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Reposting my comment regarding deep work and how I achieved it: Imagine your mind like your desk. Every morning it's empty. (Usually) You wake up you load it u

Reposting my comment regarding deep work and how I achieved it: Imagine your mind like your desk. Every morning it's empty. (Usually) You wake up you load it up with all sorts of crap to entertain yourself, social media, Reddit, hacker news etc, etc. By the time you get to work, there is no place to put work stuff on that desk. You try to put work stuff on it, but pretty much the whole desk is filled with Twitter/Tumblr/Facebook shit. So even if you make some space for the work stuff, sooner or later you focus on Tumblr again. Work stuff gets pushed out. Generally in my case, by 2PM I manage to clear out all the distracting stuff and get focused. The solution was this: BORE YOURSELF at every available opportunity. When I start my morning, I refused to pick up my phone and check out social media (usually I would take a 45 minute dump just catching up on stuff posted last night). Sure my morning chores became a bit boring, but I also became more efficient (I started getting to work sooner). Basically, by the time I get to my desk, I am so bored that the most interesting thing I can do is work. And my work (programming) is a very interesting task, it used to keep me engaged for hours and hours, it's just that Social Media defeated it. I do check social media. I check it around 2PM after my standup. That 'impulsive' desire to constantly check it is gone. I catch up on all the social media in the evening or at night (but it doesn't create that compulsive pattern anymore. End result: My productivity has gone up by 5-6 times. I have a performance enhancement story to work on and I managed to fix 6-7 bugs I found during my work, and it turns out that it was a whole team's sprint's work.

arkaic 10y ago
How long have you practiced this?
- splintercell 10y ago
  I admit that I haven't been doing this for really long, (started around the week of the election, so around 3-4 months). But the more important thing is that it worked from the day 1. I rarely see things which work from the first day.
jansenv 10y ago
This is an interesting concept, but it still requires self control. I could browse all day if I wanted but I WANT to get more work done, but I cant help it. But when I get into that state of flow it seems like nothing can tear me away from my work. I'll try this.
- Jemmeh 10y ago
  You can use something like StayFocusd to force yourself off it. It won't allow you to reach the distracting websites no matter what you do. Forced boredom. Though personally I've found if I just log out of facebook and my personal email, that helps. I can't open a tab and have rewards in less than 2 seconds. The extra few seconds to type in a password slows me down enough to just close the tab again and get back to work.
  - secfirstmd 10y ago
    Yep couldn't agree more. It's actually embarrasing how many times I end up seeing the Focus App blocking screen during a very distracted day.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- splintercell 10y ago
  > This is an interesting concept, but it still requires self control. I could browse all day if I wanted but I WANT to get more work done, but I cant help it. It doesn't require that much self-control as you may think. The important part is to control that 'first' desire of looking at your phone or opening up distracting sites. What I found is that if I can curb that first desire to get distracted, then the rest of everything is super easy. But if I can't curb that first desire (which usually happens on Mondays), then I have to write that day off to non-productivity. I started this project last November, and coincided with shutting down Facebook notifications (which helped me a lot). Two weeks ago I uninstalled Facebook mobile app and now I only check facebook by logging into the web version.
  - 10y ago
Stanish 10y ago
Tell me more about your morning dump!
- secfirstmd 10y ago
  Surely thats where the best thinking gets done...
  - jwdunne 10y ago
    Or where you find the best "you'll never believe what she did next"
hiddencost 10y ago
This sounds like you're going after similar things as mindfulness meditation.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
andrewmcwatters 10y ago
Thank you for posting this. This is a very significant, specific, and actionable way of thinking about productivity.
chrismealy 10y ago
I've never consciously done this but looking back I've definitely been the most productive when I didn't have anything better to do. Thanks for spelling it out!
et-al 10y ago
Thanks for (re)posting this--the clear desk analogy was very communicative. For a while, I found myself waking up and spending a good 20-30 minutes in bed just reading news, then I'd open up the laptop and browse HN while eating breakfast, and before you knew it, it was 10:30 and I still haven't left the house. Gotta spring clean again. Thanks!
josephjrobison 10y ago
This is awesome. I recently started banning all news websites and Twitter until 4pm and that's worked well. Telling yourself you can't use these things ever again is one thing, telling yourself you can use them, but only after 4pm is a lot easier to manage.
grassroots-io 10y ago
Thanks for posting this, it definitely synthesizes something I've been struggling with. I did have a question on your method though: Do you count radio, music audio books and podcasts as social media / something to stay away from, even during your commute? I have found podcasts and audio books to be very interesting and draining so I can see those probably need to be eliminated for sure. But for music I'd be very interested in your take. My commute would be quite dry without it (although maybe that's the point haha)
- splintercell 10y ago
  I just wanna prefix this by saying that I am still trying to figure things out, all I am sure of is that I am onto something big. That being said, here are my observations: a) The days when I work from home, I focus better than the days when I work in the office. I believe the reason behind this is the fact that during WFH days I just make myself coffee and breakfast, and then start working. On WFO days, I have to go through a commute which increases my chances of getting distracted. b) During my commute, literally anything would trigger 'distractive thoughts' because my mind is so bored. Subway ads would do the same, seeing someone's book would do the same. The difference is, because now my mind is more focused, the distraction would simply be a long chain of thought rather than a pitstop in me hopping around from thought to thought. c) The fundamental idea why this process works is that you prevent your rain from 'getting excited'. Social Media makes your brain excited, a podcast, or an audiobook or a book is not as 'exciting' as 20 links on reddit /r/funny. So I believe that theoretically podcast, music, audiobooks should work (though nothing would work as well as doing nothing and getting bored, but as I mentioned, that might be hard), as long as it meets following two criteria: 1. The book, podcast, audiobook you're into is a relatively calm story, if the podcast is about last year's elections, or it's a real page turner novel or music is the latest album you just discovered by your favorite music artist then it might not be as effective. 2. The activity you're doing, should be long enough to last your commute. If you're reading newspaper, then you're reading 15 different stories, with their own dopamine spikes in your mind. d) Over long period I believe your brain will go through neuroplasticity and become calmer. I have already experienced that. There are some 'other' effects I observe because of this, but my productivity is so high. Not to mention I'm finally working on my dream side project and I stopped procrastinating regarding nearly everything. I hope this helps.

