5 ms·

How to reduce 'attention residue'

133 points by prostoalex 7y ago

marcofatica 7y ago
tl;dr do your chores
- quickthrower2 7y ago
  ... in batches ... then chill
madsbuch 7y ago
Maybe having endless to-do lists is more a symptom of an underlying issue that should be handled?
dboreham 7y ago
Sounds very similar to GTD
- mobattah 7y ago
  Yep. I already do this. Saw it was trending on LinkedIn. There's a LifeHacker article explaining how to use Trello (Kanban) + GTD. I do that for my life tasks. I look at the board most mornings, it helps keep me on track with life admin as well as career goals.
  - dboreham 7y ago
    fwiw you can use github for this also: project == kanban and issues == tasks. Set the repo private, probably.
- benjaminsuch 7y ago
  What is GTD?
  - grzm 7y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
  - PeterisP 7y ago
    Getting things done, one of the widespread methodologies for organizing your life based on a book with the same name by David Allen.
    - rhizome 7y ago
      I'd replace "methodologies" with "discussion topics." My ADHD doctor said something like 10% of those who attempt GTD stick with it. Turns out it's actually kind of complicated and takes quite a bit of focus!
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  Is GTD able to solve the never-ending to-do list issue the article mentions?
OldGuyInTheClub 7y ago
Some good tips for us mortals. I have admired Donald Knuth for many things[footnote] but especially for his stance on email which I use here as a stand-in for distractions. I wish I had 10% of his discipline! "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study. On the other hand, I need to communicate with thousands of people all over the world as I write my books. I also want to be responsive to the people who read those books and have questions or comments. My goal is to do this communication efficiently, in batch mode --- like, one day every six months. " https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html [footnote] I'm from the physical sciences, not CS, but the man transcends departments!
- nafizh 7y ago
  Well, most of us can't afford a secretary like him.
  - OldGuyInTheClub 7y ago
    I think he came up at a time when departments had staff to work with faculty. Of course when one reaches his level of fame, funding comes without asking. One downside of our computerized society is that people now have to do things because the tools supposedly exist for everything to be self serve. It marginalize the skills and talents of those who provided those valuable services in the past.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      Secretaries still exist.
      - p_l 7y ago
        outside of CEOs personal assistants, I have trouble encountering any within last 5 years - and the secretarial staff was visibly getting downsized at university before that, handling mostly the mail room
kingbirdy 7y ago
> The University of Melbourne has run a GYLIO week once every semester for at least a decade. It usually takes place around the middle of the semester in week five or six, and while the academic programme continues, the extensive social and partying schedule is paused to help students shift their priorities. The whole article falls apart right here for me, there's just no way this is true. I seriously doubt the University of Melbourne is in any way able to get its almost 50,000 enrolled students to stop partying for a week. They may run GYLIO events that week, but that doesn't mean it's going to get a bunch of college students to stop drinking.
- blyes 7y ago
  It sounds like GYLIO is for all social events and commitments which can be a HUGE part of university life for many people. I wouldn't equate it to just "not drinking and partying" From the article: “Given the many stimuli of life today, with students who are juggling the many opportunities colleges offer across all the areas from sport and culture to volunteering and leadership, having a week to ‘take a breath’ and get things done is essential,” she says. Also, many universities have the social scene orientated around the university social clubs and the university student association(s). Events and parties are often organised and run through these. Having them suspended for a week could easily have a huge impact on the 50,000 students, depending on the social culture of the university.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
zackmorris 7y ago
The related article in the sidebar is moderately insightful: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-procrastination-is-about-managing-emotions-not-time https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-procrastin... I've been working to overcome burnout that took me out of the game a year ago. What it basically came down to is that midlife crisis feelings had come to dominate my psyche. I found myself asking "what's the point?" about basic tasks that must be done. The start of a cure turned out to be separating a task into writing the todo list for it and then doing it afterwards. The next evolution of that is to also separate your evaluation of the work from the work itself, so that you don't wallow in critical feelings as you work. Try to be zenful and just concentrate on the now. Basically it all comes down to anxiety management. So for example, say you are cleaning and you get a text message to deal with an issue. I normally would make a mental note to remember to do it, since I lean towards intellectual pursuits. But it's better to add the item to the top of your todo list and stop thinking about it or the fear of forgetting it. Better yet, pause cleaning (since it's low-priority) and deal with the issue immediately. I've found that mechanizing the thought processes that I had taken for granted until they failed me boosted my mood. If you think of it as a scale from 0 to 10, our default with stress is to hover below a 5 (say 3). It takes effort to get above 5. But there is a stable orbit around 7 if you can maintain it for a few weeks. I think this is why people with a positive disposition have so much difficulty understanding people with anxiety, because physically they actually feel similar, it's just that our subjective interpretation of them are different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU Edit: the above is a TED talk about changing this subjective reaction to stress. Edit #2: I accidentally shared the wrong video, I was thinking of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE
- DantesKite 7y ago
  This is a great comment. Thank you. I appreciate the insights very deeply.
- duckmysick 7y ago
  The HN thread about the related article from a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22124489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22124489
perlpimp 7y ago
This seems reminiscent of the famous psychology professor statement, to get your bedroom in order.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
peteretep 7y ago
Huh. For about 15 years, the first thing I’ve done in the morning is a 25 minute “Administrivia” session, after rolling out of bed. I used to do a full GTD system, but now honestly it’s opening my todos, cleaning out my inbox into todos, tidying them up, prioritising them, and then doing the remaining twenty minutes of them. No more than 25 minutes, occasionally less than, and I think I’ve not been stressed about the (sometimes very large amounts of) admin bullshit that shows up in my life. When I had a real management job I did a second one of these for work each morning when I got in. Anyway, same system for 15 years, with occasional embellishments. These days I take two of them a week to do my personal and company accounts and budgeting instead.
ptah 7y ago
> Focusing on one task at a time until completion this is the essence of mindfulness

