
Procrastination should be solved by lighting fires, not filling buckets - visakanv
http://www.visakanv.com/blog/2013/09/0086-productivity-apps-fill-buckets-when-they-should-be-lighting-fires/
======
moron4hire
I have found all of my procrastination to stem from lacking a certain degree
of knowledge of how to perform the task that I'm procrastinating. When I don't
know how to do something or I don't know how long it will take, then I don't
know where it fits into my schedule, so I never fit it into my schedule. Most
of the time, I grossly over estimate how long something will take, i.e. "all
day" when it's probably only a 15 minute issue.

Of course, there is the opposite issue of grossly underestimating the problem.
I've had "close old checking account" on my todo list for well over a two
months now. I thought it would take 15 minutes to just call them, maybe scan a
signature or something, and be done. They actually want me to come into the
office, which is over 3 hours away (hence this issue of wanting to close the
account). It is experiences like that that help to keep the gross-
overestimation/procrastination game in business.

How do I fix it? I choose a day where I decide I will be fine if the only
thing I get done is I find out how long it will take to get one thing done.
Usually it's not that bad, though. I usually end up getting a whole slew of
things done. But being OK with not getting anything officially done for a day
helps me to kill the procrastination cycle.

~~~
_mulder_
This is exactly right, for me at least.

Sometimes its easy to know what is required, and probably guess at how long it
will take (15mins or 1 day), usually because you've seen other people do it
this quick. But if you don't know how to do it, and even worse, don't know
where to start to learn it (which book to read, which course to take, who to
ask) you can end up sitting about doing nothing but getting frustrated.

A great example is Linux. You know a task is easy (like creating an automated
backup), but you can't just go and do it. You need to read up on it, you need
to learn CRON and how it works, you've then got to read up on the subtle
differences of your linux distro vs the one in the tutorial. You then need to
read up on chmod or sudo to change the permissions, etc., etc.

Point is, it's an easy task once you know how, but when you don't know how,
all you see is a huge mountain of learning you have to do to achieve it. And
to make matters worse, sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Why spend
all day reading up on Linux just to copy some files?

End result... I'll do it tomorrow

~~~
arh68
> _You know a task is easy (like creating an automated backup), but you can 't
> just go and do it._

Even worse is when the todo is to also _make a decision_. I need to automate
backups to a new NAS. Do I install Linux? FreeBSD? FreeNAS? RedHat? Good old
debian-stable? I should definitely explore all decision branches, in full
detail, to make the best choice. _open in new tab, open in new tab_

But I have no idea how long that would take. I can't even set aside 15 min (or
45) to determine how long it will take. It's incomputable. It's either dive
headfirst and hope to come out with a working solution, or put it off another
week (and hope some howto pops up on ars).

~~~
moron4hire
This is why it's important to have days where I'm okay with not getting
anything moved to "complete".

------
jasonlotito
This is just a friendly reminder that if you would describe yourself as a
procrastinator, it might be something more. If you've always been one, if you
want to do things, but can never do it, it could be a sign.

ADHD is a real problem, and has real solutions (and those solutions aren't all
addictive).

If you feel like you are always running behind, always trying to catch up. If
anyone says you are a great developer, but that you're always playing catch
up, get checked. It can help change your life for the positive.

~~~
visakanv
I think I do exhibit ADHD symptoms, but I don't think I have it, or if I do, I
don't have it bad. I can get a little dramatic in my writing. I have been able
to make some progress on some fronts, I'm just easily dissatisfied.

