Productivity tips for the easily distracted | Hacker News Reader

Productivity tips for the easily distracted

jacquesmattheij.com

175 pointsdailo1053 comments

I did something similar - I finished the area under my basement stairs, hung monitors from the stairs above me, and put fabric on all the walls for soundproofing.

I have to climb through my storage area, under a shelf, and through a small hole to get in... but that also means I cannot easily get out and take a break. I just keep on working.

Likewise, I am so hidden that my kids just assume that I am downtown in my office, and they do not interrupt my work. And my wife won't come in either, as she get claustrophobic.

I am easily 3x as effective when working from home now.

I'm not trying to spook you, but be sure to remind your family members to check for you in your basement nest if they can't find/reach you elsewhere.

It would be awful to experience a stroke or something similar, be unable to call for help, and not have anyone know where you were.

How do you think that makes me feel, reading that at midnight alone in my one-bedroom apartment?

I would love to see a pic of this setup.

It was somewhat difficult to get pics of it, as it is a compact space, but I took a shot at it. (Pardon the pun.)

The "door" from my storage room: http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-KNkxxsb/0/M/i-KNkxxsb...

Looking in... Sorry that it is blurry, but you can see that is a not a huge space. I have a gaming chair to sit on, and I keep a big blanket in there. It gets cold, even in summer: http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-kpfwhfL/0/M/i-kpfwhfL...

The actual setup. 2 monitors, a laptop table, and my work laptop: http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-Lxmh7hZ/0/M/i-Lxmh7hZ...

Looks like a fire trap. Be careful.

True, that is one of my concerns. My mitigation of that risk is that one of the walls (to the left of the monitors) is nothing but cloth - in an emergency, I just pull the staples out and walk right out.

That's really impressive actually. Inspiring too, I should strive to create a more "remote" space to work in. Thanks for taking the pics.

Will do. I actually am downtown today, but I will get some pics when I get home tonight.

Also, your mom can't find you!

I wonder how Jacques avoids the Internet distractions in his new setup as he still has a network connection.

I am also the kind of person who gets distracted rather easily as I have a really broad spectrum of hobbies/interests. I've tried some similar approaches without much success.

Back in old days when I was still a graduate student, I had a paper deadline due in a few days, but I was addictive in Slashdot discussion then. I experimented fully command line work environment: no browsers, no X-windows, only a few linux consoles you can switch among by pressing Alt-Fx. The transition was painful, as I had to look for command line equivalent to view pdf/ps/eps files, gdb is not as convenient as ddd, etc. However, my productivity gain was enormous, at least for the first a few days. The curve quickly flattened and began to fall, as I started to use command line browsers such as lynx/links and I discovered a few legacy games.

Another time I went even further: screw the Internet! I installed Slackware onto an old dell notebook and uninstalled all fun games and apps, unplug the wireless card and went to the public library nearby for a day. Almost the same result, I had done lots of task at an amazing speed initially. Then, I got bored, and wrote a frame-buffer based Galaga-like shooting game and played/improved it for the rest of the day.

Your post highlights the core of the problem. Ultimately, productivity solutions have to include a recognition that technology can only enhance your self-control; it can't replace it. I, like you, have spent days trying to optimize my work space and computer for productivity. It was a waste of time.

The best way to get work done is to get somewhere where you can focus. This includes not just location, but also mindset. If I really want to focus, I have to train myself to avoid thoughts like, "it would be nice if those exceptions that I just added to my hosts file would update themselves based on my browsing habits..."

I go somewhere alone, pop in ear buds playing some type of non-distracting noise, shutdown my email client, turn off my phone, and go to work.

I am one who can also get easily distracted by going to other sites. Usually an article like the one posted here would take me about 25 minutes to read because I'd switch tabs after about the first two paragraphs. The only thing that has helped me is if I can catch myself switching tabs. I think it's kind of "retraining your brain."

There are other techniques that you can try, such as having three computers in separate rooms. One is for your work, another is for play (slashdot, TechCrunch, etc) and the last one is for communication (email, Facebook, twitter, etc) although those could fit under play as well.

