I had an unusual experience this weekend while I was sick. After laying around for 2 days with brain fog, I woke up early Sunday morning and watched TV, checked social media, etc, but was sick of consuming information and had the strangest feeling that I wanted to work on something productive but my body aches wouldn't let me concentrate. I also felt like.. playing video games? I haven't had the urge to play video games since my first semester of college in 1995 before I discovered partying and dating.
I was bored.
It finally hit me that I haven't been bored in over 25 years. I've been hopeless, exhausted, overworked, financially destitute, depressed, burned out, lost in countless ways. But never bored.
Now, I meditate often, I've learned a great deal about the higher self on neurodivergent TikTok, and I'm mindful of my contribution in service to others. But I can't really emphasize enough how much this shook me. I'm still processing it.
I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to.
For example, I perceive every stoplight as being red. Since I started commuting a half hour to work a few days per week, I've been bringing coffee. Now I find that I never get a chance to drink it, because every light is green.
On rare occasions, I'm left with both wife and kids out of the house for a few days. Just about every time I lose the first (non-work) day entirely to video games. Then the next day I'm just... done with games for a good long while, and start doing productive things because I want to. It's like I have a fucking-around-uselessly tank that's never full (near-empty, in fact) usually, so most of my free time goes to worthless activities like games or bad TV or—ahem—certain websites of dubious value, but as soon as I'm allowed to fill it up, I don't need to "add more" for a while. I was very surprised the first time this happened, because I fully intended to waste all of the time, but when it happened I simply did not want to. Same thing happened the next time. Seems to just be how I operate, which kinda sucks because 360+ days per year that "tank" is both very demanding of time, and yet unsatisfied.
Relatedly, I think the worst thing about work is that it's the same shit day after day, week after week, month after month. Left to my own devices I would still write code—but, like, hyper-focused, a few scattered weeks per year, and in between I'd probably hardly touch a keyboard. It becomes a draining grind when that's all you do, with only infrequent and never-long-enough breaks. Keyboard and screen. Again. And again tomorrow. Indefinitely. Ugh.
Try fixing up a project house. It's amazing how quickly once beautiful properties can get run down without maintenance. And the hundreds of hours you can lose trying to undo the damage.
That does sound really appealing, but, as is the case for increasingly more of us these days, it really takes the edge off when your landlord is the ultimate beneficiary.
Ya the other comments here are all good, but this is the one that resonates with me the most. As developers/makers/inventors, we can generally solve any problem or adapt to any situation. But it's the idea that we'll have to do that tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.. that really undermines my psyche.
If it weren't for the confines of the normal world, I could have automated or otherwise solved most of the issues I have to deal with. I could have written my own software to sell for residual income, or a library that helps countless other developers, or even a language with fewer or no foot guns so I could solve actual problems instead of putting out fires endlessly.
But instead I have to go to work each day to make rent. So my perception is that I have to spend 5+ units of work to free up 1 unit of free time where I could get actual work done. My best efficiency under the workaday world will likely never break (or even approach) 20%.
That said, I realize that my view as stated above is laced with negativity. I'm not seeing the benefits of civilized society such as the infrastructure that's already in place around us, or how inexpensive even high-tech goods have become. I'm ignoring the stochastic and emergent behavior to dwell on the deterministic. Which I believe is what's at the core of suffering in the postmodern world.
So I'm centering my focus on making work seasonal again. I think humans evolved to hunt and gather for 2 hours per day and store enough food to rest for 3 months. We're working about 5 times harder than we should, right at the limit of sustainable human endurance. A 30 hour work week would get us closer to 4:1. I'd also like to see more jobs where 2 workers do the work of 1, at 20 hours each. And at a minimum, we need far more businesses like Uber (no affiliation) where workers have full control over when they work and for how long.
Short of all that, meditation does appear to shift attention towards the reality where progress is happening. Setting boundaries appears to effect those changes externally. Metaphysics don't exactly follow physical laws, but I believe there is a harmony to them that can be modulated.
In my case, I reclaimed Saturday in my personal relationship as my hobby day and negotiated a 30 hour work week with 2 days remote. Now your current employer may be reluctant to do this, so you may need to flip things around and see their needs. You can build a team or find friend(s) to cover your hours (best choice IMHO), or pitch the reduced cost to them (rarely but occasionally works with small businesses). If your employer isn't motivated to consider your needs, then land a 30 hour position elsewhere and let them decide if they want to keep you. If not, no harm no foul, it's just business.
