16 ms·

Could a randomness machine help you fight procrastination?

156 points by arnejenssen 6y ago

Scarblac 6y ago
I don't know how effective this will be but you sound exactly like me, so I have to try this.
Jommi 6y ago
My original assumption based on the title was that the author was going to use a randomness machine to assign tasks to himself. Because usually procrastination isn't about not wanting to do something, but just getting over that initial hurdle.
- arnejenssen 6y ago
  That is a good point. I realise the title is misleading.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  I had the same thought, but the opposite strategy of randomizing the break rewards is actually pretty interesting.
- robotbikes 6y ago
  I have done that at times, when nothing is particularly compelling but I have a lot of potential things I could work on. I would come up with a list of 20 things and include possibly some fun activities that aren't necessarily productive. Assign a number to each and roll a 20 sided die. It usually worked pretty well, especially if a focused on actions that I could actually do or next actions in GTD terminology. Maybe not the best productivity hack but a good way to break an impasse of being overwhelmed by too many things to do.
seesawtron 6y ago
You should try Stretchly. Its a desktop application that forces you to work with the Pomodoro routine. It can get really annoying when you are coding and want to finish that last bit of code but otherwise I liked it.
tomcooks 6y ago
I use the same method to force myself to do exercises. I do standing desk coding for 1 pomodoro, then exercises (alternating pushups, squats, wall sits, mountain climbers, jumping jacks) during the 4 of the 5min breaks. This way I can intermittently break a sweat and find time to exercise during the day. Much like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QqoSyqckqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QqoSyqckqA but spread across working hours.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
rantwasp 6y ago
Randotron, stop the procrastination!
- donquichotte 6y ago
  You s.o.a.b., I'm in.
  - rantwasp 6y ago
    I’m in, I’m out. Who’s kidneys are these?
rzzzt 6y ago
At first, I thought Nir Eyal is a partial anagram/pseudonym of Dan Ariely.
- beagle3 6y ago
  Both are unmistakably Israeli names.
XCSme 6y ago
This could be an app.
TACIXAT 6y ago
This sounds really cool. The other thing I would like is more sound effects on real life goals. I play Overwatch, and I always say I wish the stuff I want to be doing would make that sweet headshot ding. Patch in a bell into AFL for everytime it finds a crash. Maybe even a generic function I can throw at the end of main so when my code builds and runs I'll get that audio stimulation.
tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
Slight offtopic: The web site's GDPR notice is worth a read. It caught my attention by actually having an equally-sized decline button, which is sadly so rare that it stands out. (TL;DR: They make clear that it's your choice and that they use analytics with privacy-friendly settings to make the site better for readers.) And it's incredible what an effect such a small gesture of respect has. On any other site I'd have CTRL-W'd such a long-winded explanation much earlier. The TL;DR of the article - Adding randomized rewards to the Pomodoro technique by randomizing what fun/distrating thing you'll do during your break, later mixing in other "healthy" activities in with the "fun" stuff.
- vikramkr 6y ago
  I was really impressed by that notice. A clear decline button, an explanation of the cookie, that was awesome.
- gurjeet 6y ago
  I intend to use that clear, concise language, normal sized fonts, button size, button colors to correlate with effects of the action, and humility in my future projects. Oh dear, I am thinking of copying all of it! I hope they don't send lawyers after me :) That all made me click the "Accept" button rather than "Decline" which I usually do when given a choice. Loved that the very first sentence gave the reader the choice to decline. Perhaps that made me read the rest of it, or maybe I was already biased (unlikely, but possible) based on the comment here I had read in its praise.
boffinism 6y ago
I think he got distracted while typing 'Indesctractible' in the first sentence, and procrastinated instead of proof reading...
- arnejenssen 6y ago
  Thanks :)
oh_sigh 6y ago
What does it mean when I pull out "Muhammad hands you a salmon football helmet" out of my machine?
UweSchmidt 6y ago
I don't like convoluted schemes to make myself "productive". Hold a carrot on a stick in one hand, a whip in the other and feel bad about myself? That's no way to live. I try to find better reasons why I do the things that I do - why isn't it exciting right now? I try to check my emotions - is something bothering me so I flee to Instagram? I actively try to enjoy small pauses to reflect on what I just did, read or learned, how to generalize, memorize and improve it. And I want to smell the flowers along the way, just like all humans have done before us.
- pavel_lishin 6y ago
  > I try to check my emotions - is something bothering me so I flee to Instagram? What do you do when you know what's bothering you, but it's not something you can really fix? I know why I'm stressed, but the dishes still need to be cleaned.
  - UweSchmidt 6y ago
    Well, I'm currently taking some time off, working a bit on two unpaid, fun projects. I am learning some Docker, I take long walks and practice yoga. My stress level has reduced.
  - grawprog 6y ago
