The practice of combating procrastination and dislike planning
DISCLAIMER: All the tricks below work for me, and not the fact that they will work for you. IMHO only, I do not pretend to be the ultimate truth.
In this post, I will gather together some tricks that help fight procrastination and do the work.
Oddly enough, most of them relate to rework their habits. Because what the environment imposes on us, the books, and what we instill in ourselves, often works against us.
')
Sleep and food
I noticed by myself if I didn’t get enough sleep - I want to work several times less. We need to find a way to get enough sleep, acting from the position of the Author .
The second important point is food. For the brain to work - and the work in IT is intellectual work - you need a lot of good food.
If you get enough sleep and are full, then the strength should be, if not, go ahead.
Active body, indoor temperature
Sometimes you need to stretch your body. It was not at all so simple in the USSR that production charge was, about which Vysotsky sang so cheerfully.
There is a deep physical meaning. When you bring your muscles into activity, their tone increases, the body's metabolism changes. The body understands that you need to become more cheerful - and after 10-15 minutes of warm-up you will not recognize yourself.
Also, do not forget that, as was correctly written in one article about sleep, our activity depends on the room temperature. If you have winter, the window is open and it is cold, then with a high probability you will want to sleep, and not do the right thing.
Workplace
It is important that the workplace was convenient for you. We all know how difficult it is to sleep on someone else’s bed, and especially somewhere in inappropriate conditions - on a plane, train, and so on (although I learned how to wear earplugs + blindfold + head on its side to the wall or window of the plane - and you sleep well ).
They wrote a lot about it - it is important that you feel comfortable and happy with everything.
Best running time
Conduct self-examination. See when you are working, and when you are going to sleep. Find the best time to work, and try to work only in it. I work, as a rule, at night. The working day from 13 starts and ends after midnight. During the day, administrative work and fast switching are good, solving problems at the moment and immediately forgetting about them. In the evening and at night - work in the stream, programming, planning and decomposition of some tasks, writing articles.
One trick, or the reception "it will wait"
Psychological moment. Often we overestimate the importance of events, set ourselves several deadlines. And we can not proceed.
I am not an expert, but it seems that when you think about something, it falls into the background program. And then, when you need to start, the background programs come into conflict (something like a dead lock), and you can't start.
If I can not start, then write out everything that is now assigned. And hard cut off everything that can not be physically done, which can wait.
The principle is simple, as in “Highlander” - there should be only one.
You may have to refuse to make appointments, from these promises. Learn to say no and be arrogant; Camp ’s book , First Say No, will do well .
After there is only one thing left (a group of cases) that you physically see how to do, you need to tune in to the stream. There is also a great article on how to work in a stream .
The main principle of pumping skills to give up business - if the next day everything is good, and there was no work done, your confidence in the ability to give up too much will increase. There may be objections or discontent from people who are used to ride you, but this is normal.
Internal conflicts
Sometimes it happens that the activity is blocked by psychological conflicts that also work on the background. I apply this technique - I sit down, write “what worries me”, and pour out a stream of thoughts - the main thing is to let the hand write itself. Then I sort the list for each item, I find solutions. After this comes a strong relief.
Self-analysis
In general, it is useful to wonder why the work is not going. There is a great article about how a person analyzed himself and made important conclusions.
Clipping off excess for concentration
Much useful is written in the article how to live with problems of concentration. By the way, at the end of the article there is a link about spontaneous planning techniques - if you cannot force yourself to do anything at all and your behavior is chaotic, it may suit you.
I use a simple trick - if I need to do one exact thing, I first close all unnecessary browser tabs (if something interferes, add to favorites or tell myself that I’ll read later, that's okay) and open tabs connected directly or indirectly with upcoming business. I run applications - IDE, and so on.
This alone makes it easy to focus attention on the matter.
