
Ask HN: What are your “brain hacks” that help you manage everyday situations? - simonswords82
I&#x27;m incredibly fortunate to have a chairman on our board who brings so much clarity of thought to the business.<p>He&#x27;s unemotional yet thoughtful. If he doesn&#x27;t have an immediate answer for something, he instinctively understands how to search for the answer. He has a natural sense of the real priority of work and discussions.<p>So I asked him for some of his favourite brain hacks...simple tricks he uses when he has a mental challenge to overcome. A couple of his insights were very useful to me, so I thought I&#x27;d share them here and ask HN for their personal brain hacks in response.<p><i></i> Artificial deadlines <i></i><p>He has a clever technique for bringing tough choices to a conclusion and avoiding procrastination. This is especially useful for life changing decisions such as moving country or taking that new job.<p>To put an end to the decision making process he sets a deadline for the decision to be made. Say 6pm on Monday. At five minutes to 6 he usually doesn&#x27;t know the answer but in those 5 minutes something clicks, and by 6pm the answer is always there.<p><i></i> 10&#x2F;10&#x2F;10 rule <i></i><p>This is something I&#x27;ve read before but he applies this.  The 10&#x2F;10&#x2F;10 is the framing of the outcome of a decision across three timeframes:<p>How will he feel about the outcome 10 minutes from now?
How about 10 months from now?
How about 10 years from now?<p>The answers to these questions provide a different perspective and usually help him to find the correct answer without being misguided by circumstances at the time of making the decision.<p><i></i> This will all be over by 6pm <i></i><p>If there&#x27;s an important meeting with stakeholders, a scary appointment with the doctor or a tough chat with an employee - he simply keeps in mind the fact that by &quot;X time&quot;, the thing will have passed and won&#x27;t matter anymore.<p>If it doesn&#x27;t matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn&#x27;t matter now.<p>Edit: Formatting.
======
cdicelico
My top 3, in order of how I try to apply them (i.e., if 1 doesn't help, move
on to 2, etc.). I learned these all from reading various philosophy works, by
the way, so perhaps cognitive hack #1 should be "read books".

1) Suspension of judgement (from Sextus Empiricus, Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes):
avoid forming an opinion at all about things that are not evident. The way I
do this is by thinking through an opposing argument or two, and using language
like "it seems" or "it appears" rather than "I know", "I think", etc. This
technique saves time and energy by helping me avoid getting wrapped up in
opinion-based thinking and helps me develop equanimity.

2) Suspension of value-judgements (from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca,
Zhuang Zi, Ecclesiastes): being aware and in control of the value-judgement
loop (this thing is good or bad). I do this by shifting the language in my
mind from "that is bad" to "I feel this way because..." Again, like #1, this
is about inverting the locus of control in my cognitive discourse such that my
mind can easily go its own way from there, only on a more productive path.

3) Awareness of the mode of thinking I'm in, and the kind of learning that's
appropriate to the task or objective at hand (from Plato). There are several
modes of thinking or learning (eikasia, pistis, dianoia, episteme, techne,
phronesis, and noesis, for example). Simply being aware of which mode you
should be in for a task is much more valuable than it might appear at first
glance. I see these less as bins to put various kinds of thought in and more
as tools to apply to a problem.

Reviewing this, a common thread is self-awareness developed to a point of
disciplined introspection and intentional change by adopting these kinds of
cognitive tricks. Also, reading is good for you. :)

~~~
nerpderp82
0) Keeping one's mouth shut. Trying to not have an opinion until a) having
enough information b) only voicing it if it is important. I am trying to spend
more time perceiving instead of broadcasting.

~~~
sizzle
I do this too and it works great in personal contexts cause people love
sharing their opinions and hearing themselves talk generally speaking.

This is in stark contrast to the workplace where I've experienced that keeping
my mouth shut in a meeting to gather my thoughts before contributing a well
informed opinion, the loudest person in the room has already spoken a handful
of times and left their mark and then continues to speak over people and
dominate the conversation for better or worse (usually the latter unless they
are a SME).

I'm then forced to revert to speaking ASAP to get a word in so I don't walk
away from a meeting being perceived as contributing little cause I was getting
enough words.

Maybe it's all in my head cause I'm an introvert and meetings drain my energy.
Anyone else experience this? Got any tips?

~~~
tome
(SME = Subject Matter Expert, presumably)

~~~
sizzle
Yeah that's it, I'll spell it out next time for those who don't know.

------
nothrabannosir
“If I’m getting upset, I’m probably wrong.”

It’s a specific kind of feeling, when my brain starts protecting itself
against information that proves me wrong. Kind of like a real threat. It feels
like I’m under attack, and I’m losing. I get subtly upset (because I’m a know-
it-all and I want to be right), which is itself quickly reframed as anger,
probably by that same mechanism. Probably much easier to admit that I’m angry
because of “that guy!” than that I’m gonna be a crybaby because I’m wrong. But
them’s the breaks, son.

I find it hard, and I wish I could say it gets easier, but it doesn’t. It
sucks being wrong, and it’s humiliating.

I’d describe it as: at any moment you feel a flare of anger, try and ask
yourself, what if you were wrong? If you find it hard to even engage in the
thought experiment, that’s probably it. On a normal day you’d have no problem
doing it. Try it now: it’s just a thought. Try it when you’re upset: it’s
practically impossible.

~~~
jmts
I've found that this is easy to flip on its head, at least for yourself.
Convincing the masses to treat errors differently is another problem
altogether.

People tend to get defensive about being wrong for two reasons. Either because
they fear being punished, or they have associated the thing they are wrong
about with their identity.

People don't tend to make mistakes knowingly. Either they were tired,
uninformed, inexperienced, or whatever. Most often these things are out of
their control. To attack them and say "What are you? Some kind of idiot?" is
unhelpful and leads to the sentiments described in the parent. Next time they
screw up, they'll lie about it, deny it, or blame it on someone else.
Accepting that mistakes happen, and they're rarely intended helps you to be
more empathetic when other people mess up, and helps you disregard the
insensitive reactions of other people whenever you mess up.

When people associate ideas with their identity, this makes any attack on the
idea an attack on them personally. This seems to be fairly common nowadays on
the political landscape, especially with all the labels that people give
themselves and each other. The matter of the fact is that ideas are only
concepts, and their only attachment to a person is whether they think they are
valid or not. A person can very easily change their mind, however the moment
an idea becomes associated with their identity it becomes much harder. Allow
yourself to be wrong, allow yourself to be convinced, and change your mind,
and you likely won't care nearly as much when it turns out you were wrong -
you just didn't know better, and you can't know everything, but now you know
more.

------
Insanity
Write down what I'm going to do.

It happens that I can't really 'start' with work due to having too many things
to choose from, or by not knowing how to really get started with it.

What always helps is writing down on a piece of paper a step by step guide of
what I will do. this can be very general. But just having the steps written
down helps me get started.

Kind of like a "todo list" except that I don't update it when I'm done.

This helps me when I need to make a choice for what to work on, but also to
compartementalize the problems that I get stuck on.

For example, on my paper it says this at the moment:

    
    
         -> Extend importsystem
            -> Write parser for text-data
                -> check if data in system!
    

It's just a rough outline for what I should be working on at the moment
(instead of being on HN, probably).

~~~
dboreham
And the corollary: write down what you have done. It can be (for me) hard to
remember, giving rise to the mistaken feeling that you’ve achieved nothing.

~~~
eumenides1
I bullet journal.
([https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn](https://bulletjournal.com/pages/learn))
I got my wife into it as well. Our journals are vastly different. She uses it
to review and keep info. I use it as a task list and some notes.

It's a big motivator and important tool I've picked up.

The best part of the bullet journal method is the de-prioritizing of tasks. I
don't give up on things to the point of detriment. With a bullet journal, I've
learned to let go of stuff and move forward.

------
bsaul
1/ Whenever you can’t motivate yourself to start working on something, think
about the smallest thing you can perform and make it your only goal for the
day. It can be something as simple as « open the ide and compile the project
once ». The trick is that after that first step you will naturally begin to do
some real work, because the movement started.

2/ when learning a new skill or trying to improve , focus on one or two things
only for the duration of the training session. Eg : this tennis game i’ll
consider i’ve won if i’ve managed to stay relax for the whole match, on every
point.

~~~
leroy_masochist
The "smallest possible thing" hack is a great one. It also works great for
exercise. If your goal for example is to work out every morning before work,
instead of setting ambitious goals for what's going to happen tomorrow morning
when the alarm rings at 6am, promise yourself the following: "I will
physically get out of bed. I will put on my workout clothes. I will do five
pushups. If I don't feel like doing anything else after that, I will go back
to bed."

When you've gotten up, gotten changed and begun to move, the prospect of going
on to do an actual workout becomes like 90% less unpleasant of an idea,
compared to how you perceived it from the comfort of your warm soft bed.

It works, try it.

~~~
hartleybrody
Wow, the "If I don't feel like doing anything else after that, I will go back
to bed." seems like the key part of it. Giving yourself a way out makes it
even easier to commit to the small task. Good tip.

------
antirez
My hacks:

* Productivity: every day do at least one measurable thing that puts forward your project, even if very small.

* Expectations: don't care about the outcome of your work, as long as you tried to put a lot of good efforts into it. Focus on trying to do the thing instead of focusing on the result it will have, or what people will think.

* Stress: instead of being preoccupied about things, try to take care of them. During stressful situations, enjoy the small things of life, like eating or drinking a glass of wine, or playing with your daughter.

* Socialization: let your inner person go out in every occasion in order to immediately push away people that don't like you. Never try to fake being different (compared to what you are). This way you don't have any filter, which is great, nor you have any doubt about people staying around having different expectations.

* Life: it's too short to hang out with people you don't like or doing activities you don't like. Focus on what you want.

~~~
chess44
What if I don't want to be who I am and I want to change myself?

Apparently I am a very feminine man and I don't want to be like this at all. I
can't stand how people treat me. When I am being myself I'd much rather not
socialize at all than try to meet people.

~~~
metamicah
I share in your pain. This world is openly cruel to men that don't follow
gender norms, and we often have to wear uncomfortable masks to keep ourselves
safe from all the jerks out there. It is exhausting to wear those masks all
day, and sometimes we just can't take it anymore and have to withdraw from
everyone.

But there are also lots of people out there that know better than to mistreat
someone for their gender expression. There are people out there that even find
it worth celebrating. If you there is a community of nonbinary/gender
nonconforming/genderqueer organizers near you, that can be a good place to
start looking. And maybe someday, with enough help from your community and
possibly therapy, you can learn to celebrate yourself for how you express
yourself too. You are worthy of it.

~~~
monadgonad
> If you there is a community of nonbinary/gender nonconforming/genderqueer
> organizers near you, that can be a good place to start looking.

I think this is completely the wrong advice for who you're talking to. From
the sounds of it he's complely, unquestionably a man who wants to present as
completely, unquestionably a man too, but doesn't for whatever reasons.

It seems like you're saying "yeah you're a girly man, that's what you are now,
better learn to embrace it" rather than "learn to express yourself how you
want".

~~~
metamicah
> It seems like you're saying "yeah you're a girly man, that's what you are
> now, better learn to embrace it" rather than "learn to express yourself how
> you want".

It's true, I am saying that. I think the root problem is how the parent
comment author is being treated, rather than how he is acting, since his main
motivation for changing how he acts is to be treated differently.

He's free to reject my advice, but I know that when I was a younger person
going through the same thing, it was exactly this advice that helped me
survive after many years of only being ineffectively told that I needed to
"man up."

~~~
monadgonad
Same, to some extent. It helped that I have a lot of queer friends and did
when I was a teenager too. Some things I don't like about my expression but
can't (easily) change, I've learnt to accept. Qualities which I once thought
of as feminine, such as emotional expressiveness, I now see as gender-neutral
and they fit a lot more comfortably into my masculinity... but I have also
cultivated a lot of traits that are seen as traditionally masculine as I've
grown into my 20s.

