Ask HN: Help me, I fuck around on the Internet too much

[vain]

The internet is my industry and takes care of me well. It is also the biggest hinderance to my productivity. I lose a very large amount of time reading / watching stuff that seems interesting. While I have learnt a lot with my unquenchable thirst for things knowledgy, I am not able to meet my time goals. How do you at HN avoid this trap?

[jarin]

I know the feeling, you're browsing around aimlessly, checking feeds, checking forums, etc. At some point you start getting that overwhelming feeling where you know you should be doing something productive, but it's just so easy to click one more link.

Here is the sequence I follow when I realize I've been up for 4 hours and still haven't gotten anything done yet:

- Eat something quick to prepare, if I haven't eaten yet. Watch Mixergy or something while I'm cooking/eating. This is the wind-down from "procrastination mode", and watching Mixergy reminds me that there are people out there busting their asses right now and taking all of my future customers or client dollars.

- Put on some good coding music. This puts my brain into "serious business" mode. I prefer energetic hip-hop or dubstep, something I can bop my head to and feel like a boss.

- Go through all my tabs, Pinboard and tag the ones I want to keep for later, and close all of the tabs that don't apply to what I should be working on.

- Take a post-it note and write down the 3 tasks I am going to accomplish today, come hell or high water.

- Get a coffee or energy drink, have a smoke (not recommended), and use the bathroom. Get my mental game plan together.

- Open Terminal and MacVim. This sets the stage.

- Pick a task that isn't on the post-it note (but needs to be done) that takes 10 minutes or less to bust out. Could be anything from a quick design fix to a wireframe or writing up a quick estimate. This is the warm-up.

- By this point, my brain is in full-on work mode. Jump in and tackle the work.

- Feel good. Eat dinner.

- Play Starcraft.

[seancron]

I also recommend using a program like Self Control[1] to blacklist distracting websites for really bad cases where you're not consciously opening a distracting website because it has become muscle memory.

In addition to using Self Control, I also like to run a small local web server to display a page like http://phylab.mtu.edu/~nckelley/Focus/ whenever I try to visit a distracting website.

I plan on experimenting with some negative reinforcement by building an Arduino device that shocks me whenever I visit a distracting website when I should be working :D.

[1]

Mac: http://visitsteve.com/made/selfcontrol/

Linux: http://svn.jklmnop.net/projects/SelfControl.html

[r0s]

Setting the stage seems like an important step, I'd like a way to load up a web development environment with all the trimmings on my win7 machine.

A browser profile with it's own bookmarks/extensions, a separate virtual desktop workspace, and perhaps launch a set of other apps with windows arranged to suit my multi-screen setup.

I'm sure it can be done, but it's not simple or intuitive.

[fleitz]

Great post, this mirrors almost exactly my prep for getting down to work. Smoking (not recommended) definitely helps my focus but if you're using caffeine and smoking remember that nicotine catalyzes the break down of caffiene meaning you'll need to consume more frequently. Also, recommend instead of coffee, tea which contains L-Theanine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine which also helps with focus and cognition.

I think also there is a balance to be had with browsing, often times I'll use ideas or projects I've heard of by looking through HN and other sites. If you factor in how much code you'd have to write if you didn't know about this project I think that a moderate amount of browsing improves productivity.

[buckler]

As for the post-it/to-do lists, what helps me is to develop a point system (scale of 0~5 or whatever) and assign a point next to a criterion at the end of the day, depending on how well you think the task was accomplished. It works even better if the tasks are something that's repeated weekly (e.g. organisation of your living space), as you'll end up with a collection of points.

While easy and non time-consuming, it's powerful in a way that it creates a feedback process. Of course, there's bunch of different reward systems people use besides scoring high points, like earning oneself a cigar, for example. So you can develop one that suits you for more fun.

[jwoodbridge]

Have any good dubstep recommendations?

[dcosson]

Love the dubstep suggestion. I too do my best coding when I feel like a boss

[Homunculiheaded]

My solution has been this: don't take crappy breaks, take real ones. Your brain can only focus for so long, it's normal that it needs a break, so naturally you drift over to the web. However this is not a great break and doesn't really refresh you. When I'm working on a project and find myself browsing HN for to long, I just get up and go outside, go for a walk, take a shower (I work from home), take a quick nap, even read a book or something similar. In all of these cases I a.) actually feel refreshed when I'm done, b.) usually spend over all less time distracted, and most importantly c.) gain insight into the problem I'm trying to solve by ignoring it.

Many offices cultures require that you 'look busy' and web browsing is a crappy form of relaxation that unfortunately fits in with this well. If you give your brain moments to actually relax you'll get more done with in far less time. Web browsing when you really need a break is roughly the same thing is snacking on junk food when you really need a wholesome meal.

edit: One key thing I only implied is: leave the space your in. So for example playing a round of video games on the same machine your working on won't work, but (if you can avoid playing all afternoon) going another room to play xbox for 30mins probably will work.

