9 ms·

Build a Focus System for Better Work/Life Balance as a Web Developer

148 points by raddevon 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
andy_adams 8y ago
Rather than setting a timer + starting/stopping music, I'm a huge advocate of Focus@Will[1], which is basically a combo of the items mentioned in this article: No need to select music (they have an extensive library). You just set a timer and you get a "ding" to start work, which is oddly effective at getting you into the zone. I've found it also helps to build a list of tasks _before_ you start working for the day. Then you can do your focused sessions 1 after the other, without wondering "What's next?". [1] https://focusatwill.go2cloud.org/SH3f https://focusatwill.go2cloud.org/SH3f (Affiliate link. I'm a happy customer and longtime advocate.)
- rhizome 8y ago
  It's not dispositive, but googling "go2cloud.org" does not reinforce legitimacy, i.e. "risky click."
  - monkeynotes 8y ago
    Dammit, I thought YC was a safe place. After signing up I guess I can now expect some spam in my inbox.
- monkeynotes 8y ago
  Yeah, I'm not gonna supply credit card / paypal for a 'free' trial. That's just greasy. If the product is worth paying for I'd be sure to add my credit card after the trial.
- ElijahLynn 8y ago
  I am a big fan of Focus@Will, I bought a lifetime subscription on Cyber Monday. However, it is hard to use their application (the streaming stops too much) and it doesn't integrate with Google Home, so I cannot say Focus@Will etc. And therefore end up using Google Music more with "Hey Google Play Focus Music" and it usually plays a station called Electronic Focus (https://play.google.com/music/r/m/Ln4hob7zcot52fkp5xudi2tiubi?t=Electronic_Focus https://play.google.com/music/r/m/Ln4hob7zcot52fkp5xudi2tiub...), which gives me long periods of deep, serene, intense focus.
hagridaaron91 8y ago
TL;DR Pomodoro
pmarreck 8y ago
Shameless plug for https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/ which is probably the single greatest productivity/focus-encouraging tool I've ever encountered... and all it really does is give you transparency into your own habits
- sdrothrock 8y ago
  > transparency into your own habits Truth. This is why counting calories works for dieting, too; most people aren't aware of how their perceptions differ from reality. There's a huge difference between "I check HN a couple times a day when I bored" and "wow, Rescuetime says I spent 2 hours and 38 minutes of my workday on HN."
  - mr_spothawk 8y ago
    2.5 hours of subsidized web surfing... not bad!
ksk 8y ago
These articles seem to popup with some frequency on HN. Can someone post their results? How has your output/productivity changed before/after using these techniques?
- andy_adams 8y ago
  I generally have 2 kinds of workdays: 1. Those where I work on whatever is in front of me for however long it takes me. 2. Those where I start the day by listing out the tasks for the day, then use chunks of 45 mins with non-distracting music (no lyrics, simple, constant beats) to knock out the tasks in the order I set them up. I take breaks between. The days where I adhere strictly to #2 are my most productive. Having a routine and triggers to focus has changed how much I get done. So yes, these things do have an effect.
  - ksk 8y ago
    Well I am not denying that they have an effect. I simply would like to see some metrics that would help quantify the effect. People have pet peeves about using bug fixes or lines of code or whatever, so they're free to use whatever metric they like. After all, there must be something objective that they notice has changed before/after the use of the technique.
VyseofArcadia 8y ago
I find it a struggle to use pomodoro in an office environment. Too many meatspace distractions. Pomodoro is best when you are working by yourself on something. Of course office distractions are a problem in more than just that way. Hard to stay in the zone when things keep yanking you out.
douglaswlance 8y ago
I have all notifications off permanently except for texts and calls. If something is really urgent, people know how to get ahold of me. 99.9999% of the time, tasks are async, and don't require immediate attention.
- eckza 8y ago
  I've not taken measures that drastic, but by severely limiting how many notifications I get on any given day, I've noticed a significant decrease in anxiety. Notification fatigue is very real.
- SatvikBeri 8y ago
  I'm on the very extreme end of being bothered by notifications, so I set things up so that my wife and coworkers can contact me at work, but no one else can. Conversely, I don't check email outside of work. This works pretty well for me.
- mr_spothawk 8y ago
  I set my iPhone to 24/7 DND it took a bit for my friends to get used to it. come to think of it, I haven't heard from them in a while.
eckza 8y ago
I feel like while all of these productivity "hacks" and systems (like Pomodoro) may have some merit, they're completely unnecessary. It's really not too hard to: * Work. * If you lose focus, be mindful of the fact that your attention is wandering, and focus on your work again. This part takes some discipline. Discipline takes time to develop. Be patient. * If you feel that you cannot focus on your work, get up and walk around. Go to the bathroom. Step outside for a moment. Take yourself out of the work, then return to your desk and immediately dive back in. * Accept that you're a human - not a robot; that 100% efficiency is unattainable; and that it's a waste of your only life to try to attain 8 hours of productive work in an 8 hour day. I don't need a timer. I don't need to develop Pavlovian responses to a mysterious ticking noise. I don't want the overhead of "productivity management applications". I just want to put my hands to work, until the work's done, and then do the next thing. [edit:formatting]
