Fooling myself to work
dextronet.com
dextronet.com
There's also a good book about the usual suspects behind the resistance and some weapons against them. "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore. Fear of not doing the task perfectly, unconscious resistance to authority, etc.
I've also summarized "The Now Habit", which is probably the best book on procrastination that I'm aware of: http://www.dextronet.com/blog/2011/03/the-now-habit-summary/
This is the one piece of advise I follow religiously. The dividends are amazing. Less clutter, a feeling of accomplishment, appearance of responsiveness to others, and a happier girlfriend.
Amusing proximity of comments! I guess if you make fun of yourself, you deny others the opportunity... ;)
Having your subconscious solve the hard puzzles for you is great at the time... but I wonder whether that has a flow on effect to insomnia. You want your brain to be thinking, working, but sleeping is supposed to be rest time...
Perhaps there are short term vs long term trade offs.
I've been experimenting with caffeine. So far I'm getting some surprising results. Amongst hackers the common view is that it makes you faster or even a little bit smarter or more productive. What I've found though is that it actually makes you more impatient. Being impatient and wired to a high level of alertness may mean that you pump out a lot of code ... but what is the quality of it?
Really good code requires really deep thinking, and caffeine driven impatience is counter-productive.
Also, it makes it harder to get to sleep...
When you whip a horse, it runs faster too. Caffeine is like whipping your heart. IMHO the long-term consequences of caffeine consumption do not outweigh the short-term gains.
Also, green tea (sencha anyone?) is healthier.
I also think that if you lack energy, you should rather "debug" your lifestyle.
Remember that scene in Social Network when Mark would come to his room angry, and start blogging?
I don't know why, by that works for me when I'm lazy to work. Writing is easy, it's just putting your thoughts on the paper. And we like to write.
So why not start writing about what you have to do, and why you have to do it. Spend a few minutes doing it, and you will find yourself working.
This happened to me this morning. I'm working on a little project of mine, and I can't get myself to open up Xcode and start coding.
I recalled I had to write an email to my teacher, explaining this project and why it's so cool. I wrote that email and it really got me going.
Now I'm writing this comment and that helps too.
When a list is on my desk, I don't even have to think about what I want to work on. It's just right there and it's easy to get to it. Checking things off is also a great feeling. Thus far, I haven't felt the need to subdivide tasks (tip#1) since the biggest obstacle for me isn't confusion. It's just a matter of the inertia of getting started. Once I'm actually sketching something or doing HW, it's very easy to lose track of time and find that I've worked for an hour or two and it's done.
I have exactly the same problem, but I don't think it's laziness. I think it's the fear of failure, or more precisely the fear and uncertainty of being able to do a task. Breaking the task down into smaller steps, make you able to overcome that fear but not procrastination.
Do The Work, by Steven Pressfield, is free on Amazon for Kindle (you could read it on your computer or smartphone, too) for now, so grab it! His War of Art changed my life. Understanding the nature of Resistance is incredibly important.
I used to take a break to eat food - I'd watch TV or read a magazine while eating. However, this context switch would be costly, and when I got back to the computer, I'd be starting to get tired from digesting the food.
By coding while eating slowly, I was able to realise massive productivity gains. This only works if, like me, you don't mind eating luke warm food.
Then, instead, I'd take the break/nap after eating, and would not have my productivity affected by the energy spent digesting the food.
Your ulterior motives make me nauseous.
P.S. I would probably try your software if it wasn't stuck in windows land. Why not make a WebApp?
Well, Windows land is our niche. Once we get the online synchronization and a companion web-app (with support for mobile devices) going, we will have kinda unique product combo.
It's very cool and not to be dissing your product, but if you'd just add Toodledo sync you'd have all bases covered (you can't compete if you will try to develop apps for all these platforms yourself).
FWIW: nauseous is to nauseated as poisonous is to poisoned.
nau·seous adj \ˈnȯ-shəs, ˈnȯ-zē-əs\ Definition of NAUSEOUS
1 : causing nausea or disgust : nauseating 2 : affected with nausea or disgust — nau·seous·ly adverb — nau·seous·ness noun See nauseous defined for English-language learners » Usage Discussion of NAUSEOUS
Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.
-- Merriam-Webster
I find that 'working momentum' is highest beginning as soon as the computer turns on in the morning. For this reason, each day I will typically schedule 3 hours of focus on one specific task/project/vision; before doing anything else. Trust me, anything you focus on for a solid 3 hours a day will eventually get done... probably sooner than you expect.
But, it's taxing. Nothing good has come of sleeping on a stressful problem, or common work where I know more or less what to do.
Thinking about work all the time, especially before going to sleep, makes me feel like I am living to work, instead of working to live. Setting the boundaries actually made me more productive.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm just always amazed by the little clues that are behind by otherwise proficient non-native speakers.
could you elaborate?
My wife is Italian, and it's amazing how many constructs you come across that are correct, but sound odd. Defining rules for many of them in English is almost impossible given the unstructured nature of the language, which drives her mad given her background as a Mathematician.
It also annoys her no end that most people don't correct/question her if they understand the intent of what she said. They feel they'd come across as rude pedants, but she wants to know so that she can improve her grasp of the language.
> If we want to achieve any kind of bigger success
This sounds awkward to me. Perhaps "In order to be successful" would work better?
> because I have some tricks how to fool myself into work
s/tricks how to fool myself into work/tricks for fooling myself into working/
> When it seems that I really do not feel like working
This one isn't that bad, but it's sort of strange; the kind of thing I'd imagine someone with an accent would say. I'd take out the "it seems that" and change the "do not" to "don't" (I think the "really" in combination with the "do not" is awkward).