I did "man up", just in a very positive way aided by having a lot of female
and queer friends, rather than the regressive 4chan way I was told to when I
was a teenager. Your comment read not as encouraging that, but as, "you might
as well accept your fate now and start wearing a dress."

------
beat
For work management...

Whatever task management system you use, _never ever_ write down a "task" that
cannot realistically be done in a single sitting of work. If you can't do it
in an afternoon at worst, it's not a task, and needs broken down further.

Set a ceiling for the number of items in your backlog. When I was using
Trello/Kanban to manage my tasks, I had a hard ceiling of ten things in the
backlog. If something isn't important enough to rate being on that top ten
list, it shouldn't even be formally acknowledged until you have space to
acknowledge it in. (And if something sits in the backlog for a while
unaddressed while new things come and go, admit it's not that important and
drop it.) This doesn't need to be "ten items". Whatever number works for you,
as long as it keeps you comfortable. This is about managing anxiety, not
managing work. A backlog too large to even count is overwhelming. Don't let
that happen.

Write everything down, preferably on paper. The physical act of writing does
wonders for memory.

I've recently converted from Trello to bullet journaling for managing my life,
and it works a lot better, for me at least. Paper writing, plus the loose-yet-
structured nature of the bullet journal, is really powerful for keeping
thoughts in order.

~~~
Starwatcher2001
You've got some great advice here, but I went the opposite way from paper to
electronic notes. I had about five years of project notes on paper that became
totally impossible to manage or search. I've been doing it electronic now
(simple text files) for about a decade and find it much more valuable.

~~~
beat
For a focused project, electronic is almost certainly better (and if you
initially write on paper, it's worth transcribing). But for my purposes, I'm
mostly journaling my day-to-day activities. I don't think I'll ever want to
search for that time I needed to get caffeine free Diet Coke and had to push
it forward for three straight days (that would be today...)

A really nice thing about bullet journaling, relative to other forms, is the
index. I can keep my old journals (labeled by date range) and look up stuff
that might actually be interesting in the future, like "Jim Campignolo
workshop notes".

------
sanj
Utilize laziness:

It works like this: 1\. Realize that most of the world is out to distract you.
2\. Realize that part of the way to do this is to make distraction, and access
to distraction, as easy as possible. 3\. Actively set up "friction" to reduce
that ease.

In practice: I don't install FB on my phone; I have to use the crappier web
version. I block reddit on my laptop, so I have to use my phone. Just by
making stuff not ubiquitous, you add a little mental friction to using it that
dissuades it usage.

One more: I always log out of FB and any other "easy-to-use" distractions. The
act of logging in is costly enough (given my long passwords) that even if I
open up the tab, I'll bail because I'm too lazy.

~~~
all2
I don't display the bookmarks bar in my browser. Suddenly I'm not visiting 6
different websites for 30 minutes every day. Adding friction is an awesome
hack.

One can also 'grease the rails' (the opposite of friction) for difficult to
get-to tasks. Set out gym clothes and bag the night before, or meal prep on
the weekends (so that during the week, the _easiest_ thing to eat is what you
want it to be).

This is front-loading executive function, and I find it very effective in my
life.

~~~
smichel17
I took this one step further and disabled history based autocompletion in the
url bar of Firefox. If I want autocompletion, I bookmark the site. This lets
me avoid accidentally getting sidetracked on entertainment sites (reddit, etc)
just because I typed the first character. And it still allows me to search my
history if I need (though I do this surprisingly little).

------
stunt
The most effective trick is to write down whatever you are going to do. You
won’t believe how effective is it before you start doing it. Just write them
down. I prefer pen and paper. This is one of the things you hear a lot and you
ignore it by default. Start making it a habit my friend.

The second trick is to learn to write a simple decision tree. Stop comparing
pros on cons on your head for all critical decisions. Also do it as much as
you can for anything that requires mental energy to save your capacity as much
as possible.

And third is, to learn simple meditation breathing exercise. (probably 1hr
video tutorial on YouTube is enough to learn simple breathing exercise. You
don't need more than that. IMO) Then use this exercise anytime you need to
switch to diffuse mode. Do it anywhere you have to. Even during the commute to
work. I know proper exercises has some sitting and environment conditions. But
F.. that. You still get a lot of benefits. I’m sure there are more benefits in
doing the whole thing in the right conditions. But even with minimum impact is
enough.

And forth just because I saw taking a shower as a recommendation. Make sure
your shower time is just a refresher. Don't think about anything during
shower. Sign your favorite song if you can't stop thinking.

~~~
wj
The decision tree sounds a bit like what Ray Dalio lays out in this Principles
book. I haven't had a chance to construct one yet but it sounds like a really
interesting project. Can you share a bit more about yours?

------
jjclarkson
I keep this on a small card in my office:

SYSTEMS

INBOX ZERO - Delete, Delegate, Respond, Defer, Do

ALWAYS BE KNOLLING - Put away tools, group like objects, align to surfaces

FOCUS - Work on one thing

FAST TASK SWITCHING - Work on the top of the heap

PERMISSION TO FAIL - Persist for 15 minutes

Continuous Improvement by SUBTRACTION

WRITE IT DOWN to relieve pressure

STRATEGIC PROCRASTINATION - Ignore your big audacious goal

~~~
yboris
"Always Be Knolling" reminds me of "Discipline of Do Easy" by Gus Van Sant
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOUBETTyMI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOUBETTyMI)

~~~
bartcobain
Actually is from William Burroughs, but yeah, a really good technique.

------
nikivi
I break down hard problems I am working on into steps.

[https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/rese...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/research/solving-
problems.md)

And I write down and refine many rules for myself to follow in life.

[https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/focu...](https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/knowledge/blob/master/focusing/rules.md)

Eating whole food plant based diet, fasting daily for 13 hours and drinking
only water and tea also greatly helped my ability to focus. I also do some
exercise on my automated breaks.

~~~
alan_wade
Your second link is probably the most delightful and awesome thing I have read
in a long time. I feel such kinship towards this, it's like all the things
I've had in my brain but never shared. You seem really cool =)

------
todd3834
Those are great hacks. Thanks for sharing. I have a few hacks of my own that
are more about food and health:

1\. Don’t abuse caffeine. I stopped drinking coffee and soda but instead I’ll
have some dark chocolate when I need a pick me up. 80%+ and only break off a
couple pieces. I also mix in cacao nibs into breakfast often.

2\. I try to incoroporate blueberries into a lot of my breakfast. Not sure how
affective it is but the flavonoids are supposed to be beneficial for brain
function.

3\. Avoid added sugar and keep simple carbs down on days I’m working.

4\. Get at least 30min-1hr of intense exercise in every day

When I stick to the plan I feel like I’m operating at my best. I’m not
insanely strict about this and on the weekend I throw out most of the rules.
Except for abusing caffeine and the exercise requirement because cheating on
those seem to affect the weekdays even if broken on the weekend.

------
ganzuul
Technical issues don't seem to require as much strategizing as people-issues,
so from that category here are a few of my top ones:

\- A person as you imagine them is likely completely different in truth. Since
it is less work to imagine optimistic things about them, unrealistically high
expectations can be a viable strategy since people seem to gravitate towards
expectation and you are left with more energy to deal with real instead of
perceived issues.

\- If you find yourself having negative thoughts about someone, find a way to
account for their perceived misdeeds as circumstance, so that you may direct
your mind back towards creative solutions to your common problems as soon as
possible.

\- You don't need to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. Even a
small, net positive influence can be enough. Cultivate a sense for where your
responsibilities begin and where they end.

Regular meals and stable blood-sugar is important for dealing with people. The
self is a thin veneer over a strange and fickle animal. Do not forget that we
are a planet of apes.

~~~
minkzilla
For anyone who hasn't read / listened to David Foster Wallace's This is Water
speech, I would highly recommend it. It talks about point 2 of parents
comment.

~~~
ganzuul
Great find! Thank you.

------
Elte
I like to keep "writing walls" of whatever problem I need to solve, either in
work or outside of it. These are basically Google Docs without rules about
structuring of content, it's mostly me type-talking with myself about what the
problem is, what some possible approaches are for solving it, or even "arghs"
and the occasional profanity if things don't work out. Also I paste in URLs
for whatever useful resources I find which has saved me a lot of time when
working on semi-related things in the past. There are no rules, I just write
what comes to mind or whatever I don't wish to store inside my head anymore.

It's a simple thing but it has proven rather helpful in my process to have
some place to rant and ponder things without needing to think about the
correctness of that particular process as well.

~~~
redwards510
I like to do this but I find it difficult to go completely "free form" on a
work computer that might be monitored. It's silly but but I don't like the
idea of someone being able to see my inner thought processes like that because
a lot of times you are stating the obvious just to put that on paper, but to
an observer it looks like "man this guy has trouble grasping even the most
basic concepts!"

~~~
Elte
Haha I understand where you're coming from with that, but I don't have that
problem anymore. Everyone makes dumb mistakes and asks stupid questions; it's
completely irrelevant, the only thing that matters is the outcome. I think if
a person ever where to read any of my writing walls they may be relieved that
they're not the only ones going through a process like that ;).

------
preordained
You can only split your energy so many ways before you become ineffective or
only marginally effective at your goals. You're only human, you only have so
much in the tank. As a husband/father I can only put about 2-3 things on my
plate outside work/family. Working out, one side project/practice, maybe
something else small. It took me a long time to stop fighting myself on this,
but I feel like the reduction in stress has already paid off whatever I feel
I've lost by missing out on this, that, or the other thing. If I want to fit
something else in, I deliberately drop something else cold for a while--I
don't balance them all.

Agree with what others have said about deadlines, I use that in tandem with
the recognition about limited energy above. If I have tough hill to
climb...nasty bug, difficult thing to write...I'll deliberately lay back and
do really light work for the first part of the day, but I'll tell myself from
2 til quitting time or whatever I feel I can muster, I'm going to go all out.
And then at quitting time, I quit. I find that I operate way more effectively
this way than making myself "live" with a pain in the ass task from the
beginning of the day to the end (or the end of it). Sometimes it won't take
long in reality, but I _could_ end up fighting it all day, and I find being
motivated for a brief "charge" puts me in a much more effective frame of mind.

------
stevenkovar
For me, it boils down to minimizing distractions and having a low baseline of
stress and dissonance.

Default to "no." Simple math: if you say no to almost everything, you are free
to say yes to the really important things. This is a skill you can practice
and get better at. This is more specific to deals and opportunities than
spending time with colleagues, friends, and family. However, if you find
yourself constantly in meetings or going out, start saying "no" until it feels
special each time, or you get home feeling energized instead of drained.

Determining who you are NOT matters more than determining who you are. It's
easier to make a hard decision if you have established your own principles and
developed a strong sense of personal integrity. You hear people and companies
say what they will do to reach their goals, but you hardly hear them say what
they won't do—which to me shows much more clarity in thought.

"Stressbox": Your mail has an inbox that all mail comes through and your brain
has a "stressbox" that life keeps adding to. Just as it's okay to delete an
email, you are totally fine removing a point of stress from your life.
Unsubscribe from things that stress you out so you can have a lower baseline
of stress.

"Life Tax": Shit happens... If you are prepared, it feels inconsequential. If
you are unprepared, it feels like things spiral out of control or become
overwhelming. You can't dodge or defer life taxes—so pay them as they come in.
The people you see (or maybe know) who constantly have "bad luck" are likely
not paying their life tax on time.

Diet, sleep, exercise, and a means to reflect are needed in combination. Your
cumulative diet dictates how you feel next week. Eat generally healthy and
you'll feel generally good—don't be afraid of a treat. The highest performers
across many professions tend to sleep the most. Exercise helps make better use
of the foods you are eating and helps produce the hormones you need to think
clearly.

