> If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride. And it will encourage you to do another task.
It bothers me when people present anecdata like this. I don't have a problem with people feeling this way. But it's a huge leap of logic to say that this phenomenon is generalizable, especially since there absolutely are counterexamples. I, for one, have never felt this way after making my bed.
As someone who is not a morning person and who is experimenting with daily habits like the above, I'd like to give you my thoughts on this.
One of the things that Charles Duhigg writes about in the "Power of Habit" is reducing the barriers to action. One of the examples he gives is starting a running program. The best thing that you can do is to reduce the barriers to action for yourself by putting your running shoes and socks by the door. By preparing yourself for action, all you have to do is act (e.g. lace up and go out the door). If you have to find your socks or shoes in the fog of your morning waking up, that is a barrier to action that might even be enough to make you stay in bed.
Making the bed in the morning is a symbolic action. I believe it mentally separates you from the 'sleep' part of your day to the 'wake' part of your day. By choosing to make the bed, you are choosing to take action on something that, honestly, isn't that important.
Once you start your morning, you can add other habits (reading a good book, meditating, drinking coffee, playing with your kids, walking your dog). Note that I didn't say these or good or bad habits - but something that you would like to do.
In fact, some life coaches argue that perhaps the goal is to extend your morning routine such that it takes up most of your morning and extends into the afternoon.
There is a famous demonstration that involves a glass jar, sand, large rocks (not so large that they wouldn't fit into the jar), smaller rocks, and gravel.
When you pour the sand in first, it is near impossible to smash in the rocks and even some of the gravel.
The counter demonstration is that when you put the rocks in, then the smaller rocks, and then the gravel, you can pour the sand in and it fits between the voids.
This is an analogy for making time for the important actions in your day. The ones that you want to do. The practical theory is that by doing what is good for you right away, you won't procrastinate all day (e.g. reading Hacker News) and do something relatively more useful like physical exercise or meditation or coffee with a good friend.
Even if a few of this kind of tricks sometimes work, my experience is that their effect vanishes after a few days and you're back to square one. I guess it is because they are just tricks: your mind (well, mine, at least) can only be abused or abuse itself so long, and then it detects the trickery.
Remote work is like catnip to me. Not the actual work thing (I spent 18 months working for a Texan university while five time zones away, so I know a little about it) but the thing for me is the movement
Remote work should be everywhere. Almost every office job could be done remotely with far less crappy distraction. I think that there are genuine difficulties with close co-ordination, with productivity etc, but these are far far out weighed by the gains (I got some real work done remotely and I was not the one of the best)
There are I think three things preventing remote working taking off
- managers cannot manage. With remote worker you have to manage the work itself, which means the proxies for good work (ie telling if someone is a good worker, is engaged is enthusiastic etc) are gone, and so it is necessary to define the work upfront, decide if you are getting that work and correct. This is really hard and usually the managers reporting line wants them facing up most of the time thus reducing the time they have to manage.
- companies cannot compete. If your company is the only factory in say a thirty mile radius, you are a monopoly employer and get to pick the best workers for a pittance. If more factories spring up, you are now competing with those other factories for the best workers and salaries should rise. Now imagine the radius is 30,000 miles. Companies are now competing against every other company for their workers. It is possible remote workers will act like football superstars and extract majority of profit from firms
- the "out of place"'tipping point. Untill 51% of coworkers are remote the company culture does not change and you are a second class citizen
I think these are big headwinds for remote working
Or because people are like me - completely unable to work from home. I've been doing it for the past 6 months and it has totally destroyed my productivity. I've tried all the tricks, nothing helps. I'm just not fit to work remotely.
Your "companies cannot compete" is a great insight. However, it only works in preventing remote work from taking off if every company (like a cartel) plays along in requiring employees to be local.
These kind of advice articles about personal productivity never really take into consideration that you might be sharing your living space with someone else.
Sure, I'll make my bed at 5.45 every morning, first thing of the day, just let me wake up my girlfriend super early too, just because I'm a productivity freak. Sorry hon', Tim Ferris told me to do that!
No matter what the work I still find being around people I work with to be much better than working by myself at home, despite Slack and email etc there is no replacement to talking with people in person. While the occasional day at home is fine I just can't enjoy being alone all the time and still try to be productive. I'm sure it works for other people but not me.
Don't give orders to other people when in fact you just present a list of things that work for you (at the moment). There's nothing universal in those advices, it just fits you (at the moment).
Working remotely is hard enough. Working for yourself is even harder. A good manager should be making contact at task-appropriate intervals. Keeping organised and going shouldn't be too different from office life.
