
Productivity Is About Attention Management - gotocake
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/smarter-living/productivity-isnt-about-time-management-its-about-attention-management.html
======
netwanderer3
There's a general misconception between being productive and being effective.

One can fill their days by completing many mindless tasks and consider
themselves as productive, but in the end hardly any of those tasks really
matters.

On the other hand, another person may only complete one or two tasks in a very
short time during their day but these were critical tasks that could generate
much higher values. This subsequently makes the person more effective than
their peers.

The output values must be weight in determining if one is really productive.
Effectiveness triumphs mindless productivity.

This is quite similar to the cognitive and decision fatigue principle which
indicates that each of us only has a limited pool of cognitive resources and
so we must be very selective in choosing what activities we engage in.

To remain highly effective, not just being productive, particularly for a
project manager, it's imperative to spend time only on tasks that require
critical decisions to be made, and to delegate the rest. When you take on more
tasks than you can handle, like some are misunderstanding this may help them
appear as productive, it will undoubtedly affect the quality of each of your
decisions and the project will suffer.

~~~
adamisom
>it's imperative to spend time only on tasks that require critical decisions
to be made, and to delegate the rest.

Nobody ever points out the privilege in this statement. Someone has to be the
unfortunate grunt getting delegated to, instead of delegating. If a delegator
depends on the grunt, can we really attribute super high productivity to the
delegator but not to the grunt? That certainly seems to be implicit when CEOs
receive 100x more than the average worker. Perhaps they would be equally
competent as delegators given the same opportunities some x years back.

~~~
fwip
I feel like it's really self-serving, too.

"The important work is the work that I, specifically, am good at. Other work
that I do not find compelling is unimportant, and should therefore be
delegated to less important people."

The routine work done by "grunts" is critical to keep any organization
running, whether it's a Fortune 500 company or a family of four. Lots of jobs
(customer support, widget assembly, laundry, dishes) are unglamorous but
vitally important.

------
normalhuman
My favorite anti-productivity introspections:

\- Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that
status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to
make you happy?

\- There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and
management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could
that reason be?

\- Remember the last time you felt glad to be alive? Was it related to being
productive?

No need to thank me.

~~~
kieckerjan
I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a
nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal
that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness
in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels
more artificial to me.

~~~
TelmoMenezes
I also get a lot of joy from all of the things you describe.

The fact that the pleasure you get from sex or exercise feels artificial in
comparison to writing a piece of code might be something worth thinking about.
Is this really how you feel, or is it how you were programmed to feel?

~~~
kieckerjan
I guess what I mean to say is that sex and exercise (not to mention drugs) are
more like quick fixes. You can just do it and feel happy for a while. On the
other hand, producing something involves more investment and when this
investment pays off, the resulting "high" feels more earned or deserved. To my
mind it also feels less buzzy or chemically induced (although I am well aware
that triggering your reward centres by making something is a chemical process
as well).

~~~
jazzdev
It sounds like you are talking about visceral happiness vs reflective
happiness. Two distinct kinds of happiness according to some researchers (i.e.
Martin Seligman).

------
revskill
For most of technical works i do, concentration only happens AFTER i figure
out what i need to do to solve the problem.

Else most of the time, the "researching phase" is the most daunting task.

~~~
cven714
I have the exact same problem. When I know what needs to get done, even if
it's tedious, it's not so bad to put my nose to the grindstone and work
through it. But when I'm not sure how to approach a task, suddenly every
distraction in the world is more appealing.

You often see the suggestion to break up big tasks into smaller, baby step
chunks to avoid this analysis paralysis. Doesn't help when I'm not even sure
what to do yet.

~~~
ianmcgowan
I struggle with this too, and two things that help me are:

1) Start screen recording software and dictate your thoughts as you go through
the research/brainstorming phase. Don't often go back and view the recorded
sessions, it's the act of recording and speaking out loud that helps.