------
Raidion
If I'm working on a project I don't have external motivation for, like a
personal project, etc. I'll make sure I stop working only when I reach parts
that are fun or at least clear. Next time I sit down, I want to either look
forward to jumping back in, or not have to sit down and deal with a super
weird edge case that had me hating life earlier.

This also applies to lots of things, you can quit, just do it after you made
progress, regardless if it's shipping v0.1, running a marathon, etc. Don't
quit when you're sad, get to a spot when you're happy then quit.

~~~
joaomacp
I do this. Some colleagues don't leave work until they've finished the
feature/bug they're working on.

If it's 6pm and I'm stuck solving a bug, I call it quits and go home. Often
the next day I have a new perspective and check that other place where the bug
actually comes from, and solve it faster than if I had just banged my head
until late.

~~~
mturmon
With respect, your comment and the GP comment seem to be two different things.

(1) Stop work when the immediate path forward is clear, so there is less
friction to restarting.

(2) Stop work when encountering a puzzling obstacle, with the expectation that
ambient thinking will suggest a path forward.

I try to do both of these things. I'm more successful with the second.

I first read about (1) in a book on writing technical papers, where the advice
was to NOT write until you've become confused about the way forward. Rather,
leave off so you know how to begin on the next writing session.

The right strategy could depend on the application!

~~~
Raidion
I'm OP, and you're right on the money!

------
HHalvi
Here is what has worked well for me until now : 1) Breaking down every task
there is no matter how big into small sets of doable tasks.

2) Emailing myself about the problems, writing about it helps me think about
the problem in a much deeper way and when it doesn't help me solve the problem
sending it and then getting back to the problem next day has worked out well.
You can send it to someone else with minimal effort if you still haven't
figured it out yet.

3) Having a to-do list, there are tons and many people have so many opinions.
What works for me is writing down what needs to be done on Sublime Text since
that is where i note down all of my thoughts. Get a to do list you like and
stick to it, you will be thankful.

4) Ask Why's all the time: I learn't this the hard way navigating a PM role.
But drilling down into at-least 3-4 levels of Why's always give you a much
better clarity. Biz,Life,Decisions anything can be broken down into simpler
things that can be understood and dealt upon.

Hope this helps :)

------
cik
Temptation bundling - If there's something that I really don't want to do,
that' I'm putting off - I bundle it with something I really do want.

As an example - I won't allow myself to take that break and grab that shot of
espresso until X thing that I'm working on, that I'm soooooo close to
completing, is done.

~~~
gukov
I call this "first, then."

\- First <tidy up the room>, then <play games>.

------
OliverJones
When I'm annoyed at myself or somebody else and I notice it, I do somebody a
five-minute favor. At the office, it can be answering a question, being the
duck in talk-to-the-duck debugging, getting somebody coffee or even tidying up
the restroom. Even answering a question on SO or Hacker News qualifies. Shifts
my mindset out of "annoyed."

(This doesn't work if you keep score on the doing of favors.)

------
iliketosleep
I use sensory cues that get me into the correct mode for each situation. The
most simple examples are music and environment. If I'm starting a challenging
task, I'll listen to particular tracks and lock myself away. My brain then
"knows" to get into gear. Same with relaxation, I reserve some particular
music and locations that I use strictly for relaxation. It works like the
flick of a switch.

The other thing is lists of tasks to complete in a particular day. I keep it
really simple, just a text list. I tell myself "when I get through this list,
I can relax and do something I enjoy". It's important for two reasons, first
is that it minimizes the costly context switch between completing tasks and
high-level planning, second is that my brains "knows" that the sooner I
complete the tasks, the sooner it'll get that dopamine rush which the human
brain craves.

Overall, I find it very important to have my brain chemistry working for me
rather than against me!

------
alan_wade
Optimize behaviors, not outcomes.

You can directly control the actions you take, but not the results they lead
to.

Because there's often luck/uncertainty involved, the results are often not
even a good way to measure the quality of your decisions, sometimes good
decisions can lead to bad outcomes and vice versa, be aware of this and notice
when it happens.

Reward yourself based on taking the right action, use outcomes as analytics to
learn from.

Confusing the two leads to anxiety, frustration, and beating yourself up over
things you can't change.

Don't burn your mental energy on things outside of your circle of control,
instead - try to spend all of it on taking actionable steps.

------
ouid
Heres some algorithms that I actually use in my life. I don't know if they fit
the bill, but whatever, I'm sharing them.

A) SCHEDULING.

If there's a thing that you want to do but you can't do it now, set a reminder
to do it, and include how long you are waiting to do it in your note. If the
reminder comes up and you can't seem to fit it into your schedule before the
next wait time is up, set a new reminder but double the wait time.

This ensures that you don't forget about the possibility of doing something
just because you don't have time, but also ensures that you don't spend
excessive amounts of time worrying about finding time to do something if you
don't really want to do it, or can't prioritize it.

Moreover it allows you to schedule many events without worrying about your
schedule getting too crowded.

B) TRYING NEW THINGS. (using a menu at a restaurant as an example)

1\. set n = 2. 2\. Every time you go to the restaurant, pick a random natural
number between 1 and n. 3\. \- if it comes up 1, pick something you've never
tried off of the menu to try. If you don't like it, increase n by 1. otherwise
add the item to your list of things to get and set n=2. \- otherwise select an
item at random from your list of favorite things. You can optimize selection
from this list as well, but I don't.

This is hard to keep track of, naturally, so I only use it when I feel like
I'm in a rut, but I trust the algorithm, more or less, and it pushes me out of
my comfort zone in a way that I am, paradoxically, very comfortable with.

------
bhousel
Set your profile picture (Slack/Twitter/GitHub/etc) to something happy. You’ll
see it thousands of times a day as background noise, but it will affect both
your own mood and how other people treat you.

~~~
neduma
Nice.

------
beat
"I may be wrong. I am often wrong." I say this out loud all the time, any time
my knowledge/expertise is involved, and I'm trying to be better about saying
it in writing as well. It works like an affirmation, only to encourage
recognizing my own fallibility, rather than boosting my confidence.

Closely related... recognizing that _everyone_ , including me, is just a thin
coat of reason smeared on a dumb animal brain. Everyone's decision-making,
including mine, is governed by a lot of reactionary, low-energy thinking
patterns driven by instinct and bad assumptions, not reason - and our
"reasoning" is often just thinking our reactionary assumptions are actually
something we came to from careful thought. Recognizing that others are
irrational helps me work with their interests and biases. Recognizing I'm also
irrational helps me avoid the smug belief that everyone who disagrees with me
is hateful, greedy, and stupid.

~~~
MattHeard
My reasoning is often conjured ex post facto as well, with my brain tricking
me into thinking I had good reasons to do something before I actually thought
of the reasons.

Our brains use reason to justify what we already did more than it uses it to
choose what we will do.

~~~
scarejunba
In _The Righteous Mind_ , in a small section, Jonathan Haidt talks about this
with the analogy that reason is a mahout riding the elephant of emotion. After
reading that book and some others, I wondered if I could train my feelings so
I’d respond instinctually and instantly to things in the ‘right’ way.

Often when we see code, we have a feeling of ‘dirty’ or ‘clean’. An internal
reaction that pushes us in some direction. It’s worth questioning why we think
that about some things, but I think we eventually develop a sense of what is a
good pattern and what isn’t and we actually use the emotional reasoning of our
brain to guide us effectively in writing code. Perhaps we wouldn’t even be
effective programmers if we had to actually think through full reason each
time.

Less applicable when reviewing code, of course.

~~~
beat
You're on the right path, I think. It's the same thing I do with my "I may be
wrong, I'm often wrong" anti-affirmation. I'm training my mind - and training
the minds of people I work with - to recognize my fallibility in advance, so
it's not such a shock when I actually _am_ wrong. Because yeah, I'm often
wrong.

And for my own purposes, recognizing the possibility that I might be wrong in
advance, and being comfortable with it, heads off a lot of wasted effort from
defending my wrongness.

------
AznHisoka
If I am stuck in a problem, and I'm close to mental exhaustion, I turn off the
computer, do something entirely different, get some rest, and come back to it
tomorrow.

The next day, I often discover a solution I didn't realize before, or that
same problem/bug goes away somehow, most likely because I was too tired and
overlooked something.

~~~
wpietri
Yes, definitely. If I'm tired and behind, my instinct is to try to power
through. But generally the smart thing for me is to quit early and truly rest.

------
OldSchoolJohnny
“the only motivational advice anyone has ever needed: You don’t have to feel
like getting something done in order to actually get it done.“

[https://medium.com/swlh/theres-no-such-thing-as-
motivation-e...](https://medium.com/swlh/theres-no-such-thing-as-
motivation-e02edd7de30)

~~~
keithpeter
Seems close to the Dilbert geezer's Goals vs Systems. I work on systems more
than goals myself and it seems to work for my humble tasks.

[https://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-
systems/](https://blog.dilbert.com/2013/11/18/goals-vs-systems/)

------
ArtWomb
Do the daily Mind Dump!

I try to start every day by opening a GSuite doc. It's synced to my phone so I
can edit wherever. It's a running stream of minutiae.

What I've discovered is that by logging my ideas, no matter how trivial. It
instantly frees my cognitive load for new thoughts to take hold. I no longer
have to cling onto the old to remember them.

It also represents the first step in transmuting the abstract into something
physically manifested ;)

------
scarejunba
Decision-bias: More situations are made worse by not making a decision than
making the wrong decision. Most decisions can be rapidly undone. Therefore,
always bias to making a decision.

Anti-schlep-blindness: Look for the thing you're avoiding thinking about. It's
probably the most important thing.

~~~
beagle3
Not taking any action is often better than taking the wrong action, in my
experience.

Not taking an action, though, IS a decision so i’m not sure how exactly this
compares to your statement.

~~~
scarejunba
I agree. I would bias against implicit no-action because a decision couldn't
be made. Explicit No-Action or Explicit Action are superior.

------
holdenc
How to speed up your epiphanies:

\- Quiet room in the afternoon, with a bed

\- Lay down but don't sleep. Drink coffee first if you need.

\- Close your eyes, picture the problem, and relax. Visualize it existing in
the world. Tweak it. Imagine others' reaction to it.

\- Give yourself 20 minutes. If it takes longer, go for a walk.

This technique works well with large architectural decisions, and occasionally
helps with debugging stubborn problems.

------
myself248
When dealing with clutter, I pick up an object and go "where should I put
this?", and of course this doesn't work, because if I knew that, I would've
put it there in the first place. It's clutter because I didn't have an answer.

So instead, I say "Where should this be a year from now?"

For some reason, this elicits entirely different answers. It cuts through the
paralysis and imagines a future where the needful has been done.

------
csours
1\. Troubleshooting - I'm not sure if this counts, but my troubleshooting
method involves cutting problems in half recursively. I think that's basic
troubleshooting, but it seem like many people do not understand it.

2\. Understanding that there is an emotional impact to actions. One reason I
procrastinate is because of negative feelings when I approach work. Often I
sit down to mentally make a list of things to do, and then I will immediately
think of all of the roadblocks and problems. Knowing that these are emotions
helps to deal with them.

3\. Long walks. Taking long, boring walks helps me to unwind and also to
reconsider problems that are hard in the present tense.

------
wpietri
One of my favorites is, "If not now, when?" If there's something I should do
that I don't want to do now, I have to come up with a specific time or
condition when it's really going to happen.

It made me realize how much "later" is a fictional time rarely arrives.

~~~
all2
"By the time you realize you won't live forever, it is likely your time here
is already running out."

"No time like the present."

I've found pondering mortality to be an excellent motivator. Existentially
frightening (sometimes), but motivating.

------
n00bdude
I use earplugs when doing work in _any_ environment that's not quiet.

What's nice about earplugs is (1) it cuts off only a 'layer' of sound that I
find inhibits focus and (2) your hearing adjusts; you can still hear virtually
everything happening around you.

Being in the city, I find myself actually sporting earplugs virtually
everywhere I go .. There's just soo much noise.

