4 ms·

I wonder if people with (adult) ADD are more susceptible to this. Same as the author, I would like to hear the story of someone breaking the cycle for good.

Ensorceled 4y ago
I think the cure is to find a couple of systems that work and "settle" on them and stick to them. I have settled on the idea of "Minimal Viable Day" and "Minimal Viable Week" ... what are things that, if I did those things AND NOTHING ELSE, I would consider the day and week a success. Friday afternoon, I create a MVW todo item with 2-3 important things in it for the next week. Every morning I create MVD todo item with several things in it (often a bunch of smaller items and one or two largish items). Everything else goes into the todo list and is ignored until the next MVD/MVW checkpoint. Now I ignore all other "productivity hacks" and focus on doing this one.
- Kosirich 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing. I understand what you mean and I'm currently doing something similar...again. What I (often) lack is the steps needed to go from a more complex long term project to MVW/MVD tasks and then sustaining that in the long run. I'm currently looking into ways of hacking this, this being the dopamine cycle.
  - Ensorceled 4y ago
    I've been doing SCRUM for a long time ... it's pretty natural for me to break down projects into smaller pieces that fit into a 1 week or 2 week cycle.
    - Kosirich 4y ago
      Yea, I've been thinking the same. I don't do so much scrum at work, but when I did and when I tried something similar on non-direct-work related projects it did something for me...In retrospect, I remember the pleasure of achieving certain amount of "points". When you break them down, do you try to "predict effort" in points or similar? I think it's perhaps time to try again.
      - Ensorceled 4y ago
        I just keep breaking it down until it either feels silly to break it down anymore and/or I can estimate the chunk fairly reliably.
alexalx666 4y ago
my ADD is coupled with being obsessive, this combo works
thenerdhead 4y ago
I'm writing a book on this(in my bio). I don't claim to have broke the cycle, but I discuss the challenges of my generation in it.
kstrauser 4y ago
I know I am. The catch is that I have to do at least a little bit of this if I want to not be homeless. I've settled on the Things app with something that looks vaguely like GTD if you squint: - I have an inbox. Everything I agree to do that I can't do in the next couple of minutes goes in there. "Buy dogfood". "Paint the house". "Do a thing for work". Everything. - I triage the inbox and put starting dates on everything I can't do right now (like "buy a Christmas ornament") so that they'll show up on my daily to-do list when the time comes. - I review everything weekly, add stuff I've forgotten, and delete things I've finished or abandoned. And that's about it. Thing is, without this system, I can't and won't remember to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't matter how important it is to me to make sure I buy an anniversary card for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late. The above is how I walk the line between "letting my life fall apart due to disorganization and forgetfulness" and "wasting time optimizing a fancy process".
- Kosirich 4y ago
  Thing is, without this system, I can't and won't remember to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't matter how important it is to me to make sure I buy an anniversary card for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late - this is exactly the sentence I have repeated over and over again to my wife...a bit scary. I do have a similar approach like you. What I'm f..ing furious about it is, that I had to reach my middle 20s in order to realize I have to have something like this at all(!). Why personal time organization isn't taught at schools is beyond me. For me the system I try to keep in place is: - Daily task list (personal) - this absolutely has to be done today (or it needs to be replaned) - Daily task list (work) - has to be done today or I have to make a more long term plan - Weekly house(hold) tasks - (this one I started recently) - I go through major stuff I have to do around the house (fence, paint ect) - Long term work project list - this holds everything I need to do for work... again less interesting issues gets re-prioritized often based on "current interest" - Calendar reminders (double/triple alerts)- stuff not to forget What I'm especially bad is tackling things that have a steep effort curve and don't produce a tangible "benefit (dopamine hit)" until further on. This I'm looking into hacking....perhaps the scrum point system is something that makes sense (and also recommended by comment above)

Ensorceled 4y ago

I think the cure is to find a couple of systems that work and "settle" on them and stick to them. I have settled on the idea of "Minimal Viable Day" and "Minimal Viable Week" ... what are things that, if I did those things AND NOTHING ELSE, I would consider the day and week a success. Friday afternoon, I create a MVW todo item with 2-3 important things in it for the next week. Every morning I create MVD todo item with several things in it (often a bunch of smaller items and one or two largish items). Everything else goes into the todo list and is ignored until the next MVD/MVW checkpoint. Now I ignore all other "productivity hacks" and focus on doing this one.

Kosirich 4y ago
Thanks for sharing. I understand what you mean and I'm currently doing something similar...again. What I (often) lack is the steps needed to go from a more complex long term project to MVW/MVD tasks and then sustaining that in the long run. I'm currently looking into ways of hacking this, this being the dopamine cycle.
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  I've been doing SCRUM for a long time ... it's pretty natural for me to break down projects into smaller pieces that fit into a 1 week or 2 week cycle.
  - Kosirich 4y ago
    Yea, I've been thinking the same. I don't do so much scrum at work, but when I did and when I tried something similar on non-direct-work related projects it did something for me...In retrospect, I remember the pleasure of achieving certain amount of "points". When you break them down, do you try to "predict effort" in points or similar? I think it's perhaps time to try again.
    - Ensorceled 4y ago
      I just keep breaking it down until it either feels silly to break it down anymore and/or I can estimate the chunk fairly reliably.

alexalx666 4y ago

my ADD is coupled with being obsessive, this combo works

thenerdhead 4y ago

I'm writing a book on this(in my bio). I don't claim to have broke the cycle, but I discuss the challenges of my generation in it.

kstrauser 4y ago

I know I am. The catch is that I have to do at least a little bit of this if I want to not be homeless. I've settled on the Things app with something that looks vaguely like GTD if you squint: - I have an inbox. Everything I agree to do that I can't do in the next couple of minutes goes in there. "Buy dogfood". "Paint the house". "Do a thing for work". Everything. - I triage the inbox and put starting dates on everything I can't do right now (like "buy a Christmas ornament") so that they'll show up on my daily to-do list when the time comes. - I review everything weekly, add stuff I've forgotten, and delete things I've finished or abandoned. And that's about it. Thing is, without this system, I can't and won't remember to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't matter how important it is to me to make sure I buy an anniversary card for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late. The above is how I walk the line between "letting my life fall apart due to disorganization and forgetfulness" and "wasting time optimizing a fancy process".

Kosirich 4y ago
Thing is, without this system, I can't and won't remember to do any of the things I need to. It doesn't matter how important it is to me to make sure I buy an anniversary card for my wife: I'll forget until it's too late - this is exactly the sentence I have repeated over and over again to my wife...a bit scary. I do have a similar approach like you. What I'm f..ing furious about it is, that I had to reach my middle 20s in order to realize I have to have something like this at all(!). Why personal time organization isn't taught at schools is beyond me. For me the system I try to keep in place is: - Daily task list (personal) - this absolutely has to be done today (or it needs to be replaned) - Daily task list (work) - has to be done today or I have to make a more long term plan - Weekly house(hold) tasks - (this one I started recently) - I go through major stuff I have to do around the house (fence, paint ect) - Long term work project list - this holds everything I need to do for work... again less interesting issues gets re-prioritized often based on "current interest" - Calendar reminders (double/triple alerts)- stuff not to forget What I'm especially bad is tackling things that have a steep effort curve and don't produce a tangible "benefit (dopamine hit)" until further on. This I'm looking into hacking....perhaps the scrum point system is something that makes sense (and also recommended by comment above)