6 ms·

Ok, here's an idea for a procrastination preventer. It's like the ones you've seen already, which you add to your browser, and then they kick you off reddit aft

by Kluny 11y ago

Ok, here's an idea for a procrastination preventer. It's like the ones you've seen already, which you add to your browser, and then they kick you off reddit after 15 minutes or whatever, or blog problem domains entirely. Instead of that, a popup that asks "what are you supposed to be working on right now?" with a short text input. You type an answer, and carry on procrastinating. Then after 15 minutes, it pops up again and says "Remember, you were working on this: ... Is there a URL where you can find information to help you with it?" Then an input field for a URL where you can put your project domain, or the wikipedia article you need, whatever. After another 15 minutes, "Hey, it's time to start working on x. Go here to get started." Thoughts?

joelrunyon 11y ago
I like it. Probably needs a categorization so it knows what type of response to output. Also, would avoid linking to wikipedia as it's a procrastinator's heaven with various tangentially interesting articles.
hosh 11y ago
Tried it. I have been using such a plugin for a couple years now. (I gave myself no more than 60 mins within a defined working our). I've also tried pomodoro. Printing up reminder signs. Talking myself into it. All sorts of things. If you are avoiding the underlying emotional issue, it works like a bandaid: helps in the short term, doesn't address the root problem. It was only until I started seriously practicing meditation that things start to move, and not because meditation magically fixes procrastination. Rather, if you are practicing meditation correctly and stripping away self-deceptions, then you will eventually start surfacing up the things that lead to avoiding things that are important or urgent. And it can go the other way too: people who are busy doing stuff may well also be procrastinating the really big, important issues in their life. Doing things that are urgent but not important becomes another procrastination tool, and helps with the self-deception that "you are doing something about it". It's also been my experience that trying to face procrastination face on, takes on the quality of the emotions involved. For example, if you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anxiety, the way you would go about it will be skittish, and avoid it. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anger, you will start to get aggressive towards your anger. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on depression, then you'll get to the point where you say, what's the point in being aware of depression? I've said it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10144329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10144329 ... Emotional intelligence will supercharge your intellect because for most people, their lack of emotional intelligence holds back an otherwise brilliant mind.
- kmundnic 11y ago
  May I ask, what specific technique/type of meditation have you been practicing? I've used some meditation exercises coming from kundalini yoga to tackle other problems, and they have worked wonderfully. Nevertheless, I haven't encountered something like what you're mentioning. Thanks!
  - hosh 11y ago
    Meditation will follow the same principles regardless of the specific techniques or tradition. The reason is that there isn't much to it. When you come down to it, there isn't much difference among Zen (Chan), Vipassana, Insight, Taoist shengong meditations, etc. This is because they all touch on the same ground of being (emptiness). (And yes, you'll find this in Western traditions and indigenous tribal traditions). The exercises that will have the most variants are concentration exercises, usually some sort of one-point concentration on a sensory object -- sight, sound, touch, kinesthetics, taste, smell, etc., tangible or untangible in varying forms of abstractions. Journeying methods (where you visualize a space, or say, in Gestalt therapy where you allow fragments of your persona to embody) are variations on concentration techniques. Despite the emotional connotation of the word 'concentration' (which usually mean, some sort of pressure, stress, or force), skill in concentration has more to do with relaxing than stressing. Kundalini yoga is interesting because you'd have to distinguish between Kundalini Yoga (tm) (the specific lineage of Kundalini yoga promoted by a genius in marketing) and kundalini yoga (the class of practices or yoga designed to awaken shakti and kickstart the Kundalini process). I don't know the details of your practice, but I wouldn't doubt that you would find them helpful. If you are arousing energy, then you will start surfacing up buried emotions, memories, habits, etc. and a complete system will also include methods on dealing with it. If nothing else, there is simply "sitting through it", and that is where it intersects the mindfulness practices like vipassana or insight. Does this help?
    - kmundnic 11y ago
      It does! And actually, everything that you've mentioned has started to surface. But since I've only tried one specific technique/tradition, I was wondering if I was "missing out". I'd say I've practiced kundalini yoga, since the Kundalini process definitely started. Nevertheless, I'm wondering who is the marketing expert now.
fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
>Thoughts? I'll raise you, unfinished home improvement project, and the lawn.
porter 11y ago
Or maybe a next step plugin that just asks you every 15 minutes to complete your next step. Then you can do whatever you want until the next time.
erikb 11y ago
Well, if you have read the article then you should know yourself already that this might not work. Instead maybe a better way would be to approach your emotional state, make it real, with a pop-up when the plugin sees you are procrastinating. Instead of asking "what should you do right now" better ask "How do you feel right now? Why don't you work?" and then lets you enter an answer, to create a diary for you about your emotional state, with stats of how much you procrastinated that day.
- Kluny 11y ago
  That's really good actually, I like that.
prodmerc 11y ago
A simple pop up won't work. At least for me, I tried (simple dialog boxes reminding me I should work off my checklist/To Do). Maybe inspirational videos/audios? A Jedi Shia LaBeouf popping up and saying "yesterday you said tomorrow, so just dooo it!" seems like it would work :-)
blueflow 11y ago
It only works when i procrastinate using the Computer, which is sadly not always the case.
florian-f 11y ago
I like the idea. It reminds me of something I want for myself but can't really formulate well. For example, let's say I'm working on a paper and while writing, I encounter a latex problem that I want fixed so I go off and look it up on stackoverflow (instead of making a note that I need to fix this later). Ideally I'd go right back to working on my paper after solving the issue. Unless I can't solve it and have to do more digging and on and on. Until I'm interrupted by someone/ something and when I get back to the task at hand I don't even know what I was working on and why. So I thought that it would be nice to have something like a stack trace of things I'm doing. I'd be able to see where I left off and more importantly how and why I got there. But I'm not sure that a stack is the right data structure for this, and if not, what else to use. Also, I can't imagine how to build something like this in a way that I'd actually use it, because it would probably require too much typing/ other overhead.
- shinigami 11y ago
  I had the same idea! I've used Emacs org-mode to keep the "stack trace" in a tree. Still, it's hard to keep the discipline to actually use it.
  - florian-f 11y ago
    Looks nice, I'll have a look at one of the clones for vim.
- toong 11y ago
  So you want to build a tool/data-structure to track your yak-shavings [0] ? [0] : http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDoneAsSoonAsIShaveThisYak.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDon...
  - florian-f 11y ago
    exactly.
virmundi 11y ago
I actually made that for Chrome. It worked. I got disheartened that no one ever downloaded it from the store so I destroyed it. All it did was pop up a Yes/No alert that said, "Really?!" It also had a back off that was configurable. There were times when I was doing actually productive research that the constant questioning was annoying, especially intrawebsite. So you could delay the next request for N minutes based on a configuration. Other sites were white listed. They were low volume, low distraction or high value like google.com. In the end I destroyed because it felt like another failure. No one wanted it. So I took that as a personal rejection. It could just be that I did a poor job of marketing it. I might try making it again, but for Safari since I've recently changed.
- Kluny 11y ago
  Well, it may have just needed refinement. Usually no one installs extensions except by personal recommendation, so you'd have to start by asking people you know to test it, then A/B test and iterate til you got a product that your friends actually wanted to use, regardless of your involvement.