Thank you so much for your concern, though. What are the solutions you're
talking about? Do you mean medication? I think I'll give myself a few months
to try and work things out myself (I think it's really just very, very bad
habits entrenched throughout my adolescent years that I have to unlearn).

~~~
jasonlotito
I have ADHD and OCD, diagnosed earlier this year. I've had it for as long as I
can remember. I first remember being tested in when I was about 10. I'm 33
now.

For solutions, I see a therapist to work through my OCD, and I take medication
for my ADHD. It makes a difference. I notice it on days I happen to forget and
don't have backup.

I never thought medication could make such a big difference, but it does. The
idea of sitting down and just getting stuff done is amazing.

Anyways, the point of posting was to share. I was 33 when I got tested, and I
wasn't get tested for ADHD! I'm not here to diagnose people, or to suggest you
are doing things wrong. Rather, I just want to make it clear that you can get
tested, and it might surprise you. It did for me. For far too long I saw all
these posts on "how to get things done." I read GTD, followed all sorts of
advice. Tried different strategies. Practiced pomodoro. Nothing worked.

I thought I was just lazy. Unmotivated. This resulted in a lot of repressed
hatred for myself and my perceived failures. I still have a difficult time
accepting success and compliments. I focus on the negative, and dismiss the
positive as a fluke. Note, these are all relative to myself. In others, I see
the best. When I congratulate someone, I really mean it. In myself? I was just
lucky.

Anyways:

> I think I do exhibit ADHD symptoms, but I don't think I have it, or if I do,
> I don't have it bad.

I thought it was shameful that I was getting tested at all. I've lead a good
life, I've been lucky, I've worked hard, and I've been successful. I thought I
was being egotistical getting tested. Once I found out I had ADHD and OCD, and
had to get over the idea that I was just a whining successful white guy. After
all, who am _I_ to complain about my situation when others have it so much
worse off.

If you have it, you have it. Better to know about it and take the necessary
steps to do something rather than dismiss it as a minor problem. Minor
problems can add complexity, and they are still problems.

~~~
addthrowaway
Do you find that your creativity is stifled, or that your personality is very
subdued because of the meds? Do you take weekends off the meds to be yourself?
Or maybe one or two workdays off for creative stuff, and three days on for
"nose to the grindstone" type work?

I haven't been medicated for years, but I'm struggling and thinking about
looking into it again. I remember feeling like on meds I was an alternate
personality - a different version of myself that I never felt comfortable as.

I keep thinking some of the advantages of ADD will give me an edge if I can
just buckle down and get some real work done, but this has been going on for a
while with far too little progress.

~~~
jasonlotito
> Do you find that your creativity is stifled, or that your personality is
> very subdued because of the meds?

Not at all. I am still me.

> Do you take weekends off the meds to be yourself?

No. I can be myself and still take the medication.

> I remember feeling like on meds I was an alternate personality - a different
> version of myself that I never felt comfortable as.

There are different types of medications. The only side effects I've
experienced is less of an appetite and my mouth feels more dry than usual. I
drink more water as a result. If the medication changes you, there are other
kinds you can try. As I mentioned, I take medication that is not addictive
(adderall is addictive, for example, and must be carefully monitored).

> if I can just buckle down and get some real work done

I remember that feeling before I knew what I had. I remember the drives into
work, feeling excited about what I had waiting for me, and thinking over the
problems. But when it came time to actually do it, I'd get easily distracted,
and by the end of the day, have nothing to show for it.

~~~
addthrowaway
Would you mind sharing the medication you're using? I've been prescribed
various dosages/releases of both Ritalin and Adderall, and they both affected
me in the same way.

By the way, thanks for your posts here - they've been helpful.

~~~
jasonlotito
Sure. Strattera.

[http://www.strattera.com](http://www.strattera.com)

And yes, both Ritalin and Adderall both made me nervous because of what I'd
heard.

~~~
Sindisil
Glad to hear you only have minimal side effects from the Strattera.

I tried it for a while several years ago, and, while it worked wonderfully
(first period of my life where I actually had any reliable sense of time!),
the side effects I had were unacceptable.

The mild dizziness, occasional headaches, and minor dry mouth were not a
problem, but the main side effect was ... more troubling. Let's just say that,
while the Strattera enhanced performance in some areas, it degraded
performance in others.

Still, I heartily recommend those diagnosed with ADD or ADHD to give Strattera
a try. Side effects went away within a week or so of discontinuing the drug,
so no real risk.

~~~
throwaway_anon
How long did it take for you to notice the effect of Strattera on your sense
of time? Did you notice it right away or should one wait a few weeks?

I have non existent concept of time, so this might help.

------
tehwalrus
I just set up a bunch of IFTTT recipes to trigger when random stocks go
up/down by 1% in a day, and then get it to push-notification me a question
like "what are you doing right now?"

I should only get one every couple of days they way I configured it (I think,)
so perhaps requires more stocks. I wrote a different question onto each one,
so I could easily get different reminders on the same day.

If anyone else knows a better randomness generator for IFTTT (I couldn't seem
to use "someone followed me on twitter" as a trigger...) then pipe up!

