Ask HN: How do you get in your "productive" mode?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1022679

by hajrice • 17 years ago

31 41 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm struggling with getting in my productive mode. For some reason, I can work for 10 straight hours if I'm at school, with my peers(I attend high school). Though, when home, I find it very hard to work at least 1h.

Suggestions? Thanks.

onewland• 17 years ago

I think the trick that almost everybody uses, even if they don't realize it, is to determine what the simplest (read: least time consuming) possible task to move their project forward is. Even if you spend time thinking about this and "not getting anything done", you're really getting planning done. When you've figured out what that task is it's easy to knock it out, and you'll probably do it pretty quickly because you've been thinking the problem through.

And don't read Hacker News :)

Zeleboba• 17 years ago

I agree with onewland: split your big task into small ones and solve them one by one.

My experience tells me that it works great, each completed task motivates me to next one and so on.

nroach• 17 years ago

Yep, I think this was just on HN recently: http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-mani...

I hadn't realized how accurately that describes my productive/unproductive periods.

chasingsparks• 17 years ago

I can't force it, but sometimes I can trick myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done

slmbrhrt• 17 years ago

I can't think straight without my headphones and some decent music or white noise.

I use awesomewm, which, like ratpoison and ion, works hard to maximize every window and minimize distractions.

It's also good to designate one part of your room as the spot where you get your work done, and sit there if and only if you're going to do work, so that you pair sitting at your desk with getting work done. If you can't get into hack mode after about fifteen minutes of sitting in front of your work, get up and do something like solve a Rubik's cube, play Tetris until you lose, or just go get something to drink, but then sit down and try again.

scottw• 17 years ago

You might want to consider that your brain has limits:

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2009/12/willpower.php

I don't want to say "you can't do it" but I remember from my school days hitting the wall and there was nothing I could do about it until I'd had time to rest and recharge.

Here are some interesting links about gumption I've collected over the past few months (mostly from HN):

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/burnout/ http://sivers.org/dont-fight-it http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/006569.html

In short, 10 hours of mental work might be your limit. I know that if I can squeeze in 10 solid hours of good creative mental work, I've had an extremely good day. Most good days I'll eek out 6 hours. Average days are probably around 4.

You might look at options to reduce that 10 hours somehow. Some people drop out of school, some just skip a class a day, some drop a class from the schedule altogether, etc.

You also don't talk about what your 11th hour is. Finding something interesting to you, especially if you're out of gumption, will be critical.

When you're full of mental energy, you can do anything; when you're out mental energy, your choices of what you can do are limited to easy things that are interesting.

Good luck!

csomar• 17 years ago

I think none of the above understood your problem. I have the same problem and my solution was to keep in the university library and study with my peers. Today life is distracting (emails, facebook, TV...) so you won't resist it.

Another solution is to sell your mobile, tv, laptop, xbox... you'll find your productive mode.

euccastro2• 17 years ago

"None of the above"? The comments get resorted based on popularity, you know. Also, people may add comments 'above' by replying to existing threads.

zaphar• 17 years ago

I've found that there are no tricks. It's mostly just sit down and start working. It'll take about 5-10 minutes of steady concentration and suddenly I'll drop into the zone. There is no substitute for "just do it" as far as my personal makeup goes. I used to try all the various hack your mind stuff that comes out every few years. But when it came down to it there was no substitute for just sheer concentration on the task at hand.

jhancock• 17 years ago

agreed. I've found the only trick is there are no tricks. It takes me more than 5-10 minutes to get into it, but within an hour or less usually, I find myself in the zone and can go for 12 hours.

donniefitz2• 17 years ago

I agree with this. Just doing it is the only trick. It helps to get off the social networks and websites (HN too), put your head down and just work.

After a short time, provided your work is somewhat engaging, you'll be in the zone in no time.

staunch• 17 years ago

The Chain Reaction Method. A little bit of work is enough to trigger a snowball effect. The only "trick" I use is to start by working on something that's extremely easy/fun first. Once I'm knee deep it's not difficult to take on more challenging things.

