

Productivity tips for the easily distracted - dailo10
http://jacquesmattheij.com/productivity+tips+for+the+easily+distracted

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synnik
I did something similar - I finished the area under my basement stairs, hung
monitors from the stairs above me, and put fabric on all the walls for
soundproofing.

I have to climb through my storage area, under a shelf, and through a small
hole to get in... but that also means I cannot easily get out and take a
break. I just keep on working.

Likewise, I am so hidden that my kids just assume that I am downtown in my
office, and they do not interrupt my work. And my wife won't come in either,
as she get claustrophobic.

I am easily 3x as effective when working from home now.

~~~
city41
I would love to see a pic of this setup.

~~~
synnik
It was somewhat difficult to get pics of it, as it is a compact space, but I
took a shot at it. (Pardon the pun.)

The "door" from my storage room:
[http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-KNkxxsb/0/M/i-KNkxxsb...](http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-KNkxxsb/0/M/i-KNkxxsb-M.jpg)

Looking in... Sorry that it is blurry, but you can see that is a not a huge
space. I have a gaming chair to sit on, and I keep a big blanket in there. It
gets cold, even in summer:
[http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-kpfwhfL/0/M/i-kpfwhfL...](http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-kpfwhfL/0/M/i-kpfwhfL-M.jpg)

The actual setup. 2 monitors, a laptop table, and my work laptop:
[http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-Lxmh7hZ/0/M/i-Lxmh7hZ...](http://hikingdave.smugmug.com/photos/i-Lxmh7hZ/0/M/i-Lxmh7hZ-M.jpg)

~~~
cma
Looks like a fire trap. Be careful.

~~~
synnik
True, that is one of my concerns. My mitigation of that risk is that one of
the walls (to the left of the monitors) is nothing but cloth - in an
emergency, I just pull the staples out and walk right out.

------
cygwin98
I wonder how Jacques avoids the Internet distractions in his new setup as he
still has a network connection.

I am also the kind of person who gets distracted rather easily as I have a
really broad spectrum of hobbies/interests. I've tried some similar approaches
without much success.

Back in old days when I was still a graduate student, I had a paper deadline
due in a few days, but I was addictive in Slashdot discussion then. I
experimented fully command line work environment: no browsers, no X-windows,
only a few linux consoles you can switch among by pressing Alt-Fx. The
transition was painful, as I had to look for command line equivalent to view
pdf/ps/eps files, gdb is not as convenient as ddd, etc. However, my
productivity gain was enormous, at least for the first a few days. The curve
quickly flattened and began to fall, as I started to use command line browsers
such as lynx/links and I discovered a few legacy games.

Another time I went even further: screw the Internet! I installed Slackware
onto an old dell notebook and uninstalled all fun games and apps, unplug the
wireless card and went to the public library nearby for a day. Almost the same
result, I had done lots of task at an amazing speed initially. Then, I got
bored, and wrote a frame-buffer based Galaga-like shooting game and
played/improved it for the rest of the day.

~~~
jncraton
Your post highlights the core of the problem. Ultimately, productivity
solutions have to include a recognition that technology can only enhance your
self-control; it can't replace it. I, like you, have spent days trying to
optimize my work space and computer for productivity. It was a waste of time.

The best way to get work done is to get somewhere where you can focus. This
includes not just location, but also mindset. If I really want to focus, I
have to train myself to avoid thoughts like, "it would be nice if those
exceptions that I just added to my hosts file would update themselves based on
my browsing habits..."

I go somewhere alone, pop in ear buds playing some type of non-distracting
noise, shutdown my email client, turn off my phone, and go to work.

~~~
zachcb
I am one who can also get easily distracted by going to other sites. Usually
an article like the one posted here would take me about 25 minutes to read
because I'd switch tabs after about the first two paragraphs. The only thing
that has helped me is if I can catch myself switching tabs. I think it's kind
of "retraining your brain."

