My (almost) perfect setup to stay focused

http://www.lengrand.fr/2012/10/my-almost-perfect-setup-to-stay-focused/

by jlengrand • 14 years ago

58 42 14 years ago

lengrand.fr

potomak• 14 years ago

Did you try Tomato.es[1] to track your pomodoros? I'd like to get feedbacks from GTD gurus.

About music I warmly recommend musicForProgramming();[2]

[1] http://tomato.es

[2] http://musicforprogramming.net

gbeeson• 14 years ago

I've used Tomato.es for quite some time now (relatively speaking) and have found it 'better' for my flow than pen and paper/mechanical timer (though I have one as well).

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

I started with a mechanical timer also (mainly to get away from any device that could distract me), but stopped because it was noisy. I solved the problem by switching notifications off in my phone during work hours.

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

Didn't know about tomato.es, but it seems like a cool tool. I used to use an equivalent, but stopped because I try to stay away from my browser when working (to avoid ending on youtube, or here . . . :)).

I actually use pomodroido (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.artifix.po...). As I set up my phone to not receive notifications at work, this is the only thing that makes my phone vibrate :).

Thx for the link concerning the music. I think I tried it some time ago, but found it to "relaxing". I'll give it a new shot :)

coreymaass• 14 years ago

A little plug for http://timerdoro.com, too. I built it so you can run multiple timers, at the same time.

mertd• 14 years ago

What is the utility of multiple timers? Isn't the point of pomodoro method to stay focused on one thing for a bite sized period of time?

pilgrim689• 14 years ago

On the "not getting enough sleep" problem, why don't you incorporate exercise/sleep/diet into your GTD (or what you're using to measure productivity) ? Then, if you aren't sleeping enough, it will show up in your tools.

aed• 14 years ago

I'm really interested in learning more about how use use FreeMind. I've been using a collection of text documents as "cheatsheets" that I can refer to, but it's less than perfect.

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

I used to have cheatsheets also (see here for the last version[1]), but I end up never use it because Google is simply faster . . . I'll probably write some lines on FreeMind in a future post :)

[1] http://www.lengrand.fr/programming-tips-2/

antidoh• 14 years ago

FreeMind has been forked into FreePlane, which may be more recently maintained.

urlwolf• 14 years ago

Fonts are horrendous under linux. Any workaround? Pixelated as hell. And scroll leaves dirty traces (awesomewm may be the culprit)

walrus• 14 years ago

Why would someone do this to themself? I find I enjoy life much more when I take things slowly, but maybe that's just a difference in personality.

moystard• 14 years ago

I actually agree. I was really into productivity a while ago but I realised quickly that most important of all, I need to enjoy myself while working. Pomodoro allows me to do so while having a good focus, but I know that I cannot go as far as the author or I will simply become crazy.

keithpeter2• 14 years ago

In my professional life/time (I'm a teacher) I like to make time to think about how to present topics to students, and how to respond to their responses.

To do that, I have to manage the crap (management inspired paperwork that does not actually impact on teaching/learning/reflecting) and routine but very important tasks like marking work. I use a Pomodoro timer (actually a cheap one I got locally) to stay focussed on the mechanical things. I do actually record the number of pomodoros I spend on crap, and I feed that back when things get out of hand.

Students who don't like Maths much also find a kitchen timer helps them to focus, so I break homework up into 'pomodoros' of each topic. Strangely, they find the more pomodoros they do, the easier it all gets.

In non-pomodoro time, I do things like reflect on what kind of activity works, make screencasts, quizzes and games, and make new ways of linking topics (e.g. areas and perimeters of rectangles and simple factors and multiples).

Outside of work I too like taking things slowly! The turn of the year always makes me think about time passing.

zeteo• 14 years ago

The link to www.getworkdonemusic.com by itself makes this article worth an upvote. Looks like a good resource that I wasn't aware of before.

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

It made HN first page not so long ago :)

tejaswiy• 14 years ago

So their song list seems to be at : http://www.getworkdonemusic.com/fast_tracks.json . Does anyone know if this list gets auto compiled using some bpm measure or if the person behind the website populates them manually?

CKKim5• 14 years ago

I've recently been thinking about the motives for people writing these kinds of articles. A year ago I would have found this a weird question because when the actions of blogging and sharing are so culturally ingrained it's very difficult to step outside and ask "Why?". Now I find it instructive to do so. Sincerely and unrhetorically: "Why did you write this?"

My belief at the moment is that such articles are validation-seeking. The writer draws strength from committing their plans to a socially-viewable document and subjecting it to discussion. Most of the likely responses to posting the piece online (including no responses) can, with a little squinting, be interpreted as positive reinforcement for the individual's system, hence the incentive to share.

sek• 14 years ago

Maybe because it takes a lot of effort to implement all that stuff and it's still a big deal for a lot of people. This is also a regular blogger why not? Also there are probably a lot more out there, you see this one because people find it upvoteworthy.

You could ask the question for almost every blog post, i think this one is not much different why posts on codehorror are written. There are a lot of good reasons to blog, just Google for it.

CKKim5• 14 years ago

> You could ask the question for almost every blog post

Indeed. Usually I perceive the motives are to increase the author's employability attractiveness, promote their business, or build status within their community. Some productivity posts fall into those categories too I believe, but usually to me the validation model is a better fit.