~~~
whitepoplar
Which earplugs do you use? I find that my ears get very irritated using
earplugs for extended periods.

~~~
n00bdude
I use CVS Superior Soft Foam Earplugs ~ [https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-
superior-soft-foam-earplugs-pro...](https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-superior-
soft-foam-earplugs-prodid-942245) .. nothing really fancy, though maybe the
nicest ones that most CVS' sell.

Sometimes, I will experience minor discomfort if I've pushed them too far in
my head, but pulling them out just a little usually relieves any problem.

I've had them in all day (again), only taking them out once for a long
conversation I had .. and I sleep with them too.

Honestly, reality in a city, IMO, is by & far _way_ too noisy. And I don't
think from an evolutionary standpoint, we're super-well-suited for processing
(consciously or not) all the different directions of noise washing across us
..

Or maybe I'm just too easily distracted/overwhelmed ;)

~~~
bookofjoe
Best earplugs IMHO: Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs:
[https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Soft-Silicone-
Earplugs/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Soft-Silicone-
Earplugs/dp/B003LZQGN6/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1543891142&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=mack%27s+pillow+soft+silicone+earplugs&psc=1).
I've tried EVERY type on the market over the past 55 years and have been using
Mack's for at least 30 years.

------
MacroChip
1\. Learn how to say "no."

2\. Learn how to say "I was wrong."

3\. Learn how to say "I don't know."

4\. It is ok to change your mind

By "learn how to" I mean "gracefully and confidently".

Longer version: I have learned to care immensely about what I'm working on but
not get stressed. I constantly step back and affirm that most things just
aren't a big deal. That gives me clarity of thought and allows me to do really
good work and have a lot of fun doing it. No matter what happens, nothing can
take away my ability to learn and self improve. Therefore, I will always be
ok.

------
clueless123
When I am stuck on a issue/decision/bug I just stand up and go "walk about it"
with my dog.. Most of the times I come back with something to get started..
_All_ of the times my dog comes back with a wagging tail.

~~~
jyriand
Hammock Driven Development by Rich Hickey touches on this subject. Great talk.

------
benrmatthews
Just start. Even spending a few minutes on a problem you've been avoiding will
help make the issue clearer, plus you're more likely to keep going once you've
started (see also: pomodoro technique).

~~~
wpietri
100% agreed. I can get very resistant about doing some things. Committing to
doing one pomodoro today has been very helpful. At worst, I've broken my not-
doing-it streak, and it will be easier to return to later. And at best I'll
get into it and charge on through.

------
oldboyFX
I'm not sure if this falls under "brain hacks" but here's something for the
folks who work remotely.

What helps me a lot is to start working within 15 minutes of waking up (9AM).
No reddit, no hackernews, no any other kind of news before noon. This usually
results in the majority of the work getting done before early afternoon. After
that, I work at a more relaxed pace until 5PM.

------
pytyper2
Avoid negativity, Learning to recognize toxic people and situation would be
the hack. Then exiting quickly not to return. My life is an order of magnitude
better after cutting off two toxic friends and actively avoiding new toxic
people and situations.

~~~
prab97
What are the red flags to quickly bucketize relations into toxic?

~~~
nf05papsjfVbc
My benchmarks are these:

\- They'll try to make you feel guilty about something that is otherwise not a
big deal

\- They tend to be negative about almost everything and invite drama from all
spheres of their life

This is in contrast to:

\- When you mess up, they'll either call you out on it or let you know without
really making it personal (it's about what you did and not about you). I
believe a true friend is one who tries to make you hear what you need to hear
and not just what you want to.

------
iagooar
We all have plenty of tasks that we kind of don't want to do, or feel they're
a burden, or they somehow take us out of our comfort zone...

This is a trick I learned that works like a charm to get myself into the right
mindset and wanting to actually do the task: think how finishing the task will
make you feel.

Try really hard to envision a great outcome of a given meeting with customers.
What it will mean for you, your project, your company...

With some exercise you will really fool your brain.

Apply it with everything. Even with personal stuff. Don't want to wash those
dishes? Think about what a nice, tidy kitchen looks and smells like.

It's one of those weird hacks in my life that actually make me get stuff done.

------
razvanlm
Ask (yourself) questions.

Given a question, our brains will automatically start searching for an answer.
But if you don't have a specific question in mind to a problem then it will be
harder to dig for solutions.

Trivial example: Looking for a place to eat You can spend a lot of time
randomly thinking about foods you like or you can start asking yourself
questions...how hungry am I? what type of cuisine do I feel like having...how
far am I willing to go...etc

------
james_s_tayler
Applying Occam's Razor and Hanlon's Razor.

Also I look at everything through the filter of evolutionary psychology. I
call it "you in the grass" and mentally take myself all the way down to it's
just you and your tribe in the grass, you're tired and hungry, theres nowhere
to sleep and everything is dangerous. Then I analyse things through that
filter first and slowly add the additional layers of society back on.

------
swah
Those have been helpful for me:

\- Everything as practice (great thread IMO
[https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/8zf5uw/need...](https://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/8zf5uw/needadvice_how_can_we_properly_manage_time/e2sy6p7/))

\- “Without adversity there is no advance”, just offer the boring parts of
your job as sacrifice or use as mindfulness practice, or execute them now with
100% of your attention (eg making coffee at the office say)

\- Don't complain about stuff you can do in two minutes (mentally), just do it
and be glad to serve others instead. This has been a great "energy
conservation" trick for me, when I can do it..

\- Remember Parkinson's Law...

\- Just start it, a few minutes is enough. If you can cross a first small task
in the beginning, that will get you going. (read here I think:
[https://sivers.org/book/PersonalMBA](https://sivers.org/book/PersonalMBA))

\- Set a maximum time for some task (20min, say - good if a little
unrealistic) and work with 100% intent/focus (But I can't work 8 hours like
this...)

------
scarejunba
Oh, there's another one.

Prioritize Information Exchange: I hope to provide useful information to other
people. I don't want to convince them, just to give them what I know. In
exchange, I try to find people who will give me what they know. Essentially,
enable the Postel principle for yourself, and always invoke Crocker's Rules
upon yourself. If other people don't or persist in being wrong then allow them
to be so.

------
ryanmarsh
Tempo.

I learned this from being in combat and trying to hit on girls way out of my
league in highly competitive environments where they would verbally test me.

When tension increases, voices move up an octave, and conflict looms
...breathe... focus, let time slow down, move slowly and with purpose.

You can control the most complex and high emotion situations, the ones where
everyone is freaking the fuck out by breathing and focusing your mind. It’s
amazing, like watching time slow down. You gain control and can manipulate the
situation as desired. With practice you can do this without thinking and can
speed up or slow down the tempo at will. It’s like a super power. I encourage
you to practice it.

Then you get to a point to where you can artificially accelerate the tempo for
others (saying something taboo, challenging someone directly, body language)
while you remain in “bullet time” able to control the situation while everyone
struggles with the rush of endorphins. It’s pretty crazy. Try not to be too
nefarious with this.

------
Simulacra
Two things: I use brown/white noise a lot to quiet my ADHD and general mental
chaos. Whenever possible I steal myself away and just bask in the low, dull
roar of the noise in some earbuds.

The other, cannabis.

~~~
tlackemann
I'm glad to see someone else mention cannabis. It honestly has helped me _so_
much with slowing down and making sure I put in the time to search for
answers. It's helped me creatively and passionately. It's helped me calm down
my anxiety in stressful situations and be clearheaded with my thoughts.

It's not for everyone but for those that do use it, I sincerely believe it
works.

~~~
option_greek
Having never tried it, I'm curious, isn't there a chance that it turns into an
addiction ?

~~~
orwin
My sister used to be an almost daily user for 3 years, and augmented
consomption again after a rape (2 joint a day when she started living at my
place).

Still, after a year, familly support, a diploma, a great job, a non-abusive
boyfriend and now an appartment, she is "clean" since early november, after
her first try at stopping. I'm pretty sure she'll smoke again on some weekends
or for new year eve, but it will be for fun and giggles, not because of any
addiction.

Imo if you're well, it is not really addictive. Carefull though if you're at
risk for heart problems (again: genetics, overweight, male), don't take it
with tobacco. And like any drug, do not take it alone the first time.

~~~
wtracy
That reinforces my suspicion that taking even mildly psychoactive substances
(pot, alcohol) when you are depressed or "in a funk" is generally a bad idea.
Those are the times when substance abuse is most likely to rear its ugly head.

If you possibly can, limit your use of those substances to the "good times":
celebrating accomplishments, or winding down after a long _successful_ day.

That's my two cents; I'm open to hearing other opinions.

~~~
RankingMember
I agree with you. When you use them in bad times to get by, they become coping
mechanisms that you NEED. The problem is sometimes bad times are REALLY bad
and, in those instances, a drug is better than the alternatives. The trick is
to use it during that time but hang onto some semblance of moderation in the
future.

------
roadkillon101
Being able to install a good habit and replace a bad habit is really the
"ultimate" brain hack. On forming a habit: Basically you start with a very
small habit that doesn't take a whole lot of willpower to do and consistently
do it...like do 1 sit up, and do it EVERY DAY. I like how this idea is
outlined in mini habits. [https://minihabits.com/about-mini-
habits/](https://minihabits.com/about-mini-habits/) Once you have a habit
formed, it's AUTOMATIC and you don't have to think of it anymore. When you
learn to CHAIN related habits together, even small ones, the changes are
LIFECHANGING. Making big complicated techniques for managing yourself is just
plain tiring and your working against your own human nature. Keep it small and
simple and you will see significant changes over a short period of time.

------
type-2
Thank you for this thread. I had been feeling pretty bad and had a mental
block because of too many things piling up. I found some really nice ideas
that I hope to try out.

------
irchans
I have used a particular method that I first learned from Tony Robbins for
making decisions. I've been using it for 10 years, but I recently saw an
article about it in the NYT.

"How to Make a Big Decision" \- The New York Times

[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/opinion/sunday/how-
make-b...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/opinion/sunday/how-make-big-
decision.html)

(Mostly, you figure out what values affect your decision, rank the values,
create a matrix with each row corresponding to a possible choice, and each
column corresponding to a value, and each entry in the matrix gives a
numerical value of how well the row choice contributes to the column-value.
Now do a weighted sum of each row to figure out which is the best choice.)

~~~
zimpenfish
I saw a "how do you make a good pick from an unknown selection?" article a
couple of decades ago in the Observer which basically boiled down to "Always
reject the first item; then pick the one which isn't glaringly worse."

Seems reasonably sound, statistically, based off some Monte Carlo simulations
I did.

------
mv4
I ended up automating my brain hack. I found that some tasks can be complex,
overwhelming, or just plain unpleasant. So I wrote a script that looks at my
To-Do list, and gives me a series of top-ranked articles by people who already
completed a similar task. So this isn't necessarily about getting some
guidance on how to perform a task... but seeing a firsthand view from someone
who lived through it can be very motivational.

I was surprised at how effective it was at both small tasks (choose a smart
thermostat), and complex tasks (prepare for a trade show).

I wrote it for myself, it runs on my home server, so I can't give you a link
yet... so here's a few screenshots. Python, Google Search API, some basic NLP.

[https://imgur.com/a/5n6gsSY](https://imgur.com/a/5n6gsSY)

------
jfasi
Whenever I’m anxious about something, my thoughts immediately go to the worst
case “what if” scenario. I obsess over it, I lose sleep, and I’m generally
miserable until the situation resolves.