[jarin]

That is a key point: if you work from home, taking a shower and getting dressed is a key part of telling yourself "I'm not in wake-up mode, I'm in getting shit done mode".

[Andi]

Is is very important to change your whole context regularly. This means: go out (this is where we come from), take a walk. This will give you back the necessary energy you need in your modern workplace.

[GHFigs]

A significant and recurring step for myself has been recognizing that in my scramble to consume everything that seemed interesting I was trying to hoard something that's in rampant abundance.

You will never have enough time to dick around on the Internet, because there will always be new things that seem interesting. The most interesting thing in the world will be the thing you mark "Read Later" in the moments before you die. It never ends. You will.

What you've got to recognize in this is that "Does this seem interesting?" is not a good heuristic for reading / watching / listening / doing. It's the natural and intuitive one we're all equipped with, but it fails in a world of abundance. To get out of the trap you've got to internalize a rule more like "Do I need this for something?" or "Can I safely ignore this?" or "Am I going to act on this?"

Try it with the tabs you've got open right now and see how you feel.

[nooneelse]

Another angle to see that the new "interesting stuff" pile is effectively unlimited is to look at where you go when you have some minutes to spend on interesting stuff. If you are often needing to go back to that "Read Later" pile to find anything interesting enough to read, well, then maybe there isn't much new stuff coming in that you are interested in.

But me, I very rarely have to go back into that "Read Later" pile to use free minutes of brain-time. If none of the aggregators have anything of merit, a couple of searches related to "the topic I'm into at the moment" gets more than I could read in a week. This empirical fact is something I try to use to slow the rate of additions to my "Read Later" queue.

[zheng]

Amazing point. Unlike an above commenter, I often spend more time on a site like HN because so much more of the content seems "interesting". However, this isn't the right metric, and you are spot on with that.

[gexla]

Really it's like watching T.V. except it's the internet. Brainless activities which keeps us just enough entertained that we don't go watch T.V. instead. ;)

It's also procrastination from doing the things you really need to be doing. So, check out the tips on dealing with procrastination.

I think what works best for me is to realize that I'm aimlessly wandering and just get up from the computer and do something else. Bonus points for getting out of the house. When I come back, if I fall into the same trap, then rinse and repeat.

Another trick is to simply do something productive on the computer for just 15 minutes. Set a timer and go. Once you get to that first 15 then usually that's all you need to keep going long enough to call it a day so that you can waste your time without feeling guilty that you didn't do anything. ;)

[dboyd]

> Really it's like watching T.V. except it's the internet.

Except we don't work on our TVs. In fact, in web development, I do 'real work' in the same application I 'waste real time' (the browser).

Seth Godin had an interesting take on that problem...

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/are-you-maki...

[bluedevil2k]

It's all self-discipline. Like a diet, you could eat cake an ice cream every meal, but you'd become fat. You need the self-discipline to limit yourself on the Internet to remain productive.

Another way to lOok at it, depending on what motivates you ... Think in terms of "is mark zuckerberg wasting hours on these stupid forums every day?"

[jarin]

Yeah, the most important thing is not to fall into the trap of saying "Fuck it, today is a wash. I'll do it tomorrow."

No. Today is not a wash. You're going to stay up late and get the work done as punishment, until you learn your lesson.

[gbelote]

Self discipline is key. No tool can really prevent you from goofing off. Things can help, but it all boils down to you.

One thing that helps me: focus on the good feeling when you accomplish something and think about how you're going to get there.

Also I have a framed picture of this - http://www.someecards.com/workplace-cards/when-work-feels-ov...

[paulitex]

Just to be a contrarian... don't feel so bad. You're in good company.

"Perhaps fifteen of his [Leonardo da Vinci's] paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.(" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci (emphasis mine)

"One of the problems I've faced throughout life is that I'm kind of lazy, or maybe I lack will power or discipline or something."

- Paul Bucheit (http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2011/02/two-paths-to-succes...)

(I've quoted that before, but it seems appropriate again here)

[aridiculous]

What's more, I used to be hard on myself for doing this until I realized my best work came out of something I saw in a 'distraction' session.

e.g. I wouldn't have discovered Isotope if I wasn't surfing HN. Then, something I made with Isotope was far better than something I would have been working on at another time.

Sometimes, delaying work leads to better outcomes. That's why it's so hard to know when to work ;)

[adambyrtek]

Not to forget about pg himself:

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html

[m0nastic]

I've seen a few folks implement the following system (with varying degrees of success):

- Start a Virtual Machine

- Migrate all your IM, Email, Twitter, Facebook, RSS, HN, etc. to the VM

- When you want to focus/work, shut down the VM

I do something similar with an iPad. I don't check email, Twitter, RSS, or read web pages on my laptop anymore. I've migrated all that to the iPad.