    I try to remember that if there's nothing I fan do about something, there's no point in worrying about it. Worrying should be a call to action, the energy you spend worrying is better spent solving.the thing you're worrying about, if you can't, or can't until a later date, then it's pointless to worry. The other thing is, at least i've found anyway, i've usually been wrong about whatever i've worried about, either the severity of my worries were excessive or I ended up being blindsided by something totally different than what I was actually worried about. That being said, it's hard, I still find myself overwhelmed by things I'm worried about, so that's when I follow what UweSchmidt said and focus on hobbies and activities and stuff. But, i've found that can be kind of dangerous because, at least, me personally i end up becoming focused on these things to the detriment of the rest of my life and I still end up not washing the dishes and stuff.
LifeLiverTransp 6y ago
Just quit and find meaningfull work. Procrastination is your subconcious protesting whoring yourself out to the man for trinkets.
bobblywobbles 6y ago
No, I don't think it can (completely). If you procrastinate, you lack discipline. No technology can change or give you discipline. You have to work on it and you can't let yourself say no, it's a mindset.
- nitrogen 6y ago
  Procrastination can be caused by any number of things separate from a lack of discipline. It can be a subconscious signal that we doubt the importance of a task. It can be a signal that we unconsciously know we aren't prepared for a task. Maybe it's a strategy to wait until the last possible moment so we have the best possible information and maybe even find an alternative task that is better. I don't believe "discipline" is a useful concept for everyone. We all have different brains and different circumstances. Some are motivated by discipline and duty, others by novelty and randomness. To an extent most of us can exert our will to build more of one side or the other, but it's much more efficient to exploit our supposed weaknesses at the same time as we build our strengths. I feel like I've seen examples of the "discipline" crowd and let's call it the "gamification" crowd preaching their one true way, so it's clear that both seem to work for some people, and maybe we can all try to apply some of each to solving problems of motivation and procrastination. But speaking for myself, discipline is rarely the tool that works for me, and it's just that after some amount of waiting I suddenly feel ready to take on whatever it was I was delaying. I think that some kind of randomness might actually help if I can summon the discipline to do just one thing if I don't yet know what it is (I haven't read the article yet so I don't know if what they describe is similar to what I've been noodling on the back burner of ideas).
- Scarblac 6y ago
  Everybody has limited discipline. The trick is to not need discipline. By making work more fun, perhaps. And this sounds like a bit of fun. A better way is to only do what you actually, really want to be doing, but - most of us don't always have that luxury - often we would like to have something done while not really wanting to do - fear of failure, fear of success etc can make us procrastinate even on things we actually want to do.
- james_s_tayler 6y ago
Torwald 6y ago
> " …here’s the method I am using at the moment with great success. You need a random-number generator to work it." http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-time-management.html#comment20750649 http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-tim...
karaterobot 6y ago
I'd like to see a followup after 6 months or so. Are you still using the method, and is it still having a noticeable affect on your productivity and well-being?
- james_s_tayler 6y ago
  This. Always see so many "I've been doing X lately and I'm so productive!" How long you been doing it? "Oh, about 2 weeks" I'm guilty of the same thing. We probably all are. But it makes me all this stuff with a sceptical eye.
  - nefitty 6y ago
    I created a Notion doc (instead of in my huge Evernote notebook, and right after abandoning workflowy and right before I discovered Roam...) to list out all the productivity methods I’ve tried and ones I have yet to try. After several hours, I had listed dozens and dozens of tactics I’ve tried with specific examples of how I used them. I had not been faithful to any of them for longer than six months. This stresses me out. Is there something wrong with me? Do I have some problem with my “internal authority”? Maybe bucking it so many times and so often is contributing to its influence on me...
    - purplerabbit 6y ago
      There is nothing fundamentally wrong with you -- many of us are in the same boat. It's a problem you can make progress on, not an inescapable curse. When you're addicted to novelty, mechanical approaches like pomodoro or the one described in this post aren't good long-term solutions. I would suggest checking out more mindfulness-based approaches. Here's my current recipe: 1. Notice when I feel the pull of a distraction. 2. Stop what I'm doing. Literally stop everything for as long as I need to clear my mind. This usually takes about 15 seconds, but sometimes it takes more like 10 minutes. This part is really hard -- when I started doing it, I would feel guilty for "wasting time", even though getting distracted often meant 20 minutes, an hour, or even more completely wasted, and in the worst, most guilt-inducing way. 3. Once my mind is clear, ask myself this question: "What do I truly _want_ to do with this moment of my life?" 4. Do that thing. If I want to cruise Reddit for half an hour, I'll cruise Reddit for half an hour, and feel good about it. If I want to go back to my original task -- that's great. If I want to call up my dad and see how he's doing, or write a nice note to my wife, that's even better. Never do anything you don't want to do. It's the _guilt_ that's unhealthy and addicting. Do what you _want_ to do -- and that doesn't have to look like being a programmer/working prodigy all the time. I regularly fail at this, but over the past year, I've gotten better. And I promise you can, too. Learn to be happy, and you'll be more productive :)
AlexCoventry 6y ago
I need to make the breaks more structured than that. I find meditating during the breaks is helpful to keep me on course, and also improves my attitude during the work.