2) Comment driven development. Stub out functions just with comments, write
deeper comment blocks inside a procedure where you have a rough idea of what
needs to happen. I paste in table and API definitions as comments too, to
avoid having to flip to a different screen which inevitably leads to
distraction. Once the program is completely laid out in comment form, and
compile/runs with just "STARTING" and "STOPPING" displaying, then I start
implementing what's in the comments outside-in (from highest to lowest level).
I run the program frequently while doing this, each successful compile/run is
a small dopamine hit. As I'm going through, remove any comments that are
duplicated by code - all that should remain are comments explaining "why".

~~~
flancian
Thanks for this comment -- I'll put the second strategy in effect (the first
one perhaps I'll leave for later as I currently work in an open plan office).

I wonder if this "comment driven" strategy has potential for applying NLP+code
generation. I'm sure this is a common enough thought but I'm not aware of the
research, does anyone here have pointers?

What I mean is: use NLP to extract intent (where feasible), and then offer
possible implementations of the intent.

~~~
li4ick
Microsoft is investing quite heavily in generating code from requirements. So
far, iirc, they're able to generate simple programs no bigger than 10 lines of
code. A good start, though: [https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/research/blog/learning-sourc...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/research/blog/learning-source-code/)

------
kumarvvr
What the author means by "attention management" is, perhaps, the ability to
concentrate for a long period of time.

Personally, for work that i love to do, concentration is rewarding.

For mundane, routine work, I usually go on auto pilot, getting work done, but,
doing it while my attention is somewhere else.

For mundane work that _requires_ concentration, my output falls off the cliff.
Its here that many tips and tricks ought to focus, but dont. And, frankly, its
difficult too, to _hack_ this type of work. Its human nature to be bored out
and perhaps nothing can change it.

~~~
marcv81
I used to think like you until I met a coworker. He could not code to save his
life, nobody in the team liked working with him. Until one day we had a boring
data entry task. He could do it for hours at a time, and barely made any
mistake. This experience taught me something.

~~~
alexanderdmitri
What did it teach you? I'm having trouble seeing the relevance.

~~~
pm90
People have their competencies which may not often be evident.

I do still think that, in the hyper competitive corporate world today, such
kinds of people will get shafted regularly until they realize themselves what
their great skills are and build on them.

------
ChuckMcM
Interesting take on it, I certainly resonate with the "Michigan weather making
work the only thing to do" anecdote.

I struggle with productivity, and feeling productive. and when I look back on
times when I felt productive the attention thing does stand out.

It occurred to me when I thought of myself as a younger programmer that I used
to love the time between midnight and 3AM, there was literally _nothing_ on TV
to distract me, the house was quiet, the kids and wife were in bed and asleep.
I could spend the time thinking through the problem and then mindfully
developing an approach to solve it. These days, not so much.

There is always something distracting in a web browser. Too many times I find
I go to check something and poof an hour has vanished as I've followed a bunch
of paths that I wasn't intending to follow. As a result my current efforts
focus on not leaving a bunch of tabs open on my browser and being mindful
about getting done what I came to do for the task at hand and _going back to
the task._ No extra checking of mail or twitter or HN or what ever ...

~~~
mark_l_watson
Hey, I have enjoyed your comments over the years on HN, so I am happy to have
some good advice to share with you: use something like Instapaper or a
transient bookmark list to note interesting/useful things but do your reading
just a few times a week. I find that this keeps me from link-following
behavior that afterwards seemed like a waste of time. Make the saved link
reading time special by setting aside reading time so I feel like I am doing
just what I am supposed to be doing.

~~~
djakjxnanjak
iOS has a feature “save to reading list” that I use to save stories that seem
interesting but that I don’t need to read for my current task. However, I
haven’t taken to time to learn to access my reading list :)

------
derrida
Busyness is not a virtue. The consequences of your actions being good... that
has always been the classic definition of virtue.

Do good things. 1 small action can have massive consequences. Creating
something good and useful to others, it does not matter if it took 20 minutes,
for sufficiently good actions, if you did 1 a decade, nobody cares how busy
you are or if you were "productive".

This is called being constructive. Rather than productive or rather than
optimizing busyness (a fake appearance of doing work or "good") instead we
just do things that are good. This takes cultures of trust and requires belief
products actually benefit people create viability & wealth.

We can define a good action as one that has good consequnces.

Busyness makes nobody happy... it doesn't even make your boss happy. It's
just... something you're meant to be, I guess. It's stupid and dumb.

Do good things. "make something other people want"... is a good description of
viability, only problem is people also want crack and being a crack dealer is
pretty stessful (I imagine) so if you don't want stress or to be to busy and
still manage to do great stuff... let's narrow this down. Make something other
people want... people want good stuff, don't they? :)

Do good. Don't do not good.

There, simplified everything.