I still have no solution for the larger multi-week productivity swings that seem to occur...

aristoxenus• 17 years ago

Emphasis on "easy": even if it's just typo-fixing in your code or doing problems from week 1 of class, mundane/brainless tasks fine kindling for getting your brain chugging along for the bigger problems.

yummyfajitas• 17 years ago

Another suggestion in this vein. If you are in productive mode, leave the easy stuff alone.

Do the easy stuff when you need to get started.

thaumaturgy• 17 years ago

Work in a public place (cafe, library).

Alternatively, here's my trick: I have a "work" Pandora station. I turn it on when it's time to work, and I never turn it on unless I'm working. While it's on, it's time to work.

When it pauses after an hour, I can choose either to take a short break -- with the music off -- or I can immediately re-start it and continue to work for the next hour.

It's been a handy bit of mental conditioning.

gkoberger• 17 years ago

I need to make a to-do list (on paper, preferably) of the specific things that I need to get done

Then, I do them in order. Doing them in order is important- otherwise, I'll waste time procrastinate by trying to figure out what I should do next. If I do them in order, disregarding importance or difficulty, I don't spend half my time debating over whats next.

KentBeck• 17 years ago

Establishing a rhythm helps. Make a cup of tea every time you sit down to work. Light a candle. Turn on a certain style of music.

Me I like juggling as a warm up.

euccastro2• 17 years ago

Nitpick: did you mean "ritual"?

angelbob• 17 years ago

Something that often helps me: split into smaller tasks, but also prioritize. What is the most important thing I could do to get my work a step forward?

And by "forward" I mean "more usable" or "more releasable" rather than "cooler". That's important :-)

clistctrl• 17 years ago

1.) reduce distractions - this includes a clean workspace etc

2.) appropriate music - I cannot work without headphones, and appropriate music on, its more of a tool to drown out the rest of the world.

3.) caffine, cold - at work i drink coffee... its just not as effective. I used to drink a lot of red bull, but my heart started to feel funny so I switched to coke.

4.) Interest - I need to get myself interested in what i'm working on, this is incredibly difficult to do with job work. I'm still working on solving this one.

akkartik• 17 years ago

+1 to 1 and 4 (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956764, and that whole thread is related)

I'd put 1 more strongly - eradicate distractions. When I can't work I try to avoid doing distracting things. Even if it seems like you're doing nothing, keep on doing nothing. Take a nap. If you avoid distractions you eventually start working. If you succumb, you just start the spiral all over again.

jrockway2• 17 years ago

caffine, cold - at work i drink coffee... its just not as effective

I think it's a function of sugar. Really sweet coffee tastes terrible. Properly sweetened coffee does not give your brain that glucose rush that super-sweet soda does. (Soda can be super-sweet without tasting bad, apparently.)

(I drink a lot of coffee and tea, and it's nice, but sugary energy drinks are something my brain really enjoys the effect of. Not so good for the rest of your body, however.)

wvenable• 17 years ago

"Soda can be super-sweet without tasting bad, apparently."

It's the carbonation. Flat soda is undrinkably super-sweet.

alttab• 17 years ago

Diet Mountain Dew. Zero calories, all the speedy goodness. Nice and cold.

It makes some of the mundane line items or defect work seem like the next Google sometimes.

That, and going into the work thinking "this is the last code I will ever write" does the trick. Make your source code a work of art.

tigerthink2• 17 years ago

Seconding music, I've found this album to be good:

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/18256

access_denied• 17 years ago

I am doing Getting Things Done (GTD). One part of it is the so-called "Processing" step. That means you gather all your notes, scraps of paper and so on and work it into your GTD-system. I do this at the beginning of the workday and it helps to focus my mind on what is going on in my world. Because I have to think about my notes (What does that mean? Is it actionable?) I have to load the current "frontier" of problems into RAM. On most days this leads to automatically starting to work directly on the problem at hand and getting into the zone.

tungstenfurnace• 17 years ago

If it seems that you can't get some task done and you aren't making any progress this means that either (a) it lies beyond your present abilities, and/or (b) your heart isn't in it.

>I can work for 10 straight hours if I'm at school

This is part of the problem IMO. Schools are inherently coercive and this messes up one's approach to instrinsically motivated learning.

It is the task itself that provides the reward. If the work is noble and interesting and if it lies within your abilities then you will find sufficient vitality is available to perform it.