There are other techniques that you can try, such as having three computers in
separate rooms. One is for your work, another is for play (slashdot,
TechCrunch, etc) and the last one is for communication (email, Facebook,
twitter, etc) although those could fit under play as well.

ADHD drugs work great (specifically Concerta) but the side effects can be
quite bothersome.

------
simonw
Productivity tip: buy a caravan. Gotta admit, that's the first time I've seen
that one.

~~~
mhd
He's Dutch, right?

And while other people might not have the requisite place to put a caravan,
they might also not actually have the need for one, due to being alone in
their apartments. If you're married with children _and_ work from home in a
small apartment, you might need to get a bit more creative. Good headphones
usually help, and if you don't even have a room to yourself, mounting some
curtain rails to the ceiling might do the trick.

~~~
bricestacey
I believe he lives in Canada. You can find a few good stories on his blog
about it. <http://jacquesmattheij.com/dealing+with+burn+out>

~~~
barrkel
Dutch license plate (you can make out the NL) and European plugs. It's very
probably the Netherlands.

~~~
jacquesm
That's correct, I moved back in 2005.

~~~
jaxn
I thought you quit commenting on HN ;)

~~~
swombat
He only comes back to correct outrageous mis-statements that could potentially
damage someone's reputation or hard work - I guess accusing him of being
Canadian counts as one of the above ;-)

~~~
keidian
Hey now, nothing wrong with being Canadian :p

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swombat
I don't think "(from Jacques)" is quite required... we can all see the URL of
the site.

Other than that, great article - each person will have their own unique system
for dealing with distractions... this one is quite elaborate, but whatever
works, works!

------
yason
As long as you're fighting against yourself—effectively first trapping
yourself and then hacking yourself out of your own trap—you're not making
actual progress. However, it's likely that you're either doing the wrong
thing, doing it for the wrong reasons, or doing it at the wrong time.

My productivity just happens with the right task, project, or job. I don't
care how many browser windows I have open or what's happening on IRC. I just
have my emacs open and I probably flip it back and forth with a terminal
window or wherever I can see my program running, and watch it grow.

But it's a terrifying thought to accept that you're not doing the right thing.
It's much easier to try to remove all distractions.

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angusgr
I don't mean to be rude, but I'm surprised noone has yet asked how much this
itself is an epic case of productive procrastination.

As in: "The job I have [refactor] is grinding, but the shiny awesome
distraction project idea I have [caravan workspace] is shiny and awesome and
clearly very important, so I'll focus and work really hard on it"

I'm prone to see this pattern because I'm prone to falling into it myself. Not
that it's exclusively a bad pattern, you can get a lot done that way.

jaquesm, if you don't mind I'd be interested to know two things:

* How long the whole setup took, and how long you've had the caravan for? (I saw you've been using it at least 10 days from the post, which seems a very good sign - obviously you got some work done recently apart from finding/installing/blogging your new caravan workplace.)

* As a favour, could you please follow up in 2-3 months and tell us honestly how it is working out?

:)

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barkingcat
I use a local hostel - when I find that I need some time to focus and work on
writing and editing and coding - I book a few nights at the hostel - and just
work away in the public area. There are always people around, so I'm less
inclined to become an antisocial slob - and I get to focus on work while all
the amenities are taken care of for me.

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dkarl
Oh, man, chess clock. Brilliant. I just dug out mine and put a new battery in
it last month when when the gf challenged me (and she isn't going to do that
again -- she hates to lose!)

In my experience, things like productivity and diet are easy to change in the
short term, but long-term change depends on monitoring and sustained effort.
The chess clock is a dead-simple monitoring device, and I'm already habituated
to it thanks to many hours spent on chess in high school and college.

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Jun8
The caravan thing is not an option for me but the chess clock is pure genius.
Sure, there are tons of timer apps for the desktop and the phone and pushing a
button on a physical object is much better.

However, the clock that's shown in his photo is kind of expense ~$70+ on eBay
+ $10 shipping. The cheapest wooden clock I could find was from the Chess
Store ([http://www.amazon.com/TCS-Standard-Wood-Chess-
Clock/dp/B003Z...](http://www.amazon.com/TCS-Standard-Wood-Chess-
Clock/dp/B003ZWB0P4/ref=pd_sbs_t_2)) for $25 but it has no reviews.

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cygwin98
Nice approach. Remind me of the OfficePod [1] discussed at HN [2] about one
year ago. The used trailer is much more affordable (less than $1000?) than the
OfficePod, which costs a whopping 25K.

[1] <http://www.officepod.co.uk>

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1069526>

