
Boost your productivity: Cripple your technology - p4bl0
http://matt.might.net/articles/cripple-your-technology/
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jleader
"And, with the exception of nethack, there aren't many ways to waste a lot of
time at the console."

Clearly, Matt has not yet fully learned the Unix lifestyle!

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asb
Indeed, irssi or other console IRC clients are very effective time wasters.

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icebraining
<http://www.jaredandcoralee.com/CLIapps.html#Games>

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orky56
These productivity hacks always really confuse me. Maybe it's just me.

Here's my logic: If you want to be productive (i.e. you have prioritized the
current task/goal above all else), you just do it with full attention. If it's
not very important or you can't align the task with a significant outcome,
then you will be prone to distractions.

These tips boil down to negatively reinforcing distractions (not being
productive) and positively reinforcing accomplishments (being productive). If
you have the ability to apply all these reinforcement techniques in the first
place, then you have the self-discipline to just do what you should.

Maybe I just personally prefer advice and tools that helps with prioritizing
tasks since that tackles some of the underlying issues.

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Meai
It's not just you. This kind of 'advice' has never helped me, I may even say
that it harmed me in a way. There is only a single thing you need to be
productive: You need to want it enough. Literally nothing else. There is no
magical trick that makes you work more. You either do it or you don't. Many
will say now "that isn't helpful at all! 'Just do it' isn't helpful advice!"

On the contrary, it is the only helpful advice that anyone could give you. I
don't expect people to believe this, I certainly didn't. It takes guts to
admit that maybe, just maybe...it's you who is at fault, not the distractions.

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eric-hu
I half agree with this. I've employed some of the above productivity tricks
when I want to get things done really badly. I was productive.

I've also ignored all of these tricks had equal productivity.

When I don't want to do something, eliminating all familiar procrastination
tools will just make me create or find new procrastination tools. I think the
best advice is that small sentence in your post "you either do it or you
don't". Embracing that mentality, I either do something or I put it behind me
and do something else.

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code_duck
My tip: put yourself in some situation where work is so difficult or
inconvenient it requires your full attention.

Example: your server crashes, two ads are linked incorrectly, your API
provider has suddenly started returning 30% 503s. You are at a Bosselman
Travel Center in Nebraska with a cell phone.

You won't get more done, but you _will_ feel productive. It's possible to be
inspired by the intensity of such endeavors.

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icebraining
Personally, the only thing that motivates me when the work is uninteresting is
knowing that someone is expecting it. That's why I'm much less prone to
procrastination on work I do for people than at college assignments. Blocking
sites never helps, I can entertain myself staring at a blank wall.

I do minimize external distractions (IM, SMS, etc), but that's because they
annoy me even when I'm interested in the work. I don't know how people can
stand all those notifications popping up.

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georgieporgie
_the only thing that motivates me when the work is uninteresting is knowing
that someone is expecting it._

I find that to be a real problem in the workplace. An awful lot of
employers/managers seem to think that they simply have to hire engineers, and
everything will sort itself out. No clear focus or direction is provided, and
no feedback is given on tasks completed. Soon, one feels that all work is
going into a black hole, the engineer(s) become disinterested, and end up
leaving.

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tomkarlo
I hope the irony is not lost on us that most of us are reading this at work...

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hsmyers
Divorce yourself from all contact and live on a pillar somewhere in the Sinai
desert. I think those folks were called anchorites
<http://wikipedia.orange.co.uk/wiki/Anchorite> I'm surprised that a connection
to the internet is allowed on a more than---oh say weekly basis. As you might
guess, I don't particularly agree with the article. Only cure to the problem
at hand is self discipline. Anything else will fail...

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jtolds
My feeling is that the traditional definition of self discipline is kind of a
fake thing. To me, self discipline is knowing yourself well enough to know
where you will fail, and taking appropriate counter measures - not being
strong-willed or something.

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o1iver
As a matter of fact Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz authors of "Power of Full
Engagement" say that the idea of self-discipline (in the form of strong-will)
does not lie at the base of productivity. Indeed they say that human being do
not have near enough energy to be self-disciplined in that sense for many
decisions.

I think that the real value of the article's tips is that as you get used to
not going on HN/Reddit or just avoiding other types of procrastination you
will get used to not doing that and thus won't do it even if you remove the
barriers.

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aaronf
We need better productivity tools, not less technology. Much easier to just
sign up for RescueTime. And try LazyMeter to focus on your to-do list one day
at a time - we believe one of the core causes of procrastination is people not
knowing what they're doing (it's easy to trick yourself into thinking you're
productive when you're not).

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dbalatero
I use this free app to block a blacklist of sites that suck my time. You can
set it to block for any length of time you want:

<http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/>

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msutherl
Here's what I wrote on the topic three years ago:

"Some notes on how to make the internet more like a book, magazine, or phone
than a television. That is, more like a tool than a world:

1\. Do not use iGoogle, FriendFeed or any other service that provides you with
"status updates" from a number of services at once. This leads to a condition
where "checking your email" becomes "checking everything". Every hour you will
find new interesting things that will bifurcate your attention into many
worlds. (However, I have the feeling that an iPhone/iPod Touch, which is in a
sense a portable iGoogle, would be a positive replacement. Better to check
constantly on a non-immersive device...?) [My new opinion on this is that
menu-bar style apps allow you to check email/Facebook etc. more frequently,
but faster, which can break the habit of checking your email every 5 minutes
and performing a full context switch.]

2\. Do not invest yourself in social networks like Facebook. Don't join groups
that encourage participation or frequently send out mass-messages. Don't
friend anybody that you don't really want to read about. Use your profile as
nothing more than a node (don't post anything to your profile that you might
someday want to fiddle with). See it as a communication tool: glorified
email/chat. Rather than making certain parts of your profile private, make
everything public and make sure that anything anybody can see is something
that anybody can see. (This means that you must occasionally un-tag photos and
delete Wall posts.) Don't add any applications. Don't try to model your real-
world social life.

3\. Twitter is cool. It's addictive, but it doesn't take any time. <5 min. to
check what your friends have written and update.

4\. Blogs are cool. As long as you're producing content, there's nothing to
feel guilty about. The point is not to stop doing drugs altogether, it's to
make sure that every time you do drugs, you're using them to enhance your
creativity and your relationships.

5\. Use Times for aggregating feeds. Nothing compares. It frees you from the
feeling that you have to read every article. Promotes quick scanning, just
like a newspaper.

6\. There's nothing to be done about email. It's addictive and time consuming
and it's not going away. Make sure that you're not on any corporate mailing
lists (Apple.com, stores you've bought stuff from). Filter mailing lists into
folders. Practice self-discipline. Don't see yourself as somebody who 'replies
within an hour'.

7\. Create a habit of taking notes when you go on a tangent. This will force
you to think deeply and remember what you've learned (plus you'll have it
stored for future reference). It will also force you to slow down. I use an
Instiki wiki running on my server so that I can access it from anywhere
(though I'm considering switching back to desktop tools like VoodooPad and
DevonThink).

8\. Favor anti-design. Anytime you have any control over CSS, choose a white
background with black text and blue links. Or find some other theme and stick
to it. Remember, the internet is blue.

9\. When you can, use UNIX (command line). It feels more like a tool for doing
tasks than a world.

10\. Make sure that Facebook sends only two types of notification to you:
notification for Messages and Wall posts. This way checking your email means
checking your email and also checking the only time-sensitive feature of
Facebook at the same time, thus allowing you to ignore Facebook."