But when you're alone and it's your responsibility to keep yourself motivated... Base urges (and laziness) creep in. Takes a while to find your efficiency.
This article seems rife with BS.. Not going to bother going into detail. But one example: you need to drink 3.2 L of water a day, is completely baseless as far as I'm aware.
The article assumes that you don't find your work interesting enough to keep your attention focused for a prolonged period of time. Maybe it is better to try to understand why it is not interesting and find ways to make it actually catching rather than figure out workarounds. Because why should we spend time on things we are not interested in?
sometimes work becomes work. I really enjoy providing control systems for hydro electric power plants, but when people change their minds and I have to re-do the same work, or if some equipment provided by another firm doesn't work properly and it eats up a bunch of my time it is a drag. Or I get burnt out after working 12 hour days for four months so that we don't get sued if the power plant isn't generating on time, and then I might have loads of work to do after to clean up the documentation and other parts of the contract so we can get paid the full amount, but man I just don't feel like working anymore, whereas if I'm doing a moderate amount every day with lots of time for exercise and socializing I really enjoy the same work.
edit: I should add that I work either on site at power plants or remotely from home
I really enjoy programming and applying various technologies to solve problems.
However, I don't always enjoy my work. If I'm stuck o the same thing for prolonged amounts of time or if things keep not working out (eg fixing a bug only to find another and another and...). My work also requires that sometimes I do stuff that I don't enjoy. I've yet to come across a job where I enjoy 100% of the tasks that come my way.
I've also noticed that there's a difference in enjoyment between tasks that I do because I have to and tasks that I choose to do because I feel like it. Both tasks could actually be the same thing, only one I decided I wanted to do and the other external factors decided that I should do the task.
For example, one day I was feeling frustrated and burnt out by work and after work I did a little programming that was more-or-less the same kind of work that I do in my job, but I did it for myself for fun. And I felt refreshed.
There have been multiple comments here calling out drinking specific quantities of water.
I am not sure about the scientific validity of the advice and hence not going to comment on that.
But what I do have realized is (atleast is my case) often we mistake thirst signals from our body for hunger signals or rather as cravings and grab a snack. This idea was suggested in one of the n number of resources I read online about weightloss, so I am not able to cite the exact article.
Consciously noting craving signals and just substituting water often made the cravings go away. When it doesn't, obviously I am hungry :)
Now we are venturing deep into the land of extrapolation. So, take this with a huge grain of salt. I suspect that in our hunter gatherer days (or earlier0, water was not readily available at hand. So humans, then, would have depended on fruits and leaves as a source of water as well as food. Hence why atleast some of get our hunger and thirst signals mixed up ;)
The same for me. Author claims that remote working is less productive, but I can negate it very easily - for me, it is not. I feel much more productive when the only distractions are Facebook and Slack. They are still there in the office and we have to count in additional distractions like people talking.
Hmmm, I wrote a todo-inator that extracted todos etc from code comments. I would use that as micro-tickets so my progress was visible to me. Expanding the idea to show others what I was doing was a blog thing that never took off but I like the general idea.
[+] [-] humanrebar|9 years ago|reply
It bothers me when people present anecdata like this. I don't have a problem with people feeling this way. But it's a huge leap of logic to say that this phenomenon is generalizable, especially since there absolutely are counterexamples. I, for one, have never felt this way after making my bed.
[+] [-] wallflower|9 years ago|reply
One of the things that Charles Duhigg writes about in the "Power of Habit" is reducing the barriers to action. One of the examples he gives is starting a running program. The best thing that you can do is to reduce the barriers to action for yourself by putting your running shoes and socks by the door. By preparing yourself for action, all you have to do is act (e.g. lace up and go out the door). If you have to find your socks or shoes in the fog of your morning waking up, that is a barrier to action that might even be enough to make you stay in bed.
Making the bed in the morning is a symbolic action. I believe it mentally separates you from the 'sleep' part of your day to the 'wake' part of your day. By choosing to make the bed, you are choosing to take action on something that, honestly, isn't that important.
Once you start your morning, you can add other habits (reading a good book, meditating, drinking coffee, playing with your kids, walking your dog). Note that I didn't say these or good or bad habits - but something that you would like to do.
In fact, some life coaches argue that perhaps the goal is to extend your morning routine such that it takes up most of your morning and extends into the afternoon.
There is a famous demonstration that involves a glass jar, sand, large rocks (not so large that they wouldn't fit into the jar), smaller rocks, and gravel.
When you pour the sand in first, it is near impossible to smash in the rocks and even some of the gravel.
