[guide] how to be productive

I don?t know enough about Starcraft to tell anyone how to do anything, so I?m always at a loss for things to contribute to TL other than being a liberal-pinko-commie in the General forum, so I thought I?d describe for some of you my methods and tips for how to be productive.

A few years back, home from college for the summer, I started to get disgusted with how I could feel my brain working. I was constantly distracted, was incapable of finishing anything I started, spent countless hours pissing my time away on the Internet, and was coasting through college and didn?t have much to show for anything. Fed up with this state, I decided to make a concerted effort at being productive. My possible-signs-of-Internet-addiction have made this process a difficult one, and these strategies have been culminated from a variety of places and sources, but I?ve been able to keep with them, so maybe others can find them useful. Let?s go from macro to micro.

Be Ruthlessly Goal-Oriented

Goal-oriented is a word I?ve always shuddered at and figured it was only really believed by motivational speakers, but when used usefully I?ve had great success with it. I try to keep the following: a 5-year goal, a 1-year goal, a 1-month goal, and a 1-week goal. These vary in complexity. A 1-week goal can be something as simple, but I?ve reworked it to something more complicated (see below). I?ve found that specificity on the long-range goals can be a helpful motivator. For me, my 5-year goal is to have finished my PhD, and a 1-year goal is to have a paper submitted to a research conference. That?s all these have to be. I?ve also found it extremely useful to have these goals be visual. Post-it notes on my monitor?s edge are my method of choice. What's most important for me is to keep a perspective on everything that I am doing. It helps get through tasks that seem tedious and boring if I can keep in mind how they are contributing to achieving what I want.

Define What You Seek To Improve

This technique is unapologetically stolen from Demetri Martin?s ?If I? one-man show. In it, he describes a method in which he created a self-improvement checklist, which consisted of various things he wanted to do each week for it to be a successful week. These ranged from things as simple as ?eat fruit and vegetables 3 times? to something as complex as ?conveyed unassailable confidence.? At the end of each week, he would score himself based on which tasks he completed, and then tracked those grades to see how he was doing overall and which needed the most improvement. This may seem ludicrous or tedious, but I?ve found it to be helpful if only for how he stratified the tasks he hoped to complete.

Essentially, they were divided into mind, body, contribution, vision, and skill. Mind can consist of tasks like: read a book, brainstorm for an hour, write 5 times a week, etc., modified of course for whatever your discipline is. Body is simple?staying healthy, eating well, being active. Contribution can be broadly defined as improving what you are contributing to society. That can be helping someone who is in need or being empathetic?use your own judgment for what you want to contribute. Skills can also be applied to whatever it is you do. If you?re serious about getting better at SC2, this can include something like ?practiced a new build order? or ?improved battle micro.? Vision is what is most complex, but for me it?s most important to maintaining a productive mindset. Demetri Martin broke down his Vision section into: visualized/focused on something for 30 minutes, reflected and rededicated self, demonstrated moral courage, connected with someone on an issue, and as previously mentioned, conveyed unassailable confidence. Inherent in these tasks are some of the things I think are essential to productivity.

Consider the visualized/focused on something for 30 minutes task. As a test, try doing this all at once. Lock yourself in the bathroom with no electronic devices and try focusing on a thought or an idea for this period of time. I think you?ll find it to be extraordinarily difficult to keep your mind focused for that long. Yet, I think it?s essential to do. There?s been compelling research done that the ways in which we use technology and consume information does not allow us time for our brains to slow down, and make us increasingly less capable of having an aesthetic moment in our lives. Being able to slow down your brain, to stay focused on something for this long, will do nothing but help train your brain for spending hours on a specific task.

I have my own self-improvement form that includes some of what exists in Demetri Martin?s version of it, but with modifications for my own goals. For me, keeping track of this becomes the same kind of nerdy enjoyment that comes from leveling up a character or climbing up your division?s ladder, except with more tangible results. It?s a big commitment, but it?s helped me achieve a lot.

Do Something Every Day

For many on this site, I?m assuming this will be ?play X ladder matches every day.? For me, it?s writing 300 words. When I was trying to be a poker player, it was play 1000 hands. This practice is crucial to productivity. Pick a task that you find most important to you to achieving what you most desire and then simply do it every day. Work ethic is not easily earned, but the more work can you do to hardwire the sensation that you must do something every single day will help develop it. I?ve borrowed a method that?s attributed to, although likely not invented by, Jerry Seinfeld. When he was a young comic, he would write a new joke every day. Whenever he did, he?d mark an X on his calendar for that day. Over time, the chain of Xs would grow to the point where he didn?t want to break the chain more than write a joke. (This has been adapted by a website: http://dontbreakthechain.com/) I think this is key to being productive?trick yourself into doing what you want to do. Our lives are increasingly filled by distractions, and it is only human that we want to give into these at all times. Whatever you can do to keep yourself from being controlled by that distraction is all that matters. I?ve used this ?don?t break the chain? method for a while now, and have a streak of 113 days of writing. For me, it works: try it out.

Understand How You Are Unproductive

This requires a certain degree of honest self-reflection. But really, you must understand your enemy if you hope to defeat your enemy. For me, it was changing the way in which I use my computer that enabled this to occur. I have a feeling that many of you feel this way: http://xkcd.com/862/ You find yourself unconsciously refreshing and rechecking websites for no apparent reason. Then, hours later, you?ve found that you?ve done nothing in all that time. I had this problem, and using some techniques from xkcd, figured out a way to help cure it (I?ve never tried what?s described in the alt-text there, but that might work too). When I have a lot I need to do, I found that I?d complete one portion of the task then waste a great deal of time. Specifically, when I was grading student papers I found I?d grade two or three (about a half hour of work), then spend the next half hour shitting around on the Internet.

My solution to this was that when the unproductive urge washed over me I?d shut down my computer completely, and then go do some other task for a few minutes, then return to what I was doing. This can be as simple as go use the bathroom or get a drink. After doing that, I?d turn the computer back on and get back to work. This momentary downtime was enough for me to refocus myself on the task at hand, and even if it was bad for my electricity bill, kept me on task. As I?ve improved, the frequency at which I need to turn my computer off has decreased. For the truly helpless, consider trying https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/blocksite/ or something similar. Basically, whenever you can add an extra step between you and what makes you unproductive, you will have time to stop yourself and refocus. It?s a brain-hack, maybe, but it?s better than Adderall.



Yikes, this is getting much longer than I had anticipated. I might add more later, but hopefully these tips can help a few people out there. GLHF!