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I have a much simpler technique: Always have a non-empty drink on your desk. It makes you take breaks to get a new drink and to go to the restroom. During these
by flor1s 9y ago
I have a much simpler technique: Always have a non-empty drink on your desk. It makes you take breaks to get a new drink and to go to the restroom. During these breaks you can procrastinate.
It keeps you hydrated (drink water, tea [caffeine free in the afternoon] and coffee) and makes sure you don't sit at your desk for too long periods at a time.
- nothis 9y agoBasically, the timing is just how a human being does exhausting work, isn't it? The exact minutes aside, you work for a bit, then you need a break (5 minutes is nothing, really). After a while, you need a bigger break. It's how I do it, without thinking (and admittedly, whenever I break that kind of cycle too drastically, I get unproductive). I feel like a lot of these "life hack" kinda things are essentially just little pieces of entertainment/motivation you need to muster the initial energy needed to break a bad habit. Pomodoro sounds fun, it means tomato. It might let you fiddle with an app. You can track your progress and have fun charts to compare with potentially exciting results. And you have a story to tell people when they ask about your work. The actual benefit of partitioning your day into exact 25 minute intervals is probably negligible, but while you're dealing with all this, you're actively working on being more productive and that alone has its benefits. It's probably a chicken-or-the-egg problem or even a plain old placebo effect, but it seems to work. Especially engineering types (as most people on hackernews) tend to have a problem accepting how convoluted psychology is, but sometimes just the decision to try to fix something fixes it.
- Kodix 9y agoThe largest benefit of Pomodoro for me is just starting things instead of procrastinating. It's a very "light" thought that I'll just spend a pomodoro on something, making it easy to get started. And once you get started, it almost always gets far easier to continue than to stop.
- vborovikov 9y agoThat's called Zeigarnik effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeigarnik_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeigarnik_effect
- kthejoker2 9y agoLike the old writer's trick of leaving your daily work mid-sentence / paragraph to keep your mind working on it even in "offline mode."
- darpa_escapee 9y agoI feel that Pomodoro and friends are similar to many diets: they might be placebo, but in the end you will focus on and address a problem directly.
- everdev 9y agoI do this as well and it's fantastic. Also, a standing desk helps as I rarely want to stand up and procrastinate. It's too easy for me to feel lazy sitting in a chair.
- rqs 9y agoI'm also standing when working, however, my feet hurts if I'm wearing a wrong shoes that day. Guess people who want to try out standing desk may also need pair of a good & soft running shoes.
- newfoundglory 9y agoSpend the money on a mat to stand on. It makes a huge difference versus standing on a regular hard floor.
- partycoder 9y agoYou can also try a standing desk. One with a memory setting works best.
- jdpigeon 9y agoI do this exact thing. And make jokes to my team about how I practice "beverage-driven development"
- itronitron 9y agovery important to stay hydrated as it also promotes regular intervals, following a short walk, when you can feel the stress just leaving your body
- Rifu 9y agoI tell my team I practice 'pee-modoro'
- lexxed 9y agoPomodoro Cup ?
- TeMPOraL 9y agoYeah, I do that with tea. Some time ago, I was making myself another cup at work late afternoon when my boss came, and he asked me if I'm staying longer today. I said no, I'm just staying for about one more tea. He asked me, jokingly, if I measure my work time in teas? I said, actually, I do - one tea takes me ~25-30 minutes to drink, so it's a pretty good unit of time...
- majewsky 9y ago> beverage-driven development Since quite some time, the bio on my Twitter is "This process emits code when Premium Cola is present on stdin."
- xab9 9y agoSame here. At least (to me) it feels a bit more natural. I also eat an apple at half past ten, forcing myself to peel and cut the fruit and try to think about things unrelated to the current task.
- b__d 9y agoWhy do you peel it? All the "good stuff" is in the skin.
- cdancette 9y agoAll the "bad stuff" is also in the skin if it's not organic.
- hueving 9y agoAnd if it's organic. Organic does not mean they don't use fertilizers or have cleaner apples in general. If you're worried about bad chemicals that can't be washed off then the core would likely be poisoned as well because it's going through the skin.
- cdancette 9y agoIn europe, with organic foods you have a very clear list of which fertilizers are authorized. And those authorized are not poison, they are not harmful for the organism. For dirt, you can just wash it. Dirt is not harmful and doesn't penetrate the fruit. About chemicals, a large part stays in the skin of fruits / vegetables, so it's always better to remove it when you're eating non organic food.
- echion 9y agoDitto - plus gets you around to interact with co-workers, which is also a benefit.
- inopinatus 9y agoThe downside of this technique is getting into the zone but being forced to leave your desk for organic reasons. A pomodoro timer, you can turn off.