~~~
gallamine
I have a Python script that runs on my home computer. It runs on a 1 minute
chron job and randomly sends a text message (via Verizon's
phonenumber@vzwtext.com address) to my phone to check what I'm working on. The
difficulty is that this system (on Verizon's end) seems a bit unreliable. I've
been thinking about putting together an iOS app to send random push
notifications to check what I'm working on. Would there be interest from
others in this?

I also have it set up so when I reply to the text message it logs it into a
spreadsheet. My plan was to do some machine learning on my productivity.
Haven't gotten around to that part yet though.

~~~
tehwalrus
IFTTT can send texts, and also works with the Pushover[1] app (not free) which
collates push notifications like this. You can also send it notifications
yourself programmatically - check out their API to see if you can link it up
to your python script.

You might want to check out iDoneThis[2], which send you an email at the end
of the day asking what you did. (I used it for about a month and then gave up,
and it's less random, but it does log your responses.)

[1] [https://pushover.net/](https://pushover.net/) (links to both iOS and Play
stores.) [2] [https://idonethis.com/](https://idonethis.com/)

------
NoodleIncident
Yesterday, I happened to come across a particularly inspiring reddit post
about about determination and drive. Objectively it's rather silly, but I left
that window open anfd got to work.

No less than five times that day, I switched over to my time-wasting site
'work'space to procrastinate, saw the post, and decided to keep working
instead.

I got a lot more done yesterday than I had planned on. I think that there's
definitely something real here.

~~~
mih
You got me curious. Could you please post the link?

~~~
NoodleIncident
[http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1ndbx1/what_can_a...](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1ndbx1/what_can_a_21_year_old_do_now_that_will_help/cchkybp)

------
boldpanda
Hey visakanv,

If I can show you a viable solution today will you pay me $100 as you claim in
your blog post? I have a viable solution for you, but I bet you won't pay.

1 - Sign up for Gmail. It's free.

2 - Open Google Calendar.

3 - Click Create

4 - Add your motivational prompt in the 'Untitle event' field. For example,
the one I'm using is "Ryan, you will die someday. Are you doing exactly what
you should be doing right now to reach your goals before you die?

5 - Click the Repeat text box and set it to repeat Daily

6 - Set one pop up reminder and one email reminder.

7 - Click save.

8- Rinse and repeat for every motivational firestarting prompt you need.

9 - send paypal of $100 to ry8881@gmail.com

Good luck, -ryan

~~~
bentcorner
The problem with this (and similar things like the "what did you do today?"
emails) is that you eventually start filtering them out and ignoring them.

I'm a bad procrastinator, my bad habits have trained me to crave novelty in a
bad way.

~~~
goshx
I thought about the same thing. Maybe the "solution" is to make something that
behaves differently every day, so you are always caught by surprise and can't
ignore it.

~~~
derefr
An AI-complete motivational prompter... I think, for writers, these are known
as "agents" ;)

~~~
ithkuil
Some people are unlucky enough to have such AI-complete entities, usually they
call them "boss".