So far I've only set a couple of boundaries like this, and very recently. Working through that kind of growth can be hard but it's made a big difference. It's not the act that we get stuck on, but the ramifications. That's why I think that metaphysical practice is so important for getting unstuck.
I have ADHD. Being bored is simply.. not something that happens naturally. I have a zillion unfinished things, too many hobbies, too many games, too much work that I was supposed finish yesterday. My brain gets filled with all of this junk every day. As the day passes my thoughts progressively get more and more cluttered and noisy, like I've got every radio station on at the same time. I also get really anxious if I've blown past a few too many deadlines, which compounds the issue immensely.
The only way to fix it... is to make myself bored. To FORCE myself to be bored. I sit on the ground with my legs crossed, close my eyes, and slowly count down from 60, 120, 180.. while shoving all the other thoughts out of my brain. It's like meditation, but meditation apps are a bit too interesting. I get distracted over how utterly weird they are.
Eventually, interspersed with all the intrusive thoughts and stressful shit ricocheting around, I start feeling a few brief twinges of boredom. If I'm really worked up it might take 10-15 minutes for these to take hold, finalling boring myself into calmness - at which point my shitty brain has stopped spazzing out and I can go back to getting shit done.
If you're neurotypical you can probably just put the phone away and go for a fucking walk. It will let your default mode network do its usual thing for a while, like it's designed to.
I used to try to go for walks in the city and it was no relief from overstimulation at all. Aside from the need to be alert for threats you see or hear something like every block that distracts you. Then I moved to an older suburban neightborhood and walks were super boring for the first few months until I really learned to look at things. Now I can go an hour just like enjoying looking at the sky, grass and trees etc. I still bring my headphones by habit but its been months since I pulled them out and its extremely restorative for creativity.
I feel ya here. My family has owned a couple nice parcels of rural property for years and I just kind of took it for granted. A few years ago I read The Overstory by Richard Powers and it really fired up my interest in nature and trees. I can't walk anymore without trying to identify every tree in the woods. It's humbling how much longer some of the older ones have been on this earth than we have - several of the very large white oaks in my dad's woods would have witnessed Native Americans.
I'm in my 30s now and can't get enough of being in the woods or mountains, bow hunting, walking, or whatever, especially in the fall and winter seasons. I'd take a day in nature over any other hobby at this point.
> I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to.
Not every group just does nothing on the sabbath. Orthodox Jews traditionally spend the day studying (and arguing) Torah. (But I'm not really sure - can you opt out of the Torah-wrangling and just take a walk on the beach?)
True; I referenced Sabbath since it is most heard of rest day.
What I am suggesting is that the need to be "bored" has historical background. What the author discovered appears to have been discovered and confirmed centuries ago.
I think your comment about the Sabbath is a good one and took it further. I suppose I'm wondering if boredom is the key component or not. At least one tradition, the Jewish one, would appear to say "not".
I find the examples of rest periods abound when you go looking.
Strength training, for example, is now known to need periodization to stop the overtrain-and-crash cycle, but periodizing well means letting go of days where you feel great and could do a million reps because you need to accommodate longer term fatigue.
Renowned artists often engage in regular periods of "automatic drawing" (scribbling on the page without imagining or observing a specific image) as a way of giving their minds a break from structured practice, allowing raw imagination and muscle memory to present itself.
Something astonishingly common in the diaries of creative people is lengthy days-to-weeks periods of total inactivity, bookended by maniac phases of high output. Often the inactivity phase consists of hyperfocus on something a bit trivial like playing billiards or visiting the movie theater five nights in a row.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I find that it mirrors my own in many ways. I especially relate to the idea that life goals are accomplished when we dedicate time to ourselves and are adapt to being more flexible with the patterns in which our minds move. I also have learned over time that through the use of caffeine, a beer, or having a smoke I can help shift my mind into other modes. The same goes with exercise and meditation or sitting down to take a break for five minutes and be mindful about where my mind is at and what I need to do for myself versus others.