- dllthomas 8y ago
  > It's really not too hard What's hard for others may not match what's hard for you.
  - Moru 8y ago
    This is a wisdom that comes with age. Everyone is different and some have more problems to concentrate and can take different levels of stress. What most see as lazy might be people that has burned out already, just haven't realized it, thinking it's just the way it's supposed to be. Be careful with how you work, you might be able to cope right now but your brain will make sure to break when it gets too much and the cost might be pretty high.
  - Bukhmanizer 8y ago
    Also, what counts as "work" might not match up. For some people, "working" means just sitting in front of a computer for a set amount of time. Especially with intellectual work, it's hard to balance the amount of time thinking about how to solve a problem, vs. actually implementing the solution. For all we know the person who says "you just have to have discipline" spends 95% of their time falling into random rabbit holes, and 5% actually coding, and so never gets anything done. Or otherwise, maybe they spend 99% of their time coding, but never actually stop to think about ways to solve the problem better. I'm not saying that productivity tools solve all your problems, but I find that it makes it easier to choose how much time I spend on each thing.
chipuni 8y ago
I've found that http://mynoise.net http://mynoise.net offers better sounds for concentration than most music. Using https://brainaural.com/ https://brainaural.com/ with brainwaves at about 13.5 Hz - 14 Hz also seems to help my concentration. (I have no idea whether it's a placebo, tied to habit.)
- rconti 8y ago
  I haven't tried these sites yet, I'll take a look. Do you use noise-cancelling headphones? The best feature I've found with my QC35 is not so much the noise cancelling but the combination of noise cancelling and audio. Obviously with noise cancelling on, I can hear most of what's going on around me, just a bit dulled. But add in a VERY small amount of quiet music and the rest of the world disappears in a way it doesn't with just NC.. or that requires MUCH louder music without NC.
  - chipuni 8y ago
    I do use noise-cancelling headphones. I use some inexpensive Sony headphones that have basic noise cancelling, and they have helped a LOT in the open office.
Moru 8y ago
I'm curious how work and breaks are set up in other countries. In Sweden we have a long tradition of 2 hour work, short coffee break, 2 hour work. Lunchbreak 30-60 minutes, repeat. The long break has to be latest after five hours and is not counted towards working time. You are allowed to leave the workplace. The shorter breaks is included in your work time but has no forced length other than it has to be adapted to the workplace and rythm. It can also be 5 minutes every hour. Up to the company. The longer break is supposed to be minimum 30 minutes but I don't think that is in the law. Unions usually recommend 60 minutes. Taking a coffee break is almost mandatory, even the boss will look funny at you if you skip it. This is where you talk about the day, plans ahead and other things connected to work or life in general. While of course drinking that all important coffee which is also almost mandatory. This is where most youth learn to drink coffee, at their first job. Most likely learn how to cook it too :-)
- Swizec 8y ago
  > Taking a coffee break is almost mandatory, even the boss will look funny at you if you skip it. This is where you talk about the day, plans ahead and other things connected to work or life in general. While of course drinking that all important coffee which is also almost mandatory. In my experience Americans took this concept and turned it into the brutally utilitarian daily standup. Chop chop no chitchat get to work meetings are a waste of time! Then they said you know what this is taking too long. Let’s just do standup via Slack. I miss the morning coffee from my first jobs in Europe.
  - ClassyJacket 8y ago
    I'm in Melbourne, Australia where we pride ourselves on the ridiculous number of coffee shops on every block. So I know what you mean. American coffee from their TV shows has always looked revolting to me... black, stagnating in a pot all day, with cold, unsteamed milk poured in at the last second, or some powdered artificial whitener. I wish I didn't get a terrible, irritable downer later in the day from caffeine. The boost of happiness it provided every morning made it so much easier to get thru the day (Still slugging thru IT support while I try to find time to get a coding portfolio going. I sometimes find a few hours a week!). That feeling of being lifted, up, everything becoming easier and more exciting and less stressful... One large coffee was a good hour of euphoria, and something to look forward to - 'In an hour I get my coffee!'. If it was a weekend sometimes I would code like a madman. Unfortunately, the lunatic huddled on the floor I become at 6pm wasn't worth it. It fries my brain worse than any other drug - and a drug it is. It's really quite ridiculous to me that one drug is so acceptable while all others are considered the worst thing you could possibly do.