133 points by prostoalex 7y ago

marcofatica 7y ago

tl;dr do your chores

quickthrower2 7y ago
... in batches ... then chill

madsbuch 7y ago

Maybe having endless to-do lists is more a symptom of an underlying issue that should be handled?

dboreham 7y ago

Sounds very similar to GTD

mobattah 7y ago
Yep. I already do this. Saw it was trending on LinkedIn. There's a LifeHacker article explaining how to use Trello (Kanban) + GTD. I do that for my life tasks. I look at the board most mornings, it helps keep me on track with life admin as well as career goals.
- dboreham 7y ago
  fwiw you can use github for this also: project == kanban and issues == tasks. Set the repo private, probably.
benjaminsuch 7y ago
What is GTD?
- grzm 7y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
- PeterisP 7y ago
  Getting things done, one of the widespread methodologies for organizing your life based on a book with the same name by David Allen.
  - rhizome 7y ago
    I'd replace "methodologies" with "discussion topics." My ADHD doctor said something like 10% of those who attempt GTD stick with it. Turns out it's actually kind of complicated and takes quite a bit of focus!
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Apocryphon 7y ago
Is GTD able to solve the never-ending to-do list issue the article mentions?

OldGuyInTheClub 7y ago

Some good tips for us mortals. I have admired Donald Knuth for many things[footnote] but especially for his stance on email which I use here as a stand-in for distractions. I wish I had 10% of his discipline! "Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study. On the other hand, I need to communicate with thousands of people all over the world as I write my books. I also want to be responsive to the people who read those books and have questions or comments. My goal is to do this communication efficiently, in batch mode --- like, one day every six months. " https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html [footnote] I'm from the physical sciences, not CS, but the man transcends departments!

