
The worst distractions are the ones we love - jorymackay
http://blog.rescuetime.com/james-clear/
======
hashberry
My problem is that my procrastination is an addiction. There is a voice in my
head telling me of all the productive things I need to do, and I enjoy
rebelling against that voice and doing my own thing.

And then there is the nature of working for others, in that it requires a
"sacrifice of ego." I shut down everything and become a work horse. I work for
hours on end, because this is what I'm supposed to do for a living. I can't
question if I really want to be doing this because that would cause me to
procrastinate. Instead I become my work. Sometimes I enjoy what I do, but I am
specialized in specific technologies so I'm doing a variation of the same
tasks over and over. That's the life of this "modern worker."

~~~
HiroshiSan
I admire those that work menial jobs in order to make a living. Im not sure
I'd have the strength to do it myself if I had to. I find it very stoic.

~~~
skrebbel
In all honesty you sound a little disconnected. You'd have the strength to do
that, too, if your (children's) livelihood depended on it. It's really not
that hard if the other option is being evicted from your house.

~~~
smnscu
Agree with the sibling comment. I've heard that tune (how come your kids don't
motivate you, etc) so many times when dealing with crippling depression and
anxiety. I have 3 children now and much better mentally, but holy shit did I
have my share of trite, flippant advice.

~~~
skrebbel
You seem to suggest that my comment was (trite, flippant) depression advice.
I'm not entirely sure how you can read my comment as depression advice given
that nothing in the thread had anything to do with depression.

It's like

A: Wow I respect people who can lift heavy stuff

B: Oh come on it's just a matter of workout

C: Holy shit I've had my share of trite flippant workout advice but I have
myasthenia so workout won't cut it, come on.

(I react a bit strongly because I'd never give depression advice. I have no
fucking clue about depression except that well-meant tips from people like me
don't help, at best. I stay out of the way and leave depression to trained
shrinks and people with experience)

~~~
smnscu
I was going off on a tangent, your comment merely reminded me of what I was
referencing, so I'm sorry to have implied otherwise.

~~~
skrebbel
Appreciate that, and I totally understand. Fwiw, sorry for coming at you so
hard. All the best to you!

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roflc0ptic
Replying to the article I thought this would be, rather than the article
that’s here:

I feel this really hard right now. I’m in a polyamorous relationship with a
married woman; I live with her and her husband.

I’m trying to build a practice around writing every day. I found a hole in the
functional programming literature that I’m well suited to fill. Every time I
sit down to write, words are flowing effortlessly, and I’ve gotten positive
feedback so far.

What I find is that engaging with day to day, normal relationship affirming
behaviors (“good morning!”), going on dates, etc edge out space in my head for
this other thing. I have space to think deeply about one and a half things.
Frequently I feel like I need to disconnect from her emotionally to have space
to think about anything else.

I haven’t ever heard anyone else describe this experience. I wonder if others
experience this?I thought this article might be about it. I have a lot of
symptoms of high functioning autism, though, so maybe this is just the less
maladapted version of getting upset that I can’t go read train schedules.

~~~
tzakrajs
Also polyamorous, also living with symptoms of autism, also feeling the need
to disconnect emotionally from my partner(s) when I need to focus on my side
projects or work. My last primary partner was technical and so we would hack
for hours on stuff and it was very much a different experience. My current
primary partner is non-technical so the things we do together are non-
technical. Maybe your partner isn't a good fit?

Edit: Or maybe it's a fantastic fit and you ought to get used to being less of
a technical fanatic.

~~~
roflc0ptic
That sounds lovely. Mine is a therapist, and in lieu of hacking we have a rich
dialog on how to live in a world with other people.

I am fortunate to have a partner who is willing to face head on that I will
never consent to making her my first priority. Just gotta keep making changes
until something works. Worst comes to worst, an in-law suite will probably do
the trick.

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guy98238710
If you don't want to do it, perhaps you shouldn't do it. RescueTime and
similar tools/practices might well be just an internalized social pressure.
You put on a mask that others want to see on you only to then helplessly
observe your psychological immune system reject the mask through
procrastination, depression, or whatever.

It is better to see procrastination and other subconscious work avoidance as a
symptom that you are trying to divorce your actions from your inner
motivation. Needless to say, such split personality isn't going to last and
your inner motivation will win one way or another.

So fuck the work and do something you actually enjoy for a while. You will be
more happy that way and chances are you will be more productive too.

~~~
sanqui
What if only doing what you actually enjoy won't net you enough resources for
living?

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somberi
In Buddhist thought, one of the afflictions (Kleshas) is that of Attachment to
a desire (Raga). It is seen as just as debilitating as other Kleshas
(Ignorance, Ego, Aversion and Clinging).

For Raga, it prescribes the following mind exercise:

-Observe your mind – what is it drawn to?

-Recognize the desire you feel (This being the core of the affliction called Raga)

-Give this feeling a name and a space inside you

Now observe what happens if you don’t automatically follow through with it.
Experience what it’s like to create some space between feeling a want/need and
acting on it.

(An easier to read version is here - shrunk it for cosmetics -
[https://goo.gl/vo4En4](https://goo.gl/vo4En4))

~~~
jamesblonde
I like the word 'cathect'to describe this, although it is more to do with
objects of your thoughts, not just the feelings themselves.