Lately I’ve started instituting a practice where whenever I think to myself
“what if it goes horribly wrong in this specific way?” I think “yes but what
if it also goes right in this other, equally specific way?” I find simply the
act of thinking of a positive outcome distracts enough me from the horrible
outcome to allow me relax. As an added bonus, at the end of the day my good
case scenario and my worst case scenario are often about equally likely to
occur given the scarce information I might have in the moment.

I find this exercise makes me less anxious, more able to handle stressful
situations, and more resistant to uncertainty.

------
jamesb93
Some of the other comments in here have overlap with mine, but worth sharing
nonetheless imo.

I always stop working when I know I have something to continue. Doesn't mean I
don't finish anything but I always have something to return to and don't have
that paralysis to start working based on a fear of not knowing what to do.

That leads me to the second point, I keep markdown journals of all my projects
as a history of what I was thinking and how things developed. I also make
reference points in the journal regarding things I 'could' do the next time I
open it.

I am a creative, so often the problems look like...

\- Find new B-Format for Ambisonics \- Re-factor gesture code

That way I always have something (usually small) to attempt when I need to
start work the next day and this will help me tackle the bigger problems as I
go.

Sitting down to the work is half the problem.

------
digsmahler
Brain hack: Formulate your thinking in terms of positive statements.

Example:

* Negative statement: Don't use object inheritance, it leads to confusing code.

* Positive statement: Try to make your inheritance tree flatter, this helps make more straightforward code.

The negative statement is both discouraging and ambiguous. When you tell
someone or yourself to not do a thing, it begs the question, "What should be
done instead?" Meanwhile, the positive statement is incisive and gives the
listener better direction.

If you can spot something to not do, you can probably come up with something
to do as well. This shift in thinking seems small, but has had a profound
impact on how I interact with the world, and improved my outlook on life, work
and relationships.

------
Spearchucker
Begin with the end in mind. It's clichéd (from 7 habits) and yet works wonders
for getting me to even start, and actually finish.

Simple and recent example - I'm putting on weight for the first time in 40
years. Sure I want to lose the fat, but that's not enough. Thinking about the
end is what did it for me.

First, exercise gets rid of the fat. Second, when I'm finished I should have
more muscle than I do now. Third, and what I've somehow always thought was
awesome, was to reach a stage where I can so a one-handed push-up.

I hate exercising. Every minute of it. But thinking about that/those outcomes
make me do exercise to myself.

It's been a very useful technique in all sorts of places. Especially in
meetings.

~~~
csours
I hesitate to offer advice in this area, but you should be able to find some
kind of exercise that you like.

~~~
Spearchucker
Thanks for the offer, I know what I like - Krav Maga. There's just no decent
class close to me. And strength training is both better at burning fat and the
thing I need to do if I'm going to do a one-armed push up one day. I dislike
gyms and weight training, which leaves body weight training. Which is no fun
but less offensive than the alternatives.

------
jcutrell
\- Spend 5 extra minutes when the details matter, to focus on the details.

\- Beliefs are not binary; treat them like probabilities more than
certainties. "Think in bets", like Annie Duke's recent book on the subject.

\- Your beliefs, opinions, work - all of it is not connected to your identity
or self worth. The more you can disconnect from it (non-attachment), the less
ego-driven your work will be, the more likely you are to seek truth.

\- Knowing about blind spots doesn't make you immune to them. Balance yourself
with other opinions, and seek out people who respectfully disagree with you.

\- Remember that the world is bigger than this piece of code, this job, this
decade of your life, your entire life, all of your friends and family's lives,
all of humanity. And the universe is bigger than the world. Take things in
stride, less seriously; this reminds us to be delighted in our work, not
stressed about it. Even when we fail, if we can see the expiration date
clearly, we realize it doesn't matter enough to waste our little bit of time
worrying about it.

\- Your feelings about reality often distort your experience of reality. This
is how depression and anxiety (loosely) work. We feel something, physically,
that changes what our brain sees as truth. Remind yourself of this when you
are catastrophizing, as well as when you feel on top of the world.

------
mrhappyunhappy
For me:

1\. Telling myself that if I don’t do it now I probably won’t get it done
today, so I better do it now. The reason I say this to myself is because I
have a toddler who always wants me around so when I have time, I have to use
it to maximum capacity or I won’t get that chance again.

When dealing with work I don’t want to do for a client - I put myself in their
position and pretend I have hired me. How would I feel knowing I’m not doing
my best (probably like I’m paying for nothing). Even though a lot of my work
is not tracked by the hour it helps put things in perspective by pretending to
be the other person.

When facing multiple task I start with the hardest one first. The reason being
is I know many developers who will work on small ticket items first to build
up their momentum but stop at the hardest task. To me this is highly
irritating so I try to get the hardest tasks done first just to “show them”
how it’s done. Of course, I’m not actually showing anyone anything but it
gives me reason to take on the hard work.

Knowing when to take a break - sometimes my work starts suffering and my
instinct is to push through. From experience I know that if I don’t put things
down and walk away I’m bound to make sloppy mistakes that will make me look
like an amateur. Knowing that I’ll look unprofessional, I immediately put down
my work and walk away. In any case, I’d rather spend time with my son and come
back with a fresh mind.

I don’t know if these qualify as mind hacks but these are thought processes I
go through. There are others but that’s all I can type up right now.

------
asveikau
> Artificial deadlines

Artificial deadlines has always been my go-to phrase to describe a situation
where people try to hold to a deadline that isn't reality-based. Everyone
stresses about a fake deadline that won't be hit and won't matter and burns
out. The deadline should if at all possible move with actual status and nature
of the work.

So your boss giving themselves a fake deadline and deciding things in the last
5 minutes... I will be honest, that story doesn't make them look smart.

~~~
taormina
Totally agreed on the fake deadline front.

Have you ever been torn between two options and left it up to a coin flip?
Only to find that mid-air, you realize which one you really wanted it to be,
without even necessarily checking the coin? In the "last five minutes thing",
I think the broader point there is that, A) you will need to make an actual
decision, and that B) you can wallow about being indecisive for as long as you
willing to let yourself. That last point feels more about deciding to make a
decision to avoid prolonging B indefinitely.

~~~
setr
I think of the coin flip solution as being honest with yourself: it only works
if you really decide to follow the quarter's answer, and its that little sense
of satisfaction/reluctance when you unmask the coins that points out the truth
(at which point you ignore the quarter and do the correct thing)

and ofc if you feel nothing, then coin has already provided you a default to
work with.

------
zackmorris
My main 2:

* Start with the low-hanging fruit. I learned this from my old job moving furniture: some days I simply didn't have the energy to step up into the truck or climb stairs (maybe I had worked overtime the day before, etc). Just grab a box or anything at all, and walk as far as you can to the house or up to the truck you have to unload. Too often we focus on loading up both arms and tucking something under our armpit to maximize our efficiency, when doing 3 small tasks can be done stress-free individually but lead to the same result.

* Let your subconscious do the work. To stay in zen, it's as much about building the practices and habits that let you work as it is about doing the tasks themselves. Try loading a problem into your mind and then taking a break or sleeping on it without solving it (I almost always preload a problem this way before bed). Most of the time, my brain solves the problem for me and in a better way than if I had tackled it the "hands on" way. I'd say the majority of my work is subconscious now, so I effectively have a partial I've spun up to assist me - similar to pair programming but my partner is the universe.

------
sametmax
I try to avoid using my brain for anything I can automate using all the
classic technics: GTD, checklists for so many things, 5S,
labelling/attributing places, delegating, 5 seconds rules, etc. Just like the
code with less bug is the code you don't write, the thoughts with the fewer
errors are the ones you don't make. Plus it saves time and energy for the
thinking that matters.

Honestly, this should be taugh at school.

~~~
Xplosiveoctopus
Hi, I’ve re-discovered GTD recently and I’m blown away by the depth of the
book and the possibilities it has opened for me. I’ve got a few people
interested and started on GTD. I’m yet to finish my first weekly review, but
that’s not my point...

I’d like to ask you to share more info about those other things you’ve
mentioned, because if you consider GTD valuable, then I’d like to know about
what else have you benefited from and why.

I know about the 5 second rule. I’ve read the book.

Thank you.

P.s. it was weird finding only one comment about GTD.

------
halis
Do what's right for the company, not what's right for you. It will make it
easier to win people over to your side and combat those who are only thinking
about their own politics.

If a user tells you the data is wrong then follow the data. Trust but verify.
The data may lead you to other data and the solution.

If there's no indicator of bad data then follow the code. There's always a
reason. You'll be amazed at what you find.

~~~
eldavido
Corollary: work at/for people/places that reward this.

You will do yourself no good if you optimize for the company but in ways that
management doesn't care about. For better or worse, companies are little
command economies and the things management cares about don't necessarily
correspond to what's actually good for "the company" (the shareholders?).

Been there, done that.

------
keyle
It helps to distance yourself from the situation. Like you've said, "If it
doesn't matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn't matter now."

The way I think of it is "if it doesn't kill me or my loved ones, who cares."
Let the leaves fall the way they will. Good and bad will come out of it.

If you're too focused on the wall in front of you, you won't see the
opportunity sitting besides it.

For very bad moments, it's important to bring perspective. I love "Oh dear.",
because it encompases the terrible and puts it into a cute little bottle.

Medias and exposure wants us to have skin in the game and nothing feels worth
doing unless it's a big deal. That rush and fear will end up being blinding
you from the obvious and keep you from achieving your best (imho).

On people, it's important not to be a dick to anyone, even in the most
stressful situations. That's because relationships will supersede situations.
And relationships is often what will get you out of a mess. So keep that boat
floating, communicate as best you can and know that shit happens. Unless it
kills you, ride on like nothing can stop you.

------
Whitespace
Here are some tips for mentoring or pairing/collaborating with fellow
engineers:

\- Use whiteboards to discuss anything. This way you're solving an abstract
problem without being bogged down by implementation (which should be very
straightforward once the solution exists on the whiteboard

\- Take notes liberally for everyone's benefit. During interviews and other
whiteboarding sessions I write "Notes" down on the side with bullet points
listing the requirements, keywords, or questions I have for future discussion.
Of all the things I do, this gets the most praise from just about everyone:
"this over here is really awesome!"

\- Ask lots of questions in the beginning so you don't inadvertently make
assumptions that they're too afraid to address. Often times it'll take 30
minutes for them to properly phrase it in a way that gives me enough context
so I can start helping.

\- Do a teach-back afterwards: "we spoke about X, Y, and Z, and tried 1 and 2.
We saw that although 1 works, it is too clever to maintain because of A and B,
so 2 is a better solution."

------
n00bdude
I use earplugs when doing work in any environment that is not quiet.

What's nice about earplugs is (1) it seems to cut off only some
'existentential layer' of sound that I find inhibits focus and (2) your
hearing adjusts; you can still hear virtually everything happening around you.

