Ask HN: Bad habits | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Bad habits

21 pointsmshafrir37 comments

What are your bad habits? Did you overcome them? If so, how? If not, why?

Checking time-wasting web sites much more than I should.

Before that, I had issues with keeping with the habit of exercising. I think I solved that a month ago by starting to use the Seinfeld method[1] to keep track of it. I will probably try to move everything I have trouble staying with to the calendar.

[1] http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se...

I have an addictive personality, which means I like doing everything too much: coding, writing, visiting interesting web sites, smoking, drinking, eating. Basically if it has any sort of positive feedback loop at all, I can make a bad habit out of it.

Fortunately I began suspecting this early in life, so I didn't end up a coke-head or worse. Instead I've learned to balance all of my bad habits in a way that continues to optimize productivity for me. So for example after smoking for five years in my early 20s, I quit cold turkey. As for eating, I'm learning to control my blood sugar levels. I'm finding there is a blood-sugar/caffeine/alcohol feedback system that I'm dismantling. But then there are big problems that I'm still working on, like procrastination and too much web reading (which are related!) I probably lose dozens of hours a week on these. Sometimes I make progress, such as no TV (except for movies) Still others seem intractable, like enjoying coding so much I keep over-coding things.

I think as you get older you begin to realize how screwed up you are -- if you are introspective at all, that is. Some folks aren't introspective at all, or if they are they aren't able to critically see what needs fixing. These are the ones to be pitied. But introspection always has kind of a sad quality to it. I know for me it was a lot more fun when I used to think I was bullet-proof.

Your post is pretty close to where I am, 'cept I gave up smoking when I was 12 (I still fancy a ciggy occassionally!), apart from a few occassions since.

I was speculating whether or not computers make me overall less productive or not - I'm convinced they do. I need other people around to work with, then I can get "addicted" to helping and progressing the task rather than anything else.

Sadly I'm working largely autonomously despite efforts to change that.

You gave up smoking when you were 12 ??? Wow, most people that smoke would not even have started by that age...

Apologies if it is too much of a private question, feel free to ignore: At what age did you start ? Were your parents aware ?

10; parents, probably though I thought not at the time - it wasn't exactly a big habit, probably like one a week! Just one of those things one does to try and be cool and fit in. Then I realised it's stupid. I was probably a little under 12 then.

My mates folks owned a pub, his parents definitely knew we were getting our fags there.

like enjoying coding so much I keep over-coding things

I think I may be guilty of this too. And it's inconsistent with, "Release early, release often."

alert("Admitting you have a problem is the first step in solving it.")

It's a common condition.

On my last startup venture I went to one-week sprints, where I delivered something each week. This helped out a lot, as it made me prioritize and triage.

But I think having an active customer base and a team to report to are just as important. I find I have a tendency to prioritize whiz-bang stuff -- stuff I'd like to code, instead of stuff the users actually need. Actually, when you get right down to it, users really need very little functionality. As programmers we end up putting it in there simply because we can. It's fun. We think everybody else is a power user because well, we're one.

Holy christ. I just read all about myself.

Responding negatively to generic posts that ask questions yet reveal nothing about the poster's reasons for the question nor contain any elaboration on the poster's part as to their own <insert inane question topic of discussion> in the post.

Up-voting clever comments that add no value, but are such a pleasure to read and understand.

Workoholism.

I enjoy getting away from the computer and having fun just as much as anyone else, but with my mostly-full-time freelancing work + writing most of the codebase for a startup on my own, I have the bad habit of telling myself that if I do some extra work one night I can stop a little early the next night. But the next day comes around and I'll do the same thing all over again.

Pack a day smoker.

Quit cold turkey 3 years ago - through willpower. Not impossible & not easy.

A smoker myself - Not that much anymore, but still a smoker. Need to find that willpower.

Also, exercise procrastinator. My problem is I don't put on weight, so weight loss (or maintenance) is not an incentive. But I know I need to work out, and have been doing some lately, even if it is a stiff 1 hour walks in the evenings

Imagine you haven't had a smoke for 2 days and want one. That's all that quitting is, putting up with that feeling for a long time. You get used to it!

It took about a year before I really stopped noticing that feeling. Whenever you smell one by walking past someone smoking, you'll want it all over again.

Oh, there are some real physical withdrawal effects as well. They leave within the first two weeks.

As a former smoker, let me recommend the drug Champix to you. It really worked for me. Quite the miracle drug, actually - you just kind of stop wanting to smoke, and keep forgetting about it. Before you know it you haven't smoked for weeks, and you don't want to, either.

Strongly recommended.

Watch out for Chantix.. it really messes with your brain chemistry. I couldn't use it: it gave me insane technicolor nightmares. After a week of sleep deprivation I gave up on the stuff.

Ha! That's very true. You do get very vivid dreams. Maybe that's a problem if you're the type to have nightmares but for me they were quite .. agreeable, lol.