by Kluny 11y ago

joelrunyon 11y ago

I like it. Probably needs a categorization so it knows what type of response to output. Also, would avoid linking to wikipedia as it's a procrastinator's heaven with various tangentially interesting articles.

hosh 11y ago

Tried it. I have been using such a plugin for a couple years now. (I gave myself no more than 60 mins within a defined working our). I've also tried pomodoro. Printing up reminder signs. Talking myself into it. All sorts of things. If you are avoiding the underlying emotional issue, it works like a bandaid: helps in the short term, doesn't address the root problem. It was only until I started seriously practicing meditation that things start to move, and not because meditation magically fixes procrastination. Rather, if you are practicing meditation correctly and stripping away self-deceptions, then you will eventually start surfacing up the things that lead to avoiding things that are important or urgent. And it can go the other way too: people who are busy doing stuff may well also be procrastinating the really big, important issues in their life. Doing things that are urgent but not important becomes another procrastination tool, and helps with the self-deception that "you are doing something about it". It's also been my experience that trying to face procrastination face on, takes on the quality of the emotions involved. For example, if you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anxiety, the way you would go about it will be skittish, and avoid it. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on anger, you will start to get aggressive towards your anger. If you were to attempt to rest your awareness on depression, then you'll get to the point where you say, what's the point in being aware of depression? I've said it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10144329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10144329 ... Emotional intelligence will supercharge your intellect because for most people, their lack of emotional intelligence holds back an otherwise brilliant mind.