First start
If I do not know where to start, I start with nonsense. For example, if you need a lot of programming, I will make a small fix and release to get a portion of endorphins, which is already a small progress. If you need to write an article - I write the first paragraph, and save it in a draft (so that it does not disappear, and that there is some kind of finished piece).
Small iterations
If the task seems to be too heavy, I choose such a piece that can be done today. For example, I need to calculate the salaries of the entire department, and I cannot do it right away. I choose 3-5 salaries, I make them - and already there is a part of the result.
That is, I beat the task at iteration. Usually every hour or two should be the result. Working code in the form of a simple output, or unsubscribed one task from the stream, or a designed prototypist, for example.
It is important to get satisfaction after each micro-result.
Even if I was thinking about something for two to five hours, I still take a piece of paper and fix the UML architecture, for example. It serves as an intermediate reference point, and is also considered as a step to the task.
Ability to say “enough”
Sometimes it is pressed upon you instilled a desire to do everything today to the end. We are taught to bring to the end, to the end, and this, in general, works in many cases.
But sometimes you cannot start it precisely because there is a conflict in you. On the one hand, it is physically clear what to do today is unreal. On the other hand, the duty, taken upon itself, is pressing down - which I will definitely finish today.
Again dead lock. Solving the problem helps such a psychological trick.
1. If you promised someone, write that today you will not have time. Save to Gmail Draft.
2. Put yourself in the place of the customer. He needs to see progress. And, in rare cases, the result can wait until the next day.
3. Select a piece of the result that will show progress, and which is easy to do. For example, adding a filter (or there to draw another logo, who has that). What can be done in half an hour.
4. Write what you will do this piece, send a letter.
5. Thus, you have simplified your task, and the burden of responsibility should be small.
6. Make the promised. If you have done the right points, it should be easy. If you have enough strength - do a little more, otherwise just go and relax (see above in the article).
Know your capacity
I use this term, perhaps not very true. Capacity is a capacity.
As each athlete has his limit, the boxer has a working distance, so you have your limit and your working area. You must experimentally know and gain confidence in a certain amount of work. Usually, I automatically take tasks into work, if they are correctly calculated in terms of volume. As if there is an internal trigger - if, in terms of excess, the work does not start. As soon as the overload at the elevator is removed - the elevator went.
Here the principle of GTD will help, as I understand it. When you selected only one task for yourself at the moment (with time, the capacity may have at least 10 tasks - I have only one per day, and this is enough), it is necessary that it fits into your abilities. Therefore, first work on the task, take a break, and then take it to work. That is, the separation of the study and execution is an important thing. True, there are exceptions (bugs, for example, cannot be worked through - the essence becomes clear after fixing the bug, but it is not clear from the outset how long it will take to eliminate), but the topic is working.
Work intuition
I read this topic from Anthony in The Secrets of Self-Confidence . The idea is called "gold in your basement." I do not know how, but it works for me.
I charge a task, I think over it. Then I suffer a hogwash some hours (happens, days). And then just sit down and get a ready-made solution, it comes from the subconscious. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I rely heavily on intuition. I know that there are people who love chess, they all figure out in their minds, for them, probably, the idea will not work. But, as my acquaintance, a successful businessman says, an intuitive guess is a variant of an unformed logical statement obtained in the process of thinking, unless it is received faster.
And here it is important to understand that when a task is boiled up in the background, you need not worry. The confidence in the brain is important, and this is achieved by practice.
Manage your emotions with music
Your emotions can be controlled. There is something on Psychologos (for example, the Carousel of States ). Professionally this is taught actors need skills. But many can do this - it is enough to recall the necessary memories from the memory, and here you have an emotion. Either music works very well.
What about emotions. Good for working mood affects music. And the inclusion of the right, working music (for me, especially at 2/4 allegro tempo) can help. I have developed for myself a few tunes, from which the buzz, and under which the work begins. Moreover, the music can be different - earlier it was AC / DC “Big Gun”, today the third part of the concert No. 2 of Rachmaninov for piano and orchestra.
