Comment by jarin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jarin | Hacker News Reader

I know the feeling, you're browsing around aimlessly, checking feeds, checking forums, etc. At some point you start getting that overwhelming feeling where you know you should be doing something productive, but it's just so easy to click one more link.

Here is the sequence I follow when I realize I've been up for 4 hours and still haven't gotten anything done yet:

- Eat something quick to prepare, if I haven't eaten yet. Watch Mixergy or something while I'm cooking/eating. This is the wind-down from "procrastination mode", and watching Mixergy reminds me that there are people out there busting their asses right now and taking all of my future customers or client dollars.

- Put on some good coding music. This puts my brain into "serious business" mode. I prefer energetic hip-hop or dubstep, something I can bop my head to and feel like a boss.

- Go through all my tabs, Pinboard and tag the ones I want to keep for later, and close all of the tabs that don't apply to what I should be working on.

- Take a post-it note and write down the 3 tasks I am going to accomplish today, come hell or high water.

- Get a coffee or energy drink, have a smoke (not recommended), and use the bathroom. Get my mental game plan together.

- Open Terminal and MacVim. This sets the stage.

- Pick a task that isn't on the post-it note (but needs to be done) that takes 10 minutes or less to bust out. Could be anything from a quick design fix to a wireframe or writing up a quick estimate. This is the warm-up.

- By this point, my brain is in full-on work mode. Jump in and tackle the work.

- Feel good. Eat dinner.

- Play Starcraft.

I also recommend using a program like Self Control[1] to blacklist distracting websites for really bad cases where you're not consciously opening a distracting website because it has become muscle memory.

In addition to using Self Control, I also like to run a small local web server to display a page like http://phylab.mtu.edu/~nckelley/Focus/ whenever I try to visit a distracting website.

I plan on experimenting with some negative reinforcement by building an Arduino device that shocks me whenever I visit a distracting website when I should be working :D.

[1]

Mac: http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/

Linux: http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html

...isn't this all covered by /etc/hosts ? Seems like reinventing the wheel..

Self Control has a timer.

Self control also makes more modifications to your computer than just modifying /etc/hosts, which in turn makes it a lot harder for me to disable than just commenting out the lines in the hosts file, which I could rationalize myself into doing.

I use Self Control from time to time, too, but I wonder if you've experienced the same problem that I have: namely, that some sites which you haven't blacklisted stop functioning, too. For example, often when I block HN, reddit, and MacRumors, and then visit apple.com, none of the images on apple.com will load. Random other sites that apparently have nothing to do with my block list are often blocked altogether.

Last time I had this problem, I took a look at my Mac's firewall rules, using ipfw, and discovered that several of the IP addresses used in the block list belonged to popular CDNs (e.g., Akamai). This could explain why static assets (like images) on unblocked sites don't load, but I haven't gotten to the bottom of the other issues.

I think, in my case, anyway, a simple /etc/hosts solution would probably work better than Self Control. Anyone know of one, something more elegant than hacking the file by hand?

I use one called "stayfocusd".

It's a chrome plugin that allows me block certain sites. I usually give myself about 10 minutes/day on all of my favorite news sites (including HN).

Got to love that "Shouldn't you be working?" black out page, means more work will be done in those hours. That said I found ways to circumvate the black out page and stepping away from the screen with a notebook and pen in hand is really key to productivity for me.

Steve Lambert, author of SelfControl, was our resident artist at our Highschool. Awesome guy :)

Setting the stage seems like an important step, I'd like a way to load up a web development environment with all the trimmings on my win7 machine.

A browser profile with it's own bookmarks/extensions, a separate virtual desktop workspace, and perhaps launch a set of other apps with windows arranged to suit my multi-screen setup.

I'm sure it can be done, but it's not simple or intuitive.

Actually, I think that's just an excuse to waste more time. It only takes a few clicks and a few keystrokes to get all your tools up and running, and I think the process of setting the stage is important, as you're telling your brain "I am getting ready to get shit done".

That is real easy and simple, install VirtualBox (or another VM flavor) and create an image just to do development in. Plus with this you get the benefit of being able to recreate it quickly, move it to other machines, and to save "snapshots".

Great post, this mirrors almost exactly my prep for getting down to work. Smoking (not recommended) definitely helps my focus but if you're using caffeine and smoking remember that nicotine catalyzes the break down of caffiene meaning you'll need to consume more frequently. Also, recommend instead of coffee, tea which contains L-Theanine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine which also helps with focus and cognition.

I think also there is a balance to be had with browsing, often times I'll use ideas or projects I've heard of by looking through HN and other sites. If you factor in how much code you'd have to write if you didn't know about this project I think that a moderate amount of browsing improves productivity.

You can go running or whatever, get back to work and be focus as well. smoking is not necessary to be productive. For the record, I know what I'm talking about because I used to smoke for several years and I quitted like a year ago.

Yeah, I am working on transitioning to running, smoking is not my long term plan for productivity enhancement.

As for the post-it/to-do lists, what helps me is to develop a point system (scale of 0~5 or whatever) and assign a point next to a criterion at the end of the day, depending on how well you think the task was accomplished. It works even better if the tasks are something that's repeated weekly (e.g. organisation of your living space), as you'll end up with a collection of points.

While easy and non time-consuming, it's powerful in a way that it creates a feedback process. Of course, there's bunch of different reward systems people use besides scoring high points, like earning oneself a cigar, for example. So you can develop one that suits you for more fun.

Have any good dubstep recommendations?

Hmm, I am not an expert on dubstep, I just have a mix that a friend sent me that is mostly Dieselboy. It might be considered drum n' bass, not dubstep, but that's just what I call it because it's got that wahwahwah sound and I have no idea.

Edit: Oh yeah, I can give a shoutout to Aaron Static though, I met him through EVE Online and he comes out with great new "Power Hour" mixes every month: http://aaronstatic.com/

>that wahwahwah sound

That's a good way to describe it, I know exactly what you're talking about haha.

That's the wobble bass.

I'm a big fan of programming to http://jungletrain.net/

You will enjoy this:

http://dubstepfriday.com/

check this out: http://radio.rinse.fm/

I recently discovered dubstep and think it's great work music as well. I would recommend checking out iTunes and Pandora to start finding artists you like, some of my favorite stations are Defiant radio on iTunes and Destroyer.net.

I enjoy my Ratatat station on Pandora. It has very few vocals to distract me. They are just a torrent of noise without much I only play it when I'm working so my brain knows what time it is.

If you listen to metal, I would recommend Machine Head and Lamb of God as two excellent band for "work mode".

Although this statement isn't very contributive to the topic at hand, Ratatat is awesome. Seventeen Years and the songs from LP4 are their best stuff.

It is actually really good music to do work to, the kind of music that's best listened to when you need to focus and are just kind of tired.

Although not dubstep I really like Soma.fm, especially Mission Control. I'd recommend Hype Machine for finding new artists. I've really been digging Boadecia by Mason which I found on Hype Machine.

I did not get the appeal until I got addicted to this incredible mix: http://soundcloud.com/erwtenpeller/war-of-the-worlds

http://soundcloud.com/itshooky

Love the dubstep suggestion. I too do my best coding when I feel like a boss

Reply on news.ycombinator.com