Procrastination - I haven’t been able to overcome it yet, things that mitigate it is - keep track of tasks, make them small easily achievable. Also make a new list every morning.

Procrastination has many, many causes. I strongly recommend Burka and Yuen's book "Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It" and Rubin's "Overcoming Indecisiveness".

1) Social Media sites (reddit, hacker news, slashdot, facebook) 2) Nail chewing 3) Excercising

And no-I've never been able to overcome bad habits. My short attention span when it comes to learning has helped me though-since I'm quick on the uptake when I go from subject to subject it lets me suck up a lot of info. And nail chewing..I wish I could quit but unfortunately my fingers are always there and I end up chewing them when I'm concentrating.

I've dealt with nail chewing my entire life. In the past year, I've (mostly) overcome it.

My solution: chewing gum. Keeps my mouth busy so I don't bite my nails. I go through a lot of gum, but I've broken the habit of biting my nails, so I'm slowly weaning off the gum.

why didn't i think of gum?

Reading this site while I should be working. (Not being snarky, it's completely true.)

I also do art direction for film and video productions which has led to an insane need for me to save anything I think may someday come in handy. Suffice it to say I have a huge pile of junk that I just cannot get rid of and it's growing.

Sleepwalking. It's been a couple years, but I still write my hotel room number on my hand when I travel.

Is that a habit that can be broken?

All sorts of bad habits crop up left and right. Instead of going with the "willpower" method I've adopted what my friends and I call the "moneymouth" method (short for put your money where your mouth is). Exploit your honesty and financial sensibility by making bets to architect your habits.

Real examples: I'm lazy and get up late, but this system got me up before 7am daily for 3 weeks. I wanted to begin practicing guitar, I practiced for 30 minutes daily for a month with this. Right now I'm riding my bicycle 100 miles a week. I am not generally known for my extreme willpower to do stuff like this, I think I just found a functional self-exploit.

HN. No. Because there is just too much good stuff here and too little time in a day.

The 'noprocrast' is great, and I use it occasionally but then you see that google has a new beta out or that friendfeed gets bought and it gets disabled again...

I suppose this would be the perfect place for the following joke: Most of my bad habits have had gray hair and foreign names. I don't have any at the moment, so I guess that makes me perfect (for now).

On a more serious note: My sense of humor is a bad habit that gets me into hot water. (Thus I imagine this post will be badly downmodded into serious negatives. ;-) ) I have half-baked plans to do a blog or webcomic or something as an outlet in hopes of spending less time in hot water.

Keeping Colloquy/IRC up while I'm working. Just can't find the strength to close it like I could with email or Twitter.

Disabling highlight notifications helps a lot though...

Avoiding direct questions about bad habits by answering something like "I would have told some of my really bad habits if HN allowed anonymous comments".

Super Procrastinator, I mean I'm here and I should be working.

Nail biting.

Yes and no. Now it's not as bad as it used to be.

Ditto. I've found keeping a pair of nailclippers in all of the locations where I sit regularly (work office, home office, next to my bed, etc.) helps a lot. Nail trimmings everywhere is my next challenge.

Every time you notice that you are biting your nails or have the hands close to your mouth slap yourself in the face. Do it hard the first couple of times trying to surprise yourself. I ended years of nail biting doing this, in fact it works so well that I even wrote about it a couple months ago (in spanish: http://deadsunrise.net/post/10-Como%20dejar%20de%20comerse%2... )

You can do other things like screaming or standing up fast or some other unusual action, it will help you to identify the habit and stop it.

I quit that years ago (almost).

Start by not biting one nail (left pinkie is good). Get that down (take pride in it. make it your friend :) ), then 'save' the left ring finger too. Carry on up the hand, but jump to stopping the whole left hand as soon as you're confident (become a right hand biter!).

Then move on to the right hand pinkie etc.

I made it as far as my right thumb, which I still chew when I'm thinking.

Germs and such on fingers doesn't appeal to me. Instead I just pick at them...it's just as bad. I tend to do it most when concentrating hard, and I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. Any tips? (I think I need nail clippers always available)

I have many bad habits. My absolute top-success in overcoming them was getting rid of smoking cigs. And I really mean, getting rid of it, even in my thinking. You see, the nicotine addiction is just the minor part in smoking, it is not that hard, other drugs are harder to get rid of in my experience. But the manipulation in your thinking that comes with years-long smoking, that is astonishing. And the main factor that makes it hard to quit smoking is a deep fear that life will never again be as awesome as it was with the cigs (even if the smoking destroys so much life moments all the time).

I got rid of it by reading the book "Easy way out" by Allen Carr. I highly recommend his stuff. I did read the book 3 times in a row until all the thinking damage in my head was gone. But then it was gone and after smoking heavily for 8 years I am now out for over 6 years.

If you think about quitting smoking, try Allen Carrs method, I truly recommend it, from man to man ;-)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com