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I don’t think it’s fair to believe I’m just saying “Be disciplined” when I explain how to manage your time. I do watch Netflix too. But it’s time boxed during

by bbx 6y ago

I don’t think it’s fair to believe I’m just saying “Be disciplined” when I explain how to manage your time. I do watch Netflix too. But it’s time boxed during the day, the same way working on projects is. And in a day, I don’t work more than 6 hours. I’m always done by 6pm and can do anything in the evening. The key is to manage your time during the day and stick to a plan. As a matter of fact, OP’s rules feel more like the army to me: having a different user or even laptop for a project, going to a different location, blocking websites like reddit… These are harder restrictions. If I really want to quit a project, I always can. I just need to close my code editor and my terminal. But in my mindset I don’t want to. Because the project is not a burden like the army: it’s 2-hour slots where I’m focused, not overwhelmed, and I know there’s an end to it. The door to leave is always open but I don’t want to take it. It’s different.

ramraj07 6y ago
People like me and OP can't do what you say, which is just timebox things. I suppose we are not disciplined that way. I know how important exercise is, but I still cannot bring myself to work out every day or even every week. The only solution that works for me at least somewhat sometimes is to throw money at it or put external methods of forcing me to do the thing I actually want to do long-term. As a matter of fact, I go a step ahead of OP and have a separate laptop for personal projects. It's crappy and can't do much other than ssh so it's perfect. I suppose as long as one finds a system it's okay? Perhaps if I get electroshock therapy and/or go to an ashram and meditate I might get more internal self-control, but I'm 32, and can't be bothered with it. Thats partly because I'm also not convinced it's that important that I become disciplined: sometimes being lazy feels good and maybe it's a part of what makes me who I am. I'm not self-sabotagingly lazy (except in exercise which I need to work on), so as long as I and others find a system why not?
raister 6y ago
That's interesting. I saw once Timothy Feriss interviewing Neil Gaiman, and it was about focus and whatnot, and Gaiman said: "whenever I'm blocked, I stop, and start doing nothing. I can't watch a movie, read a book, I do nothing. I have only two options: I work or I do nothing - I cannot do anything else. After a little while, things get really boring, and I think 'might as well go back to work' - and that works as a charm.". I guess that's a very good way of setting your focus straight, to obey your commands, instead of the other way around.
- ramraj07 6y ago
  I used to do that technique for studying for the GRE. And it worked like a charm for sure (aside: Barron's GRE word list had the word <n-word>dly as meaning lazy in 2007 still. I was a kid in India but even to me it sounded wrong). Neil's full time work is to write. I'm sure this is what he does 9-5 or whenever he writes profesdionally. I doubt he just sits without doing nothing in the weekend when he could be playing with his kids. Thats the issue. If I was demotivated to do this in my day job that's one thing. Motivating yourself for extra work is where it's hard.
  - nchelluri 6y ago
    A note on your aside: the word is niggardly, and root of the word is niggard, which according to this book I found via Wikipedia, is not related to the racist term: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IZRMl0NXHZ8C&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=middle+english+word+nig&#v=onepage&q=middle%20english%20word%20nig&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IZRMl0NXHZ8C&pg=PA34&lpg... > The term niggardly, arising in the Middle Ages, long predates the term <that word>, which arose in the 16th century. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n... I wonder if it should come into misuse just because of the confusion, though. Not sure.

by bbx 6y ago

ramraj07 6y ago

People like me and OP can't do what you say, which is just timebox things. I suppose we are not disciplined that way. I know how important exercise is, but I still cannot bring myself to work out every day or even every week. The only solution that works for me at least somewhat sometimes is to throw money at it or put external methods of forcing me to do the thing I actually want to do long-term. As a matter of fact, I go a step ahead of OP and have a separate laptop for personal projects. It's crappy and can't do much other than ssh so it's perfect. I suppose as long as one finds a system it's okay? Perhaps if I get electroshock therapy and/or go to an ashram and meditate I might get more internal self-control, but I'm 32, and can't be bothered with it. Thats partly because I'm also not convinced it's that important that I become disciplined: sometimes being lazy feels good and maybe it's a part of what makes me who I am. I'm not self-sabotagingly lazy (except in exercise which I need to work on), so as long as I and others find a system why not?

raister 6y ago

That's interesting. I saw once Timothy Feriss interviewing Neil Gaiman, and it was about focus and whatnot, and Gaiman said: "whenever I'm blocked, I stop, and start doing nothing. I can't watch a movie, read a book, I do nothing. I have only two options: I work or I do nothing - I cannot do anything else. After a little while, things get really boring, and I think 'might as well go back to work' - and that works as a charm.". I guess that's a very good way of setting your focus straight, to obey your commands, instead of the other way around.

ramraj07 6y ago
I used to do that technique for studying for the GRE. And it worked like a charm for sure (aside: Barron's GRE word list had the word <n-word>dly as meaning lazy in 2007 still. I was a kid in India but even to me it sounded wrong). Neil's full time work is to write. I'm sure this is what he does 9-5 or whenever he writes profesdionally. I doubt he just sits without doing nothing in the weekend when he could be playing with his kids. Thats the issue. If I was demotivated to do this in my day job that's one thing. Motivating yourself for extra work is where it's hard.
- nchelluri 6y ago
  A note on your aside: the word is niggardly, and root of the word is niggard, which according to this book I found via Wikipedia, is not related to the racist term: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IZRMl0NXHZ8C&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=middle+english+word+nig&#v=onepage&q=middle%20english%20word%20nig&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IZRMl0NXHZ8C&pg=PA34&lpg... > The term niggardly, arising in the Middle Ages, long predates the term <that word>, which arose in the 16th century. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n... I wonder if it should come into misuse just because of the confusion, though. Not sure.