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The problem with much of this advice is that all the difficulty is in the implementation. Like telling somebody the way to be healthy is to eat well, get enough

The problem with much of this advice is that all the difficulty is in the implementation. Like telling somebody the way to be healthy is to eat well, get enough sleep and exercise: knowing that is not sufficient to implement it successfully in general. Knowing good habits to develop is much less than half the battle. I already have a pretty good idea what I should be doing, all the difficulty is in effective implementation. Progress is often two steps forward and one step back and dedicating time and other limited resources (money, willpower) to one area (e.g. health and fitness) can often conflict with progress in another area (e.g. time to work or socialize). Knowing good habits is a good place to start but I'm much more interested in actionable advice to effectively develop and sustain good habits.

BenjaminTodd 10y ago
We cover a ton of advice on that in this section: https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/#9-try-out-this-list-of-ways-to-become-more-productive https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/#9-...
- mattnewport 10y ago
  That was actually the section I looked at most closely and suffers from the problem I'm describing. I've read getting things done, Zen to done, tried the pomodoro technique, read books on habit formation, tried apps like beeminder, habitRPG, etc. All of these have their merits but implementing them consistently is the whole problem, merely being aware of their existence is not sufficient.
  - BenjaminTodd 10y ago
    There is a chicken and egg problem - if you don't have the motivation to apply motivation techniques, then it's hard to get started. One of former staff members got out of this rut by using commitment techniques. https://80000hours.org/2013/04/increase-your-productivity-to-boost-your-impact/ https://80000hours.org/2013/04/increase-your-productivity-to... (And click through to the next post) You might also find The Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter a good, quick summary.
    - mattnewport 10y ago
      I actually went ahead and bought the Motivation Hacker before seeing your reply here from the link in the article as it sounded interesting. Motivation is a complex beast though, the evidence seems to be mixed on the degree to which it is a limited resource / can be increased through training but it certainly seems to be finite. I don't think the difficult of applying so many of these techniques consistently in practice comes down purely to motivation but it is no doubt a factor. When it comes down to it, a lot of this stuff is just straight up hard. Certainly there are little 'hacks' that I've picked up over the years that help in various areas but overall it is just hard, slow work, results are very difficult to measure in any way scientifically and there are always limits in time and other resources. Not to pick on GTD but just to use it as an example, it is not in fact very cheap or easy to try it out and see how you get on. It is difficult and time consuming to start the way it is recommended in the book, it is difficult and time consuming to stick with consistently and it is difficult to objectively measure its actual effectiveness. I'm not aware of any strong scientific evidence that people who are able to apply it consistently are actually more productive even.
      - rhizome 10y ago
        My ADHD doctor said less than 10% of the people who try GTD are able to make it work for them. It's hard.
hvidgaard 10y ago
There is a goal and a path to that goal. Here the goal is health. Show me 100 people, and I'll show you 100 different paths to health. Talking about techniques is fine, but nothing is "one size fits all". So all one really needs is the goal, ability to self improve and reflect, and then start on the journey. There is no "simple effective implementation".

BenjaminTodd 10y ago

We cover a ton of advice on that in this section: https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/#9-try-out-this-list-of-ways-to-become-more-productive https://80000hours.org/career-guide/how-to-be-successful/#9-...

mattnewport 10y ago
That was actually the section I looked at most closely and suffers from the problem I'm describing. I've read getting things done, Zen to done, tried the pomodoro technique, read books on habit formation, tried apps like beeminder, habitRPG, etc. All of these have their merits but implementing them consistently is the whole problem, merely being aware of their existence is not sufficient.
- BenjaminTodd 10y ago
  There is a chicken and egg problem - if you don't have the motivation to apply motivation techniques, then it's hard to get started. One of former staff members got out of this rut by using commitment techniques. https://80000hours.org/2013/04/increase-your-productivity-to-boost-your-impact/ https://80000hours.org/2013/04/increase-your-productivity-to... (And click through to the next post) You might also find The Motivation Hacker by Nick Winter a good, quick summary.
  - mattnewport 10y ago
    I actually went ahead and bought the Motivation Hacker before seeing your reply here from the link in the article as it sounded interesting. Motivation is a complex beast though, the evidence seems to be mixed on the degree to which it is a limited resource / can be increased through training but it certainly seems to be finite. I don't think the difficult of applying so many of these techniques consistently in practice comes down purely to motivation but it is no doubt a factor. When it comes down to it, a lot of this stuff is just straight up hard. Certainly there are little 'hacks' that I've picked up over the years that help in various areas but overall it is just hard, slow work, results are very difficult to measure in any way scientifically and there are always limits in time and other resources. Not to pick on GTD but just to use it as an example, it is not in fact very cheap or easy to try it out and see how you get on. It is difficult and time consuming to start the way it is recommended in the book, it is difficult and time consuming to stick with consistently and it is difficult to objectively measure its actual effectiveness. I'm not aware of any strong scientific evidence that people who are able to apply it consistently are actually more productive even.
    - rhizome 10y ago
      My ADHD doctor said less than 10% of the people who try GTD are able to make it work for them. It's hard.

hvidgaard 10y ago

There is a goal and a path to that goal. Here the goal is health. Show me 100 people, and I'll show you 100 different paths to health. Talking about techniques is fine, but nothing is "one size fits all". So all one really needs is the goal, ability to self improve and reflect, and then start on the journey. There is no "simple effective implementation".