~~~
derefr
Well, in the analogy, this is a motivational service you're paying for. Agents
are also, partially, a motivational service you're paying for. Bosses, on the
other hand, provide a motivational service because they're paying _you_ , and
are incentivized to try to get their money's worth. (Then again, you _could_
structure things so that workers are at the top of the corporate hierarchy,
and have hiring/firing power over people they get to manage them... but not
even co-ops tend to do this, and I'm not sure why.)

~~~
lsc
>Then again, you could structure things so that workers are at the top of the
corporate hierarchy, and have hiring/firing power over people they get to
manage them... but not even co-ops tend to do this, and I'm not sure why.

I... have wanted to do this. I have not, in part because I can't afford
someone with middle-management experience, and in part because I don't have
the middle-management experience required to tell if someone is good at
middle-management.

We've had many discussions about this within the company. My buddy suggested a
'babysitter' while my dad suggested a 'mom'

But yeah, that's the thing... middle-management can be effective as 'chair
kickers' \- Hey, Luke, get back to work. but... I think that middle management
generally gets in the way when it comes to decision making... and there's no
way I'm letting a non-technical hire (or fire) technical people.

Now, other people have said that what you are proposing is common in the
business world; they are called secretaries. But... I think that's a different
dynamic. As the other comment said, "more like an olympic coach" \- I don't
want someone to make me more comfortable... I want someone to push me. I mean,
especially when I hire people who aren't good friends already? there's a
problem. They don't want to say bad things to me about my behavior. They'll
criticize other employees, but not me. I mean, I'm sure it's a problem that
can be overcome.

Of course, I know other people who just don't need external guidance. There
really isn't any need for middle management with those folks... they just do
it. For those people? Management is largely unnecessary. Unfortunately, I seem
to be in the majority here; I get a lot more done under a manager, usually;
though personality-wise, like many technical people, I chafe but hard when
someone I see as less technically capable than myself tells me what to do.
It's a problem I need to solve... or I need to start working for other people
again. You can only coast on the strengths of your hires for so long
(especially if you can't pay enough to /keep/ those hires for that long.)

Actually, thinking about this, I think I might actually institute a 'person X
is middle manager for day Y on department Z' policy with people I have now,
where X isn't a particularly senior person.

------
shadeless
It sounds to me like you may have ADHD. Dr. Russell Barkley mentions in one of
his speeches[1] that frequent prompts are one effective way to keep someone
with ADHD accountable and on track. You may want to watch this shorter
version[2] and see if you recognize yourself (that's doesn't proof anything of
course, but it's a start).

[1]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQu-
OPrzUc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUQu-OPrzUc)

[2]:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyDliT0GZpE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyDliT0GZpE)

~~~
visakanv
Interesting! Totally going to check them out.

There's a quote I saw on Tumblr once- "Before diagnosing yourself as
depressed, make sure that you aren't, in fact, surrounded by assholes."
Similarly, I think a lot of my ADHD tendencies (I really don't want to call
them that- feels like I'm shitting on people with actual ADHD) come from the
fact that I've spent a lot of time in an education system I hate.

But I have no idea, of course. Maybe there's something to all this. I don't
think it's so black-and-white. Will check it out. Thanks for sharing. :)

------
saturdaysaint
Interesting concept. Once I worked with a really talented/accomplished
designer and he said something that's stuck, with me while we were working at
something that felt like it could go on interminably: "What would I do if I
had to finish this today?"

~~~
visakanv
Yep, I think that's a great way to get over the fear of shipping imperfect
stuff.

Procrastination and perfectionism are very tied together for me- it's largely
a fear of failure. To be more precise, it's a structural, habitual, systemic
underestimation of how it's better to fail a little bit every day than to
"fail by default" (as JK Rowling beautifully put it) because you never try at
all.

I see a lot of parallels between this and smoking, or any other unhealthy,
damaging habit- an inability to grok, at a very visceral level, how small
things add up to big ones.

The only way to learn is to stick to it, and anything that helps me/you stick
to it is worth trying, I think.

~~~
Tzunamitom
This. I've recently had some successes with an app called "Way of Life" on the
iPhone (or its Android equivalent, Hab.it). It's half way between the bucket
filling an fire lighting methods, but it's so quick and easy to use, I've
actually managed to use it for 6 weeks now. I realise that doesn't sound like
a lot, but this is coming from someone who can write a diary for 3 days max
and to-do lists last a week or so.

The idea is that you put in a behaviour and tell the app whether it is bad or
good, and then every evening you spend 10 seconds telling the app whether you
did it or not. Very soon you have a red or green patchwork of your life's
choices to stare at on a daily basis.

The bad: I've been pretty honest so my results aren't great (about 60:40 green
to red).

The good: I've had many occasions where I'm at the tipping point of doing or
not doing something and thinking about getting that green square for the day
has nudged me to do the right thing. Which I figure means it's worth it.

Since buying the app, I've lost a few kilos, been to the gym twice as often,
reduced my computer games usage, almost stopped biting my nails, and cut out
90% of the fizzy drinks in my diet. Stopping eating chocolate seems to be a
persistent problem though...

