[austinl]

> “This topic of productivity induces the worst kind of procrastination, because it feels like you’re doing work, but I was producing stuff that had the express purpose of saying to people, ‘Look, come and see how to do your work, rather than doing your work!’”

Outside of email, I often get carried away with setting up a system for doing work instead of actually doing work. If I know I have a lot to do, I'll spend time thinking about how I might organize it in a list and track my progress. Sometimes I even open the App Store and look through more to-do apps!

Something I've settled on now is making a list (usually in an app called Clear), then going through it once a day and putting it on my calendar.

Putting things on my calendar has helped a lot. I think, "this is the time I've set aside to get this thing done. I'm not going to focus on anything else but this for the next 30min/1hr". It also makes me feel less guilty about relaxing when I've got nothing scheduled.

[BN1978]

> I'm not going to focus on anything else but this for the next 30min/1hr

Time boxing is also very helpful to me. Very useful tool. It helps me to focus and not to get overwhelmed with the complexity of the task or disturbed by other items on my to-do list. To work on something for 15 or 30 minutes is achievable even for tasks I feel resistance to. And often, after this 15-30 minutes, it is much easier to continue working on it.

[llwt]

That sounds a lot like the Pomodoro Technique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

[flor1s]

I think the Pomodoro Technique is one of those things the article posted warns you against. Having a timer counting down might make you more stressed about time passing. When I was using the Pomodoro Technique many people who I met mentioned that effect to me as a reason why they did not use Pomodoro's.

[appleiigs]

I've had great success with the Pomodoro technique. It really increased my focus and decreased stress. I plan my day out in time blocks, then I focus one item at a time.

The timer isn't a deadline. It just notifies you of when the 20 minutes is up. I don't even look at the timer when I'm working.

[devonkim]

I believe there exists an optimum methodology to optimize whatever the desired output KPIs are for a person at any given time and that what doesn't work for one is literally optimal for another person. Some people have achieved success with a methodology, some will fail miserably. Some people will do far better with a suboptimal method than many that find their optimum method as well. The question is about finding the solution as fast as possible for an individual and with the best accuracy.

Personally, I think I need some sense of urgency to perform deliberate, spaced practice reliably due to a strong history of what may be something like ego depletion (not really well supported). Pomodoro has worked better for me than most methods as long as I have sufficiently well crafted goals because it forces breaks as well as time boxing for results when I have a tendency to overengineer (along the same lines as SMART requirements). Like exercise, if you feel really comfortable, there's a strong possibility that you are not making the desired progress. In such cases, those that are motivated positively by the stressors are predisposed to improve over those that do not get motivated in such a manner even if that would be the most optimal technique globally.

[egypturnash]

YMMV, having the timer ticking away helps to keep me on task: by picking up my cute little ladybug-shaped timer and twisting it, I have made a promise to myself that I will work on This Thing for the next 25 minutes.

If it stresses you out instead, then yeah, find another method. But I found it to be really effective.

[rimantas]

Learning Hot to Learn course on Coursera (highly recommended) talks about procrastination a bit and they do recommend a Pomodoro technique to fight it.

[sjg007]

I take the top 3 most important things and do those.

[greglindahl]

Which is similar to Kanban: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_(development)

[Jill_the_Pill]

I always start with the one I dread the most.

[EGreg]

Today we are faced with a three way choice:

1) Just do the task yourself every time

2) Build a system to do the task every time

3) Get an open source system and learn how to configure it and hope it does everything

In the end, #3 wins if you can afford to hire people who know the system.

[parasubvert]

4) buy proprietary software and hire people that know it

Not saying it's preferable to #3, but it's better than nothing. SAP and Oracle still pull in a combined $57 billion annually, for things like accounting systems...