156 points by arnejenssen 6y ago

I don't know how effective this will be but you sound exactly like me, so I have to try this.

My original assumption based on the title was that the author was going to use a randomness machine to assign tasks to himself. Because usually procrastination isn't about not wanting to do something, but just getting over that initial hurdle.

arnejenssen 6y ago
That is a good point. I realise the title is misleading.
nitrogen 6y ago
I had the same thought, but the opposite strategy of randomizing the break rewards is actually pretty interesting.
robotbikes 6y ago
I have done that at times, when nothing is particularly compelling but I have a lot of potential things I could work on. I would come up with a list of 20 things and include possibly some fun activities that aren't necessarily productive. Assign a number to each and roll a 20 sided die. It usually worked pretty well, especially if a focused on actions that I could actually do or next actions in GTD terminology. Maybe not the best productivity hack but a good way to break an impasse of being overwhelmed by too many things to do.

seesawtron 6y ago

You should try Stretchly. Its a desktop application that forces you to work with the Pomodoro routine. It can get really annoying when you are coding and want to finish that last bit of code but otherwise I liked it.

tomcooks 6y ago

I use the same method to force myself to do exercises. I do standing desk coding for 1 pomodoro, then exercises (alternating pushups, squats, wall sits, mountain climbers, jumping jacks) during the 4 of the 5min breaks. This way I can intermittently break a sweat and find time to exercise during the day. Much like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QqoSyqckqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QqoSyqckqA but spread across working hours.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

rantwasp 6y ago

Randotron, stop the procrastination!

donquichotte 6y ago
You s.o.a.b., I'm in.
- rantwasp 6y ago
  I’m in, I’m out. Who’s kidneys are these?

rzzzt 6y ago

At first, I thought Nir Eyal is a partial anagram/pseudonym of Dan Ariely.

beagle3 6y ago
Both are unmistakably Israeli names.

XCSme 6y ago

This could be an app.

