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by dbieber 1222 days ago
I made a list of my strategies for this: https://davidbieber.com/snippets/2022-03-18-attention-strate...

So you don't have to click through, here they are: * Using an outliner like Roam Research

* Working with another person (e.g. pair programming)

* Working with another person present (e.g. independent coworking)

* Running a “distraction detection” program

* Mentally noting the distraction-kind and returning my attention

* Keeping my phone in my kitchen

* Writing on Go Note Go, my headless keyboard

* Attending meetings/talks in “clamshell mode” (laptop closed, no keyboard or mouse available)

* Making TODO lists

* And explicitly writing down the ^^active TODO^^

* Going to sleep at a specific time (e.g. 10:10pm)

* Exercising regularly (or at least aiming to)

* Stopping watching TV in the middle of an episode (ends of episodes are more addicting)

* 50 minute working sessions (e.g. focusmate.com)

* Stretching

* Taking short deliberate breaks

* Using Pomodoro timers for working sessions

* Using the “Intention” Chrome extension by DK

* Keeping all notifications on my phone turned off

* Asking the people I live with to get my attention first before starting a conversation with me

* Announcing my current active goal publicly (e.g. in a chat room)

* “Hide feed” Chrome extension, also by DK

This is all in addition to what I call the "Nike strategy". i.e. "Just do it". aka pure will power. But you don't need to rely completely on the Nike strategy -- the rest of the list can be useful too!

1 comments

Thanks for turning me on to Go Note Go. I’ve been contemplating a similar system for quite some time.

How often do you review your “Go” notes? I’m finding that’s now becoming the bottleneck in my mental model - I’ve reduced most of the friction in my output, but now there’s more activation energy for retrieval.

I’ve been using Obsidian for a week now, which I hope will pay dividends in time. Do you have a particular workflow or stack for your “second brain?”

I review them frequently -- opportunistically only, but frequently nevertheless. I gather I'm unusual in this regard; most people I talk to about note taking seem to be "write only".

For myself, I write notes on Go Note Go without seeing them, but I also use Roam at a computer where I do see my notes. When there, I'm often curious to read for the first time what I wrote blindly the day before. I also go back through my notes looking for ideas to expand on (tagged e.g. #[[Snippet Ideas]]), or for TODOs for projects.

> To use Go Note Go in the shower, acquire a waterproof Bluetooth enabled keyboard, and pair it with your Go Note Go Raspberry Pi 400. Go ahead and leave that waterproof keyboard in your shower.

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