Everybody always raves about meditation and although it makes me feel nice for a short while after, i always struggle to get anything like this out of it...
I rave about meditation, not because it makes me feel nice but because it's an antidote to the psychologically toxic and maladaptive thoughts that pop, unbidden, into my consciousness.
> The goal is to have moments of clarity where you’re able to see “ah that’s what’s going on in my mind right now”.
I think this is valuable advice, and it applies not only in this productivity context but in any day to day situation.
I feel worked up, angry, disappointed with those around me in certain situations. Whereas 5 years ago, I might get worked up and complain about all of it to my manager, I’ve learned to recognize my own emotional state. I feel X because of Y reasons.
In 30 minutes after I’ve had a snack or maybe just a glass of water, I’ll feel significantly better and will want to take back anything I say now. Not because I’m wrong or that what someone did or didn’t do is actually right, but because I need to control my emotion and how I respond. There’s a correct way to approach the problem.
Well, part of the problem meditation addresses is the desire to control one’s thoughts - which is usually counter productive. The more one tries to control and fight what is, the more pain that usually results.
It’s usually more productive to notice them, notice their nature, and let them go when and where they do not serve your interests. With a small pat on the head, and some not small amount of empathy and caring.
Which is hard of course, especially when there are real reasons for them. But if they do not help, it’s better for everyone.
I think what you're describing is called Ironic Process Theory [1]. I do agree that wrestling with your thoughts is counterproductive. I think that it's much more effective to try to view them dispassionately, to analyze them to death to make them go away.
Flow is completely, totally different. GP is discussing self-reflection and learning to be mindful of oneself and one's surroundings - which is basically meditation.
As of lately I've found a useful insight in the opposite direction: getting 'in the zone' is never instantaneous. Just like many other activities (e.g. social, or sport), you can't go from 0 to 100 just like that.
And that transition period sucks. Your brain was over-stimulated and now has to focus. It's crying like a child who's been deprived of his favorite toy.
It sucks and there's no way around it. But: being aware of it is liberating! If you remain aware that starting work is painful, you won't be waiting for a later moment where it will magically become more enjoyable.
Best of all, the hard first few minutes are just that, a few minutes. Maybe 10, which again are painful, because one is under-performing and mentally dispersed. If you are aware of the transient nature of this state, it will be less frustrating.
I disagree that programming isn't done well in robot mode. Lots of things like test coverage & braindead text editing doesn't require analytical thinking.
Hell, analytical thinking is overrated. Just pick a direction and go!
Cal Newport essentially calls this "Shallow" vs. "Deep" work and I think it is a more useful sorting practice of chores for me. I know I can intensely focus only so many hours in a day. The rest of my day is structured around that notion. That deep work, every day, is sacred. Shallow work happens around my scheduled, uninterrupted deep work blocks. Shallow work is everything else. While it is helpful to let the sub-conscious dictate what sort of work goes on to a degree, I have found you can also steer the ship in the direction you want with good habits. It takes some time and scheduling discipline, but ultimately it has allowed me to be more productive.
Many programming tasks, refactorings, and documentation writings are shallow work. Much of planning and preparing for deep work is shallow work in programming. Learning how to optimize the deep focus time is really helpful. Grease the gears, prime the pump, etc. etc.
There is wisdom in acknowledging a particular mental state and understanding it, but it is also wise to know how to guide your mind to the state you want when you can best use it based on your schedule and other factors. There is a lot of push and pull here, but discipline in habits will let you control the monkey mind, as the author calls it, in my experience. Though I think of my "me" as a monkey and the rest of it as an elephant to properly put it in scale (thanks Joscha Bach + Lex Fridman). The monkey tries its best to guide the elephant to the right place :)
This is a really powerful concept and something I wish we taught to new comers to the computer science track and in web development bootcamps. Of course, it is helpful advice for anyone too :).
The attitude that makes much of the foundation of the culture of the technology industry, that constant push of "produce produce produce" makes it hard for web developers to step back from their work and take the time to know themselves and their processes. I often find new students stuck in shallow work mode because they can't stop thinking about the deadline and "get it done" supercedes the ability to "learn it well".
Another "yup", with personal anecdata from this weekend. Was feeling seriously underpowered on Saturday, so it was a good day to make some drudge changes to code, nothing that could be automated easily (mostly one offs and edge cases, sadly). It was very mechanical and needed doing. Perfect for Saturday Zombie Me.