arkaic 10y ago

How long have you practiced this?

splintercell 10y ago
I admit that I haven't been doing this for really long, (started around the week of the election, so around 3-4 months). But the more important thing is that it worked from the day 1. I rarely see things which work from the first day.

jansenv 10y ago

This is an interesting concept, but it still requires self control. I could browse all day if I wanted but I WANT to get more work done, but I cant help it. But when I get into that state of flow it seems like nothing can tear me away from my work. I'll try this.

Jemmeh 10y ago
You can use something like StayFocusd to force yourself off it. It won't allow you to reach the distracting websites no matter what you do. Forced boredom. Though personally I've found if I just log out of facebook and my personal email, that helps. I can't open a tab and have rewards in less than 2 seconds. The extra few seconds to type in a password slows me down enough to just close the tab again and get back to work.
- secfirstmd 10y ago
  Yep couldn't agree more. It's actually embarrasing how many times I end up seeing the Focus App blocking screen during a very distracted day.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
splintercell 10y ago
> This is an interesting concept, but it still requires self control. I could browse all day if I wanted but I WANT to get more work done, but I cant help it. It doesn't require that much self-control as you may think. The important part is to control that 'first' desire of looking at your phone or opening up distracting sites. What I found is that if I can curb that first desire to get distracted, then the rest of everything is super easy. But if I can't curb that first desire (which usually happens on Mondays), then I have to write that day off to non-productivity. I started this project last November, and coincided with shutting down Facebook notifications (which helped me a lot). Two weeks ago I uninstalled Facebook mobile app and now I only check facebook by logging into the web version.
- 10y ago

Stanish 10y ago

Tell me more about your morning dump!

secfirstmd 10y ago
Surely thats where the best thinking gets done...
- jwdunne 10y ago
  Or where you find the best "you'll never believe what she did next"

hiddencost 10y ago

This sounds like you're going after similar things as mindfulness meditation.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

andrewmcwatters 10y ago

Thank you for posting this. This is a very significant, specific, and actionable way of thinking about productivity.

chrismealy 10y ago

I've never consciously done this but looking back I've definitely been the most productive when I didn't have anything better to do. Thanks for spelling it out!

et-al 10y ago

Thanks for (re)posting this--the clear desk analogy was very communicative. For a while, I found myself waking up and spending a good 20-30 minutes in bed just reading news, then I'd open up the laptop and browse HN while eating breakfast, and before you knew it, it was 10:30 and I still haven't left the house. Gotta spring clean again. Thanks!

josephjrobison 10y ago

This is awesome. I recently started banning all news websites and Twitter until 4pm and that's worked well. Telling yourself you can't use these things ever again is one thing, telling yourself you can use them, but only after 4pm is a lot easier to manage.

grassroots-io 10y ago

Thanks for posting this, it definitely synthesizes something I've been struggling with. I did have a question on your method though: Do you count radio, music audio books and podcasts as social media / something to stay away from, even during your commute? I have found podcasts and audio books to be very interesting and draining so I can see those probably need to be eliminated for sure. But for music I'd be very interested in your take. My commute would be quite dry without it (although maybe that's the point haha)

splintercell 10y ago
I just wanna prefix this by saying that I am still trying to figure things out, all I am sure of is that I am onto something big. That being said, here are my observations: a) The days when I work from home, I focus better than the days when I work in the office. I believe the reason behind this is the fact that during WFH days I just make myself coffee and breakfast, and then start working. On WFO days, I have to go through a commute which increases my chances of getting distracted. b) During my commute, literally anything would trigger 'distractive thoughts' because my mind is so bored. Subway ads would do the same, seeing someone's book would do the same. The difference is, because now my mind is more focused, the distraction would simply be a long chain of thought rather than a pitstop in me hopping around from thought to thought. c) The fundamental idea why this process works is that you prevent your rain from 'getting excited'. Social Media makes your brain excited, a podcast, or an audiobook or a book is not as 'exciting' as 20 links on reddit /r/funny. So I believe that theoretically podcast, music, audiobooks should work (though nothing would work as well as doing nothing and getting bored, but as I mentioned, that might be hard), as long as it meets following two criteria: 1. The book, podcast, audiobook you're into is a relatively calm story, if the podcast is about last year's elections, or it's a real page turner novel or music is the latest album you just discovered by your favorite music artist then it might not be as effective. 2. The activity you're doing, should be long enough to last your commute. If you're reading newspaper, then you're reading 15 different stories, with their own dopamine spikes in your mind. d) Over long period I believe your brain will go through neuroplasticity and become calmer. I have already experienced that. There are some 'other' effects I observe because of this, but my productivity is so high. Not to mention I'm finally working on my dream side project and I stopped procrastinating regarding nearly everything. I hope this helps.