kmundnic 11y ago
May I ask, what specific technique/type of meditation have you been practicing? I've used some meditation exercises coming from kundalini yoga to tackle other problems, and they have worked wonderfully. Nevertheless, I haven't encountered something like what you're mentioning. Thanks!
- hosh 11y ago
  Meditation will follow the same principles regardless of the specific techniques or tradition. The reason is that there isn't much to it. When you come down to it, there isn't much difference among Zen (Chan), Vipassana, Insight, Taoist shengong meditations, etc. This is because they all touch on the same ground of being (emptiness). (And yes, you'll find this in Western traditions and indigenous tribal traditions). The exercises that will have the most variants are concentration exercises, usually some sort of one-point concentration on a sensory object -- sight, sound, touch, kinesthetics, taste, smell, etc., tangible or untangible in varying forms of abstractions. Journeying methods (where you visualize a space, or say, in Gestalt therapy where you allow fragments of your persona to embody) are variations on concentration techniques. Despite the emotional connotation of the word 'concentration' (which usually mean, some sort of pressure, stress, or force), skill in concentration has more to do with relaxing than stressing. Kundalini yoga is interesting because you'd have to distinguish between Kundalini Yoga (tm) (the specific lineage of Kundalini yoga promoted by a genius in marketing) and kundalini yoga (the class of practices or yoga designed to awaken shakti and kickstart the Kundalini process). I don't know the details of your practice, but I wouldn't doubt that you would find them helpful. If you are arousing energy, then you will start surfacing up buried emotions, memories, habits, etc. and a complete system will also include methods on dealing with it. If nothing else, there is simply "sitting through it", and that is where it intersects the mindfulness practices like vipassana or insight. Does this help?
  - kmundnic 11y ago
    It does! And actually, everything that you've mentioned has started to surface. But since I've only tried one specific technique/tradition, I was wondering if I was "missing out". I'd say I've practiced kundalini yoga, since the Kundalini process definitely started. Nevertheless, I'm wondering who is the marketing expert now.

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago

>Thoughts? I'll raise you, unfinished home improvement project, and the lawn.

porter 11y ago

Or maybe a next step plugin that just asks you every 15 minutes to complete your next step. Then you can do whatever you want until the next time.

erikb 11y ago

Well, if you have read the article then you should know yourself already that this might not work. Instead maybe a better way would be to approach your emotional state, make it real, with a pop-up when the plugin sees you are procrastinating. Instead of asking "what should you do right now" better ask "How do you feel right now? Why don't you work?" and then lets you enter an answer, to create a diary for you about your emotional state, with stats of how much you procrastinated that day.

Kluny 11y ago
That's really good actually, I like that.

prodmerc 11y ago

A simple pop up won't work. At least for me, I tried (simple dialog boxes reminding me I should work off my checklist/To Do). Maybe inspirational videos/audios? A Jedi Shia LaBeouf popping up and saying "yesterday you said tomorrow, so just dooo it!" seems like it would work :-)

blueflow 11y ago

It only works when i procrastinate using the Computer, which is sadly not always the case.

florian-f 11y ago

I like the idea. It reminds me of something I want for myself but can't really formulate well. For example, let's say I'm working on a paper and while writing, I encounter a latex problem that I want fixed so I go off and look it up on stackoverflow (instead of making a note that I need to fix this later). Ideally I'd go right back to working on my paper after solving the issue. Unless I can't solve it and have to do more digging and on and on. Until I'm interrupted by someone/ something and when I get back to the task at hand I don't even know what I was working on and why. So I thought that it would be nice to have something like a stack trace of things I'm doing. I'd be able to see where I left off and more importantly how and why I got there. But I'm not sure that a stack is the right data structure for this, and if not, what else to use. Also, I can't imagine how to build something like this in a way that I'd actually use it, because it would probably require too much typing/ other overhead.

shinigami 11y ago
I had the same idea! I've used Emacs org-mode to keep the "stack trace" in a tree. Still, it's hard to keep the discipline to actually use it.
- florian-f 11y ago
  Looks nice, I'll have a look at one of the clones for vim.
toong 11y ago
So you want to build a tool/data-structure to track your yak-shavings [0] ? [0] : http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDoneAsSoonAsIShaveThisYak.aspx http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDon...
- florian-f 11y ago
  exactly.

virmundi 11y ago

I actually made that for Chrome. It worked. I got disheartened that no one ever downloaded it from the store so I destroyed it. All it did was pop up a Yes/No alert that said, "Really?!" It also had a back off that was configurable. There were times when I was doing actually productive research that the constant questioning was annoying, especially intrawebsite. So you could delay the next request for N minutes based on a configuration. Other sites were white listed. They were low volume, low distraction or high value like google.com. In the end I destroyed because it felt like another failure. No one wanted it. So I took that as a personal rejection. It could just be that I did a poor job of marketing it. I might try making it again, but for Safari since I've recently changed.

Kluny 11y ago
Well, it may have just needed refinement. Usually no one installs extensions except by personal recommendation, so you'd have to start by asking people you know to test it, then A/B test and iterate til you got a product that your friends actually wanted to use, regardless of your involvement.