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milesjag

Some of the tools which have helped me rediscover my focus and discipline:

* Use the CLI for everything - reduce the amount of time you have a browser open

* An egg timer - use this every time a tedious task needs completing

* A dumb phone - small and minimal functionality, easy to forget about

* A watch - stop using your phone for checking the time

* Cook your own food - excellent use of time

* Exercise - no headphones, a gym provides background music and enough human contact to keep boredom at bay

* Long-form media - books, films, music

* Return to things you know you like - 'it is better to know one book intimately than to have read one hundred'

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> A dumb phone - small and minimal functionality, easy to forget about

This requires more diligence, but can't you create the experience you want on a smart phone (no social media, disable all notifications, etc.) without giving up utilities that provide actual value, such as GPS / navigation?

> Exercise - no headphones, a gym provides background music and enough human contact to keep boredom at bay

Interesting. I feel like I am more distracted and unfocused when I listen to the gym's music (sometimes their music just doesn't match the intensity of the workout) or when I socialize between workouts.

GPS can be in not so malicious environment, I'm talking about separate GPS device instead of addictionful phone with no buttons, so-called smart but maybe not for end user's brain and free time.

The practical advantages of tiny dumb phones outweigh the technical disadvantages. There are 2 kinds of trip:

A - I travel across the city to visit friends/family/work or go somewhere far but familiar.

B - I travel across the country or for an extended period of time.

A dumb phone will cover A and a smart phone will cover B. The switching of sims is a non-issue as situation A covers almost all of the time.

For exercise, I just found that eliminating the concern of what to listen to was the real gain

> Use the CLI for everything

Interesting, can you explain what this looks like in practice?

Usually a black screen with a bunch of mostly white letters :)

Seriously though, I do this a lot too. All my instant messaging comes though a text interface, most of my note taking and other work. I use the browser a lot still because it's sadly unavoidable.

If I really need to focus I even use my old VT520 CRT terminal. The soft amber glow really helps to focus <3

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PRESS RETURN TO HACK THE PENTAGON

Yeah it might sound ridiculous but I do this too…

I wrapped the GPT-3 API in a stupid little CLI the other day, just to poke a davinci w/o having to go the browser. I like it.

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