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wakamoleguy
One thing has never sat right with me when it comes to Warren Buffet's 2 List
approach. After making two lists, Mike says he will prioritize the top 5 list,
but that he will also of course spend some time on the second list, because
those are important, too. Warren says that he has it all wrong, and that the
second list should be his Avoid-At-All-Cost list.

It's an interesting way to think about priorities, but I think the missing
step is to then go and make the lists again. My first cut of the lists
included lots of individual skills that I wanted to build, and ignoring some
felt wrong. I realized that I actually do have a high priority goal of
building a broad set of skills, and that I care more about that then mastering
any one of my top 5.

A lot of the advice in the article is aimed at folks trying to focus on one
skill or habit. You can identify as the kind of person who masters chess, for
example, practicing every day. It's equally valid to identify as somebody who
has a passing interest in many games and prioritize accordingly.

Building the lists didn't make me focus on the top 5 items, but it did help me
better express what I care about.

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gregknicholson
> In this interview, we asked James to apply his unique blend of academic
> research and personal anecdote to the biggest issues facing the modern
> worker.

“Worker” is not a noun I would apply to myself. I'd say “person”. Yes, I “do
work”, but that doesn't mean I “am a worker”. Turning the verb into a noun
implies that that activity is somehow fundamental to your identity. (Look at a
few bios and it's clear that being a parent and a spouse is very important to
a lot of people.)

If you “are a worker”, you'll have no problem doing your work — that's who you
are and what you do. If you're just a person who “does work”, well then the
ideas around identity in this article won't be applicable.

The article talks about considering deeply what you _really_ want to achieve,
what type of person you want to be. And it kind of assumes the answer to that
question is a glib “productive” or an exasperated “the sort of person who
doesn't spend 2 hours on Facebook every night”. It doesn't ask “why?”, and I
think that's more fundamental. This article seems quite shallow.

~~~
quietbritishjim
Do you also object to the terms "programmer" or "actor"? Would they be better
called "person who programs" and "person that acts"?

Perhaps if we're down the pub and I responded to a question about who I am by
saying "I'm a programmer" it would be odd. If we're in a meeting at work and
I'm just trying to distinguish the number of people available to program
software rather than design UI, saying "we have x programmers and y UI
designers" seems pretty reasonable to me. I think that also applies to the
context where "worker" was used in the article.

~~~
gregknicholson
I would object to someone applying them to _me_ , because I am not
fundamentally a programmer or an actor.

But it's a perfectly cromulent way to use words! I'm not objecting to the turn
of phrase at all.

My point is just that I draw this distinction (between “an Xer” and “a person
who Xes”) when describing people, and I think it's a useful nuance.

I don't know whether the writer (and the word somehow loses its special
significance after the definite article — I'm not saying it's logical; it's
just how my mind reads these things) consciously chose “worker” rather than
“hobbyist” or “busy person”.

But I think it shows how they see the (abstract) people they're describing. It
made me realise that, yes, this advice _is_ useful, but perhaps only to people
who “are workers” rather than “do work”.

And I agree completely that in this context, “a programmer” or “a worker” is
precisely what you need — you don't need a person, you need a function.

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hamilyon2
Is there any serious research on gamification of work?

I mean, the abundance of advice that tell you that to be productive you need
to cut distractions is maybe evidence of the opposite. Maybe it is deeply
wrong. I am most productive when someone distracts me with urgent and somewhat
game-like short task. Maybe creative one, or a small investigation.

Small tasks, small random rewards seems like way to go for me. Can we gamify
most of work?

Edit: typos

~~~
metaobject
I've noticed this as well. From a software perspective, even while working on
an extended task that I mostly enjoy, if I'm presented with a novel, seemingly
short task I usually have no trouble at all getting motivated and switching
gears so I can figure it out and get the quick win. I wonder if it's the
anticipation of a quick, clean solution that my brain's reward system
desperstely needs?

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hprotagonist
other distractions include grammatical ambiguities.

the article does not actually imply that, e.g, family members are problems.

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zitterbewegung
I started turning off my phone during work hours. I’m getting a bunch more
stuff done.

~~~
fapjacks
I did this before moving to putting my phone on silent and also installing an
app which prevents any number not in my contacts list from ringing my phone or
even going to voicemail. Just drops the call silently with no ring on their
end, either. Everything on my phone is silent except for a very short list of
contacts (two people, my wife and my best friend) and a single pipeline for
work alerting which is tightly-regulated.

It is the single most effective countermeasure I've taken to reclaim my own
thoughts, though slowly phasing out my use of all the shitty social media is a
close second.

~~~
TheSithMaster
Would you mind sharing the name of that app?

~~~
fapjacks
The app is no longer maintained even though it's still for sale in the various
Android app stores. It doesn't work for Nougat or higher versions, and I would
rather not reward the developer for that behavior. Also, from my
understanding, it may not be possible to programmatically produce this
specific behavior in Nougat or higher versions (hangup, no ring, no
voicemail), but I'm not totally certain.

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amrx101
My problem is that I cant seem to decide on a single task to tackle which
subtly creeps into procrastination.