> I even do not enjoy the food that much this way, as my mind is shattered by 5 different things.
s/I even do not enjoy/I don't even enjoy/ Also, "shattered" is an odd word to use. I guess I'd say something like "my focus is split among 5 different things" or something like that.
Anyway, I'm tired of this now. As I said, very nitpicky. Not to mention, native English speakers phrase things awkwardly all the time.
Probably your software is so inextricably part of your life that the thought of a world (let alone a blog post) without it never occurs to you.
It's a good post. The reason you're getting criticized ("spammy", "self-promoting", etc.) is that it breaks the informal conventions that have evolved for such hybrid (good content plus product promotion) posts. One is to give the reader a clear heads-up that the post falls in both categories.
In the absence of that signal, the flow for me went like this: 1. A blog post about improving productivity? Cool. I like productivity. 2. Hmm, this guy isn't an idiot. Guess I'll keep reading. 3. Some of these points seem useful, I wonder how I could apply them? (In the meantime, completely missing the first mention/link to your product). 4. Further down, dimly noticing the product name, but not thinking about it. 5. Recognizing the third mention of the product - what's that? Seems vaguely familiar. 6. Finally: oh, I get it. This is software he's selling and the whole post has (also) been about this. 7. I feel like a bit of a dupe. No like. Bail.
The only reason why 7 occurred is that the post didn't set my expectation correctly at the start, so I read it with a wrong expectation, then had the unpleasant experience of reality contradicting it. It's actually the fact that the content was good enough to absorb my attention that led to this; otherwise I would have noticed the other details right away.
Do you really think software cannot replace pen & paper completely? Shouldn't that be the goal of any task management software? Why not build this way to focus on the top 1-3 tasks into your product?
There is nothing like coming to your desk, and seeing the paper before turning your computer on.
But Swift To-Do List can help you focus, sure. For example, it has inbuilt time-tracker: You can start time tracking for any task - a small window (always on top by default) will appear, counting the time spent on your task.
Thinking Me just starts writing out the dot points on how to do something, because thinking is easy right? Then Robot Me just starts following the instructions, because simply following instructions is also easy. Can even listen to your favourite music while doing it.
Then next thing you know, you're under way...
Decomposing a task into what needs to be done to do it is really effective.
Edit: Judging by the other comments, it appears that the author may have edited the post already to be less spammy. In any case, the current version has a good balance.
The lite version is a free-to-use download.
+ I give credit to those who code and create (valid) content. One is hard enough. ;)
1. state your goals
2. write down your milestones - must be actual measurable metrics
3. write reasons why you will not reach them - expect the unexpected; yes you can not expect all the unexpected but this is preparing you so that when there are issues, which are guaranteed to happen, this is how you need to respond without your emotions totally taking over.
4. Write down what you will do when you encounter these problems. Again be specific. Think of this a as a recipe book/play book.
5. write down the rewards you will give to yourself for each milestone achieved. You need to put a positive feedback loop as incentive. Worked in kindergarten with goldstars.
6. and from the another book: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything answer the 2 Qs:
Do I think I can do it? (meaning skills and resources)
Is it worth it to me to do it?
Wow, a lot of work? Sure is. Worth it. Yes.
1. How certain are you that you *want* to do it?
2. How certain are you that you *can* do it?
3. How certain are you that you *will* do it?
Here is a nice synopsis of a case studied in the Influencer book about the Carter Center helping to rid Guinea worm infections in several African countries: http://www.joshhunt.com/mail215.htm
I have problem accepting your conclusion from your blog:To make the long-term consequences of failing at your goal immediate, you need a bright and painful line.
I think it more complex than that, which you alluded to earlier. I am constantly trying to be a better me. Losing money would not be an incentive to me if milestones were not met as you recommended.
The book, "Change or Die", talks about Dick Cheney needing a yearly heart bypass and then finally getting $6M/invested in chefs/fitness trainers/doctors/retrofitted planes to change himself (basically to exercise 1 hour a day). This is even before his recent massive weight loss.
It also talks about, people with fatal diseases that refuse to take their daily meds as required. Why? I mean it is fatal. They will die.
Taking the pill every day made them realize they were dying. Forgetting to do so, made them have a happier less depressing day. I guess quality versus quantity. In this case if the pill was somehow better integrated, so they would not notice it much and reflect so much, they might consistently take it.
I also liked this synopsis of take aways from this MS project manager about the Influencer. the Power to Change Anything: http://sourcesofinsight.com/2009/06/09/influencer-the-power-...
Also, you may have already seen this, Sendhil Mullainathan's, "THE IRONY OF POVERTY" http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge263.html in which he talks one such problem diarrhea causing infant deaths and how to successfully change the mental model of the parents to save infant lives.
I have not yet read PG's essay.The Wikipedia article was a nice read. Thanks!
PS There are some interesting books on how train and change behaviors in animals since I think in end we more like animals than we care to admit.
The smoking issue was interesting. In the book, Lady Drinking Tea, which explores how modern statistics came to be (BTW excellent read - fun), RA Fisher, the father of modern statistics, argued that lung cancer and smoking were correlated and you can NOT determine causation based on that.
For 60 years this smoker attacked everyone who disagreed. He was brilliant but still an asshole. He died from lung cancer, apropos. Soon after smoking was targeted again as a cause for lung cancer and many lives were saved since Fisher was no longer there attacking them.
He died from colon cancer.
http://www.bookrags.com/highbeam/r-a-fishers-life-and-death-...