Being in the city, I find myself actually sporting ear plugs virtually
everywhere I go .. There's just too much noise.

~~~
yboris
I've not researched but read that prolonged in-ear headphone wearing (and in
your case ear plugs) can increase in-ear bacterial growth. Unsure how
problematic it is, but something to be aware of.

------
amorphic
Frame situations in such a way that you're happy with whichever outcome
eventuates.

Simple example: Tomorrow's Saturday. If it's Sunny we can go on that family
picnic we were talking about. If it's Rainy we can stay inside and watch that
movie we've been wanting to watch. Positive outcome either way.

More Complex example: Tomorrow I have an interview for a job that sounds
great. If it goes well then I get the job. If it doesn't go so well it'll be
great experience for the next interview. Positive outcome either way.

Sometimes it can be a stretch to find the "silver lining" in a given situation
but there's usually one there even if you can't see it at first. See also
"Good, Bad, Who's to Say?":

[https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_lanier_good_and_bad_are_in...](https://www.ted.com/talks/heather_lanier_good_and_bad_are_incomplete_stories_we_tell_ourselves/transcript?language=en)

------
yboris
Much through my life growing up, when dealing with a challenge/problem that
hurt, I imagined whether I would have the same problem at the age of 60. Given
that I was certain the problem was solved by then, it gave me hope for a
solution. And then it was a matter of getting there.

The specific example that bothered me was lack of girlfriend. But I was
certain that at some point in college / after college I'd eventually find
someone. So it stopped being a gnawing pain, and became an acceptable
scenario.

This somewhat worked with particularly challenging times when I was starting
as a developer -- feeling like an impostor with not enough skills. I knew that
in a few years I'd have the skills to solve the problem, so that meant I could
just keep studying knowing it would work out. It's a sort of optimism that
I've honed over the years - it's hard for me to know whether this is a common
way to think or not. Hope it's helpful to some.

------
kissgyorgy
Sometime I imagine myself watching myself as another person, (like I'm doing a
thing, but seeing myself as somebody else) so I can try to think about how
others can see me in some situations, what I do how would it look in the eyes
of others. This helps me behave more appropriate in some situations and helps
me see myself more objectively.

------
RootGenerated
Here are two that I use regularly: 1) In order to stay focused, every day I
put: [X] No internet At the top of my to-do list. I pre-check the box, that
way if I end up wasting even a minute of time on the internet (unless it's
during a break time, like now) I have to actively remove that check from the
box. Something about the immediate feeling of failure from removing the check
keeps me from doing it.

2) When I need to remember to take care of something, I take a trick inspired
by ideas like the memory palace. As an example, if I need to remember to do
something before I leave the house, I visualize approaching the door to leave,
and imagine myself in a semi-panic state and think "I almost forgot to <insert
thing to remember here>!" Without fail, when I go to leave the house (or
another choke point event) I remember what I needed to do. It's almost like
putting a mental sticky note on the door.

------
brayhite
Making lists and restating what is said.

The former helps a lot when trying to make sense out of chaos. Even if I
haven’t learned a sense of priority, having that list in front of me makes it
an easier path to finding priority. And my rule is always if there isn’t any
clear sense of priority, then just pick one and ignore the rest.

The latter helps with every-day communication. Repeating things back that I
hear helps me remember them, but also can lead to the person or persons you
are communicating with deciding what they said wasn’t what they meant. It
seems like a small, and probably annoying task, but the amount of times it’s
helped me remember something between my co-workers desk and my own so I can
record what we decided, or the times it’s led to a convo going just a little
bit longer because something needed additional clarification is worth the
annoyance, in my opinion.

------
ergothus
"What data would make me change my mind?"

For routine things this is a trivial question, but more often than I care to
admit I'll discover I don't have an answer. Coming up with the answer doesn't
mean my thought is rational (humans rationalize way too much), but it does
help anchor the belief to OTHER things, which I believe makes me more open to
change - it builds in a separation between the belief itself and my self-
value, instead attaching it to the causality, making me more willing to follow
through if the initial data IS proven wrong.

Of course I don't know if this actually works to make me more open to change,
but I feel better for having tried and there definitely have been issues where
I did change my stance after the assumed data wasn't the real data - I just
can't know if I would have change my mind without this exercise.

------
chamblin
Coin Flip Rule: If I think about a tough decision for too long, it's a sign
that the decision may be tough because the choices are really close and
additional thinking is likely not worth it (the added value of making the
"correct" choice will be very small). In this case, choosing at random is OK.

Just start: If I feel unmotivated, I'll wind up a Pomodoro timer and just try
to knock out one. Usually, I will feel a lot better/more motivated once I get
going on a task.

Stupid/evil rule: If I disagree with someone, I recognize that I will often
shortcut this to the other person knowing less than I do, or to having
ulterior motives. When I see I am doing this, I ask why they might disagree,
other than explicitly being stupid or evil. Since people are very rarely
stupid or evil, this helps me to understand the perspectives of others.

~~~
gknoy
I do something similar with my kids. If they don't want to pick something, or
feel like they can't, we flip a coin.

The coin result isn't binding, so immediately as the coin falls, they realize
that they either do or do not want that result, and then can make their choice
more easily.

------
mkio
I just started using a todo app, instead of the note app i used for years.

Now i can give each thing i think of a priority and a deadline.

I sort my todos by priority and make sure i get the important things done,
before anything else.

I start the day, by choosing which todos i want to get done today and then i
work my way through the list in no particular order.

~~~
insickness
The problem with only using a todo list is that you mainly prioritize tasks
instead of projects. I use a todo list app (ticktick) in combination with a
word doc that contains all my major projects. I sort the major projects by
importance and time sensitivity. That helps me stay focused on the big
picture. From there, I sort my todo list based on importance and time
sensitivity.

~~~
mkio
I use todoist (free plan) which lets you assign todos to different projects.

If i wanted to give each project a priority as well, i would probably just add
a number to the project's name.

------
dnautics
Preventing catastrophic burnout: if I'm sensing a situation where I'm likely
to burn out (a strong miss of expectation of reward), I schedule for myself
routine maintenance work with immediate rewards. Also I only take vacation at
prescheduled times, never in response to overwork.

------
adamc
My main "brain hack" is for depression, particularly that arising from my
divorce. I tend to think back to happier times and trigger myself
(rumination).

The hack is simple: maintain awareness of what your brain is doing, and police
it: do not allow rumination.

Simple and easy are, of course, not the same thing.

~~~
all2
Be careful. Avoidance remains effective only for avoiding. I would recommend
seeking professional help to work through what you've been through.

If you avoid, you cannot heal. To heal you need to expose, clean, and re-
bandage. For most of us, to do this right, we need professional help (note:
not drugs).

If you want or need to vent/talk/etc shoot me an email: latham2 (at) wisc
(dot) edu.

------
cowb0yl0gic
I have a running list of "accumulated wisdom". Most have to do with
maintaining momentum (because...life). Here are a couple items (trying not to
repeat other comments).

* Don't _worry_ about things, _do_ things

* Set goals to "good enough"/iterative development

* Treat failures as false starts & learning experiences (training exercises)

* Don't focus on how _little_ time you have, but on _what you can get done_ in the time you have

* Start the day with an unpleasant task, to get it out of the way ("eat the frog")

* #1 underlying principle: Be proactive (and therefore stay in control)

* Use habits to: Reduce processing overhead, Simplify things, Reduce chances for getting off-track, Reduce ability of subconscious to derail

* Focus on what you are responsible for

* Take small steps

------
bshep
Write things down so you dont bog down your mind with trying to remember
things.

Not everything needs to be done today.

One problem at a time, when you’re done with it start with the next one,
eventually you will be done or it will be time to go home and continue
tomorrow.

Dont bring work home with you.

------
locrelite
Regulating task memory to spatial memory.

If I have to pick up six things at the grocery store, three at the drug store,
and tell two things to the vet, I visualize picking each thing up, or having
each conversation with as much visual context as I can muster. Maybe mapping a
route through a familiar store, or picturing the phone on the vet desk while
ticking off whatever damn things my idiot cat threw up that morning.

Then I just have to remember to go to three places. It's moderately recursive
too: map another route from an unusual subway stop, all I have to remember is
to get out at that stop on the way home from work, and the rest just comes to
me as I arrive at each location.

------
tixocloud
To overcome mental challenges, I spend time chanting and self-reflection
formed by studying Buddhism and other various philosophical literature.

The chanting and self-reflection consists of spending time to explore the true
purpose of my life and the reasons potentially why I am this particular
juncture making this particular decision. It then comes back to spending time
thinking about which decision will I regret the most/least if I had been
looking back from 20 years forward. And then I think about whether it aligns
with my values and ultimate goal in life perceived from the awareness that we
will life and death are inescapable truths of my present existence.

------
sanj
Set your "new tab" to a page that has data you should be looking at daily.

~~~
all2
I set mine to a death clock. It is sobering to see on a daily basis for the
last year that I've got just over 17000 days of life left.

~~~
screaminghawk
Care to share?

I have a lot of anxiety about my mortality and I've been looking for (non-
religious) ways to counter act this fear.

~~~
all2
I come from a primarily religious background, so I'm not sure my position will
be helpful for a non-religious solution.

But I will go into how I think about these things anyway, because its an
important question with important answers.

Basically, I consider death as a transition. This life's purpose isn't to
perform to any human standard; so wealth, fame, notoriety, happiness, etc. are
not direct goals of mine. Nor is it a goal of mine to have a lasting impact.
I'm not here to impress anyone, or look or act in any particular way.

Some of those things may be a byproduct of how I live my life, but they are
not necessary conditions to live 'successfully'.

I think that I should address my definition of success: 'success' in this life
means to love God and love people. So what is 'love' (baby, don't hurt me)?
Love is not an emotional state, rather it is the active process of listening,
respecting, and acting on another's words and needs.

Coming back to mortality: being reminded that I am not long for this world
reminds me of the greater purpose of life, relieves stress from performance
related anxiety, and curbs worry about physical/mental illness and other
maladies, money issues aren't issues anymore, and so on, because I know God
will take care of me.

------
mcv
I don't care what other people think.

This sounds a bit too anti-social. I do actually care what people I care
about, think. And I care what people with well-informed opinions think. But a
random hater? Annoying class mates/co-workers? People with an obviously stupid
opinion? If they think badly of me, that says more about them than about me.

This does a lot to keep me calm, sane, and free from anxiety that would
otherwise turn me into a wreck. It's probably the one attribute my wife most
admires about me.

It got started as a defense mechanism against bullies and other annoying class
mates, but it has served me well since then.

------
Sir_Cmpwn
I made some habits to remember things more easily. I have an app on my phone
(notable, it's on f-droid) which lets me write reminders that just show up as
notifications until I dismiss them. I got into the habit of reading through
these at each context switch (about to leave work, just got back to my desk,
arrived at a destination, etc). I also use the "object out of place" strategy
a lot, most often by leaving something random on my keyboard (e.g. a pen), and
when I come back I wonder why it's there and stop to remember whatever thing I
needed to do.

------
GordonS
Describe the problem in writing.

What usually happens is that I start writing a question on Stackoverflow, but
as I write it I think of things I hadn't considered before - I probably only
end up submitting 1 in 20 questions!

------
13415
1\. I do unpleasant things as fast and effectively as possible, so I can
procrastinate later.

2\. I only use the Get Things Done method when I'm really stressed, so I can
suddenly benefit from its effects.

3\. I don't work at all after a certain time of day / switch off entirely at
the weekends.

4\. I avoid problematic people like e.g. hidden narcissists or psychopaths
like the plague. If I have to interact with them, I'll keep it as professional
as possible and ignore their rants as best as I can. (There is a life outside
work.)

Obviously, these tricks only work if you can 'afford' them.

------
tmaly
Last year I started reading about mental models and a few that really stuck
with me were:

1\. Hanlon's razor - we should not attribute to malice that which is more
easily explained by stupidity.

2\. Reversion to the Mean - after reading Thinking Fast and Slow, the part
about reversion to the mean really made me think about how people view others
in terms of how the behave day to day.

One other thing I tend to think about is that everyone is fighting their own
battles, so try to be kind to others in how you interpret their choices and
actions.

------
elorant
I write everything down exploring all possible scenarios and outcomes. The
great thing about writing is that it helps clarify thoughts which leads to
actionable strategies. You take every possible outcome into consideration and
as things unfold adjust your course likewise. It has helped me keep track of
things and organize better.

Oh and by saying write down I mean write with pen and paper. It's much more
fruitful than opening a word processor and start punching words through a
keyboard or a touchscreen.

------
jyriand
Will add one point that helped me through procrastination. Learned this from
writers, applies well to programming.

1\. Make it your aim to write as horrible code/prose as you possibly can. It
will get you started.

1.