TACIXAT 6y ago

This sounds really cool. The other thing I would like is more sound effects on real life goals. I play Overwatch, and I always say I wish the stuff I want to be doing would make that sweet headshot ding. Patch in a bell into AFL for everytime it finds a crash. Maybe even a generic function I can throw at the end of main so when my code builds and runs I'll get that audio stimulation.

tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago

Slight offtopic: The web site's GDPR notice is worth a read. It caught my attention by actually having an equally-sized decline button, which is sadly so rare that it stands out. (TL;DR: They make clear that it's your choice and that they use analytics with privacy-friendly settings to make the site better for readers.) And it's incredible what an effect such a small gesture of respect has. On any other site I'd have CTRL-W'd such a long-winded explanation much earlier. The TL;DR of the article - Adding randomized rewards to the Pomodoro technique by randomizing what fun/distrating thing you'll do during your break, later mixing in other "healthy" activities in with the "fun" stuff.

vikramkr 6y ago
I was really impressed by that notice. A clear decline button, an explanation of the cookie, that was awesome.
gurjeet 6y ago
I intend to use that clear, concise language, normal sized fonts, button size, button colors to correlate with effects of the action, and humility in my future projects. Oh dear, I am thinking of copying all of it! I hope they don't send lawyers after me :) That all made me click the "Accept" button rather than "Decline" which I usually do when given a choice. Loved that the very first sentence gave the reader the choice to decline. Perhaps that made me read the rest of it, or maybe I was already biased (unlikely, but possible) based on the comment here I had read in its praise.

boffinism 6y ago

I think he got distracted while typing 'Indesctractible' in the first sentence, and procrastinated instead of proof reading...

arnejenssen 6y ago
Thanks :)

oh_sigh 6y ago

What does it mean when I pull out "Muhammad hands you a salmon football helmet" out of my machine?

UweSchmidt 6y ago

I don't like convoluted schemes to make myself "productive". Hold a carrot on a stick in one hand, a whip in the other and feel bad about myself? That's no way to live. I try to find better reasons why I do the things that I do - why isn't it exciting right now? I try to check my emotions - is something bothering me so I flee to Instagram? I actively try to enjoy small pauses to reflect on what I just did, read or learned, how to generalize, memorize and improve it. And I want to smell the flowers along the way, just like all humans have done before us.

pavel_lishin 6y ago
> I try to check my emotions - is something bothering me so I flee to Instagram? What do you do when you know what's bothering you, but it's not something you can really fix? I know why I'm stressed, but the dishes still need to be cleaned.
- UweSchmidt 6y ago
  Well, I'm currently taking some time off, working a bit on two unpaid, fun projects. I am learning some Docker, I take long walks and practice yoga. My stress level has reduced.
- grawprog 6y ago
  I try to remember that if there's nothing I fan do about something, there's no point in worrying about it. Worrying should be a call to action, the energy you spend worrying is better spent solving.the thing you're worrying about, if you can't, or can't until a later date, then it's pointless to worry. The other thing is, at least i've found anyway, i've usually been wrong about whatever i've worried about, either the severity of my worries were excessive or I ended up being blindsided by something totally different than what I was actually worried about. That being said, it's hard, I still find myself overwhelmed by things I'm worried about, so that's when I follow what UweSchmidt said and focus on hobbies and activities and stuff. But, i've found that can be kind of dangerous because, at least, me personally i end up becoming focused on these things to the detriment of the rest of my life and I still end up not washing the dishes and stuff.