~~~
ravenstine
> Busyness is not a virtue.

Funny, I've never heart anyone state it so succinctly. I ought to print that
phrase out and paste it on the wall at my desk. (I work remote so it'd just be
for me and not for management to judge)

------
1e-9
My most effective means of achieving a high level of work productivity is
pleasure reading. It doesn't have to be anything deep. It just needs to be
something I want to immerse myself in. The mental process I use to completely
tune out the real world while reading for fun is the same one I use to reach a
high level of productivity for work. Reading keeps it sharp. If I go too long
without pleasure reading, my ability to focus on work suffers. Conversely,
some of my most significant breakthroughs have occurred within a day or two of
a crazy reading binge.

~~~
sherkaner
I feel that I read in a wrong way. My productivity and ability to think often
plummets after reading fiction.

Could it be connected with vizualization? Do you visualize your characters,
setting, predict what's going to happen, etc? Usually my eyes just skim over
the descriptions of characters and scenery.

~~~
1e-9
Yes, I think visualization provides the key benefit. When I read something
good, my imagination recreates the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences in
great detail and tunes out the real world. I lose all awareness of the book's
text and everything around me. It's like I "live in the story." This mental
state can persist for hours, even in loud environments with high levels of
activity around me. After I sleep following some deep reading, I notice a
heightened ability to visualize a problem and run mental simulations of
potential solutions. It's like I "live in the problem." Interestingly, when I
have played video games with similarly high levels of focus, I have not
realized work improvement afterwards. In fact, video games seem to degrade my
work performance. I think that is because video games generate stress and do
not stimulate nearly the same level of mental world-building that good fiction
does.

------
ohaideredevs
I have never been able to force true concentration. I arrogantly proclaim that
I have strong willpower* - I have very little trouble forcing myself to do
something I entirely don't want to do, whether it be study, workout, code,
whatever.

However, forced concentration completely blocks off my ability to think
fluidly, and I memorize very little from reading topics that aren't of
interest to me (I am looking at you GCP docs), even if I don't allow my
attention to wander at all for more than a second. (Rote memorization still
works, but it's very impractical for many topics).

I have lately found that if I force myself to read something I hate for 3+
hours straight, my brain involuntarily starts wanting to know more. But I
rarely have 3 hours to just get in the mood.

* Research has shown that people who think they have strong willpower test the worst on willpower, but I am a special objective snowflake.

~~~
pm90
Haha GCP docs do seem to be well written though, aren’t they?

It seems like folks have their own way of learning how to concentrate
effectively on things that may not immediately catch their attention. For me
personally, it has been note-taking. Note taking seems to trigger a part of my
brain that makes it think that the subject matter is worth paying attention
too. Often my notes won’t be points but some doodles/diagrams to visualize
what things look like.

Others have pointed out that certain kinds of prescription drugs are useful
too, which... tbh I’m a little wary of trying. If they turn out to be too
effective my internal logic system might have me using them all the time.

~~~
ohaideredevs
The docs are very well written. I just know I won't use 95% of what I learn
before I have forgotten it. I guess it's good to know what is and isn't
available though.

I am way of trying Adderall and such as well, for exactly the same reason as
you.

Things like trying to paraphrase in my own words help me way more than
standard notes, but doing this is also very time consuming, and it's not
necessary when I am into the subject.

I think your strat of "doodles/diagrams to visualize what things look like"
likely works on the exact same principle which forces the brain to pay
attention since it now has to work with the information.