------
jab777
Somewhat off topic, but immediately upon finishing a long coding session
(where i'm deep "in the zone"), I find it extremely valuable to brain dump the
immediate next steps I would take in the event I continued coding then and
there (as many as I can perceive). I call this my TODO NEXT list. When I look
at the list the next day (first thing), it helps me snap right back into that
mental state where I left off, even if the list is vague or incomplete.

------
flavious
As a programmer, I leave a small portion of code uncommitted at the end of the
day.

Next day, I just look at the git diff, and I'm mentally back right where I
left.

------
tsumnia
I'm very willing to do the most simple of tasks. My current research involves
retyping source code because I think some of the issues in current CS
education revolve around the ability to copy and paste everything. Even now,
when I'm debugging my CentOS systems, I make an effort to type out the
commands I find in StackOverflow. Otherwise, how will I ever learn how to
extract a tar file?

------
goo
From my notes file about "decisions":

"You've got to keep making decisions, even if they're wrong decisions. If you
don't make decisions you're stuffed" \- Joe Simpson, (Touching the Void)

Making a good decision quickly is often better than any other option --
waiting too long may make all options worse.

Make decisions based on clear goals, and attempt to record the reason for
making a decision at the time of decisionmaking

Always consider opportunity cost.

Always take individual incentives into account.

Be open-minded, give ample room to disprove your preconceptions.

Take into account your cognitive biases when you can, and reduce them as much
as possible \- loss aversion \- sunk cost \- inclination to maintain status
quo \- avoiding ambiguous options \- tendency to do things based on many
others doing the same

Consider others' feelings, and how their feelings will affect you and others.

Do not assume optimal future behavior of participants, especially yourself. \-
do not overcommit your future time.

Do not assume poor future behavior of participants, especially yourself \-
especially when depressed, it is easy to be pessimistic about your future
behavior

Do not seek information when it will not affect action

Avoid over-relying on familiar tools and methods \- consider and value
alternate approaches \- "If all you have is a hammer..."

Avoid overconfidence

Just because someone is in conflict with you doesn't mean their idea isn't
good

Do not give disproportionate weight to trivial issues: \- "bikeshedding"

Orient towards reality \- establish a baseline understand of reality before
moving toward solutions

Learn, THEN decide. \- am I done learning? \- have I learned enough to make a
decision?

Consider postponing decisions until the last possible moment \- at which point
you will have the most information with which to make the decision

Consider doing the simplest thing that could possibly work

When encountering hard problems, dissolve them into smaller pieces and
identify the success criteria, immediately, before trying to generate
solutions.

------
dpflan
I think consciously deciding to take deep, controlled breaths is a good
technique for resetting and calming your brain - especially when overcome with
emotion that influences your decision-making. Perhaps not exactly what you're
asking for, but it could be a "decorator" for the "functions" you are asking
for/abount and those that other HN'ers are providing.

------
rayraegah
I depend on philosophy for a lot of things but the one "hack" if you want to
call it that has helped me the most (universally) is this

"When you're alone you should call this condition tranquility and freedom, and
think of yourself like the gods; and when you are with many, you shouldn't
call it a crowd, or trouble, or uneasiness, but festival and company, and
contentedly accept it."

-Epictetus

------
rptr_87
Don't just bookmark a useful link ... finish reading it.

Unless you finish reading it you will never ever read it again.

Boomark it only if it's relevant and good content.

------
theturtletalks
What always helps me move on from bad decisions is thinking of it like paying
for a lesson. If I make a bad decision and it costs me $2000, that lesson cost
me $2000. This ensures that I will learn from it and not make it again since
the cost was so high. Personally, this helps me not dwell on bad decisions too
much as long as I learn and adapt from it. It keeps me looking forward.

~~~
techsin101
Bruhh... This!

------
kamaal
Listening. Looking at people, with chin down. Agreeing. Letting the other
person do all the talking. Never disagree, people don't need convincing.
Always smile, even if you wish to carry a dagger in the other hand, hiding it
in your back. Appreciate. Suffer fools gladly.

There are several others. For more information read the works for Robert
Greene, Machiavelli, Balthazar Gracian and others.

------
noobiemcfoob
If I'm feeling stressed or at all emotional, I mentally list how solid my
sources of shelter, food and love. No matter how bad the meeting or argument
or whatever, if I have (and will continue to have) a roof, a future meal, love
(from pets or people), then whatever stress I'm feeling can't be all that bad.

/Doesn't work on legitimate existential threats

------
barrow-rider
Opportunity Cost. Anytime there is a purchase, use of time, etc. I try to
imagine what else I could do with that resource. Usually this is measured in
cheeseburgers or beer or months of server colo costs, time spent on Skyrim
quests, etc.

It's been very effective at forcing me to look at stuff I'm marginally
interested in vs. focusing on things that I really want.

------
enkiv2
Debugging by abductive reasoning: imagine possible classes of mistake that
might explain the behavior, then invent experiments designed to eliminate each
entire class as an explanation. If a class of explanation cannot be
eliminated, drill down. Often a bug is actually multiple unrelated bugs that
manifest in the same way, because the universe is a shitshow.

------
jtwaleson
When I have to pick between good enough alternatives, and more information to
make a more informed decision is not readily available, I just pick a random
option as quickly as possible and don't look back.

This goes for peanut butter vs Nutella as well as React vs Vue for the next
big project. Momentum is important and decision fatigue is real.

------
AtHeartEngineer
I know this sounds a bit odd, but I yell at myself in my head, and not being
degrading. If, for example, I am on a run and I want to stop, I'll tell myself
"Fuck you atheartengineer, you are doing this". Most of the times it works,
sometimes I just end up annoying myself, but I've had decent luck with it.

------
xbryanx
There's a deceptively simple breathing exercise that helps me in almost any
moment of stress or important thinking. Just _observe_ my breathing. Don't try
to change it, just focus inward and notice what is happening as I breathe.
It's amazing how much this can calm my mind or focus my thoughts.

------
cxhandley
The concept of "software for your brain".

You choose the apps you want to use. You download them with practice by
developing skill.

Common ones I use are:

\- Scanning. Scan for good, bad or better, or whatever way you choose.

\- Clear. Write down everything, unload.

\- Other point of view.

There are unlimited ways to think. You just need to learn how to design/copy
and download it to your brain.

------
qwerty456127
The attention deconcentration technique developed by Oleg Bakhtiyarov is very
easy and efficient. I'm not sure if there are any good practical intros into
it available in any language but Russian though (those of you who understand
Russian an easily find some introductory videos on YouTube).

~~~
swah
Tell us more, no good links on youtube (English).

~~~
qwerty456127
Normally our attention is almost always concentrated. On something useful or
something useless (or harmful), consciously or unconsciously, attached to one
particular thing for longer or shorter but it usually is. Even while
daydreaming, dreaming or procrastinating, wandering ≠ deconcentrated. The clue
is to deconcentrate it so it would no more be a point but a line (generally
useless yet an important first step), a surface (good to read, observe a
dashboard or look for something) or the entire space around you (extremely
useful for drivers, great for general safety) and inside you (very important
for freedivers, also establishing a habit of sustaining this state of presence
and conscious awareness is a huge step in spiritual development). This has a
lot to do with Carlos Cataneda's Nagualism and with the Tibetan tradition of
Dzogchen[1].

I can hardly express the whole intro into the practice here, the actual intros
are about a hour long (e.g. this one[2] (in Russian)) and that's just intros,
but let me suggest trying a couple of simple exercises:

\---

1\. concentrate your attention on both sides of your vision field at the same
time.

2\. concentrate your attention on the whole perimeter of your vision field -
the four sides simultaneously.

3\. concentrate (= deconcentrate in this case) your attention on your whole
field of vision.

4\. try to maintain this state for some (whatever, avoid forcing yourself to
exercise for longer than you want so you won't start hating it, even a couple
of dozens of seconds is ok, it's not a kind of a meditation where you are
meant to sit still and do) time, practice every day (people are normally meant
to practice for about 1-3 months to master this but I've got it much faster
and you probably can do rather quickly to).

\---

If you wear contact lenses or can imagine wearing them try to focus your
vision and attention on their surface instead of a distant object. Once you
manage try to learn to focus on any given point in the air in front of you
like if there was very clean glass (I mean like in a window) and you were
trying to observe the glass rather than to watch through it. This may sound
easy and for many people it is, nevertheless many people never ever come up
with an idea to do this consciously.

\---

1\. Close your eyes.

2\. Visualize a green triangle (only ~5% of the people can't visualize).

3\. Visualize a red circle instead.

4\. Visualize a blue square instead.

5\. Choose another figure, e.g a circle, a triangle or a square of whatever a
colour. But now your task is not to visualize it but catch the moment of the
choice already done but no properties of the chosen object (including the
shape, the colour, the name on any language, possible tactile properties or
anything) imagined-perceived yet with your conscious perception-awareness-
attention. This exercise may require some dedication and practice to manage
with.

\---

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

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB5spSKlowA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB5spSKlowA)

------
estebandalelr
I use the "make distractions harder" method. For example, I log out of
facebook so when my mind wanders to it, I have to make an effort, and in that
action I regain control. I have my candies hidden behind a wall of healthy
food, so if I get up to get them, I can choose an apple first.

------
RankingMember
Rather than grinding away at a problem when stuck, get up, go to the bathroom,
get a drink, anything to pull you out of that non-flow situation. Even just
spacing out at the wall in front of the urinal while peeing for a moment will
sometimes bring clarity to the problem I'm facing.

------
EdSharkey
I had trouble dependably taking vitamins and meds, a low self worth thing.

I started saying "I love you" to myself each time I took them to reinforce to
myself that I am worth taking the time to do the needful. Saying that loving
thing to myself on a regular basis dramatically improved things.

------
dqpb
Assume you are wrong about whatever it is you are thinking. Assume everyone
else is wrong too. Double check, triple check, and when you think you have
reached fullest confidence, you should still only provisionally accept your
belief, knowing that you are still most likely wrong.

------
salmonet
With important decisions, I flip a coin. Then choose the decision I find
myself hoping the coin lands on

------
sidcool
Working out when I am feeling emotionally low. Talking to friends and family
when I am super stressed.

------
moretai
Be wary to follow any of these. These are people's owns. And some may say oh,
it's inspiration. be careful. You are looking for an authority to solve your
problems. This is just a gallery of others brain hacks. Understand your own
brain, and make your own hacks.

~~~
beat
Although maybe taking random HN advice isn't good, I don't think "Understand
your own brain and make your own hacks" is necessarily the best route, either.
Your brain isn't a special snowflake. It's subject to the same structural
issues as everyone else's brains - instincts, cultural biases, education, etc.

If you want to understand your own brain, it's _very_ important to study great
thinkers on the subject, both modern scientists and thinkers from the past
whose insights have survived the test of time. That doesn't mean you need to
commit to any one of them (especially when they are often at odds with one
another), but their insights are valuable.

------
arendtio
Don't jump to conclusions (early). Remember the story of the boy and the
horse: Maybe so, Maybe not. We’ll see. [1]

[1] First search result I found:
[http://www.drmarlo.com/?page_id=181](http://www.drmarlo.com/?page_id=181)

------
anoncake
I never go through a door without touching my keys. Must have saved me
hundreds in locksmith costs.

~~~
mrhappyunhappy
That sounds like it could develop into unhealthy behavior. Glad it works for
you though. Personally I do the 3 pocket pat down every time. Left, right,
back. Keys, phone, wallet. If either pocket is empty then something is
seriously wrong.

~~~
danellis
You should probably stop keeping your wallet in your back pocket, though. I
downgraded to a smaller one so I could keep it in my front pocket with my
phone.

~~~
mrhappyunhappy
I know it’s supposed to be bad for your back or posture or something rather
but it feels impossible to stop that habit.

~~~
danellis
I meant to avoid being pickpocketed! It's easy for someone to yank it out of
there. They can even replace it with folded paper to make you think it's still
there when you check.