LifeLiverTransp 6y ago

Just quit and find meaningfull work. Procrastination is your subconcious protesting whoring yourself out to the man for trinkets.

bobblywobbles 6y ago

No, I don't think it can (completely). If you procrastinate, you lack discipline. No technology can change or give you discipline. You have to work on it and you can't let yourself say no, it's a mindset.

nitrogen 6y ago
Procrastination can be caused by any number of things separate from a lack of discipline. It can be a subconscious signal that we doubt the importance of a task. It can be a signal that we unconsciously know we aren't prepared for a task. Maybe it's a strategy to wait until the last possible moment so we have the best possible information and maybe even find an alternative task that is better. I don't believe "discipline" is a useful concept for everyone. We all have different brains and different circumstances. Some are motivated by discipline and duty, others by novelty and randomness. To an extent most of us can exert our will to build more of one side or the other, but it's much more efficient to exploit our supposed weaknesses at the same time as we build our strengths. I feel like I've seen examples of the "discipline" crowd and let's call it the "gamification" crowd preaching their one true way, so it's clear that both seem to work for some people, and maybe we can all try to apply some of each to solving problems of motivation and procrastination. But speaking for myself, discipline is rarely the tool that works for me, and it's just that after some amount of waiting I suddenly feel ready to take on whatever it was I was delaying. I think that some kind of randomness might actually help if I can summon the discipline to do just one thing if I don't yet know what it is (I haven't read the article yet so I don't know if what they describe is similar to what I've been noodling on the back burner of ideas).
Scarblac 6y ago
Everybody has limited discipline. The trick is to not need discipline. By making work more fun, perhaps. And this sounds like a bit of fun. A better way is to only do what you actually, really want to be doing, but - most of us don't always have that luxury - often we would like to have something done while not really wanting to do - fear of failure, fear of success etc can make us procrastinate even on things we actually want to do.
james_s_tayler 6y ago

Torwald 6y ago

> " …here’s the method I am using at the moment with great success. You need a random-number generator to work it." http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-time-management.html#comment20750649 http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-tim...

karaterobot 6y ago

I'd like to see a followup after 6 months or so. Are you still using the method, and is it still having a noticeable affect on your productivity and well-being?

james_s_tayler 6y ago
This. Always see so many "I've been doing X lately and I'm so productive!" How long you been doing it? "Oh, about 2 weeks" I'm guilty of the same thing. We probably all are. But it makes me all this stuff with a sceptical eye.
- nefitty 6y ago
  I created a Notion doc (instead of in my huge Evernote notebook, and right after abandoning workflowy and right before I discovered Roam...) to list out all the productivity methods I’ve tried and ones I have yet to try. After several hours, I had listed dozens and dozens of tactics I’ve tried with specific examples of how I used them. I had not been faithful to any of them for longer than six months. This stresses me out. Is there something wrong with me? Do I have some problem with my “internal authority”? Maybe bucking it so many times and so often is contributing to its influence on me...
  - purplerabbit 6y ago
    There is nothing fundamentally wrong with you -- many of us are in the same boat. It's a problem you can make progress on, not an inescapable curse. When you're addicted to novelty, mechanical approaches like pomodoro or the one described in this post aren't good long-term solutions. I would suggest checking out more mindfulness-based approaches. Here's my current recipe: 1. Notice when I feel the pull of a distraction. 2. Stop what I'm doing. Literally stop everything for as long as I need to clear my mind. This usually takes about 15 seconds, but sometimes it takes more like 10 minutes. This part is really hard -- when I started doing it, I would feel guilty for "wasting time", even though getting distracted often meant 20 minutes, an hour, or even more completely wasted, and in the worst, most guilt-inducing way. 3. Once my mind is clear, ask myself this question: "What do I truly _want_ to do with this moment of my life?" 4. Do that thing. If I want to cruise Reddit for half an hour, I'll cruise Reddit for half an hour, and feel good about it. If I want to go back to my original task -- that's great. If I want to call up my dad and see how he's doing, or write a nice note to my wife, that's even better. Never do anything you don't want to do. It's the _guilt_ that's unhealthy and addicting. Do what you _want_ to do -- and that doesn't have to look like being a programmer/working prodigy all the time. I regularly fail at this, but over the past year, I've gotten better. And I promise you can, too. Learn to be happy, and you'll be more productive :)

AlexCoventry 6y ago

I need to make the breaks more structured than that. I find meditating during the breaks is helpful to keep me on course, and also improves my attitude during the work.