The correct indicator of music is for you to be torko, and so that the impact of music on you is such that you want to dance out of a sad mood (and this energy can already be sent to work).
Background number 1. Music
Sometimes you can divide yourself. In my opinion, this is what Saveliev called the displaced activity.
Put music that plays the repeat'e many times and is not annoying, and, as it were, hyptotizes. At the same time you enter the stream and begin to work wonders. At one time I slept for four or four hours for two weeks, finishing my diploma all the rest of the time (working 7 days), under Philip Kirkorov “I will give this life to you”.
It is very difficult to choose such a melody, but if you find it, use it only in extreme cases. For there is tolerance of the body.
I do not know why music affects emotional state in such a way. Whether mirror neurons , then something else.
Background number 2. Movie or video
This is similar to the previous reception. A big monitor is important. You select the video that you are watching, and you are doing the work in the background. I have a player hanging in the lower right corner of a 500 by 500 square, and there, for example, Potapenko is spinning with an interview that interests me. And in the background is work.
Finding such a video is even harder than finding a song.
Fatigue
Admission is taken from the article , why programmers work at night.
Sometimes I sit up late, and I know that as soon as I get tired, I will immediately go. You do not need to practice this technique often, the sleep mode is lost. But sometimes it is useful, especially when you need to complete. You sit from Saturday to Sunday morning, and suddenly in the morning, already falling asleep, you find the desire to complete the task, and the coding begins to go unusually vigorously. Brewed a seagull, and finish what he could not finish in a standard way.
Here, in general, and all. The most important thing I can say is that if programming is not your vocation (or current activity), then dissatisfaction that accumulates over the years is irresistible.
It is important to remember that we each have our own vocation (IMHO, of course), and as it is rightly said in the economy, keep in mind the “loss of profit”. Your brain remembers the vocation, and the more you do not your business, the more inside the background conflict ripens, which is not overcome by cheats, as in this and related articles.
I wish you to find happiness in your vocation! hint: they can be paralleled if you have several talents.
In this post, I will gather together some tricks that help fight procrastination and do the work.
Oddly enough, most of them relate to rework their habits. Because what the environment imposes on us, the books, and what we instill in ourselves, often works against us.
')
Body and mind rest
Sleep and food
I noticed by myself if I didn’t get enough sleep - I want to work several times less. We need to find a way to get enough sleep, acting from the position of the Author .
The second important point is food. For the brain to work - and the work in IT is intellectual work - you need a lot of good food.
If you get enough sleep and are full, then the strength should be, if not, go ahead.
Active body, indoor temperature
Sometimes you need to stretch your body. It was not at all so simple in the USSR that production charge was, about which Vysotsky sang so cheerfully.
There is a deep physical meaning. When you bring your muscles into activity, their tone increases, the body's metabolism changes. The body understands that you need to become more cheerful - and after 10-15 minutes of warm-up you will not recognize yourself.
Also, do not forget that, as was correctly written in one article about sleep, our activity depends on the room temperature. If you have winter, the window is open and it is cold, then with a high probability you will want to sleep, and not do the right thing.
Workplace
It is important that the workplace was convenient for you. We all know how difficult it is to sleep on someone else’s bed, and especially somewhere in inappropriate conditions - on a plane, train, and so on (although I learned how to wear earplugs + blindfold + head on its side to the wall or window of the plane - and you sleep well ).
They wrote a lot about it - it is important that you feel comfortable and happy with everything.
Best running time
Conduct self-examination. See when you are working, and when you are going to sleep. Find the best time to work, and try to work only in it. I work, as a rule, at night. The working day from 13 starts and ends after midnight. During the day, administrative work and fast switching are good, solving problems at the moment and immediately forgetting about them. In the evening and at night - work in the stream, programming, planning and decomposition of some tasks, writing articles.
Psychological training
One trick, or the reception "it will wait"
Psychological moment. Often we overestimate the importance of events, set ourselves several deadlines. And we can not proceed.
