Disconnecting Distraction
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Saved by 19 people (-2 private), first by anonymouse user on 2008-05-18
- Ambioct on 2009-11-11 - Tags Procrastination
- Vulkankaninchen on 2009-03-14 - Tags distraction
- Neocryptek on 2009-01-07 - Tags motivation
- Hilcoblok on 2008-10-13 - Tags procrastination , munandu
- Iphigenie on 2008-10-06 - Tags no_tag
Public Sticky notes
alarms
Highlighted by mvance
Most people find it
uncomfortable just to sit and do nothing; you avoid work by doing
something else
Highlighted by danieljomphe
So one way to beat procrastination is to starve it of distractions.
But that's not as straightforward as it sounds, because there are
people working hard to distract you. Distraction is not a static
obstacle that you avoid like you might avoid a rock in the road.
Distraction seeks you out.
Highlighted by ambioct
Chesterfield described dirt as matter out of place. Distracting
is, similarly, desirable at the wrong time. And technology is
continually being refined to produce more and more desirable things.
Which means that as we learn to avoid one class of distractions,
new ones constantly appear, like drug-resistant bacteria.
Highlighted by joel
And technology is
continually being refined to produce more and more desirable things.
Which means that as we learn to avoid one class of distractions,
new ones constantly appear, like drug-resistant bacteria.
Highlighted by ambioct
Which means that as we learn to avoid one class of distractions,
new ones constantly appear, like drug-resistant bacteria
Highlighted by danieljomphe
Television, for example, has after 50 years of refinement reached
the point where it's like visual crack. I realized when I was 13
that TV was addictive, so I stopped watching it. But I read recently
that the average American watches
4 hours
of TV a day. A quarter
of their life.
Highlighted by gaudette
A quarter
of their life.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
I remember when computers were, for me at least, exclusively for
work. I might occasionally dial up a server to get mail or ftp
files, but most of the time I was offline. All I could do was write
and program. Now I feel as if someone snuck a television onto my
desk. Terribly addictive things are just a click away. Run into
an obstacle in what you're working on? Hmm, I wonder what's new
online. Better check.
After years of carefully avoiding classic time sinks like TV, games, and Usenet, I still managed to fall prey to distraction, because I didn't realize that it evolves. Something that used to be safe, using the Internet, gradually became more and more dangerous. Some days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea and check the news, then check email, then check the news again, then answer a few emails, then suddenly notice it was almost lunchtime and I hadn't gotten any real work done. And this started to happen more and more often.
After years of carefully avoiding classic time sinks like TV, games, and Usenet, I still managed to fall prey to distraction, because I didn't realize that it evolves. Something that used to be safe, using the Internet, gradually became more and more dangerous. Some days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea and check the news, then check email, then check the news again, then answer a few emails, then suddenly notice it was almost lunchtime and I hadn't gotten any real work done. And this started to happen more and more often.
Highlighted by joel
Now I feel as if someone snuck a television onto my
desk. Terribly addictive things are just a click away. Run into
an obstacle in what you're working on? Hmm, I wonder what's new
online. Better check
Highlighted by danieljomphe
After years of carefully avoiding classic time sinks like TV, games,
and Usenet, I still managed to fall prey to distraction, because
I didn't realize that it evolves. Something that used to be safe,
using the Internet, gradually became more and more dangerous. Some
days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea and check the news, then check
email, then check the news again, then answer a few emails, then
suddenly notice it was almost lunchtime and I hadn't gotten any real
work done. And this started to happen more and more often.
Highlighted by gaudette
When
I was in the middle of a project, distractions weren't really a
problem. It was when I'd finished one project and was deciding
what to do next that they always bit me.
Highlighted by ambioct
The problem is a hard one to solve because most people still need
the Internet for some things. If you drink too much, you can solve
that problem by stopping entirely. But you can't solve the problem
of overeating by stopping eating. I couldn't simply avoid the
Internet entirely, as I'd done with previous time sinks.
Highlighted by ambioct
At first I tried rules. For example, I'd tell myself I was only
going to use the Internet twice a day. But these schemes never
worked for long. Eventually something would come up that required
me to use it more than that. And then I'd gradually slip back
into my old ways.
Highlighted by joel
Addictive things have to be treated as if they were sentient
adversaries—as if there were a little man in your head always
cooking up the most plausible arguments for doing whatever you're
trying to stop doing. If you leave a path to it, he'll find it.
The key seems to be visibility. The biggest ingredient in most bad habits is denial. So you have to make it so that you can't merely slip into doing the thing you're trying to avoid. It has to set off alarms.
Maybe in the long term the right answer for dealing with Internet distractions will be software that watches and controls them. But in the meantime I've found a more drastic solution that definitely works: to set up a separate computer for using the Internet.
The key seems to be visibility. The biggest ingredient in most bad habits is denial. So you have to make it so that you can't merely slip into doing the thing you're trying to avoid. It has to set off alarms.
Maybe in the long term the right answer for dealing with Internet distractions will be software that watches and controls them. But in the meantime I've found a more drastic solution that definitely works: to set up a separate computer for using the Internet.
Highlighted by iphigenie
Addictive things have to be treated as if they were sentient
adversaries—as if there were a little man in your head always
cooking up the most plausible arguments for doing whatever you're
trying to stop doing. If you leave a path to it, he'll find it.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
The key seems to be visibility. The biggest ingredient in most bad habits
is denial. So you have to make it so that you can't merely slip
into doing the thing you're trying to avoid. It has to set off
alarms.
Highlighted by ambioct
The key seems to be visibility. The biggest ingredient in most bad habits
is denial. So you have to make it so that you can't merely slip
into doing the thing you're trying to avoid. It has to set off
alarms.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
set up a separate computer for using the Internet.
Highlighted by ambioct
Maybe in the long term the right answer for dealing with Internet
distractions will be
software that watches and controls them. But
in the meantime I've found a more drastic solution that definitely
works: to set up a separate computer for using the Internet.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
I now leave wifi turned off on my main computer except when I need
to transfer a file or edit a web page, and I have a separate laptop
on the other side
of the room that I use to check mail or browse the web.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
My rule is that I can spend as much time online as I want, as long
as I do it on that computer. And this turns out to be enough. When
I have to sit on the other side of the room to check email or browse
the web, I become much more aware of it. Sufficiently aware, in
my case at least, that it's hard to spend more than about an hour
a day online.
Highlighted by ambioct
Your old bad habits now help you to work.
You're used to sitting in front of that computer for hours at a
time. But you can't browse the web or check email now. What are
you going to do? You can't just sit there. So you start working.
Highlighted by ambioct
Your old bad habits now help you to work.
You're used to sitting in front of that computer for hours at a
time. But you can't browse the web or check email now. What are
you going to do? You can't just sit there. So you start working.
Highlighted by danieljomphe
Public Comment