------
kriro
Recommending some resource on procrastination usually leads to more
procrastination (reading said resource but doing nothing :P) but at the risk
of causing that I can highly recommend the book "Switch!"

The authors use the metaphor of an elephant and a rider and at least for me I
usually motivated the rider but the elephant wasn't trotting along. I suspect
the OP is not looking for "constant reminders" etc. but rather for some
peanuts to feed his inner elephant :)

~~~
visakanv
I've read the book before (the Heath brothers are just awesome), and the I do
find the metaphors very helpful.

The problem is, I'm a very different person when I'm motivated and when I'm
not. I can be the most motivated person after a good conversation with a
friend, or a great experience, but I have difficulty maintaining that on a
day-to-day basis. I don't feel that this reduces the "quality" of my
motivation at all.

This is very pathological for me, and it bleeds into my personal life. I'm bad
at keeping appointments, etc. Does that mean I don't care about the people in
my life? I don't think so. I think I'm just incompetent, and I need a lot of
learning and practice when it comes to being competent, and raw willpower and
vague structures haven't helped.

I think I need some sort of structure or prosthetic that I can't ask of any
other person (unless I hired a personal assistant to bug me 24/7, which I
wouldn't be able to afford). I'm sure there are other people out there who
could use such prosthesis, too. In the long run the goal would be to wean
myself off of it, but I think I definitely could use help of some sort.

------
pantalaimon
I think such prompts would only work for a short while and thereafter they'd
just serve the purpose of making me feel miserable.

~~~
visakanv
I think prompts with "hey, don't forget your dreams!" won't work long, but I
think prompts like "Why are you doing this? What is your goal?" etc that force
you to respond (and it should track your responses, so you can read your older
responses) will quickly force you to come clean with what your real goals are.
well- that's my hypothesis.

Won't know until I get to try it out myself. It's kind of like having a
commitment buddy, only you don't feel like you're imposing on someone as much

------
visakanv
Several people have been asking me if I'm serious about the $100! Wasn't
expecting this to catch on, but here's what I'm going to do- I'm going to try
out every solution that people send or suggest, and I'll document it in my
blog, and I'll paypal the $100 to whomever's solution works best for me. :-)

~~~
super-serial
I'll take your challenge. Does a Chrome extension work for you?

I am going to add this feature to a new version of my Productivity Owl:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/productivity-
owl/e...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/productivity-
owl/eoagmdboiealblmpaahjlhajggndaahi)

Even if a Chrome Extension isn't what you're looking for - thanks for this
idea. The way my owl works is that you schedule freetime, and during non-
freetime all pages have a timer, and when the timer reaches 0, the owl closes
your tab. It also has a block list for time-wasting pages like reddit or HN.

Lately my problem is that I delete the owl's timer, or schedule freetime when
I shouldn't to avoid doing work. I was going to implement a "Respect Score"
which I'm still planning on doing - but I really like the idea of the owl
recognizing my 'workarounds', and prompting me with questions about my goals,
instead of just berating me. Maybe I'll let users add their own prompts.

So I think your idea is a perfect addition to my current system. I plan to
have a new version in 2-3 weeks.

~~~
istari
I have the same experience as you and the author. Chrome extensions with
timers such as StayFocusd have not worked for me. I just disable it or use
firefox or something.

What if the user had to enter a predetermined answer to the question prompt in
order to continue? By making the user actually type something that they
themselves chose the prompt becomes more powerful.

------
thomaslangston
Echoing what others here have said, I found professional ADD or ADHD diagnosis
and treatment to be helpful.

As far as a repeating reminder/logging system, I glued together a Google
calendar with multiple daily repeating events separated at 30 minute intervals
and 5 minute SMS reminders. This gives me an automated Pomodoro clock as well
as a place for prompts.

I've pushed this farther by setting the calendar event titles as bit.ly links
to a Google Docs form backed by a Google Docs spreadsheet. The form has a
single radio button form question letting me log what I'm doing at the end of
my sprint.

I have not tried to use this to improve my behavior yet, but I do now have a
decent log of activity to use as a baseline when I try something new and want
to measure it's effectiveness.

------
phr4ts
Answer number one

Would you waste time while your boss watches you?