I am not an expert, but it seems that when you think about something, it falls into the background program. And then, when you need to start, the background programs come into conflict (something like a dead lock), and you can't start.
If I can not start, then write out everything that is now assigned. And hard cut off everything that can not be physically done, which can wait.
The principle is simple, as in “Highlander” - there should be only one.
You may have to refuse to make appointments, from these promises. Learn to say no and be arrogant; Camp ’s book , First Say No, will do well .
After there is only one thing left (a group of cases) that you physically see how to do, you need to tune in to the stream. There is also a great article on how to work in a stream .
The main principle of pumping skills to give up business - if the next day everything is good, and there was no work done, your confidence in the ability to give up too much will increase. There may be objections or discontent from people who are used to ride you, but this is normal.
Internal conflicts
Sometimes it happens that the activity is blocked by psychological conflicts that also work on the background. I apply this technique - I sit down, write “what worries me”, and pour out a stream of thoughts - the main thing is to let the hand write itself. Then I sort the list for each item, I find solutions. After this comes a strong relief.
Self-analysis
In general, it is useful to wonder why the work is not going. There is a great article about how a person analyzed himself and made important conclusions.
The mechanics of switching to the case
Clipping off excess for concentration
Much useful is written in the article how to live with problems of concentration. By the way, at the end of the article there is a link about spontaneous planning techniques - if you cannot force yourself to do anything at all and your behavior is chaotic, it may suit you.
I use a simple trick - if I need to do one exact thing, I first close all unnecessary browser tabs (if something interferes, add to favorites or tell myself that I’ll read later, that's okay) and open tabs connected directly or indirectly with upcoming business. I run applications - IDE, and so on.
This alone makes it easy to focus attention on the matter.
First start
If I do not know where to start, I start with nonsense. For example, if you need a lot of programming, I will make a small fix and release to get a portion of endorphins, which is already a small progress. If you need to write an article - I write the first paragraph, and save it in a draft (so that it does not disappear, and that there is some kind of finished piece).
Small iterations
If the task seems to be too heavy, I choose such a piece that can be done today. For example, I need to calculate the salaries of the entire department, and I cannot do it right away. I choose 3-5 salaries, I make them - and already there is a part of the result.
That is, I beat the task at iteration. Usually every hour or two should be the result. Working code in the form of a simple output, or unsubscribed one task from the stream, or a designed prototypist, for example.
It is important to get satisfaction after each micro-result.
Even if I was thinking about something for two to five hours, I still take a piece of paper and fix the UML architecture, for example. It serves as an intermediate reference point, and is also considered as a step to the task.
Ability to say “enough”
Sometimes it is pressed upon you instilled a desire to do everything today to the end. We are taught to bring to the end, to the end, and this, in general, works in many cases.
But sometimes you cannot start it precisely because there is a conflict in you. On the one hand, it is physically clear what to do today is unreal. On the other hand, the duty, taken upon itself, is pressing down - which I will definitely finish today.
Again dead lock. Solving the problem helps such a psychological trick.
1. If you promised someone, write that today you will not have time. Save to Gmail Draft.
2. Put yourself in the place of the customer. He needs to see progress. And, in rare cases, the result can wait until the next day.
3. Select a piece of the result that will show progress, and which is easy to do. For example, adding a filter (or there to draw another logo, who has that). What can be done in half an hour.
4. Write what you will do this piece, send a letter.
5. Thus, you have simplified your task, and the burden of responsibility should be small.
6. Make the promised. If you have done the right points, it should be easy. If you have enough strength - do a little more, otherwise just go and relax (see above in the article).
Know your capacity
I use this term, perhaps not very true. Capacity is a capacity.
As each athlete has his limit, the boxer has a working distance, so you have your limit and your working area. You must experimentally know and gain confidence in a certain amount of work. Usually, I automatically take tasks into work, if they are correctly calculated in terms of volume. As if there is an internal trigger - if, in terms of excess, the work does not start. As soon as the overload at the elevator is removed - the elevator went.