itamarst 8y ago
Focus is nice, but it'll only get you so far. Much more useful is prioritizing your work, and avoiding unnecessary work. Focusing on bad implementation: a waste of time. Focusing on bad solution: a waste of time. Focusing on solving wrong problem: a waste of time. Choosing the right problem, the right solution, and not wasting time during implementation (e.g. by spinning wheels without asking for help) will give you order of magnitude improvement. Focus will get you smaller improvements, though it is useful. More here on what it takes to be productive here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-productive/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-pro... (And my personal take on staying focused, which is a lot more about goals and less about distractions: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/)
alkonaut 8y ago
Isn’t the word “Web” in the title completely unnecessary? I couldn’t see anything in the article that was specific for web development compared to any other kind of software developer! Or is “web developer” used almost as a synonym for “software developer” now, as a way of disambiguating from e.g. a “brand developer” or “property developer”?
- moltar 8y ago
  Ya I was super confused by that too. Scrolled up and down to see if I missed web specific suggestions.
  - mr_spothawk 8y ago
    it's "web" because the recommended app only works on chromebooks
gexla 8y ago
Productivity is a personal journey, yet everyone who writes these articles feels they have the holy grail and everyone should know about it. Worse is that most likely a few months down the road, they could (and probably will) write a different post because everything they wrote about previously has changed. The only things which stay the same in my work environment is my text editor and maybe my chair.
yosito 8y ago
I could never be productive in software using the Pomodoro technique. In order to make progress on most of the things I work on, I need 3-4 hour windows of uninterrupted focus where I don't get out of my seat. If I was interrupting myself every x minutes, I wouldn't get anything done.
- mr_spothawk 8y ago
  for the last few weeks I've been working from a kitchen counter in a small studio apt. it's about the perfect height for a standup desk, within 5 paces of a toilet and the refrigerator. I've managed to set it up with a 2nd monitor & I'm really impressed with the "flow" I've found. in a week or so, I'll move on to the next spot... let's hope it can be as successfully productive.
diegoserranoa 8y ago
These are all the usual advices for remote workers (not saying it's bad advice, there's just nothing novel about them). It really depends on how each person is able to manage they're own work. One a side note, about the phone thing, I read this https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-a-toll-on-your-thinking?referral=03758&cm_vc=rr_item_page.top_right https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-... the other day and I totally agree with it. Having my phone close, even when it is turned off, still causes some level of distraction to me. So lately I just leave my phone in a different room when I'm working and I just check it when I take a break, etc. Obviously this wouldn't apply to, say, an assistant, who will probably need the phone to make/receive calls.
ElijahLynn 8y ago
About the music, I find that noise cancelling headphones in the office are mandatory if I really want to block out distractions. Now that I work from home though, I crank the music up complete with subwoofer, which is a treat I could never get working in an office. Focus music, plus great sound (w/sub) is so effective for me.
wainstead 8y ago
> As far as what you should listen to, I’d recommend something without vocals. I highly recommend "Drone Zone" on http://soma.fm http://soma.fm "Deep Space One" and "Space Station Soma" work too.
- mr_spothawk 8y ago
  "Music for Programming" podcast is pretty solid. http://www.musicforprogramming.net http://www.musicforprogramming.net
mr_spothawk 8y ago
My best productivity hack is: don't try to be productive without a clearly defined goal.
dalu 8y ago
idk.. every time I open a page like this I think "what are they going to try and sell me this time" Everyone is different. For instance I have productivity phases, and non-productivity phases. I have about 2-3 weeks of hardcore 12-14 hours / day coding sprees and then I just can't even if I try and sit there for hours, nothing good or much happens. So I do other, fun stuff, not work related, useless wastes of time. And then I see something or get reminded of something and BAM I'm back on the coding spree and I dare you to interrupt me. I order food, at most I take a 30min walk out the house for bare minimum health, but the rest of time is dedicated to getting the job done. And then... relaxation phase. And something else. If my mind feels like it need to wander off, then it should. You don't sprint all the time, you also sit down somewhere and enjoy the scenery. That wandering mind thing means you need a break and maybe should end work soonish and do fun things.