Get someone who would sit by you while you work. I convinced a friend to sit
by me for 45 minutes everyday while I write a story. The friend does not write
a word, I do all the writing and it’s been a about 3 weeks now and the book is
about 15k words already. Use this technique on one task at a time.

Answer Number two

Commitment contracts - get the book carrots and sticks. The most useful part
is in the first section. It’s simple. Get a friend, your wife or anyone who
you can trust with money. It worked for me in completing and editing a book
I've been skipping for months.

I stay at Ghana and i’m a student with a monthly allowance about $100. I had
about $100 in savings but used $50 from my savings in betting.

On Monday, I give 5 - $10 notes to a trustworthy friend. I chose the work I
have to complete before the next morning. If I do it, she gives me back $10
from the $50. If not, she keeps the $10. It’s simple it’s worked for me.

Got the idea from the book carrots and sticks but from my explanation, you’ve
gotten the fire you want. What better thing to light your ass on fire than the
prospect of losing your own money?

------
jumpman222
The app I've been developing may help you with your procrastination, and light
that fire that you need.

It merges two ideas. One is that you need to get things done on your to-do
list. This is incredibly hard for us procrastinators. So, similar to a
personal trainer you would have at the gym to help you exercise, I created a
virtual personal trainer to help you work on your to-do list. He prompts you
with what you need to do, and then you do it.

The second idea is that you need to feed your craving for interesting and
inspiring web content. To help with this craving, the virtual personal trainer
allows you to see productive and beneficial web content as a sort of break
from your current work session. You get to gain knowledge while
procrastinating. I call the idea "to procrastigain".

You can check out the demo at
[http://procrastigain.com/](http://procrastigain.com/). Let me know if it is
useful to you at all, or if you can think of anything that would make it
better for you.

------
nabnob
I don't think you need an app for this at all.

What I've started doing is just printing a calendar and writing down whatever
I've accomplished that day - sort of a reverse to-do list.

Looking at whatever I did yesterday reminds me of how I felt after finishing
those tasks, and looking at blank spots does make me feel guilty (but not
quite as overwhelmed as looking at a long to-do list).

------
gima
My thoughts on procrastination and activation by fire. "Prompts affect
thought" yes, but the context was social.

I wouldn't give a rat's ass when faced with a disconnected prompt forcing me
to acknownledge the fact that I was browsing funny cat videos for the last two
hours. Maybe that little "see, you're doing it again!" bump works for someone,
but not for me. If those activities were to be made public. Well, that would
probably have a totally different effect on me. After all, who want's to be
seen as lazy?

    
    
      * Fear of letting others know that I was actually doing: nothing.
      * The feeling when receiving recognition from things accomplished.
    

Peer pressure + x would be my recipe. I'd like to know x, though. Maybe build
an app that somehow connects what you /really/ did, every day, to your social
circles. Be it online or wherever. Let the other's light a fire under your
tail :)

-pro. c.

~~~
gima
I was thinking about why I'm here, reading this "was it not for the content",
overly-long and boring thread:

I gain something from these posts, as these are experiences of real people.
Why is any procrastinator here, reading, rather than doing something that
should be done? Why do certain news titles or content seem more interesting
than others. I skimmed some titles and noticed that some words grabbed my
attention more than others. Thinking on these words let me remember exciting
things that I had done before. They have a strong (emotional) fingerprint in
my memory. But then again, why did I do those things in the first place? Maybe
they were brought out in a setting that already made me feel good, and thus
there was no friction sliding in to the work that, in turn, left me with the
memory.

Could these prehaps be combined to something resembling self-triggered strong
drive to accomplish a task?

I don't know. Maybe this is stupid and obvious, but I though to share, maybe
it'll spark something.

------
BWStearns
One thing might be fun to make (a little beyond me at the moment) is an app
where you upload some Rspec (or other testing solution) test that will run
every X hours, and you CANNOT shut it off. If the test fails it sends to your
mobile phone and email address the test results. The only way to get the
messaging to stop is to get the test to pass.

Thoughts?

------
pauletienney
I guess the key point is "I would pay 100$ a month for a helping app". I think
you might not have enough constraints. A financiel constraint is a great
motivation.

I have been a freelancer for 4 years. The first year, the excitment of this
new activity was enough to motivate me. After this time I slowly became lazy
(syn. for procrastinator). I was losing money and felt to a point where my
bank account was almost at zero. This financial constraint sent me a huge kick
in the butt. I stopped home-working, rented an office and (re)started to work
for real. Two years after this episode everything is fine. I am still in a
nice office and ready to hire my first employee.

In your case, I would say you need either bigger constraints or a challenge
that drives real passion.