Had something similar during my biweekly management and product meetings today; updates to not-quite-every syslog call where there was a tiny bit of judgement in deciding whether to make the update and a tiny bit of judgement in the making itself (a few vim macros could have sped that last part up a little, but that would almost have been too effortful).
Perfect drudge work I could do with 1/2 to 3/4 of an ear tuned in to what others were saying, not so difficult/deep that I couldn't rouse myself and comment when necessary.
For me a good brain dead programming task is to just review the filetrre, read the code. In the course of that I'll often feel prompted topve stuff around, edit comments, refactor Little things, and before I know it I'm back to doing tricky work.
Hmm, finally some tricks that I could actually see myself use! Especially the healthy intellectual “snacks”. I mean I can get stuck on HN for a long time, but to be honest I could also do a course that just requires me to listen and eat a (physical) snack or something.
I'm still hoping that a some point this leads to a control over the states, but maybe I should give up that dream :)
"I also made so many mistakes that the next day I often spent hours finding and fixing them."
Reminds me of what Rocky says to Grace (in the Hail Mary Project): "Sleep first, humans turn stupid without sleep." It's better to recognize it and surrender to it.
A helpful link for "intellectual snacks" might be this one: https://retrohacker.github.io/wikiscroll/ .
It was posted in another thread here on Hacker News and I've been enjoying the more general information because it helps keep me from becoming hyper focused on one subject and scrolling away the hours of the day.
Step 1 (develop awareness) is hard. I did a long meditation retreat and it helped a lot, although it still takes a lot of effort to integrate that back into living.
This is great and also what I practice. I've tried to explain it to people with limited success, but I think you do a good job here. This type of awareness has a long tradition. Ancient Sanskrit scholars and Buddha discuss this, as well as Western philosophers.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates
Mahatma Gandhi’s examination of self through his autobiography ‘My experiments with truth’ highlights the significance of reflection on life. Mahatma Gandhi was not only able to map his weaknesses and vulnerabilities through the examination but was also able to question his prejudices and understand his strength as a human being.
To both calm and stimulate the self, Gurdjieff devised two main practices: a series of movements and an exercise called "self-observation." Some of the movements draw from yoga and ancient Sufi dances and are strenuous, while others, more controlled, resemble tai chi. "Self-observation" involves focusing all one's awareness throughout the day on one's thoughts, emotions, facial expressions, and body movements. The goal is to figure out the drives, as well as the contradictions, between the mental centers, in order to pull them together into some sort of harmony. Then one is on the way to finding the elusive spiritual center in the self that remains uninfluenced by social conditioning.
Osho
Man lives like a robot: mechanically efficient, but with no awareness. Hence the whole problem! There are so many problems man has to face, but they are all by-products of his sleep. So the first thing to be understood is what this sleep consists in — because Zen is an effort to become alert and awake.
Steve Jobs
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Over the years and after burning out I’ve learned observe my state of mind, but mostly for the distracted mode, and when I finding in it I’ll just stop whatever focus work I’m doing because very few good things come out during that mental mode, and a ton of frustration is built.
The part that I haven’t been able to accomplish is a good use of the low filter mode. For me in this mode I have little to no brain power left, and thus anything that is not effort than a YouTube video is a chore. I’ve curated my YouTube so is not completely full of trash and have chosen things that I don’t feel like I just burned a few hours of my life… but still, I’m trying to figure out how to use low filter mode better.
I have trouble with this too! Lately, I’ve been trying to use podcasts instead of YouTube videos. Audio-only means I can also close my eyes and feel a bit more rested afterwards too!
I agree. You actively choose to listen to a certain podcast on a topic of interest but on Youtube, it is so easy to fall down the endless rabit hole of decreasing quality content and that doesn't feel like well spent low-filter time at all
>But early in the day, my mind is hyper-analytical. It’s trying to analyze every word I write from ten different angles. Hence every tweet felt like hard work.
People who just blurt out whatever they think without considering its effects or even how to word it are often said to have "no filter". That is often saying things they shouldn't, things that are inappropriate, or insulting or demeaning toward other people. Or getting the tone all wrong.
