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Something like this might actually be useful for the all-too-common productive procrastination breaks. Stuck on a hard problem? Better clean my desk. Waiting fo

Something like this might actually be useful for the all-too-common productive procrastination breaks. Stuck on a hard problem? Better clean my desk. Waiting for a build? Better clean my files. Lacking momentum? Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay). I wonder which type of “break” kills more productivity, “fun” distraction or “productive” distraction. Anyone else?

lofatdairy 4y ago
There's probably an argument to be made that at least those tasks might help push you out of a rut if you've spent hours banging your head against a wall. God knows cleaning my desk is probably a better use of my time right now than commenting yet again on HN.
- glotchimo 4y ago
  Yeah I’ve certainly heard that doing something small can help get the engine going, but anecdotally, it totally goes both ways. I’ve had afternoons where I clean something or what have you and get right back to it and others where I clean something and end up changing the capitalization of symbols for no reason.
- p1necone 4y ago
  When I'm working on a hard problem and I identify that I actually do need to stop and just think about it more indirectly I find going for a walk to be pretty useful.
Sebb767 4y ago
Probably "productive" distractions, since you can do them a lot more before feeling bad and going back to work. Especially if you can silently get into the "fun" territory. I've actually had this with HN in the last days; I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content and valuable discussions [0], but with the Twitter shitshow I've come to enjoy a lot of snarky, unproductive discussions again. Maybe it's time to enable noprocast. [0] Actually, it was mostly ideological reasons, but having HN as a "drop-in" replacement/upgrade helped a lot.
- tracker1 4y ago
  Have to admit, the change to Twitter in terms of personality the past few months has been as fun as Twitter around a decade ago... I mean, a lot more snark, memes and generally fun. Not perfect, but definitely more entertaining than when people were getting banned for parody accounts.
- LAC-Tech 4y ago
  Yeah, HN is such a double edged sword. Great technical discussions as well as time sucking passive aggressive discussions about "divisive social issues", which I cannot help but click. Wrote this script today, that just stops me seeing submissions from sites I know won't have good technical discussions. Might be useful for others. const boringDomains = ["twitter.com", "newyorker.com", "nytimes.com"] Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".titleline > a")) .filter(elem => boringDomains.some(domain => elem.href.includes(domain))) .map(elem => elem.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement) .flatMap(elem => [ elem, elem.nextElementSibling, elem.nextElementSibling.nextElementSibling] ) .forEach(elem => elem.remove())
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kettleballroll 4y ago
  > I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content I found that at least for myself, this was just a lie I kept telling myself. HN contains almost zero actionable content, and I've not been an epsilon better off for reading it. I come to see it as infotainment.
  - rjh29 4y ago
    Some HNers believe the site is superior to Reddit, if you compare it to the smaller and high quality subs, there isn't any difference.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
sharkweek 4y ago
> Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay) I don’t have social media on my work computer except LinkedIn. I can’t tell you how many times a day I quickly open a new tab and head to LinkedIn (where I’m not even that personally active, mind you) to just get a quick hit of a distraction.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  Yeah I moved the LinkedIn app to the front page of my home screen when I went to a conference a couple months ago. I check it much more when it's right there. Thanks to your comment, I'm going to move it back to where it was before, buried in a folder on the fourth page.
- mbappe123 4y ago
  LinkedIn and other medias are not at all distracting, if your job is on those platforms. Or you get your traffic through those platforms.
samstave 4y ago
Reddit may be the all time king in productivity blockers...
p1necone 4y ago
I'm similar, but replace the answer to all of those questions with "make a coffee". I feel sorry for my kidneys.
noduerme 4y ago
The kind where you start reading code you wrote more than 3 years ago and obsessively changing it...
- barthelomew 4y ago
  Yes ofcourse, that side project I haven't touched for 3 years now obviously needs a full rewrite in the new language/framework I've been learning.
vidarh 4y ago
Whenever I feel too tired to focus on something "productive" is when I clean the house, because most of my productive work involves thinking and most of the tidying/cleaning is a set of repetitive tasks that I can do on "autopilot" and so ironically I find it easier to carry them out when I'm too tired to get caught up thinking about software projects. But the tricky part is remembering to nudge myself into starting tidying etc..