148 points by raddevon 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Rather than setting a timer + starting/stopping music, I'm a huge advocate of Focus@Will[1], which is basically a combo of the items mentioned in this article: No need to select music (they have an extensive library). You just set a timer and you get a "ding" to start work, which is oddly effective at getting you into the zone. I've found it also helps to build a list of tasks _before_ you start working for the day. Then you can do your focused sessions 1 after the other, without wondering "What's next?". [1] https://focusatwill.go2cloud.org/SH3f https://focusatwill.go2cloud.org/SH3f (Affiliate link. I'm a happy customer and longtime advocate.)

rhizome 8y ago
It's not dispositive, but googling "go2cloud.org" does not reinforce legitimacy, i.e. "risky click."
- monkeynotes 8y ago
  Dammit, I thought YC was a safe place. After signing up I guess I can now expect some spam in my inbox.
monkeynotes 8y ago
Yeah, I'm not gonna supply credit card / paypal for a 'free' trial. That's just greasy. If the product is worth paying for I'd be sure to add my credit card after the trial.
ElijahLynn 8y ago
I am a big fan of Focus@Will, I bought a lifetime subscription on Cyber Monday. However, it is hard to use their application (the streaming stops too much) and it doesn't integrate with Google Home, so I cannot say Focus@Will etc. And therefore end up using Google Music more with "Hey Google Play Focus Music" and it usually plays a station called Electronic Focus (https://play.google.com/music/r/m/Ln4hob7zcot52fkp5xudi2tiubi?t=Electronic_Focus https://play.google.com/music/r/m/Ln4hob7zcot52fkp5xudi2tiub...), which gives me long periods of deep, serene, intense focus.