ADHD drugs work great (specifically Concerta) but the side effects can be quite bothersome.

The problem with disconnecting is that so many programming problems are best solved by a liberal application of Google. Similarly, I've never found man pages to be as efficient or helpful as a well-constructed Google query. I suppose one solution would be to install OpenWRT on your router and keep a whitelist of sites (or a blacklist if you can easily classify 95% of your time-wasters) for your work computer and allow free reign to your home computer.

https://github.com/leftnode/get-shit-done

Is such a blacklist. Just helped me finishing my thesis.

The problem I think I'd encounter with a blacklist is that skirting it suddenly becomes an interesting challenge. Proxies and VPNs can get me where I want to go, and the idea that I'm not supposed to makes it more tempting. If I implement a whitelist and block my work comp's MAC address from accessing the admin panel on my router, then I'd have to physically get off my ass in order to circumvent it, in which case It'd be easier to just do the damned work.

Productivity tip: buy a caravan. Gotta admit, that's the first time I've seen that one.

Indeed, not usually applicable to urban living. But the main points come through, namely, find a place to work where you can get away from life distractions and gear it so that it is conceptually/aesthetically separated from the rest of your life; then have some ritual which signifies when it's work time. Mark Boulton in (_Designing for the Web_) has a separate, work-only room in his house, and his ritual is to keep his shoes on during the day (work time) and take them off when he's done (home time).

He's Dutch, right?

And while other people might not have the requisite place to put a caravan, they might also not actually have the need for one, due to being alone in their apartments. If you're married with children and work from home in a small apartment, you might need to get a bit more creative. Good headphones usually help, and if you don't even have a room to yourself, mounting some curtain rails to the ceiling might do the trick.

I believe he lives in Canada. You can find a few good stories on his blog about it. http://jacquesmattheij.com/dealing+with+burn+out

Dutch license plate (you can make out the NL) and European plugs. It's very probably the Netherlands.

That's correct, I moved back in 2005.

I thought you quit commenting on HN ;)

He only comes back to correct outrageous mis-statements that could potentially damage someone's reputation or hard work - I guess accusing him of being Canadian counts as one of the above ;-)

Hey now, nothing wrong with being Canadian :p

First thing I thought of was Breaking Bad. However, instead of the cops finding an old man cooking up meth, they'd find a very demure, focused man on a computer.

I don't think "(from Jacques)" is quite required... we can all see the URL of the site.

Other than that, great article - each person will have their own unique system for dealing with distractions... this one is quite elaborate, but whatever works, works!

As long as you're fighting against yourself—effectively first trapping yourself and then hacking yourself out of your own trap—you're not making actual progress. However, it's likely that you're either doing the wrong thing, doing it for the wrong reasons, or doing it at the wrong time.

My productivity just happens with the right task, project, or job. I don't care how many browser windows I have open or what's happening on IRC. I just have my emacs open and I probably flip it back and forth with a terminal window or wherever I can see my program running, and watch it grow.

But it's a terrifying thought to accept that you're not doing the right thing. It's much easier to try to remove all distractions.

I use a local hostel - when I find that I need some time to focus and work on writing and editing and coding - I book a few nights at the hostel - and just work away in the public area. There are always people around, so I'm less inclined to become an antisocial slob - and I get to focus on work while all the amenities are taken care of for me.

Oh, man, chess clock. Brilliant. I just dug out mine and put a new battery in it last month when when the gf challenged me (and she isn't going to do that again -- she hates to lose!)

In my experience, things like productivity and diet are easy to change in the short term, but long-term change depends on monitoring and sustained effort. The chess clock is a dead-simple monitoring device, and I'm already habituated to it thanks to many hours spent on chess in high school and college.

I don't mean to be rude, but I'm surprised noone has yet asked how much this itself is an epic case of productive procrastination.

As in: "The job I have [refactor] is grinding, but the shiny awesome distraction project idea I have [caravan workspace] is shiny and awesome and clearly very important, so I'll focus and work really hard on it"

I'm prone to see this pattern because I'm prone to falling into it myself. Not that it's exclusively a bad pattern, you can get a lot done that way.

jaquesm, if you don't mind I'd be interested to know two things:

* How long the whole setup took, and how long you've had the caravan for? (I saw you've been using it at least 10 days from the post, which seems a very good sign - obviously you got some work done recently apart from finding/installing/blogging your new caravan workplace.)