Here the principle of GTD will help, as I understand it. When you selected only one task for yourself at the moment (with time, the capacity may have at least 10 tasks - I have only one per day, and this is enough), it is necessary that it fits into your abilities. Therefore, first work on the task, take a break, and then take it to work. That is, the separation of the study and execution is an important thing. True, there are exceptions (bugs, for example, cannot be worked through - the essence becomes clear after fixing the bug, but it is not clear from the outset how long it will take to eliminate), but the topic is working.
Know-how
Work intuition
I read this topic from Anthony in The Secrets of Self-Confidence . The idea is called "gold in your basement." I do not know how, but it works for me.
I charge a task, I think over it. Then I suffer a hogwash some hours (happens, days). And then just sit down and get a ready-made solution, it comes from the subconscious. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I rely heavily on intuition. I know that there are people who love chess, they all figure out in their minds, for them, probably, the idea will not work. But, as my acquaintance, a successful businessman says, an intuitive guess is a variant of an unformed logical statement obtained in the process of thinking, unless it is received faster.
And here it is important to understand that when a task is boiled up in the background, you need not worry. The confidence in the brain is important, and this is achieved by practice.
Manage your emotions with music
Your emotions can be controlled. There is something on Psychologos (for example, the Carousel of States ). Professionally this is taught actors need skills. But many can do this - it is enough to recall the necessary memories from the memory, and here you have an emotion. Either music works very well.
What about emotions. Good for working mood affects music. And the inclusion of the right, working music (for me, especially at 2/4 allegro tempo) can help. I have developed for myself a few tunes, from which the buzz, and under which the work begins. Moreover, the music can be different - earlier it was AC / DC “Big Gun”, today the third part of the concert No. 2 of Rachmaninov for piano and orchestra.
The correct indicator of music is for you to be torko, and so that the impact of music on you is such that you want to dance out of a sad mood (and this energy can already be sent to work).
Background number 1. Music
Sometimes you can divide yourself. In my opinion, this is what Saveliev called the displaced activity.
Put music that plays the repeat'e many times and is not annoying, and, as it were, hyptotizes. At the same time you enter the stream and begin to work wonders. At one time I slept for four or four hours for two weeks, finishing my diploma all the rest of the time (working 7 days), under Philip Kirkorov “I will give this life to you”.
It is very difficult to choose such a melody, but if you find it, use it only in extreme cases. For there is tolerance of the body.
I do not know why music affects emotional state in such a way. Whether mirror neurons , then something else.
Background number 2. Movie or video
This is similar to the previous reception. A big monitor is important. You select the video that you are watching, and you are doing the work in the background. I have a player hanging in the lower right corner of a 500 by 500 square, and there, for example, Potapenko is spinning with an interview that interests me. And in the background is work.
Finding such a video is even harder than finding a song.
Fatigue
Admission is taken from the article , why programmers work at night.
Sometimes I sit up late, and I know that as soon as I get tired, I will immediately go. You do not need to practice this technique often, the sleep mode is lost. But sometimes it is useful, especially when you need to complete. You sit from Saturday to Sunday morning, and suddenly in the morning, already falling asleep, you find the desire to complete the task, and the coding begins to go unusually vigorously. Brewed a seagull, and finish what he could not finish in a standard way.
La comedia e 'finita
Here, in general, and all. The most important thing I can say is that if programming is not your vocation (or current activity), then dissatisfaction that accumulates over the years is irresistible.
It is important to remember that we each have our own vocation (IMHO, of course), and as it is rightly said in the economy, keep in mind the “loss of profit”. Your brain remembers the vocation, and the more you do not your business, the more inside the background conflict ripens, which is not overcome by cheats, as in this and related articles.
I wish you to find happiness in your vocation! hint: they can be paralleled if you have several talents.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/171391/
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