Ask Slashdot: Software To Help Stay On Task? 301
GiboNZ writes "Like many others, I easily get distracted when working on a computer. Say I work on a task — be it a programming job or bookkeeping or whatever — and need to quickly check something on Google. Unfortunately after a while I often find myself on Slashdot or eBay or reading emails instead of continuing with the job I was doing before. Maybe if I had a 'single-tasking desktop' it wouldn't be such an issue. I couldn't Alt-Tab to my email client with tempting 200 unread emails, Alt-Tab to browser with 10 tabs open for later, Alt-Tab to unfinished document from yesterday, Alt-Tab to ... you know what I mean. I want to be forced by some technical means to work on the problem I should work on. Will alone doesn't work — I tried. Like when mowing a lawn — there I've got nothing else to do and I keep mowing until it's finished. If I could multitask in the same way I can on a computer our little backyard would take me the whole day to do. Any ideas how to inhibit the distractions ever present on modern multi-tasking internet-connected desktops? I genuinely want to be more productive but the technology is against me."
Re:There's no app for that (Score:4, Interesting)
80% vs 20% (Score:5, Interesting)
Like it or not, you are only productive 20% of the time. It doesn't matter how your work pattern is. So even if you had a single-tasking UI and only kept your main task window open, you still couldn't reach more then 20%.
You should instead concentrate on being ultimately efficient in that 20%. That's the secret. Sometimes, bright ideas on how to achieve this come to you in the remaining 80% while you think you are not working...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Personal_life [wikipedia.org]
Goal setting (Score:5, Interesting)
Your mind contains a sophisticated goal setting mechanism (among other features).
To activate it, write down your goals for the day. If it's important to do X hours of work on a particular task, write that down.
It's important to write it out longhand - don't type it. No one knows why this is, but I suspect that writing things out longhand rehearses the goal in several sensory modes: you're speaking the words as you write, you're feeling the words as you write, and you're seeing the words as you write.
Goals should be present, positive, personal, and measurable.
Positive: positive logic. You can't say "I stop doing XXX" because the goal mechanism is a lower-order mechanism and can't do logical negatives. Say "I *do* xxx" instead.
Personal: Start the goal with "I", as in "I complete X hours of work".
Present: Phrase the goal in the present tense, as if you've already accomplished it. "Today I *do* X hours of work on XXX".
Measurable: Some way to determine that you're making progress. Writing "I purchase a new car" is less effective than "I set aside XXX dollars towards purchasing a car".
Tape the written goal to your screen and occasionally glance at it as you're working.
This works for all types of goals - short and long term. So long as they're doable and reasonable, writing them down engages your mental systems to make the outcome happen.
Strict Pomodoro Chrome Extension (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Goal setting (Score:2, Interesting)
It's important to write it out longhand - don't type it. No one knows why this is, but I suspect that writing things out longhand rehearses the goal in several sensory modes: you're speaking the words as you write, you're feeling the words as you write, and you're seeing the words as you write.
This, this, this. I never studied in school, but I did take copious notes in longhand (which were never looked at again) and did just fine on tests. I found that the simple act of taking notes seemed to firmly instill whatever was being taught without anything else being needed. If I didn't take notes, I didn't retain it.
Tea (Score:5, Interesting)
I keep a tall can of Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey (cold tea, $0.99 each at the grocery store, and they are tall cans 695mL each). I take a sip every few minutes, as one does when one has a drink nearby.
The result is two-fold. First, instead of alt-tabbing away during natural cagnitive breaks, I wind up taking a sip. That sip ends in five seconds, and I'm faced with the same screen, so I resume the same work. More importantly, very soon my bladder fills up. Turns out that with a full bladder, I push to get one-more-task done before getting up to go to the bathroom.
The task itself distracts me from the bladder issue, and I wind up on the next task. Then the bladder issue distracts me from the alt-tabbing. Then the task distracts me from the bladder. Then the bladder distracts me from the alt-tabbing. It's circular, and it lasts until the work is done or I really can't sit anymore and the bladder takes over.
One ninety-nine cent can of this fairly healthy tea tends to get me a good three to five hours no matter what.
Delayed gratification (Score:4, Interesting)
Failing that, get yourself a desk with a screen that can easily be seen by others. I'm assuming you work in an office or something here... if you are working from home then your employer has made a foolish decision (self employed or not
Re:There's no app for that (Score:5, Interesting)
I use "ManicTime" to track my time. It gives almost accurate account of what I have done on my PC. I have created a few categories and assigned websites / applications/ documents to those groups.
At the end of the day I can see how much I have spent on work, academic job, entertainment and unidentified. The awareness (of my exact performance) has caused me to focus more and improve the situation. There are other applications similar to ManicTime (I forgot the name) which can additionally block the websites categorized as "entertainment" for example.
One inportant note is that some of the existing applications upload all your actions to a website and a server side software does most of the job. These applications are the most horrible thing for the privacy. They record all web page you visit, all applications your run etc. I selected ManicTime from among a dozen because it is 100% client side everything.