Someone who over-analyzes everything before speaking or when writing and can never seem to find just the right perfect words, and therefore just stays silent could be said to be over-filtering.
I read "low-filter" mode as being a middle ground of casual, easy conversation mode. Not no-filter inappropriate, but also not overly analytical and formal and rigorous.
The article mentions it a few times, but never explains what it means by the term. It only says that it often occurs when he's a bit tired, but not what it is.
I have been a life long procrastinator, but I did not link it to ADD until recently. When I started hearing more about ADD the symptoms matched up. In the past procrastination was identified only as a moral failing that could be fixed by identifying the correct process. Now it is looked at as a probable symptom of a disorder, which can be helped with behavioral therapy and/or medication.
Over time I have definitely come to see my ADHD as a blessing and a curse. I feel really lucky that I responded so well to medication, though sometimes I still feel so scattered I lack total enjoyment with whatever projects I work on.
So when I really need my monkey to to take the back seat for a while I can use medication.
I enjoyed the article, but I disagree. Back in the day, the Getting Things Done book said to organise tasks by energy level. That does make things easier; however, easy to procrastinate by saying I'll do it later when I have energy.
I have taken to the more disciplined, priortized approach pushed by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger/Jocko Willink/David Goggins... the items that are a priorty or important get done first. Hammer through the first 2-4 hours, then you can have flexibility in the rest of the day. Even if you're not feeling it, go through the motions, make it a habit to make it easier.
I tend to think all of this is extremely personal and the system is mostly window-dressing. If you are able to focus on work which is engaging and useful (by whatever measure you choose) regularly, over time you will get good results.
Different kinds of systems like habit-building, reminders or GTD can help; as can cutting yourself some slack and making room for inspiration to find you without obsessing over productivity. But ultimately you either do things you are proud of or not, and any system or reflection you put on top of amounts to rationalization. If that helps then more power to you, but don't lose sight of the actual work.
Forcing yourself to do something can be considered discipline, but for many that's just stubbornly using the wrong tool (mental state) for the job. Which usually takes longer, gives poor results, and leads to fatigue and burnout.
However that approach does work well for some. (Seems to work much better for morning people than night people in my experience.)
For others, discipline consists of using the right tool for the right job to maximize both productivity and health. Which means given the tools available, pick one of the many tasks that need doing and can be done with that tool. Resulting in more productivity, better results, and an uplifting energizing feeling that makes other tools available.
Although for some people, that second approach might just result in procrastinating, in which case they should consider trying the forced discipline approach.
So finding out which path fits your temperament and taking advantage of it is the way to go.
> Even if you're not feeling it, go through the motions
How? This is the whole problem; for many folks, this isn't helpful advice because the whole problem is that it's hard to do things if you're not "feeling" it.
Jocko uses the example of writing a book (he's written fiction and non-fiction). It's a mental activity which is known for "writer's block". Jocko says go through the motion... sit down and write 1,000 words per day minimum. At least it's progress. When you have energy later, you have something to work with. You might need to re-write everything, but that still quicker than trying to write it perfect the first time. I think that's very applicable to coding.
I think the most important advice in this article is "Be aware of your current mental state". This goes a long way with not just being productive but being aware of how to address any emotional state. The easiest way I've been able to do this is just to journal every-time I find myself going distracted.
I'd go one step further and say that the article's value is also in pointing out that being aware takes practice, you can't just flip a switch and decide to start being aware of your current mental state. You need to pay attention many times to start to connect the dots and be able to recognize the state you're in and the best way to respond.
You need to learn to observe what’s going on in your mind almost like a third-person observer.
This is difficult and requires a lot of practice.
Oh it requires patience. It also needs "vocabulary" to refer to things with, and a framework to help achieving it if you will. A while back, I randomly found some video from Jiddu Krishnamurthi. I was in the right mood so watched a few and at the end of it tried to actually observe my thoughts. I was only able to do it because the mind was sufficiently wound down and JK really helped. It was a bunch of videos and I have not taken note of it. But I had the following in a playlist.
Concentration is a loaded word. It is not black and white, but feels like you're talking about a value that goes from zero to one possibly? How do you think about it?
I came to think of it in terms of attention. In a model where your awareness of time, or of change is conditional on shifting your spotlight of attention it can be defined usefully, I think.