hagridaaron91 8y ago

TL;DR Pomodoro

pmarreck 8y ago

Shameless plug for https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/ which is probably the single greatest productivity/focus-encouraging tool I've ever encountered... and all it really does is give you transparency into your own habits

sdrothrock 8y ago
> transparency into your own habits Truth. This is why counting calories works for dieting, too; most people aren't aware of how their perceptions differ from reality. There's a huge difference between "I check HN a couple times a day when I bored" and "wow, Rescuetime says I spent 2 hours and 38 minutes of my workday on HN."
- mr_spothawk 8y ago
  2.5 hours of subsidized web surfing... not bad!

ksk 8y ago

These articles seem to popup with some frequency on HN. Can someone post their results? How has your output/productivity changed before/after using these techniques?

andy_adams 8y ago
I generally have 2 kinds of workdays: 1. Those where I work on whatever is in front of me for however long it takes me. 2. Those where I start the day by listing out the tasks for the day, then use chunks of 45 mins with non-distracting music (no lyrics, simple, constant beats) to knock out the tasks in the order I set them up. I take breaks between. The days where I adhere strictly to #2 are my most productive. Having a routine and triggers to focus has changed how much I get done. So yes, these things do have an effect.
- ksk 8y ago
  Well I am not denying that they have an effect. I simply would like to see some metrics that would help quantify the effect. People have pet peeves about using bug fixes or lines of code or whatever, so they're free to use whatever metric they like. After all, there must be something objective that they notice has changed before/after the use of the technique.

VyseofArcadia 8y ago

I find it a struggle to use pomodoro in an office environment. Too many meatspace distractions. Pomodoro is best when you are working by yourself on something. Of course office distractions are a problem in more than just that way. Hard to stay in the zone when things keep yanking you out.

douglaswlance 8y ago

I have all notifications off permanently except for texts and calls. If something is really urgent, people know how to get ahold of me. 99.9999% of the time, tasks are async, and don't require immediate attention.

eckza 8y ago
I've not taken measures that drastic, but by severely limiting how many notifications I get on any given day, I've noticed a significant decrease in anxiety. Notification fatigue is very real.
SatvikBeri 8y ago
I'm on the very extreme end of being bothered by notifications, so I set things up so that my wife and coworkers can contact me at work, but no one else can. Conversely, I don't check email outside of work. This works pretty well for me.
mr_spothawk 8y ago
I set my iPhone to 24/7 DND it took a bit for my friends to get used to it. come to think of it, I haven't heard from them in a while.

eckza 8y ago

I feel like while all of these productivity "hacks" and systems (like Pomodoro) may have some merit, they're completely unnecessary. It's really not too hard to: * Work. * If you lose focus, be mindful of the fact that your attention is wandering, and focus on your work again. This part takes some discipline. Discipline takes time to develop. Be patient. * If you feel that you cannot focus on your work, get up and walk around. Go to the bathroom. Step outside for a moment. Take yourself out of the work, then return to your desk and immediately dive back in. * Accept that you're a human - not a robot; that 100% efficiency is unattainable; and that it's a waste of your only life to try to attain 8 hours of productive work in an 8 hour day. I don't need a timer. I don't need to develop Pavlovian responses to a mysterious ticking noise. I don't want the overhead of "productivity management applications". I just want to put my hands to work, until the work's done, and then do the next thing. [edit:formatting]

dllthomas 8y ago
> It's really not too hard What's hard for others may not match what's hard for you.
- Moru 8y ago
  This is a wisdom that comes with age. Everyone is different and some have more problems to concentrate and can take different levels of stress. What most see as lazy might be people that has burned out already, just haven't realized it, thinking it's just the way it's supposed to be. Be careful with how you work, you might be able to cope right now but your brain will make sure to break when it gets too much and the cost might be pretty high.
- Bukhmanizer 8y ago
  Also, what counts as "work" might not match up. For some people, "working" means just sitting in front of a computer for a set amount of time. Especially with intellectual work, it's hard to balance the amount of time thinking about how to solve a problem, vs. actually implementing the solution. For all we know the person who says "you just have to have discipline" spends 95% of their time falling into random rabbit holes, and 5% actually coding, and so never gets anything done. Or otherwise, maybe they spend 99% of their time coding, but never actually stop to think about ways to solve the problem better. I'm not saying that productivity tools solve all your problems, but I find that it makes it easier to choose how much time I spend on each thing.

