Ask HN: As an indi-Hacker, How have you manage to stay disciplined and focused?

[kishansagathiya]

I have been working as a remote developer since one and a half years now. I find myself working very little some days and a lot some days. Since working from home, I often end up watching some random YouTube clip or reading some stupid article which will never do me any good or sometimes running errands take over my work hours. Have you faced this problem? Did you try anything that helped you tackle this problem?

[mattbgates]

I have to do multiple things at once, and in fact, I am working for a few companies around the world and run my own business. Yet I still manage to always get my work done. I also use medical cannabis which helps with anxiety, especially during these times. I will open up YouTube videos, find myself watching news, watching Netflix, searching for corona virus stats, or procrastinating on Facebook.

Once you realize it, you can fix it. Once you admit you're doing it, you can fix it. Once you accept that you did it, accept that you needed a small break, you can fix it. Now that you know this, go ahead and do it. Set yourself up with blockers or attention forcers. Things that block Facebook, YouTube, or Netflix. OR if you don't want to be that strict. 10-15 minutes per hour, dedicate to slacking, and 45 minutes should be spent on your work. You can break it up along the hour, but it does help.

Also, I find myself procrasting the most when I don't know how to solve a problem or I don't want to face it. You can fix this too! Write down how you are going to handle the solution before you go tackle it. Always write an outline of your work process... and then you will progress.

[adventured]

> Have you faced this problem?

You can be fairly certain that everyone that has ever worked at home or worked remote generally, has faced this problem. The answer is yes, everyone deals with it.

I've spent most of my life working in a remote model, home office and similar. I was working in remote teams as far back as ~1997. Back then IRC was our Slack (combined with email lists and ICQ or equivalent; it all worked very well, productivity was high; it's amusing how far we haven't come).

One thing I've noticed that seems to be close to universal for people, is the first five or six hours of the day after you wake up are the most critical. They're the high-focus, high-productivity hours. The brain is raring to go. Try to knock out as much high-value work in those initial hours of the day as you can, and let yourself relax more thereafter rather than punishing yourself for not being at max productivity for 8 or 10 hours per day. Working at a high level of productivity for five or six hours every day will accomplish amazing things over time. If you start working at 9am, relax your slack-off (laziness) controls after 2pm, take care of the more trivial / mundane / mindless work tasks after that if needed. Something along those lines. It's about prioritizing work importance by order of the day. Make sure you don't invert it by wasting your precious high-productivity hours on bullshit. If you try to enforce hyper discipline on yourself for 8 or 10 hours per day, seeking long durations of max productivity, you will suffer for it immensely over time and you won't end up in a good place in terms of productivity or results (including mental state, happiness). Instead, compromise with yourself. It is possible to do bursts of long hours of high productivity with limited negative consequences (especially when you're young), you just should not do it frequently, you pay a price for it. Don't fight with yourself, don't try to beat yourself into submission, it's not an effective approach; instead, structure everything so that internal wrestling match is unnecessary.

Some people work better late at night, they do their best work then. The concept applies just the same, prioritize your high-value work for that time if it makes sense.

[kishansagathiya]

Hey, thanks a lot for this really valuable advice

Because of my personal needs, I am using this small program that I start when I start working. I asks me some basic questions like did I meditate, did I exercise, etc and show a list of long term goals. It runs for 8 hours (if I don't stop it with ctrl+c). It logs all that info in a json file by date for me to see in future. As long as it is running I am less likely to deviate from work. It would also tell me to drink water every hour. Wonder if there are other people out there who try to be strict with their days this way?

But, I don't really prioritise my work as you have suggested (tricky things in the morning, mundane things for later), I would definitely start doing that.

[slipwalker]

do you mind to share which "this small program" is ?

[kishansagathiya]

I have put it here https://github.com/kishansagathiya/pomodoro

It is written in Go.

[textread]

Would you be interested in an accountability video call with someone in the same boat on a daily basis for 15 mins?

I am not sure if it will cure the problem, but there is no harm in trying it out for a week and see what happens.

[kishansagathiya]

Hmm, that seems like a good idea. They definitely help inside the company (those `standup calls`). YC Startup School does accountability calls. And since they are really pushing people to join those calls, I am guessing they must work.

[davidajackson]

IMO I have found that not working on your project is one of two things, or both:

1. The project isn't working, and you subconsciously know it but don't want to admit it.

2. You need to, but don't want to, do the next most important task for your startup. So you do other things to procrastinate.

According to the article Sam Altman calls the latter 'fake work', which sounds like a good description to me.

https://tech.co/news/sam-altman-y-combinator-5-signs-youre-f...

>> TLDR "Fake work does not count and will still get you a failed startup no matter how intensely you do it"

So the sooner you can figure out which point it is the sooner you know how to, or how not to, move forward. Probably the most useful thing is just to imagine how much more interesting things will be once you're at the next stage.