------
iLemming
I've tried many different things and I finally have a solution that (I think)
works for me:

It's Emacs' Org-mode in combination with Org-pomodoro

\- First, using org-capture I would create an org heading with a description
of the problem. If there's a Jira ticket I would attach the ticket number (I
have a trivial elisp function that converts a regular number into a complete
jira-ticket link)

\- Then I would start a Pomodoro cycle. If I'm on a Mac - it would create an
OSX menubar item with the title of the heading (using Hammerspoon). Org will
"clock" me in for the task for the next 25 minutes

\- I just realized that I can probably even programmatically switch Slack to
"do not disturb" mode while Pomodoro is active

\- Activated Pomodoro cycle is like a sacred ritual for me. I do not pick up
my phone or check email or (if possible) even talk to anyone. After Pomodoro
is done I would take a break, check email, get some water, etc. If I can get
done 5-7 pomodoros during a day - I consider it a very productive day.

\- Org records everything. At the end of the day I know: exactly how long I
worked on every single story, the number of pomodoros I did, notes that I took
while working on each story. Whenever I changed the status of the story from
"todo" to "in progress" and back to "to do" or when I flipped it to "done" or
"canceled", reasons why the story was canceled, etc.

And this is all done with a minimal context switching.

~~~
tighter_wires
Do you ever find that Pomodoro doesn't leave enough uninterrupted time on your
task? When you're knee deep do you ever just skip your breaks?

~~~
Narushia
I generally find pomodoro’s 25-minute work intervals too short for software
development, I prefer the 52/17 method.

~~~
iLemming
Yeah, everyone is different. I tried experimenting with 20-30-40 minute
intervals and decided 25 is the optimal for me. But it really has to be
distraction free. I use brain.fm or instrumental music (no lyrics) or I just
keep my headphones on so nobody bothers me. It doesn't sound very challenging,
but after five pomodoros I truly can feel it, after eight - I am mentally
exhausted. Ten pomodoros mean I either cheated or something else.

------
Sir_Cmpwn
As someone who's often asked about my productivity (and who also often feels
unproductive anyway), I think this quote from the article gets at the heart of
the issue:

>A better option is attention management: Prioritize the people and projects
that matter, and it won’t matter how long anything takes.

Progress is persistence + time. Nonzero values of both will lead to results.
If you spend 1% of your time on a project which requires a hundred hours of
work, it'll be complete in a little over a year. I don't shy away from
projects which I know will take years to complete, and as a result they
eventually get completed :)

------
krosaen
This article was a fun read as it playfully poked holes in some conventional
wisdom but I'm not sure I'm left with coherent advice. Deep work doesn't
matter? Working in 15 minute bursts is ok? Save rewarding work for after
routine? Or maybe match it to my circadian rhythms? Work on what I love? Have
a maker schedule?

Maybe the best takeaway is that there isn't really a single coherent ruleset
for productivity...

~~~
arendtio
I think it is something along the lines of...

\- don't care about time management so much

\- care about motivation (think about what can be done with the result)

\- choose the right time to have the mental state you require to focus on the
task at hand

------
arleny
> A fascinating or funny video makes the data entry task seem even more
> excruciating, the same way a sweet dessert makes a sour vegetable taste
> yuckier.

For me it's the opposite. I often play videos in the background when I'm
performing monotonous tasks and it seems to help me from getting completely
distracted and abandon the task altogether.

------
atemerev
As a person with diagnosed adult ADD, this is one thing I cannot do — manage
attention. Medication and meditation help a little, but I probably will never
reach the productive capabilities of a regular person. Sigh.

~~~
GunlogAlm
I'm in the same boat; diagnosed with ADHD-PI (UK, so we don't use the term
'ADD') as an adult. I've improved vastly thanks to medication and good
routines but it remains a constant effort, and improvement is a continual
process. The book _Taking Charge of Adult ADHD_ by Russell Barkley helped me
significantly.

~~~
atemerev
Just bought and read the book.

For me, it was fantastically depressing: basically it says: “OK, so you have
ADHD. Sucks to be you. Go through this huge laundry list of these and those
things to do, don’t forget to take your medication, find a mentor — assuming
anybody would want to deal with you, and who could blame them? — and if you
are extremely lucky, and with heavy effort, maybe you can become half a normal
man or woman who runs through all of this effortlessly, which you’ll never be.
What a burden to society!”