nafizh 7y ago
Well, most of us can't afford a secretary like him.
- OldGuyInTheClub 7y ago
  I think he came up at a time when departments had staff to work with faculty. Of course when one reaches his level of fame, funding comes without asking. One downside of our computerized society is that people now have to do things because the tools supposedly exist for everything to be self serve. It marginalize the skills and talents of those who provided those valuable services in the past.
  - lonelappde 7y ago
    Secretaries still exist.
    - p_l 7y ago
      outside of CEOs personal assistants, I have trouble encountering any within last 5 years - and the secretarial staff was visibly getting downsized at university before that, handling mostly the mail room

kingbirdy 7y ago

> The University of Melbourne has run a GYLIO week once every semester for at least a decade. It usually takes place around the middle of the semester in week five or six, and while the academic programme continues, the extensive social and partying schedule is paused to help students shift their priorities. The whole article falls apart right here for me, there's just no way this is true. I seriously doubt the University of Melbourne is in any way able to get its almost 50,000 enrolled students to stop partying for a week. They may run GYLIO events that week, but that doesn't mean it's going to get a bunch of college students to stop drinking.

blyes 7y ago
It sounds like GYLIO is for all social events and commitments which can be a HUGE part of university life for many people. I wouldn't equate it to just "not drinking and partying" From the article: “Given the many stimuli of life today, with students who are juggling the many opportunities colleges offer across all the areas from sport and culture to volunteering and leadership, having a week to ‘take a breath’ and get things done is essential,” she says. Also, many universities have the social scene orientated around the university social clubs and the university student association(s). Events and parties are often organised and run through these. Having them suspended for a week could easily have a huge impact on the 50,000 students, depending on the social culture of the university.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

zackmorris 7y ago

The related article in the sidebar is moderately insightful: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-procrastination-is-about-managing-emotions-not-time https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-procrastin... I've been working to overcome burnout that took me out of the game a year ago. What it basically came down to is that midlife crisis feelings had come to dominate my psyche. I found myself asking "what's the point?" about basic tasks that must be done. The start of a cure turned out to be separating a task into writing the todo list for it and then doing it afterwards. The next evolution of that is to also separate your evaluation of the work from the work itself, so that you don't wallow in critical feelings as you work. Try to be zenful and just concentrate on the now. Basically it all comes down to anxiety management. So for example, say you are cleaning and you get a text message to deal with an issue. I normally would make a mental note to remember to do it, since I lean towards intellectual pursuits. But it's better to add the item to the top of your todo list and stop thinking about it or the fear of forgetting it. Better yet, pause cleaning (since it's low-priority) and deal with the issue immediately. I've found that mechanizing the thought processes that I had taken for granted until they failed me boosted my mood. If you think of it as a scale from 0 to 10, our default with stress is to hover below a 5 (say 3). It takes effort to get above 5. But there is a stable orbit around 7 if you can maintain it for a few weeks. I think this is why people with a positive disposition have so much difficulty understanding people with anxiety, because physically they actually feel similar, it's just that our subjective interpretation of them are different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU Edit: the above is a TED talk about changing this subjective reaction to stress. Edit #2: I accidentally shared the wrong video, I was thinking of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rRgElTeIqE

DantesKite 7y ago
This is a great comment. Thank you. I appreciate the insights very deeply.
duckmysick 7y ago
The HN thread about the related article from a few weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22124489 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22124489

perlpimp 7y ago

This seems reminiscent of the famous psychology professor statement, to get your bedroom in order.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

peteretep 7y ago

Huh. For about 15 years, the first thing I’ve done in the morning is a 25 minute “Administrivia” session, after rolling out of bed. I used to do a full GTD system, but now honestly it’s opening my todos, cleaning out my inbox into todos, tidying them up, prioritising them, and then doing the remaining twenty minutes of them. No more than 25 minutes, occasionally less than, and I think I’ve not been stressed about the (sometimes very large amounts of) admin bullshit that shows up in my life. When I had a real management job I did a second one of these for work each morning when I got in. Anyway, same system for 15 years, with occasional embellishments. These days I take two of them a week to do my personal and company accounts and budgeting instead.

ptah 7y ago

> Focusing on one task at a time until completion this is the essence of mindfulness