The counter demonstration is that when you put the rocks in, then the smaller rocks, and then the gravel, you can pour the sand in and it fits between the voids.
This is an analogy for making time for the important actions in your day. The ones that you want to do. The practical theory is that by doing what is good for you right away, you won't procrastinate all day (e.g. reading Hacker News) and do something relatively more useful like physical exercise or meditation or coffee with a good friend.
[+] [-] wott|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Mz|9 years ago|reply
I work remotely. I see very little of this as relevant to me.
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|9 years ago|reply
Remote work should be everywhere. Almost every office job could be done remotely with far less crappy distraction. I think that there are genuine difficulties with close co-ordination, with productivity etc, but these are far far out weighed by the gains (I got some real work done remotely and I was not the one of the best)
There are I think three things preventing remote working taking off
- managers cannot manage. With remote worker you have to manage the work itself, which means the proxies for good work (ie telling if someone is a good worker, is engaged is enthusiastic etc) are gone, and so it is necessary to define the work upfront, decide if you are getting that work and correct. This is really hard and usually the managers reporting line wants them facing up most of the time thus reducing the time they have to manage.
- companies cannot compete. If your company is the only factory in say a thirty mile radius, you are a monopoly employer and get to pick the best workers for a pittance. If more factories spring up, you are now competing with those other factories for the best workers and salaries should rise. Now imagine the radius is 30,000 miles. Companies are now competing against every other company for their workers. It is possible remote workers will act like football superstars and extract majority of profit from firms
- the "out of place"'tipping point. Untill 51% of coworkers are remote the company culture does not change and you are a second class citizen
I think these are big headwinds for remote working
[+] [-] Kiro|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hammock|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JshWright|9 years ago|reply
I'll let Dr Carroll rant for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbHp7cu2Ubk
[+] [-] nostromo|9 years ago|reply
This has recently been called into question as well, as the original study showing "ego depletion" failed replication.
[+] [-] mark_l_watson|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] camillomiller|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] koonsolo|9 years ago|reply
So I agree, if you want to increase your personal productivity, make your bed early every morning. :D.
[+] [-] coldcode|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aboonaboo|9 years ago|reply
It's almost as if everyone is different lol
[+] [-] wott|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oliwarner|9 years ago|reply
But when you're alone and it's your responsibility to keep yourself motivated... Base urges (and laziness) creep in. Takes a while to find your efficiency.
This may be relevant. https://youtu.be/co_DNpTMKXk
[+] [-] everyone|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] inlineint|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snowwindwaves|9 years ago|reply
edit: I should add that I work either on site at power plants or remotely from home
[+] [-] codeulike|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkersten|9 years ago|reply
However, I don't always enjoy my work. If I'm stuck o the same thing for prolonged amounts of time or if things keep not working out (eg fixing a bug only to find another and another and...). My work also requires that sometimes I do stuff that I don't enjoy. I've yet to come across a job where I enjoy 100% of the tasks that come my way.
I've also noticed that there's a difference in enjoyment between tasks that I do because I have to and tasks that I choose to do because I feel like it. Both tasks could actually be the same thing, only one I decided I wanted to do and the other external factors decided that I should do the task.
For example, one day I was feeling frustrated and burnt out by work and after work I did a little programming that was more-or-less the same kind of work that I do in my job, but I did it for myself for fun. And I felt refreshed.
[+] [-] sharmi|9 years ago|reply
I am not sure about the scientific validity of the advice and hence not going to comment on that.
But what I do have realized is (atleast is my case) often we mistake thirst signals from our body for hunger signals or rather as cravings and grab a snack. This idea was suggested in one of the n number of resources I read online about weightloss, so I am not able to cite the exact article.
Consciously noting craving signals and just substituting water often made the cravings go away. When it doesn't, obviously I am hungry :)
Now we are venturing deep into the land of extrapolation. So, take this with a huge grain of salt. I suspect that in our hunter gatherer days (or earlier0, water was not readily available at hand. So humans, then, would have depended on fruits and leaves as a source of water as well as food. Hence why atleast some of get our hunger and thirst signals mixed up ;)
[+] [-] saurabhjha|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] methyl|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] exabrial|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] karma_vaccum123|9 years ago|reply
I put every trivial to-do related to a repo into a github issue.
I commit routinely, even for small changes, with a short message.
These stink of make-work, but they expose my progress to my other remote colleagues.
Slack is an exception...using it as a progress meter just annoys others.
[+] [-] lifeisstillgood|9 years ago|reply
Plus I hate slack