So, in such a model your concentration is conditional on your paying attention to where your awareness is not pointed. To the interplay of things outside your spotlight of awareness.
The processes that are you but outside of the seat of your awareness already have workable models for all of that. They have good guesses. Your sensory will enrich those guesses and flow them into your reality as givens.
If you think of it like that there is a clear difference between paying attention to something, and expanding your perception of the present moment by concentration.
Sometimes I hear people use the c-word to describe uninterrupted time dedicated to a task. That is to say focus. Exclusionary attention.
I would recommend the book "Peak Mind" for those looking to get into meditation to improve their mental awareness and tame the monkey mind. It goes over some of the science and research behind how attention works (in simple terms) and outlines a clear meditation regime you can implement (just 12 minutes a day, 5 days a week).
There are really two concepts that I have been trying hard to master:
1. As the OP, learning to recognize the state of your mind, and picking a task that's appropriate to it
2. Learn to enter and exit the desired state of mind at will. Like switching off the lights in one room, and entering another instantly.
The latter is imho harder because it requires the metacognition from the former as well as discipline. But discipline itself is not sufficient. Need to build in sufficient downtime as well and fight the urge to be productive during that phase. Let it all sink in. This might be the hardest.
I've always thought of discipline as a sort of negotiation between the co trolling mind and the commanding mind. To succeed in accomplishing your goals, the commanding mind should learn how the controlling mind works. And that includes knowing what states the controlling mind is in.
I went around and logged the things I happen to be doing in a spreadsheet for three weeks.
Assuming those are mostly the things I'll be doing going forward I've categorized them into action-cards. Those have groupings by space (home, out, job) and time (night, noon, morning).
One card is titled BURN. If you play that card you can do whatever for 25 minutes, but you can't play two in a row. I set a timer.
Then I have to choose a card to play, from the things I actually do.
Set a timer. When that's up choose a card again.
There is a card called SLEEP, it has a checklist. Similarly EAT/COOK has both instructions and time limits.
I ended up with more than 15 but less than 30 cards. And the single point of failure is in set-timer to choose card loop. This goes away after about 20 days where it becomes a habit.
There was another point of failure, but now there is a CALLS card that is limited to two times a day, and the phone is otherwise offline. Battery life is 5x.
At first I was like "but with those rules you could play BURN every other card, and that's not good" then I realized that if I'd only wasted half of an average waking day for the last couple decades, I'd probably be god-emperor of humanity.
This does seem quite a bit like the Pomodoro method. Was that an inspiration? Did you try it and it didn't work? If so, why do you think that is?
It is like, let's assume that those methods work for people; there is something to them. But they also don't make any tangible models with which to make predictions, so they are not complete. They don't operate the whole picture, just a part of a system that people will frequently mess up.
Or maybe we can say: something about maintaining focus, or starting tasks for pomo; and understanding where you're coming from, where you're going and what to adjust for GTD.
A gym analogy would be: tracking your training program is GTD, having proper form is pomo. But nutrition and sleep are missing.
It may be the artifact of thinking of these things in scientific terms, reductionist and unfeeling. And feeling is important. Your reality is communicated to you by your perception, which is seated where your feeling is to be found. Everybody has the same amount of time in a day, yet the use of it is the thing that makes all the difference in a person's life. There is a whole dimension to be explored and perhaps a science to be established in that basic aspect of reality. It has to become a book, or many books, not just a single word like "discipline" or "executive function".
This field right now resembles witchcraft. We have rituals to perform, that sometimes work. We have myths to explain the "sometimes" part, but they involve dead relatives and phantom trauma. It clearly isn't even measuring the right things or it would be possible to solve it by maths, by stats and neural networks.
And so I've been feeling around. Trying to understand what different states of mind are like, what are they conducive of, and how to key myself into one or the other.
The pomo and GTD methods I come to understand like so:
- Do something, then feel different. Body first, head follows.
- Things take time. Getting with things takes 20-25 minutes, specifically.
- You can do meaningful progress in two half-hour stretches.