OTOH, forcing yourself to do stuff (as if you were still at school) causes the mind to slowly shut down (starting with loss of creativity).

>I find it very hard to work at least 1h

If you weren't doing the 'work', what would you be doing instead during that hour? Start with that, and do it better.

saurabh• 17 years ago

Do a ritual before you start working.

maqr• 17 years ago

Adderall.

tiffani• 17 years ago

Focus Factor works well enough for me. 8 pills a day/$40 per week for a bottle, and it's probably masking some underlying condition, but it works.

tetha• 17 years ago

One thing that works for me is thinking out aloud. I don't really understand why, and frequently, the spoken words turn into some foreign tongue no one really understands (especially if the train of thought goes faster), but somehow this helps with keeping the train of thought going against all kinds of obstacles and distractions.

wensing• 17 years ago

Headphones and a clear schedule in front of me. A cup of tea or coffee can help.

As far as music goes, have an album that you can put on infinite loop.

nostrademons• 17 years ago

Are you trying to work for 1h on top of the 10h you've already worked in school? If so, that may be your problem.

Almost nobody can work for 10h straight. I'd guess that you're taking breaks for lunch and between classes, and to hang out with friends. It could just be that you've run out of juice by the time you get home.

I've found that I get about 3-4h of good, productive, cognitively demanding work done a day. My friends in grad school say this is fairly typical of them too. If there's an exciting project with a deadline, I might be able to go up to 7-8 hours in bursts, but that's paid for by a week or so of complete unproductivity afterwards.

The good news is that this is enough. Those people you hear about who've built world-changing inventions? They didn't do it through working more, they did it through working more effectively. That means paying attention to what's important, doing it, and letting the busywork slide.

Scott_MacGregor• 17 years ago

Use coffee and a special environment like Pavlov’s Dog to trigger you to work.

Put together a customized workspace for yourself. It doesn’t have to be big, just outside the regular house living space somewhere. Somewhere like the garage or basement (even a big closet). Somewhere you can be alone and not bothered by anyone but is not a bedroom.

Set yourself up with a desk/table and proper office chair like you can get from Office Depot. Hook up the internet for yourself and a put in a good light source, also buy a small 1-man coffee maker from Walmart or somewhere cheap and buy some strong coffee. Keep the coffee maker and coffee in your workspace and drink coffee when you are there while focusing on getting down to work. Don’t play games there or do anything but work in there and drink coffee.

Since you are in high school here are a couple of links about Pavlov’s dog in case you don’t know about him. (ps. teachers always seem to like reports about things like Pavlov’s dog for extra credit.)

http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/medicine/pavlov/read...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov

city41• 17 years ago

Explore and try things. I have found listening to my favorite music is a hindrance, for example. I instead have found that listening to drum'n'bass or jazz helps a lot. I normally wouldn't listen to them, but they are more nondescript and fill the background space nicely, allowing me to concentrate.

I'm there to work, not enjoy my music, so I am perfectly OK with this change.

jsz0• 17 years ago

I like to complete one small task to break the ice and remind myself there is a little intellectual reward waiting at the end of every completed task. If you string together a few small successes you can build some momentum. It's important to be realistic about how much time you spend working in a day to avoid burn out. Personally I think 10-12 hours is probably a natural limitation most people face. You can't neglect other parts of your life and stay productive. Gotta find the right balance or you'll burn out.

If I really have trouble getting motivated about a project I will try to find a better or easier solution. I can't really grind away at something I'm not interested in. I need to figure out a way to get into the project. One of the things that helps me is making diagrams. I will spend a lot of time making sure all the fonts are right, good colors, good spacing, etc. It's silly but, in the end, I have this really nice diagram and I'm somehow more motivated to make it a reality. The other trick is to find people who are interested in what you're doing. Their excitement and interest can be infectious. It really helps to feel like what you're working on isn't a waste of time.

hyoogle• 17 years ago

Check out the "pomodoro technique"- I've used it when I feel like I need to build up work momentum and after a while it gets me back in the groove... http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

tigerthink2• 17 years ago

Exercise.

known• 17 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_syndrome

Ask HN: How do you get in your "productive" mode?

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