lofatdairy 4y ago

There's probably an argument to be made that at least those tasks might help push you out of a rut if you've spent hours banging your head against a wall. God knows cleaning my desk is probably a better use of my time right now than commenting yet again on HN.

glotchimo 4y ago
Yeah I’ve certainly heard that doing something small can help get the engine going, but anecdotally, it totally goes both ways. I’ve had afternoons where I clean something or what have you and get right back to it and others where I clean something and end up changing the capitalization of symbols for no reason.
p1necone 4y ago
When I'm working on a hard problem and I identify that I actually do need to stop and just think about it more indirectly I find going for a walk to be pretty useful.

Sebb767 4y ago

Probably "productive" distractions, since you can do them a lot more before feeling bad and going back to work. Especially if you can silently get into the "fun" territory. I've actually had this with HN in the last days; I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content and valuable discussions [0], but with the Twitter shitshow I've come to enjoy a lot of snarky, unproductive discussions again. Maybe it's time to enable noprocast. [0] Actually, it was mostly ideological reasons, but having HN as a "drop-in" replacement/upgrade helped a lot.

tracker1 4y ago
Have to admit, the change to Twitter in terms of personality the past few months has been as fun as Twitter around a decade ago... I mean, a lot more snark, memes and generally fun. Not perfect, but definitely more entertaining than when people were getting banned for parody accounts.
LAC-Tech 4y ago
Yeah, HN is such a double edged sword. Great technical discussions as well as time sucking passive aggressive discussions about "divisive social issues", which I cannot help but click. Wrote this script today, that just stops me seeing submissions from sites I know won't have good technical discussions. Might be useful for others. const boringDomains = ["twitter.com", "newyorker.com", "nytimes.com"] Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(".titleline > a")) .filter(elem => boringDomains.some(domain => elem.href.includes(domain))) .map(elem => elem.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement) .flatMap(elem => [ elem, elem.nextElementSibling, elem.nextElementSibling.nextElementSibling] ) .forEach(elem => elem.remove())
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kettleballroll 4y ago
> I've ditched Reddit for HN because it contained a lot more worthwile content I found that at least for myself, this was just a lie I kept telling myself. HN contains almost zero actionable content, and I've not been an epsilon better off for reading it. I come to see it as infotainment.
- rjh29 4y ago
  Some HNers believe the site is superior to Reddit, if you compare it to the smaller and high quality subs, there isn't any difference.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

sharkweek 4y ago

> Better check LinkedIn (it’s professional so it’s okay) I don’t have social media on my work computer except LinkedIn. I can’t tell you how many times a day I quickly open a new tab and head to LinkedIn (where I’m not even that personally active, mind you) to just get a quick hit of a distraction.

gnicholas 4y ago
Yeah I moved the LinkedIn app to the front page of my home screen when I went to a conference a couple months ago. I check it much more when it's right there. Thanks to your comment, I'm going to move it back to where it was before, buried in a folder on the fourth page.
mbappe123 4y ago
LinkedIn and other medias are not at all distracting, if your job is on those platforms. Or you get your traffic through those platforms.

samstave 4y ago

Reddit may be the all time king in productivity blockers...

p1necone 4y ago

I'm similar, but replace the answer to all of those questions with "make a coffee". I feel sorry for my kidneys.

noduerme 4y ago

The kind where you start reading code you wrote more than 3 years ago and obsessively changing it...

barthelomew 4y ago
Yes ofcourse, that side project I haven't touched for 3 years now obviously needs a full rewrite in the new language/framework I've been learning.

vidarh 4y ago

Whenever I feel too tired to focus on something "productive" is when I clean the house, because most of my productive work involves thinking and most of the tidying/cleaning is a set of repetitive tasks that I can do on "autopilot" and so ironically I find it easier to carry them out when I'm too tired to get caught up thinking about software projects. But the tricky part is remembering to nudge myself into starting tidying etc..