- A thing that takes less than 20 minutes is a "shit shoveling" kind of thing. You gotta do some early in the day. I've seen people say "seek discomfort". Procrastination behaviours are the exact opposite of that and are habitual, and as such can be learned and equally unlearned in about three weeks time. If it has a time-limit it is about to be over with, that's how I start doing those things I don't feel like doing. I mean, one can plough through 20 minutes of pretty much anything, right? And then it's done with. There will never be a better time, I won't ever feel it easier to start; avoiding it will form a habit, and so will engaging it.
- If you keep, update, review, throw out and re-do a model of how you're doing you won't be running through these assessment and progress tracking tasks when you're trying to go to sleep or devote your attention to a task at hand. There is a category of tasks where you're "playing" where you'll focus without effort. That is because they are meaningful to you. You should look forward to this, every day, schedule and prepare for it. Fun will not just find you, happiness will not just happen, and if you don't plan for resting it won't just somehow cram itself into your schedule.
- The BURN card is about keeping moving, not getting hung up on any one thing. Gautama said attachment leads to suffering. Gurjieff said "always have an aim".
- The other cards are about "do what you can, use what you have, where you are". This may sound like some high-productivity self-coaching nonsense, but it is actually a disaster recovery strategy. It gets you out of a hole and keeps you out. A thing that's not moving is often a dead thing. Should be moving.
- Nobody can help you. Except you can help you. Really, you can. Expect delightful developments.
- Eating/fasting, sleeping/caffeinating should be done in a controlled manner if you're to help yourself. Those are the climate to which your moods are the weather. Knowing good food and the time when it is good for you, bad sleep from good sleep and how to do it are the base rock on which you build. If you don't do it, everything shifts all the time, like sand. Or sinks like a bog.
This is a really interesting technique! I'm happy this is working so well for you. Would make an interesting app though I suppose that would put you back on your phone.
Yeah, it would have to take over my phone excepting the two CALLS windows a day.
Otherwise I'll find it very easy to BURN away.
And the most noticeable thing it did to my well being is a drastic reduction in ambient anxiety and proclivity to negative emotion. It is like what SSRI are supposed to be, but for real.
A reduction in overall ambient anxiety is definitely a worthy goal for anyone. Do you feel like this might be partially due to the fact that being on your phone less gave you less access over all time to be exposed to the news?
No, that would be old news. I was never, ever the guy to pick up my phone aimlessly. It was always to a) swipe away the bullshit, and b) do the important thing. I don't think I am in any way affected by the dopey loops the news pull on you. In fact, I check out news when I overhear something or when there is no development for weeks on an issue that directly affects me. Never otherwise.
“The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund.”
— William James, The Principles of Psychology (1890)
The problem, for me, is to become aware that I'm procrastinating. Once I realise that, I can apply the kind of thinking as in the article, but sometimes hours of stupid Internet clicking have gone by by then.
I find note taking on paper helps with that, if only because it's something I can make part of my routine without it being on a computer.
"You need to learn to observe what’s going on in your mind almost like a third-person observer."
This mindset reminds me of Vipassana. Observe your feelings (or "modes" as OP said), and avoid trying to force yourself to switch from one mode to another because it is unlikely to work.
I consider myself highly meta aware (and recognise all of the modes the author mentions), but have not been good enough at guiding myself to perform the right action for each mode.
I'll have to try his suggestions, seeing what works for me.
Not sure about this. The productive people I have studied don’t do this. Instead they are very disciplined - in other words they train themselves and arrange their life so the mind is in the right mode at the right time.
I was bored.
It finally hit me that I haven't been bored in over 25 years. I've been hopeless, exhausted, overworked, financially destitute, depressed, burned out, lost in countless ways. But never bored.
Now, I meditate often, I've learned a great deal about the higher self on neurodivergent TikTok, and I'm mindful of my contribution in service to others. But I can't really emphasize enough how much this shook me. I'm still processing it.
I wonder if getting life goals done could be as simple as carving out large blocks of time where you aren't allowed to work on them. I don't mean filling the time with something else like work or other obligations. But literal you-time, with a rule that you can't exert yourself in any way or you'll risk relapsing into nonprogress. This is more like transmuting one form of attentive energy (negative) into another (positive) by dwelling on the opposite thing than you're used to.
For example, I perceive every stoplight as being red. Since I started commuting a half hour to work a few days per week, I've been bringing coffee. Now I find that I never get a chance to drink it, because every light is green.