chipuni 8y ago

I've found that http://mynoise.net http://mynoise.net offers better sounds for concentration than most music. Using https://brainaural.com/ https://brainaural.com/ with brainwaves at about 13.5 Hz - 14 Hz also seems to help my concentration. (I have no idea whether it's a placebo, tied to habit.)

rconti 8y ago
I haven't tried these sites yet, I'll take a look. Do you use noise-cancelling headphones? The best feature I've found with my QC35 is not so much the noise cancelling but the combination of noise cancelling and audio. Obviously with noise cancelling on, I can hear most of what's going on around me, just a bit dulled. But add in a VERY small amount of quiet music and the rest of the world disappears in a way it doesn't with just NC.. or that requires MUCH louder music without NC.
- chipuni 8y ago
  I do use noise-cancelling headphones. I use some inexpensive Sony headphones that have basic noise cancelling, and they have helped a LOT in the open office.

Moru 8y ago

I'm curious how work and breaks are set up in other countries. In Sweden we have a long tradition of 2 hour work, short coffee break, 2 hour work. Lunchbreak 30-60 minutes, repeat. The long break has to be latest after five hours and is not counted towards working time. You are allowed to leave the workplace. The shorter breaks is included in your work time but has no forced length other than it has to be adapted to the workplace and rythm. It can also be 5 minutes every hour. Up to the company. The longer break is supposed to be minimum 30 minutes but I don't think that is in the law. Unions usually recommend 60 minutes. Taking a coffee break is almost mandatory, even the boss will look funny at you if you skip it. This is where you talk about the day, plans ahead and other things connected to work or life in general. While of course drinking that all important coffee which is also almost mandatory. This is where most youth learn to drink coffee, at their first job. Most likely learn how to cook it too :-)

Swizec 8y ago
> Taking a coffee break is almost mandatory, even the boss will look funny at you if you skip it. This is where you talk about the day, plans ahead and other things connected to work or life in general. While of course drinking that all important coffee which is also almost mandatory. In my experience Americans took this concept and turned it into the brutally utilitarian daily standup. Chop chop no chitchat get to work meetings are a waste of time! Then they said you know what this is taking too long. Let’s just do standup via Slack. I miss the morning coffee from my first jobs in Europe.
- ClassyJacket 8y ago
  I'm in Melbourne, Australia where we pride ourselves on the ridiculous number of coffee shops on every block. So I know what you mean. American coffee from their TV shows has always looked revolting to me... black, stagnating in a pot all day, with cold, unsteamed milk poured in at the last second, or some powdered artificial whitener. I wish I didn't get a terrible, irritable downer later in the day from caffeine. The boost of happiness it provided every morning made it so much easier to get thru the day (Still slugging thru IT support while I try to find time to get a coding portfolio going. I sometimes find a few hours a week!). That feeling of being lifted, up, everything becoming easier and more exciting and less stressful... One large coffee was a good hour of euphoria, and something to look forward to - 'In an hour I get my coffee!'. If it was a weekend sometimes I would code like a madman. Unfortunately, the lunatic huddled on the floor I become at 6pm wasn't worth it. It fries my brain worse than any other drug - and a drug it is. It's really quite ridiculous to me that one drug is so acceptable while all others are considered the worst thing you could possibly do.