~~~
visakanv
I'm not rich or anything, I'm married with a stay-at-home wife, I'm paying for
a house, I'm building my savings, etc. But I do think $100/month is worth it
because I don't think I'm using even 10-20% of my max potential, and the value
I could create if I were more productive would be more than that. I do have an
interesting challenge at work that I think I'm about to really break open...

god I realize how cheesy this sounds. There's really no way to talk about
this, talk is very, very cheap in this regard. But thank you so much for your
perspective and advice, I will incorporate it into my own persctive best as I
can.

~~~
pauletienney
I am sorry if i missed the point. Maybe try a mixed approach.

\- Baby steps : define a realistic goal for a day (even it needs only 30 min.
to achieve) and just make it. The next day take a bit more important goal. One
goal a day. Just one. But every __* day.

\- Leverage the shame : make sure your screen is visible by everybody in your
office. That way you will feel a bit ashamed if you spend too much time on FB.
That "shame" will drive you to work.

\- Disconnect : if your job does not require Internet, simply disconnect your
computer. Or edit your host file to redirect facebook.com to 127.0.0.1 during
daytime

------
kranner
Do you have a Mac or iOS device you can use this on? I ask because I was
considering making something like this a short while ago. I was going to call
it 'Mindful Day' and even registered the domain mindfuldayapp.com for it.

At the time I was thinking of either an OS X menubar app or an iOS app, or
perhaps both (with iCloud sync). My own preference is for the former, because
I use a Mac all day.

Roughly, the idea was for an app that would prompt you for your day's todo-
list at the start of your workday, then remind you every hour to stick to the
plan, then ask you at the end of the workday how much you got done. It got
postponed because eventually I second-guessed myself into doubting how useful
it would be.

------
mmesh
I recently built an Android app [1] that implements this idea in pretty much
the most basic way possible. It just fires a notification at a specified time
every day. The notification can link to a URL, which I point to a Google Form
for responding to the notification (e.g. "How many pushups have you done
today?"). I've been meaning to allow push frequencies other than once-daily,
just haven't gotten around to it yet.

[1]: [https://github.com/meshulam/PushQ](https://github.com/meshulam/PushQ)

------
jongold
Isn't this—kind of—what iDoneThis and Lift are trying to solve? My problem
even with them is if I'm in an unproductive rut I won't bother checking in on
them.

------
nyan_sandwich
Brilliant. I feel it, man. In fact, as of two weeks ago _I am building this
right now_ (in a small slice of spare time of course).

Thanks for the inspiration for a new aspect of it.

~~~
visakanv
Cheers! Would love to see how it comes together!

------
joeevans
The reason a post like this will get so much action on a site like hacker news
is that programming sucks as an activity, and alternative activities are more
interesting.

Thinking about programming is fun, finishing a program is fun, solving a
little programming puzzle can be fun, but programming in general sucks as an
activity.

That's why programmers procrastinate, because programming sucks.

~~~
skj
Nope.

------
eterm
> Something that asked me every 30 minutes, what the fuck are you doing with
> your life?

Shut up and take my money. Wait, where's the product?

~~~
garethadams
Give me your phone number and your credit card number

------
jez0990
I liked this idea so much that I just updated a little tool I built a few
months ago
[https://github.com/jez0990/inyourface](https://github.com/jez0990/inyourface)

Hopefully it's useful to someone else reading but I have no idea whether it
works on other operating systems! (I'm using Ubuntu)

------
rb2e
Okay, I have a crazy idea. I don't believe the answer lies in a digital
solution. Our bodies adapt and can filter out a lot of background noise, our
email boxes and phones are just the same. We filter them out. So you need a
loud reminder.