[maayank]

Asking this on HN is not unlike asking in a drugs den how to quit crack-cocaine

[Encosia]

Buy an iPad.

Clear your computer's history/cookies, and never use it for distracting/unproductive sites again. Use the iPad exclusively for your unproductive browsing going forward (preferably in a different physical location).

You will be amazed at how quickly it pays for itself (and the browsing experience is better too).

[whow]

This actually works very well. I don't have an ipad yet, but I do the same thing with my iPhone. In addition to that I also have leechblock(found it in lifehacker) that blocks 3hrs block of time with breaks in between. 8-11, 1-4, 6:30-10:30 and midnight-4am. This way I can't "accidentally" browse HN or other news site during my supposedly productive hours. If I really need a fix, I just browse in my iPhone and away from my computer. It's easier to stop browsing on my iPhone than on my computer.

[gumbo]

Email is not unproductive. Just need to have a discipli e here. I can't aford shuting down the mail client from my laptop. I often need to respond to clients all day long. As i've been so responsive to clients all those year (i usualy respond quickly to my clients emquiriea) that's mean now if i dont respond to an email for say 4 hours....

[liljimmytables]

Get back to work!

I don't really consider myself an expert on getting things done, but I will suggest one thing. Take a day off every week. A day off the internet, a day off anything with a screen, and a day off anything which is about paid work. When you sit at your computer and think "maybe just a few more rage comics[1]" you're actually feeling a bit uninspired. sitting and staring at your computer is the worst way to achieve inspiration. instead, do the housework, bake, take up a hardware project, knit, read, do a correspondence course. anything that is unimportant to your day job, and pleasant, and nothing to do with those computerboxes.

When my day off is over I go back to my myriad projects and sit down and actually do them. It's much much much more productive than trying to work all the time. I actually suspect this is one of the major advantages of the sabbath in Abrahamic religions.

Oh, and use bookmarks. The blogosphere is much easier to forget about when you know you can find all the good stuff at a later date.

Like I say I'm no expert, but this helps me. I find that when I try to break the trend and work all week my mind quickly devolves into that of a dullard drone.

Best of luck breaking that habit!

[1] don't judge me :(

[SkyMarshal]

Tune your internal filter more strictly. Three categories:

1. Signal.

If you're honest with yourself, no more than 10% of most social news will be signal for you, signal being defined as something that directly helps you improve your work. That 10% is different for different people doing different things, though. Read, bookmark, or pinboard the signal.

2. Useful to be aware of, not directly applicable.

Industry gossip & news, scan the headline and first paragraph so you're not totally ignorant about it at cocktail parties, then move on, don't dwell on it. This is different for different folks, depending on what you do. What's #2 for some is noise for others, and vice versa.

3. Noise.

Around half of social media. Infoporn, Entreporn, whatever. Not applicable to you, won't help to know about it at the expense of actually doing or making something yourself. Suppress your Pavlovian instincts and ignore it.

You could even take this a step further and just cut out #2 and #3 altogether. But if you do that you can also cut out #1 (social media entirely) and rely purely on search engines to find you stuff you need when you need it. Extreme, but there you go.

[Psyonic]

The only problem with cutting out #2 and #3 completely is that you don't always know what information will be useful to you.

[edshadi]

-wake up -wash face and brush teeth. -I set up my dev/work environment (terminal, textmate, browser on localhost, skype, etc) make sure that when I sit on my desk I don't need to do anything but work. I even make sure that I'm on the right git branch and check my status, check my tasks for the day and have the code I'm gonna work on up on the screen. Although I'm still a little sleepy (I need my coffee), I push through to get setup. -Check my emails while in the bathroom -make coffee/breakfast -read HN or other news stuff while I eat. by now, my environment is setup, my emails are checked, my news are in, my bowels are moved, my stomach ain't empty and I'm ready to hack away.

During lunch, I might check news/HN again, facebook for a sec, etc.

[X4]

Why:

0. Not enough knowledge and/or lying to yourself

1. Subliminally trying to flee from taks, because you know it's going to take so much time again.

2. Trying to do something which gives you short term success by posting/chatting/helping etc.

How:

0. turnoff sound and your monitor!

1. read a programming book (offline) related to your project! yes do it some hours and have a tea/coffee

2. create a todo (offline) / (digitalize it much later)

3. Analyse your project and start coding now.

What:

0. I waste a very large amount of time for ("fun")

1. unquenchable thirst for things knowledgy

2. Not able to meet my time goals

3. Feeling lazy

Hope it helps

[zcid]

http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

I'm not sure where I first heard about this, but it has drastically improved my productivity. It doesn't do much to get me started, but it keeps me from leaving my workflow once I'm already there. The short breaks keep me from getting too drained, but I'm always back on time and working again. I love being a slave to my timer.

