a chance of being useful in the future, but it's incredibly rewarding (and therefore motivating) to see the pages fill up each day. It's just a nice, quick visual indicator of progress.

Lists are key. A simple text file labeled todos.txt sits in my dropbox and I have it set to open with a hot key (quicksilver, osx). I tried all types of apps for todos/project management, but the simplest is the best, for me.

I prefer using a physical notepad for my list. I really like being able to physically cross out items after I have completed them.

Good point about underlying issues. Each morning, if I feel distracted; at the bottom of my todo list I make a list of "Bothers". Things that are taking mental energy. I just list them and that seems to help focus. They can be big issues or small, from "where to get haircut" to "where was she last night?"

Have you ever experienced your list becomes bloated with items? Then you spend your time prioritizing and reprioritizing the items?

When that happens to me, I just pick one item and forget the rest of the list.

Yes, that also happens from time to time. But I don't spend a lot of time on prioritising stuff at all, I just take the top item on the list and get it over with :)

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