~~~
pavel_lishin
Depending on what shape the caravan is in, you might be able to find someone
who'll pay you to drag it off their land.

And as a bonus, you'll get some free rodents.

------
bcl
Reminds me of Jerry Pournelle's Monk's Cell that he uses for serious writing
productivity.

<http://www.pournelle.com/slowchange/myjob.html>

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rodh257
Having too many screens doesn't make you get distracted, there is a root cause
as to why you are procrastinating or not enthralled in your work, and it's not
having too much screen real estate.

You should try to address the root cause of your issues because it's only a
matter of time before the 1 screen you have left ends up being covered by a
browser window full of off topic tabs.

------
JonoW
My solution is little more lo-fi - I just have a bunch of rules in my hosts
file to resolve urls of sites I waste too much time on (HN/twitter/engadget
etc) to the wrong IP so I can actually concentrate.

Sure I can just edit the hosts file, but I find that extra step seems to deter
me :)

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jdietrich
I've recently realised that large monitors make me _less_ productive for most
tasks, as they just tempt me to procrastinate through multitasking. Screen
real-estate set aside for documentation ends up being used for Twitter, HN and
the deadly random Wikipedia pages. Victorian schools had high windows so the
pupils couldn't gaze out of the window. A big monitor just invites me to gaze
at something interesting but easy, when I should be staring into the abyss of
a thorny problem.

I intend to sell my current setup and buy a little ultraportable and a Kindle
DX. The ultraportable will have only enough screen real-estate for actual
work, but I'll still have plenty of display room for documentation.

~~~
X-Istence
While yes my multi-monitor setup gets used for non-work related stuff, most of
the time the smaller of the two screens is covered in documentation and
terminal windows while my main screen has MacVim maximised with multiple tabs.
Being able to quickly move from one screen to another has helped me be a lot
more productive.

So it is also about willpower.

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rwmj
How does he get his monitors to go vertical like that? Is there some rotation
software (for Linux)?

~~~
mestudent
On ubuntu it is under monitors (might be a gnome thing) and you just select
right or left under rotation.

I'm sure kde has something similar, but one thing to be aware of is that some
monitors are specifically designed to be viewed horizontally so fonts and
other things may render weird when rotated.

~~~
adambyrtek
One thing to keep in mind is to disable sub-pixel rendering of fonts, or at
least change the layout from RGB to VRGB. Otherwise, the fonts might have
color outlines due to wrong assumptions about the sub-pixel layout made by the
renderer.

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gregcohn
I love that this post on avoiding distractions involved buying a camper and
figuring out how to lever it painfully over a hole.

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aserra69
Like a lot of us, he "suffers" from NADD (Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder)

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jonaldomo
Hopefully, you did this outside of work hours...

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chicagobob
tip #1 block HNN & Redit while coding tip #2 only check email once / hour. tip
#3 profit :-)

~~~
KeyBoardG
#4 is profit. #3 is

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ignifero
Can you believe this guy? He switched from a model-m-clone keyboard to
something that looks like logitech. Sacrilege!

~~~
jacquesm
That's an SGI keyboard on the desk, I couldn't plug it in to the laptop in the
caravan but an adapter has been ordered and should be here tomorrow or so.

~~~
ignifero
... and balance is restored.

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cafard
excellent

~~~
maheshs
For that up arrow was made.. ;)