------
carapace
If you want to hack your brain try Neuro-Linguistic Programming, it describes
the OS of the mind. A good book to get started is, "Get the Life You Want: The
Secrets to Quick and Lasting Life Change with Neuro-Linguistic Programming" by
Richard Bandler.

~~~
james_s_tayler
The only NLP book I ever found had an impact on my life was "Sleight of Mouth"
and it had a massive impact.

I learned the raw power of metaphor/analogy from that. Hands down that proved
to be the single biggest tool. There are like 12 patterns of speech if I
recall correctly in that book and about 4 of them are just insanely useful
tactics when you need them.

I think selectively chunking up/down was another quite effective one to steer
conversations.

Eliciting someone's heirarchy of values is also a super interesting and very
revealing technique. You can use that to get at what the actual objection to
something is. It's fairly easy to do too.

The 4th one I found applicable in daily life escapes me. But that whole book
is very practical.

------
cyptus
what instantly helps me to start working, is to put my headphones on and to
start music. i do always hear one kind of music while working (fast, no
vocals, e.g. goa). i think this setting helps my brain to understand "its time
to work".

------
wozmirek
"It will pass." \- a kind of a stoic saying of mine. Applies to both nice and
bad things, but mostly to bad things, especially to bad things that are
growing/happening sharply.

Nothing strong can last for a long time, so it will pass :)

------
bookofjoe
There are no bad decisions, only bad outcomes. Every decision is the best one
possible at the time. Recognizing this and, more important, believing it,
enables you to stop beating yourself up over how things turn out.

------
LanceH
You'll find yourself at a big company and the people up the ladder do what's
right for them. Because it's their time. Their time! Up there! Down here, it's
our time. It's our time down here.

------
plainOldText
I think I've read this on HN once, in one of the comments: Don't make an
important decision when you're in a HALT state (Hungry, Angry, Lonely or
Tired). Note: Not to confuse loneliness with solitude.

~~~
gnulinux
Why is lonely there?

~~~
plainOldText
Good question! Perhaps because loneliness points to the difficulty of reaching
out and the lack of other people who might give you a different perspective.

~~~
gnulinux
I don't know if this makes. I think we live in a culture that fetishizes
socialization. I've never decided on anything in my life with my friends, it
even feels weird to do. I think not deciding on anything while emotional (sad,
angry, happy, excited, frustrated etc) is a good idea, but ultimately a
decision should be taken when alone, I think.

~~~
plainOldText
> I think we live in a culture that fetishizes socialization.

My personal take is that it's important to strike a balance between
socializing with other people and solitude. Having said that, that balance
might vary according to the individual. And I would emphasize particularly the
socialization in the real world.

> [...] ultimately a decision should be taken when alone, I think.

I think I see what you're saying. I wouldn't take the A in HALT to be
absolute. I'm certainly not in favor of group think when involving one
individual's life. My interpretation is along the lines: _Hey, it 's an
important decision involving a very complex situation, perhaps I should ask
for a second opinion before I make up my mind._ I think the preparation prior
to the actual decision making, is part of the decision itself.

------
insickness
Stay off all news, social media and any distracting websites until noon.

~~~
RankingMember
This is super helpful and, at the same time, super difficult for me sometimes.
The internet is such a bit of brain candy that it's hard to resist,
particularly on mornings where there's a task waiting I really don't want to
do.

~~~
all2
I broke away from these things, in part, by asking myself "what am I achieving
here?" or "what is the value here?" After asking enough times, the urge to use
faded.

------
the_greyd
Thinking about the value of my time as (atleast) $50/hr. On average if I waste
20 hours per week, I lose $50000 per year. Which stops me from wasting it, and
being mindful about it.

------
shahbaby
OMAD : One meal a day

It's like getting an additional hour of free time everyday and is healthier
and often more convenient than the usual breakfast-lunch-dinner routine that
most follow.

------
zelias
When there's a bug I can't fix, I stop thinking "what should be happening" and
instead start asking "what IS happening"?

Really helps think through the process

------
drharby
Drink water, Do your cardio, Get sleep.

Not even joking.

If possible, reduce alcohol consumption

------
nikk1
I turn my phone off whenever I want to get anything done

~~~
superhuzza
I'd suggest going even further by placing your phone out of your reach:

[https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462)

~~~
Raphmedia
I log off from my apps and social networks. We used to do this all the time
before. Now that devices and apps are always on, it really messes with my
brain. I feel obligated to be present on those. Logging out calms me so much.

------
mandeepj
> If it doesn't matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn't matter
> now.

May I disagree? How this applies to time-sensitive matters?

------
bartcobain
I really fund useful the Artificial deadline approach. It goes well with the
Important/Urgent decision-making process.

------
hnuser355
When I began reading many works of the doctors of the church daily frankly my
worldview began to evolve and change quickly

------
gok2
Can anyone mesh these up together, shorten then share in a tweet storm or
spreadsheet? The wisdom here is incredible

------
MichaelMoser123
i take my own food to work; this makes lunch time shorter and less distracting
for me. Also eating out may not be the most healthy thing to do, you never
know what stuff they put into the food and how they process it. (also cooking
is fun, not too complicated and a very rewarding activity)

------
ssvss
I try to internalize the Advaitic/Vedanta concept of I am not the body/mind.

------
95
Adderall, a japanese to-do list notebook and a physical pomodoro timer

------
wpmoradi
Super informative! Thank you for starting this discussion.

------
andrei_says_
I focus on the body, breathing, omnidirectional attention.

~~~
kilimchoi
hey i want to ask you about email builder with version control. What would be
the best way to reach out to you?

~~~
andrei_says_
aaandre@gmail.com

I’m about to start on v.2, would love to talk.

------
luxcem
Pen and paper are always useful.

------
godelski
So I guess the term "brain hacks" is pretty vague, but here's some strategies
that I've developed that really help me get through work and grad school. A
lot of these come down to taking advantage of your subconscious mind and
making sure it can work effectively.

1) Time manage. TIME MANGE! There's always time, you just have to make it. I'm
having a hard time buying the "here's three options, pick two" thing that
people frequently say, especially in grad school. You can get work done,
sleep, and have a social life. Granted, I'm working a lot more than 40hrs a
week, but there's still time for all three.

2) Know when to walk away, but also when to come back. When you're really
stuck on a problem the best thing I've found is to just walk away from it. Do
something else. Let your subconscious mind work on it. (great time to
socialize, go on a walk, exercise, whatever) But the thing people frequently
struggle with this is that you have to actually come back to the problem. I'm
a big fan on spaced repetition and spaced learning. I believe this "spaced"
aspect also applies to working. Your subconscious is pretty powerful, use it
to your advantage. (pro tip: You can also effectively "multi-task" this way
too. But that's harder and I suggest keeping it for crunch time)

3) Be healthy, mentally and physically. If you use any type of tools, you know
that you have to take care of them. If the tool you're using the most if your
brain, well you have to make sure it is in tip top shape too. Constantly work
your brain by expanding your knowledge base. Learn things that aren't in your
expertise (this is actually really important!). Make sure you are mentally
healthy. Have good relationships with friends (even if you're introverted,
this is very important. You need to be able to vent sometimes). And keep
physically healthy. You don't need to be swol, just take walks, ride a bike,
or whatever you enjoy. Something physical.

4) If you are multi-lingual, deconstruct a problem in a different language (If
you're not, see #3). If you know different programming languages (if you
don't, see #3), pseudo code the problem in that other PL. Try to solve
problems from multiple different angles. You have various "personalities", see
how they would solve the problem differently (personalities in how you process
thought differently in different moods or with different people).

5) Use the Feynman Methods or the Rubber Ducky method. Being able to explain
your problems is a great way to solve it. This can be embarrassing at first
because if you use a person as a sounding board it can end up like: _walks
into room_ "Hey, I have this problem" _explain. WITH DETAIL and exactly where
it is going wrong_ "Oh!" _rushes out of room_. If you can find a good
colleague to use as a soundboard, use them. Someone that asks a lot of
questions. Additionally, when you are learning something, always try to
pretend you have to teach it to someone. It'll naturally make you think of
edge cases and you have to be more eloquent in how you describe things. You
can also mentor junior staff, then both of you benefit.

6) Write things down. Use a calendar. Use task lists. I place lots of events
and things into my calendar and just the act of writing it down forces me to
remember. I enter items into task lists and I'll usually remember. But if I
don't, I have a reference. This is a great way to ensure those fleeting
thoughts don't get lost. And when studying (which you should always be doing,
see #3), I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend using pen and paper. It slows you
down, and that's the point, see #7.

7) Slow down. Do things the hard way. Be mindful when you do things. Be
involved. Your mind needs time to process things and push it into your memory.
You have a stack, some RAM, and a hard drive (with multiple layers of
efficiency). (if you have a problem with this: it is called an analogy. It
isn't supposed to be 100% accurate) If you never move things from the stack
then they are lost really quickly, and the stack can't hold much. Your RAM can
hold more information, but again this can be lost. Slowing down and being
thoughtful about what you're doing and thinking about will allow your
conscious and subconscious mind work on the same task (if you have a hard time
staying focused, meditate and see #2. I struggle with this too.)

------
adrianmonk
_1\. The strawman proposal._

Suppose a decision needs to be made, and it might not be clear which option is
best, due to limited information, trade-offs, different preferences, etc.
Solutions A, B, and C are possible. You schedule a meeting, and a lot of time
is used up going around in circles because there is no compelling reason why
one is better than another.

The hack is to tweak how the meeting agenda is framed. The agenda is no longer
to pick a solution. Instead, you pre-select one somewhat arbitrarily, and you
call it the strawman proposal. The meeting agenda becomes unseating it with a
better one.

Maybe you start with A and everyone quickly agrees that B is better. From
there, you can't decide whether or not C is better than B, but people walk
away with a feeling that voices were heard and there is some rationality to
how the decision was made. Or maybe you start with A and nobody can convince
anybody that B or C is necessarily better. People walk away with acceptance of
the idea that it's somewhat arbitrary and further discussion would have no
benefit.

In either case, it's easier to achieve consensus about whether you have
unseated a proposal than it is to achieve consensus about converging on one.

I definitely don't recommend using this to sneak through your personal
favorite option unless you want to burn through goodwill.

 _2\. Consider doing your most dreaded to-do item first._

The obvious way to decide which task to tackle next is to do it based on
importance. Instead, sometimes it's useful to do the scariest or most
unpleasant one first.

The stress of knowing it's still on there can distract you and make you less
productive while you work on the other things. By the same token, once you
have faced it, you will feel energized, which will probably translate to
increased productivity in other things.

Also, if the task is so dreaded that you have some doubt whether you'll do it
at all, leaving it to linger can create feelings of guilt or discouragement.
Even if there are legitimate reasons it shouldn't be the very first thing you
do, it's too easy to feel you're doing it later because you aren't ready to
face it.

Obviously you can take this too far. Don't make your to-do list entirely about
catering to your emotional state. Being able to put aside worry is also a good
thing.

 _3\. With habits that require discipline, define success as being committed
to getting back on the horse._

You want to stick to an exercise plan, floss your teeth, be more considerate,
etc. So you start doing it but then you get out of the habit. Now you feel
like you've failed because your goal was to do X every day but you didn't.

So instead, make doing X every day one of your goals, but don't consider it
true failure if you don't achieve it. It should be a very high priority, of
course, but the only actual failure is wavering in your commitment to start up
X again if you get out of the habit.

------
buboard
Shower

------
koonsolo
sleep

------
aviv
Dry fasting for minimum of (7) 24-hour days per month (not necessarily
consecutive days, but it does happen often like that) and eating only organic
raw fruits and veggies, and drinking no water at all even on non-fasting days
(or other liquids for that matter) - I get all the water I need from the food
I consume. Stand-alone water intake is not for humans. Wake up with the sun.

------
coleifer
Meditation and prayer. Meditation on compassion has been the most
transformative.

