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Discipline is the solution. I'm not being facetious, the bottleneck to individual human productivity is usually the human. Over-planning and focusing on tangen

Discipline is the solution. I'm not being facetious, the bottleneck to individual human productivity is usually the human. Over-planning and focusing on tangential problems are frequently just rationalizing away procrastination... "maybe this mountain of work will take less effort with a better organization system" - probably not. These days I prefer using org-mode for notes, MoSCoW for triaging, and Omnifocus for execution. It took months to become proficient, but now getting in the zone is effortless.

nikki93 9y ago
What's MoSCoW? Wasn't able to find anything in this domain named that from a couple simple Google searches...
- PeterStuer 9y ago
  "The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in management, business analysis, project management, and software development to reach a common understanding with stakeholders on the importance they place on the delivery of each requirement; it is also known as MoSCoW prioritization or MoSCoW analysis. The term MoSCoW itself is an acronym derived from the first letter of each of four prioritization categories (Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have), with the interstitial Os added to make the word pronounceable. While the Os are usually in lower-case to indicate that they do not stand for anything, the all-capitals MOSCOW is also used." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method
  - losteric 9y ago
    ^- this. If I execute without a prioritized list, I tend to focus on the fun/easy "could" and "won't" tasks. Creating a MoSCoW list for myself keeps me honest and acts as a forcing function for discipline.
vinceguidry 9y ago
Discipline is the solution, with the caveat that the mountain of work needs to actually be worth accomplishing. Procrastination is often the mind's way of forcing you to consider your deeper priorities.
- cJ0th 9y ago
  I'd say discipline is just one factor. Another one is that many of us do poor thinking. When a task isn't well defined we tend to not do it. "Buy milk" is clear, "implement backup script with rsync" is not. It may sound somewhat concrete but you have to ask yourself a bunch of question in order to have some clarity as to what that actually means. Often we then feel overwhelmed and procrastinate I'd say.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
> I'm not being facetious, the bottleneck to individual human productivity is usually the human. This too, is my realization, after a lot of introspection (and observing other people). Sadly, I never learned discipline. Given the anxiety issues I'm struggling with since late-teen/early-adulthood, I can see that my average performance is about 10% of my peak performance. I hear discipline is trainable, but I wasn't able to find something I could execute as an adult. I wish there was a training regimen with benefits that transfer to the rest of one's life (and not just making someone better at executing the training tasks).
- flippyhead 9y ago
  I think the key point here is that a solution that may work for some people is to be disciplined about working with the grain of your mind, instead of against it. In exercise people often think the harder you work the stronger you'll get. But actually eating, eating at the right times, and resting are just as important.
- losteric 9y ago
  Every adult has some discipline, what we often lack is practice. Discipline is not a binary skill, there are levels - at minimum, most adults know not to impulsively buy candy when checking out at a store. Leveling up is just a matter of exercising discipline to ignore greater impulses. Start by calibrating yourself. Where do you already have discipline? Going to work every day at the same time? Paying bills as soon as they arrive? Or maybe something harder, like cooking healthy meals every other day, going to the gym, or practicing an instrument? Understand your level, then find something just a little harder. Ideally, it should be a recurring task which you recognize requires discipline (ie something you want to have done, but don't look forward to doing). Find that task, then do it. Keep doing it until you can effortlessly climb over that mental barrier. Then, continue doing it while challenging yourself with something harder. As someone with ADD, it took a long time for me to become disciplined. I started out by going to the gym every other day, eventually working up to climbing mountains, learning instruments, and becoming one of the most organized people at work (while still being ADD). It's not easy. Of course not, discipline is the skill of doing hard things despite the difficulty. But if you're looking for "a training regimen with benefits that transfer to the rest of one's life" - this is it. Discipline is a higher-order skill that transfers to learning or doing everything else.
tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Discipline is the solution. Isn't that a bit like saying eating less is the solution to weight loss. It's true of course but completely useless advice for the majority of people who struggle with lack of discipline.
Bjartr 9y ago
Which becomes a bit of a chicken and egg problem if you lack discipline.

nikki93 9y ago

What's MoSCoW? Wasn't able to find anything in this domain named that from a couple simple Google searches...

PeterStuer 9y ago
"The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique used in management, business analysis, project management, and software development to reach a common understanding with stakeholders on the importance they place on the delivery of each requirement; it is also known as MoSCoW prioritization or MoSCoW analysis. The term MoSCoW itself is an acronym derived from the first letter of each of four prioritization categories (Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have), with the interstitial Os added to make the word pronounceable. While the Os are usually in lower-case to indicate that they do not stand for anything, the all-capitals MOSCOW is also used." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoSCoW_method
- losteric 9y ago
  ^- this. If I execute without a prioritized list, I tend to focus on the fun/easy "could" and "won't" tasks. Creating a MoSCoW list for myself keeps me honest and acts as a forcing function for discipline.

vinceguidry 9y ago

Discipline is the solution, with the caveat that the mountain of work needs to actually be worth accomplishing. Procrastination is often the mind's way of forcing you to consider your deeper priorities.

cJ0th 9y ago
I'd say discipline is just one factor. Another one is that many of us do poor thinking. When a task isn't well defined we tend to not do it. "Buy milk" is clear, "implement backup script with rsync" is not. It may sound somewhat concrete but you have to ask yourself a bunch of question in order to have some clarity as to what that actually means. Often we then feel overwhelmed and procrastinate I'd say.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

> I'm not being facetious, the bottleneck to individual human productivity is usually the human. This too, is my realization, after a lot of introspection (and observing other people). Sadly, I never learned discipline. Given the anxiety issues I'm struggling with since late-teen/early-adulthood, I can see that my average performance is about 10% of my peak performance. I hear discipline is trainable, but I wasn't able to find something I could execute as an adult. I wish there was a training regimen with benefits that transfer to the rest of one's life (and not just making someone better at executing the training tasks).

flippyhead 9y ago
I think the key point here is that a solution that may work for some people is to be disciplined about working with the grain of your mind, instead of against it. In exercise people often think the harder you work the stronger you'll get. But actually eating, eating at the right times, and resting are just as important.
losteric 9y ago
Every adult has some discipline, what we often lack is practice. Discipline is not a binary skill, there are levels - at minimum, most adults know not to impulsively buy candy when checking out at a store. Leveling up is just a matter of exercising discipline to ignore greater impulses. Start by calibrating yourself. Where do you already have discipline? Going to work every day at the same time? Paying bills as soon as they arrive? Or maybe something harder, like cooking healthy meals every other day, going to the gym, or practicing an instrument? Understand your level, then find something just a little harder. Ideally, it should be a recurring task which you recognize requires discipline (ie something you want to have done, but don't look forward to doing). Find that task, then do it. Keep doing it until you can effortlessly climb over that mental barrier. Then, continue doing it while challenging yourself with something harder. As someone with ADD, it took a long time for me to become disciplined. I started out by going to the gym every other day, eventually working up to climbing mountains, learning instruments, and becoming one of the most organized people at work (while still being ADD). It's not easy. Of course not, discipline is the skill of doing hard things despite the difficulty. But if you're looking for "a training regimen with benefits that transfer to the rest of one's life" - this is it. Discipline is a higher-order skill that transfers to learning or doing everything else.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago

Discipline is the solution. Isn't that a bit like saying eating less is the solution to weight loss. It's true of course but completely useless advice for the majority of people who struggle with lack of discipline.

Bjartr 9y ago

Which becomes a bit of a chicken and egg problem if you lack discipline.