All of this is true perhaps, but now I just want to die.

~~~
toby-
Whilst I didn't get that exact impression from the book, Barkley is known for
being "realistic" about ADHD: he doesn't hide the fact that, depending on
severity, ADHD can levy a heavy toll on a person, significantly impacting
their quality of life. ADHD sucks, but we can make it suck significantly less
through good habits, good routines, healthy eating, exercise and, where
appropriate, medication and other forms of psychological support.

It's a cliché, but comparing yourself to others is a bad idea in this domain.
I have yet to meet an ADHDer who makes these sorts of "upward comparisons" and
derives anything useful from them; they typically just exacerbate feelings of
inadequacy and hopelessness.

Personally, I know I might never be as effective or productive as a person
without ADHD is capable of being, but I can be the best version of _myself_ —
it's fruitless and unhealthy to ask more of yourself than this, right?

------
rygxqpbsngav
To me, the best life hack for productivity is "Sleep". If I sleep good, the
day will be productive enough. If I don't, it might not.

------
JrProgrammer
> I’m pretty sure there’s an eighth habit of highly effective people. They
> don’t spend all their time reading about the seven habits of highly
> effective people.

I think this is often overlooked. What works for other people might not work
for you and the time spent looking for the right way is better spend on doing
the tasks.

------
kochikame
Ironic to see this post on HN, the place where I go to procrastinate

------
theyinwhy
Although interesting, I think the example is a sign of over self improvement.
When your only way to do more work is going to the toilet less often you are
overbooked big time and there will be no way to get more productive, no matter
what angle you look at it. Quite contrary, you will be less effective (!) on
the long run. It is a vicious circle.

~~~
stdbrouw
The author uses the example as a cautionary tale, not as something laudable.

------
bump64
I gave up on productivity long ago. It depends on the type of work that you
do. If I am let's say on the assembly line and everything is already thought
of and I have to follow well written guides, then I could try to be
productive, avoid distractions and so on.

On my job I have to research complex problems, that you can't simply google
them and find an answer. It takes time to design a possible solution, trial
and error, a lot of thinking and observing and in the end you feel that you
have hit a wall. In such cases I simply need a break and to think for
something else for a while. It is also very hard to put an estimate and set a
deadline for a such thing, so productivity is the least of my problems.

------
Lramseyer
I really like where the writer is going with this, and I have had similar
thoughts on the matter. I believe that a good user experience streamlines the
flow of attention and tries to reduce "attention turbulence" for a given task.
And I'm referring to more than just smartphone apps and web pages, though they
make for great examples.

I wish more people realized the value of human attention. I would even go as
far as to say that the reason that the tech industry is so profitable is
because of it's ability to provide shortcuts for the attention required to
complete a given task.

------
tmaly
On the idea that we need motivation, I have been practicing the concept of
mini habits to overcome the barriers that the brain puts up when using
motivation.

[https://tysonmaly.com/books/how-to-make-habits-the-easy-
way/](https://tysonmaly.com/books/how-to-make-habits-the-easy-way/)

I think keeping a few key concepts like Parkinson's law and Pareto's law as
well as thinking about what is actually going to move the needle helps.

------
kulu2002
...and then there are tools used in organisations (like ours) which track how
many hours you been on PC (ON PC time) vs Off PC time (So called "Productivity
tracking"). More the ON PC time means you are "highly productive". This metric
is also usually taken-up during appraisal discussions and questions are put on
one's productivity.

------
derrida
Busyness is not a virtue. The consequences of your actions being good... that
has always been the definition of virtue.

------
kayza
„There is an 8th habit of highly effective people. They don’t waste time
reading 7 habits of highly effective people.“

He got it.

------
mark_l_watson
I liked his book “Power Moves: Lessons from Davis”. After listening to this
book I followed Adam Grant for a couple weeks on Twitter. He does have
interesting advice on deciding what to focus on.

I am going to add a calendar reminder for a year from now to follow him again
on Twitter for a while.

------
drinkcrudeoil
This article is basically about the Pareto principle (80/20 rule)
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle)

------
randomacct3847
I’ve found a lot of benefit from taking Piracetam or Noopept in the mornings
with a daily coffee. I feel hyper-focused in a way that I don’t usually feel
with just coffee alone.

------
miguelmota
Context switching really takes a toll on focusing. It sucks when executives in
a company keep having 'new ideas' and switching the priorities.

------
dboreham
You can learn about this by observing cats.