itamarst 8y ago

Focus is nice, but it'll only get you so far. Much more useful is prioritizing your work, and avoiding unnecessary work. Focusing on bad implementation: a waste of time. Focusing on bad solution: a waste of time. Focusing on solving wrong problem: a waste of time. Choosing the right problem, the right solution, and not wasting time during implementation (e.g. by spinning wheels without asking for help) will give you order of magnitude improvement. Focus will get you smaller improvements, though it is useful. More here on what it takes to be productive here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-productive/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/10/04/technical-skills-pro... (And my personal take on staying focused, which is a lot more about goals and less about distractions: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/ https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/)

alkonaut 8y ago

Isn’t the word “Web” in the title completely unnecessary? I couldn’t see anything in the article that was specific for web development compared to any other kind of software developer! Or is “web developer” used almost as a synonym for “software developer” now, as a way of disambiguating from e.g. a “brand developer” or “property developer”?

moltar 8y ago
Ya I was super confused by that too. Scrolled up and down to see if I missed web specific suggestions.
- mr_spothawk 8y ago
  it's "web" because the recommended app only works on chromebooks

gexla 8y ago

Productivity is a personal journey, yet everyone who writes these articles feels they have the holy grail and everyone should know about it. Worse is that most likely a few months down the road, they could (and probably will) write a different post because everything they wrote about previously has changed. The only things which stay the same in my work environment is my text editor and maybe my chair.

yosito 8y ago

I could never be productive in software using the Pomodoro technique. In order to make progress on most of the things I work on, I need 3-4 hour windows of uninterrupted focus where I don't get out of my seat. If I was interrupting myself every x minutes, I wouldn't get anything done.

mr_spothawk 8y ago
for the last few weeks I've been working from a kitchen counter in a small studio apt. it's about the perfect height for a standup desk, within 5 paces of a toilet and the refrigerator. I've managed to set it up with a 2nd monitor & I'm really impressed with the "flow" I've found. in a week or so, I'll move on to the next spot... let's hope it can be as successfully productive.

diegoserranoa 8y ago

These are all the usual advices for remote workers (not saying it's bad advice, there's just nothing novel about them). It really depends on how each person is able to manage they're own work. One a side note, about the phone thing, I read this https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-a-toll-on-your-thinking?referral=03758&cm_vc=rr_item_page.top_right https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-... the other day and I totally agree with it. Having my phone close, even when it is turned off, still causes some level of distraction to me. So lately I just leave my phone in a different room when I'm working and I just check it when I take a break, etc. Obviously this wouldn't apply to, say, an assistant, who will probably need the phone to make/receive calls.

ElijahLynn 8y ago

About the music, I find that noise cancelling headphones in the office are mandatory if I really want to block out distractions. Now that I work from home though, I crank the music up complete with subwoofer, which is a treat I could never get working in an office. Focus music, plus great sound (w/sub) is so effective for me.

wainstead 8y ago

> As far as what you should listen to, I’d recommend something without vocals. I highly recommend "Drone Zone" on http://soma.fm http://soma.fm "Deep Space One" and "Space Station Soma" work too.

mr_spothawk 8y ago
"Music for Programming" podcast is pretty solid. http://www.musicforprogramming.net http://www.musicforprogramming.net

mr_spothawk 8y ago

My best productivity hack is: don't try to be productive without a clearly defined goal.

dalu 8y ago

idk.. every time I open a page like this I think "what are they going to try and sell me this time" Everyone is different. For instance I have productivity phases, and non-productivity phases. I have about 2-3 weeks of hardcore 12-14 hours / day coding sprees and then I just can't even if I try and sit there for hours, nothing good or much happens. So I do other, fun stuff, not work related, useless wastes of time. And then I see something or get reminded of something and BAM I'm back on the coding spree and I dare you to interrupt me. I order food, at most I take a 30min walk out the house for bare minimum health, but the rest of time is dedicated to getting the job done. And then... relaxation phase. And something else. If my mind feels like it need to wander off, then it should. You don't sprint all the time, you also sit down somewhere and enjoy the scenery. That wandering mind thing means you need a break and maybe should end work soonish and do fun things.