> i think this one is not much different why posts on codehorror are written.

Which is?

hoodwink2• 14 years ago

Validation may be a positive side effect, but maximizing individual productivity is a subject of genuine interest for many people, myself included. Look at www.lifehacker.com. I don't think that website exists as a conduit for authors' self-esteem. Look at the success of Tim Ferriss. Examples go on...

OP clearly put a lot of work into researching various methods, tried them out on himself, and wanted to share the results, maybe even give back to the "productivity community." I appreciate that.

CKKim5• 14 years ago

I think there's a clash between lifehacker/Tim Ferriss and '[wanting] to share the results, maybe even give back to the "productivity community"', rather than an affinity as you seem to suggest. The former are profit-generating enterprises whose business is selling productivity techniques. Lifehacker is fairly authentic, but a Gawker-owned for-profit nonetheless while I don't personally place Tim Ferriss far from Tony Robbins et al. Whether that's overly harsh or not, I don't think either are comparable to independent folk posting their productivity systems on their personal blogs when their businesses are not related to selling books of those techniques, or making money from ad revenue their productivity tips attract.

I'm cynical, but '[wanting] to share the results, maybe even give back to the "productivity community"' doesn't seem like a complete answer to me. And I'm not trying to get anyone to admit secret motives, I just think there are subconscious things going on when people post their productivity solutions, and I'm trying hard to figure out what they are.

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

Here is the answer from "the writer" :)

Interesting question I think, seriously. Do I search for validation online? I don't think so, I have enough of it around me, without having to turn to the web :). What about tip (experience, hack, call it the way you want) sharing? I see a lot of great posts written by really cool people around here; maybe is it also a way to try to give something back (or in your words, probably try to fit in the group in search for the reassuring feeling of being part of it ;)). This is (IMHO) the most probable reason.

I use all those tools for a long time, and discuss about it with my friends regularly. I think it is good for yourself to try to be good at what you do. Writing such articles and sharing it in the open is a way to find people having the same interests as me that I would never have found otherwise. Hopefully, the post will lead to interesting interactions (exactly what I am doing right now :). Can I call that peer-validation? Maybe, but not in the exact way in understood it in your comment :).

As a non native English speaker, I might be wrong but I felt like condescension in your comment. But this is probably my french nature speaking :p

CKKim5• 14 years ago

Thank you, that's a good answer.

jdechko• 14 years ago

Additionally, a blog post a good resource/ starting point for others who are looking to accomplish something similar. I've heard of many of these tools before, but not all of them, so it's good reference material for me.

bravoyankee• 14 years ago

We're all a bunch of smarmy asses around here.

His comment was tough on you but fair, and your reply was excellent.

andrew_wc_brown• 14 years ago

5 hours a day, 5 hours a week. I track my time in a simple spreadsheet labeled 1 to 20 at 15 min intervals.

If you aren't getting enough sleep then you're not scheduling your time. You need to create a schedule and stick to it and don't let others hold your time hostage.

S4M• 14 years ago

I like the idea of avoiding distractions and avoiding the browser. When working on personal projects I tried several times not to turn on the wifi or to work directly in the terminal without running a Desktop application, but at some point I have to use the browser again to look up for some docs or install something.

aioprisan• 14 years ago

Check out TaskUp, a cloud task list with notifications, reporting, tags, filters and many more! https://taskup.com

ikhare• 14 years ago

When I saw the title I half expected to be something akin to http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/famous-small-offthegrid-work...

My comments are entirely related to staying focused when coding. For the days when I am in manager mode things are different, and I am not sure if "focus" is always the right mode there.

I've always found myself preferring long unbroken periods of flow for coding. That for me comes from a quiet space much like the writer's huts described above. That to me has been my perfect setup to stay focused.

Though I have never tried Pomodoro, the idea of something disturbing me every 25 minutes sounds ghastly. When I really need to work I simply close all programs on my computer that are non essential and close all tabs that are non essential. No gmail, no twitter, no facebook. Then I go into a room, sometimes turn off the lights and just code :-)

eisbaw• 14 years ago

Brown noise!

septerr• 14 years ago

Does the fact that we have to use techniques to make ourselves focus mean that we do not like what we do?

dorkrawk• 14 years ago

No, I think that it's natural to be tempted by immediate gratification (watching stuff on YouTube, checking Twitter, reading xkcd archives) even when you really care about the delayed and more satisfying gratification of progress on a long term project.

When all those distractions are easily accessible from the same place you work (your computer) it seems ok to take measures to offload the task of avoiding them.

geofft2• 14 years ago

When you say "70% productivity", how do you measure this? (It sounds like there's a standard for this that I missed.)

jlengrand7• 14 years ago

HAve a look at rescuetime. It automatically calculates a % depending on the time you spend on activities. Don't give too much thoughts about this number, as any statistic, it is just indicative :)

http://www.rescuetime.com/tour

geofft2• 14 years ago

Ah, thanks. Sadly I don't use Windows or Mac OS either at work or on my personal computer, so I haven't been able to try it out.

suyash• 14 years ago

I like the idea of creating temp branches,,,wehre you can actually see how much your contributed every day!

My (almost) perfect setup to stay focused

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