
How to reduce 'attention residue' - prostoalex
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200130-the-life-hack-to-reduce-admin-and-carve-out-downtime
======
OldGuyInTheClub
Some good tips for us mortals. I have admired Donald Knuth for many
things[footnote] but especially for his stance on email which I use here as a
stand-in for distractions. I wish I had 10% of his discipline!

"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of
things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do
takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn
certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that
knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for
such study.

On the other hand, I need to communicate with thousands of people all over the
world as I write my books. I also want to be responsive to the people who read
those books and have questions or comments. My goal is to do this
communication efficiently, in batch mode --- like, one day every six months. "
[https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html](https://www-cs-
faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html)

[footnote] I'm from the physical sciences, not CS, but the man transcends
departments!

~~~
nafizh
Well, most of us can't afford a secretary like him.

~~~
OldGuyInTheClub
I think he came up at a time when departments had staff to work with faculty.
Of course when one reaches his level of fame, funding comes without asking.

One downside of our computerized society is that people now have to do things
because the tools supposedly exist for everything to be self serve. It
marginalize the skills and talents of those who provided those valuable
services in the past.

~~~
lonelappde
Secretaries still exist.

~~~
p_l
outside of CEOs personal assistants, I have trouble encountering any within
last 5 years - and the secretarial staff was visibly getting downsized at
university before that, handling mostly the mail room

------
zackmorris
The related article in the sidebar is moderately insightful:

[https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-
procrastin...](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-
procrastination-is-about-managing-emotions-not-time)

I've been working to overcome burnout that took me out of the game a year ago.
What it basically came down to is that midlife crisis feelings had come to
dominate my psyche. I found myself asking "what's the point?" about basic
tasks that must be done.

The start of a cure turned out to be separating a task into writing the todo
list for it and then doing it afterwards. The next evolution of that is to
also separate your evaluation of the work from the work itself, so that you
don't wallow in critical feelings as you work. Try to be zenful and just
concentrate on the now.

Basically it all comes down to anxiety management. So for example, say you are
cleaning and you get a text message to deal with an issue. I normally would
make a mental note to remember to do it, since I lean towards intellectual
pursuits. But it's better to add the item to the top of your todo list and
stop thinking about it or the fear of forgetting it. Better yet, pause
cleaning (since it's low-priority) and deal with the issue immediately.

I've found that mechanizing the thought processes that I had taken for granted
until they failed me boosted my mood. If you think of it as a scale from 0 to
10, our default with stress is to hover below a 5 (say 3). It takes effort to
get above 5. But there is a stable orbit around 7 if you can maintain it for a
few weeks. I think this is why people with a positive disposition have so much
difficulty understanding people with anxiety, because physically they actually
feel similar, it's just that our subjective interpretation of them are
different:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU)

Edit: the above is a TED talk about changing this subjective reaction to
stress.

Edit #2: I accidentally shared the wrong video, I was thinking of this one:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE)

~~~
ianandrich
Interesting. Any more thoughts on the stable orbit at 7?

~~~
zackmorris
Well in my case, my depression/anxiety was partly (largely?) environmental.
Two things really helped me, the tryptophan-serotonin connection:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728667/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728667/)

And that I had low thyroid function because I work out heavily but don't add
salt to anything, and processed food doesn't generally contain iodine. So I
began taking this last week:

[https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Supplements-EnergyTM-Tyrosine-
Sel...](https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Supplements-EnergyTM-Tyrosine-
Selenium/dp/B0013OZCGE)

I can literally say that when I started eating bacon and ham again (I gave up
pork 20 years ago for ethical reasons) that my mood went from 3 to 5 within a
few days, and when I began taking iodine, it went from 5 to 7. Note that these
symptoms are similar to what vegetarians and vegans encounter after about 3
years without active effort to maintain their nutrition. I hit it because I
had doubled my calories for the gym, but not tryptophan or iodine
specifically.

Keep in mind that I also did the work of exploring ADHD, executive
dysfunction, the impossible task and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for
pretty much the last year.

So without medication, the answer is holistic. Fixing nutritional gaps might
boost mood 20-40%, then each mental adjustment might add 10%.

I'll know that the orbit at 7 is stable once my income stabilizes and I have a
consistent track record of having few negative thoughts for some number of
weeks or months. But so far so good.

------
madsbuch
Maybe having endless to-do lists is more a symptom of an underlying issue that
should be handled?

------
peteretep
Huh. For about 15 years, the first thing I’ve done in the morning is a 25
minute “Administrivia” session, after rolling out of bed.

I used to do a full GTD system, but now honestly it’s opening my todos,
cleaning out my inbox into todos, tidying them up, prioritising them, and then
doing the remaining twenty minutes of them.

No more than 25 minutes, occasionally less than, and I think I’ve not been
stressed about the (sometimes very large amounts of) admin bullshit that shows
up in my life.

When I had a real management job I did a second one of these for work each
morning when I got in.

Anyway, same system for 15 years, with occasional embellishments. These days I
take two of them a week to do my personal and company accounts and budgeting
instead.

------
perlpimp
This seems reminiscent of the famous psychology professor statement, to get
your bedroom in order.

------
ptah
> Focusing on one task at a time until completion

this is the essence of mindfulness

------
kingbirdy
> The University of Melbourne has run a GYLIO week once every semester for at
> least a decade. It usually takes place around the middle of the semester in
> week five or six, and while the academic programme continues, the extensive
> social and partying schedule is paused to help students shift their
> priorities.

The whole article falls apart right here for me, there's just no way this is
true. I seriously doubt the University of Melbourne is in any way able to get
its almost 50,000 enrolled students to stop partying for a week. They may run
GYLIO events that week, but that doesn't mean it's going to get a bunch of
college students to stop drinking.

~~~
blyes
It sounds like GYLIO is for all social events and commitments which can be a
HUGE part of university life for many people.

I wouldn't equate it to just "not drinking and partying"

From the article: “Given the many stimuli of life today, with students who are
juggling the many opportunities colleges offer across all the areas from sport
and culture to volunteering and leadership, having a week to ‘take a breath’
and get things done is essential,” she says.

Also, many universities have the social scene orientated around the university
social clubs and the university student association(s). Events and parties are
often organised and run through these. Having them suspended for a week could
easily have a huge impact on the 50,000 students, depending on the social
culture of the university.

------
dboreham
Sounds very similar to GTD

~~~
benjaminsuch
What is GTD?

~~~
PeterisP
Getting things done, one of the widespread methodologies for organizing your
life based on a book with the same name by David Allen.

~~~
rhizome
I'd replace "methodologies" with "discussion topics." My ADHD doctor said
something like 10% of those who attempt GTD stick with it. Turns out it's
actually kind of complicated and takes quite a bit of focus!

------
marcofatica
tl;dr do your chores

~~~
quickthrower2
... in batches ... then chill