I usually use http://tomatoi.st/ to keep track, but there are a bunch of other apps to help you out.

[Koopa58]

Thanks, this looks like a good tool! I'll be trying this out the coming weeks :)

[bluedevil2k]

As much as he's reviled on this site, Tim Ferris's suggestion (likely borrowed from someone else) has been a great tip. Each day, lay out 3 concrete items to get done. Then do them without interruption. You'll most likely be done with them by lunch. Then you can do pterosaur things the rest of the day. Surf if you're stuck in an office, go to the park if you work from home. By setting put concrete things and going about getting them done, you do them much faster than if you leave them nebulous with an indefinite time frame.

[johnyqi]

I had similar problem, for quite long time, and probably I still do from time to time.

What really worked for me was to schedule time offs when I simply don't do certain tasks online. It took some time to implement that and my mind was playing tricks with me all the time.

I decided that my mornings, until 9:00 and evenings, after 19:00 are offline times and I would only use internet in the case of emergency or if some project has to be finished on time.

I was trying to quit reading news completely but than I realized that considering that I'm running online business I can't really do that, I have to be on top of the things to make sure that our services are always up to date.

I limited my reading activities only on few sources, Tech Crunch, Hacker News, Twitter (following max 50 people) and Facebook (also max 50 people). I give myself only 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to go through my sources and to respond in some cases.

This was not easy to achieve, it's one kind of addiction and I even wrote a post about it few days ago, "How to deal with mental obesity" http://www.oceen.com/2011/04/01/podcast-information-overload...

Information overload is serious stuff but majority of people are still not aware of that. It's going to become one of the biggest problems in next decade and only way to fight it is to discipline yourself in same way as you discipline yourself with food.

[vain]

i have tried that, but most days, HN or the very few sources just expand to occupy all my time. I agree with you about it being a very serious problem. In terms of health, two things already very evident are weight gain and eye lubricating drops.

[FreshCode]

My biggest weakness is too many tabs. I tend to have 200+ tabs open in Chrome stuffed with my primary procrastination implement: must-read technology news. If I start picking through them to close/mark for later reading, I inevitably start reading and simply reboot the procrastination cycle.

My best antidote: have your IDE ready to work and close all your browser tabs at once.

P.S. You know you read too much Hacker News when you wake up from a dream in which PG rejected both your startup ideas for funding.

[nostrademons]

Most of the posts here focus on not doing the stuff you shouldn't be doing, but I've found it's much more effective on doing the things you should. The biggest help I've found was:

Break down your productive tasks into smaller ones that can be accomplished in an hour or two of concentrated work.

The big reason I procrastinate is because my real projects seem unmanageable. They're big, or they're scary, or they'll just take too much time to be worth investing in now. The solution to that is to make them smaller, less scary, and easily completed with the time you have now. That means doing more of them, but at least you'll be able to make forward progress.

I took on a 20% project at work with the express goal of teaching myself how to break down a large, self-motivated project into one that I can actually motivate myself to complete. It's a library that'll probably be 10-15k lines of code when completed, based on similar projects. Most commits are no larger than 200 lines of code. I can bang out 200 lines of code in an afternoon; that makes each individual piece seem quite reasonable.

[damaru]

- Try to only create and care. If I am not creating nor caring then it's probably a waste of time (create = code, draw, make music, solder etc... care = do yoga, train, clean the house, repair stuff around the house, garden, water the plants, cook food etc...)

- klip.me to read page later on my kindle (any page that has a lot of text I send it to my kindle so I can walk away from my computer once in a while to read about other stuff I want to do)

- 2 screen computer - one for watching stuff (video,web stuff) one for working, creating,producing

- Being clear and telling myself : It's been 30minutes that you check facebook photo aimlessly anything else you can do ?

- Do the dishes, clean the house, have so non computer task that needs to be done when too much procrastination happen

- Not feeling bad or guilty as it ends up making me wanting to do more aimless browsing

- Have a precise goal and passion in my life ;) If I am confuse about these I make mind map to see where I am at !

[grammaton]

Tabbed browsing is both a blessing and a curse. I found that I stopped wasting quite so much time surfing when I derived as much satisfaction from having only a few (mostly necessary) tabs open at any one time as I did from, say, cleaning the apartment or going for a walk. It was mainly a matter of rewiring where I get my sense of reward from, and acknowledging that the vast bulk of the stuff I read on the web just went right in one ear and out the other helped a lot. It's very sobering to tally up the number of hours a week you spend reading stuff you mostly won't remember by the end of said week - try it some time, it helped me a lot.