What you'll need: 1) 1x Egg Timer. Its need to be mechanical and loud. Crazy
loud. An mechanical alarm clock is just as good but it needs to be loud. This
has to be on your desk, within your line of sight.

2) 1x Day to Day diary if you travel, or a piece of A3 Card if you work in one
location.

3) Golden or silver star stickers (yes folks we are going back to school).

Premise:

1)Pick a task to complete (if its a big task, break it down into workable
small chunks).

2)Set the Loud egg timer to fifteen minutes.

3)Go. You have 15 minutes to accomplish this task.

4) When the timer goes off. Stop. Have you accomplished the task? If yes, put
a star sticker in your diary or on the piece of card but keep this out of eye
sight. Write down the task you accomplished. If you didn't complete the task,
no sticker but doesn't matter. Keep going.

5)Start a new task with a completely different subject matter. Set the timer
for another 15 minutes and go.

6)Once you have completed this cycle four times. Stop. Set the timer for 15
minutes. You are free to surf any social sites, check your phone, email etc
but when the timer goes off. Get back to it.

7) On the Sunday of every week, publish how many stars you got on your blog,
in a public post. No need to detail the exact tasks but a summary of what you
accomplished, would be good.

8) At the end of the month, write a summary on your blog. Repeat for every
quarter. Then at the end of year, write an end of year review. Publish it on
your blog.

Goal: To fill the page of your diary or the A3 Card with stars so that at the
end of the day. You can see what you have accomplished. However the main thing
is, its not the stars you've stuck on (which is just a simple gamification),
its keeping your mind occupied.

The publishing your achievements on your blog is for a public record.

Notes: Don't use your phone, computer or digital timer. You'll just block it
out. An mechanical timer is best because its loud and in your face.

If you are really serious about the money, donate it to a worthy cause.

~~~
breadbox
I can't see that solution working for most people. Maybe some, but it feels
too involved and inflexible to become habit. The point about digital solutions
is to find a way to make being productive a habit, despite your existing
habits. If you've got the discipline to set aside time every day, scheduling
around obligations to work/friends/family, with an egg timer and actually get
work done, you probably don't need a solution in the first place.

------
snoonan
I do something like this with a script called "boss.py'.

It regex matches time patterns from a dict and yells out the value by calling
the mac 'say' command. I have it configured to yell at me to focus every 5
minutes and to lock me into a pomodoro-like work cycle. I run it on days I
can't seem to get going.

~~~
derwildemomo
care to put it on github? I'd love to give it a try (though I don't have too
many problems focusing myself. I'm in the middle of a workday, just doing
some..shit, HN).

~~~
snoonan
Sure!
[https://github.com/snoonan77/boss.py](https://github.com/snoonan77/boss.py)
\-- Mac specific though easily tweaked if you have a working TTS command line
tool floating around.

~~~
derwildemomo
nice, thank you!

------
ada1981
You might try committing to 2-3 minutes of whatever task you are putting off.
That can help get you into the groove. If you tell yourself "just 2 minutes"
you will often find you are in flow and just keep going. But you need to give
yourself the mental time frame of just a couple minutes.

------
mdoerneman
I use an iphone app called Mind Jogger. It's a good solution in that is does
constantly remind me of things I tend to forget about, things that are
important in my life, but as others have stated, eventually you begin to
ignore them.

------
hosh
You know, you could just actually practice concentration exercises.

And to echo what others have said: procrastination is itself a symptom of
deeper issues.

------
jonahx
I like this idea. Were you thinking about a browser add on, or a native
desktop program?

~~~
visakanv
I'm not sure. I was actually imagining it on my phone- it locks my phone and I
can't use it until I update whatever's up. Maybe browser add on too, for that
same purpose. Maybe something pomodoro-ish but more "involved".

Or maybe a desktop thing, jeez, I have no idea. Sorry I'm not being helpful
here. If I knew how to build stuff I suppose I'd try simplistic versions of
each and see which felt most natural/optimal.

------
aylons
I think Astrid fit his bill, but it was bought and is offline now.

------
tlarkworthy
We made quickrota.com for periodic group based nagging.

------
hackaflocka
Problem is that he'll be numb to those prompts after a week (been there,
etc.).

Try meditation. It works.