* As a favour, could you please follow up in 2-3 months and tell us honestly how it is working out?

The caravan thing is not an option for me but the chess clock is pure genius. Sure, there are tons of timer apps for the desktop and the phone and pushing a button on a physical object is much better.

However, the clock that's shown in his photo is kind of expense ~$70+ on eBay + $10 shipping. The cheapest wooden clock I could find was from the Chess Store (http://www.amazon.com/TCS-Standard-Wood-Chess-Clock/dp/B003Z...) for $25 but it has no reviews.

Nice approach. Remind me of the OfficePod [1] discussed at HN [2] about one year ago. The used trailer is much more affordable (less than $1000?) than the OfficePod, which costs a whopping 25K.

[1] http://www.officepod.co.uk

[2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1069526

Depending on what shape the caravan is in, you might be able to find someone who'll pay you to drag it off their land.

And as a bonus, you'll get some free rodents.

Reminds me of Jerry Pournelle's Monk's Cell that he uses for serious writing productivity.

http://www.pournelle.com/slowchange/myjob.html

Having too many screens doesn't make you get distracted, there is a root cause as to why you are procrastinating or not enthralled in your work, and it's not having too much screen real estate.

You should try to address the root cause of your issues because it's only a matter of time before the 1 screen you have left ends up being covered by a browser window full of off topic tabs.

My solution is little more lo-fi - I just have a bunch of rules in my hosts file to resolve urls of sites I waste too much time on (HN/twitter/engadget etc) to the wrong IP so I can actually concentrate.

Sure I can just edit the hosts file, but I find that extra step seems to deter me :)

I've recently realised that large monitors make me less productive for most tasks, as they just tempt me to procrastinate through multitasking. Screen real-estate set aside for documentation ends up being used for Twitter, HN and the deadly random Wikipedia pages. Victorian schools had high windows so the pupils couldn't gaze out of the window. A big monitor just invites me to gaze at something interesting but easy, when I should be staring into the abyss of a thorny problem.

I intend to sell my current setup and buy a little ultraportable and a Kindle DX. The ultraportable will have only enough screen real-estate for actual work, but I'll still have plenty of display room for documentation.

While yes my multi-monitor setup gets used for non-work related stuff, most of the time the smaller of the two screens is covered in documentation and terminal windows while my main screen has MacVim maximised with multiple tabs. Being able to quickly move from one screen to another has helped me be a lot more productive.

So it is also about willpower.

How does he get his monitors to go vertical like that? Is there some rotation software (for Linux)?

xrandr (use "xrandr --output <output> --rotate (normal|right|left|inverted)", e.g. "xrandr --output DVI1 --rotate right")

Ubuntu also has a graphical tool for this, probably also other distributions.

On ubuntu it is under monitors (might be a gnome thing) and you just select right or left under rotation.

I'm sure kde has something similar, but one thing to be aware of is that some monitors are specifically designed to be viewed horizontally so fonts and other things may render weird when rotated.

One thing to keep in mind is to disable sub-pixel rendering of fonts, or at least change the layout from RGB to VRGB. Otherwise, the fonts might have color outlines due to wrong assumptions about the sub-pixel layout made by the renderer.

I love that this post on avoiding distractions involved buying a camper and figuring out how to lever it painfully over a hole.

Like a lot of us, he "suffers" from NADD (Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder)

Hopefully, you did this outside of work hours...

tip #1 block HNN & Redit while coding tip #2 only check email once / hour. tip #3 profit :-)

#4 is profit. #3 is

Can you believe this guy? He switched from a model-m-clone keyboard to something that looks like logitech. Sacrilege!

That's an SGI keyboard on the desk, I couldn't plug it in to the laptop in the caravan but an adapter has been ordered and should be here tomorrow or so.

... and balance is restored.

excellent

For that up arrow was made.. ;)

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