This link has been bookmarked by 107 people . It was first bookmarked on 27 Apr 2006, by netklon.
-
08 Sep 10
-
12 Aug 10
-
11 May 10
-
09 Apr 10
-
Procrastination is a habit. People aren't born procrastinators or hard workers, it's something you learn
-
Sometimes these environmental variables are more subtle than you realize. A memento on your desk could trigger a pleasant daydream, or a bill could trigger some abstract financial worry. The key here is to recognize when these distractions are tied to objects, and then get rid of those objects.
-
If you can't change it, you're going to have to discipline yourself to remember work whenever you think of that object. This is simply a matter of repetition and discipline.
-
keep a time log where you write down when you start an activity and when you stop it.
-
At the end of the week, you create a tally so you can know exactly where your time is going.
-
procrastination is a habit, and so is productivity
-
-
04 Nov 09
-
26 Mar 09
-
10 Jun 08
-
24 Mar 08
-
22 Mar 08
-
03 Dec 07
-
28 Nov 07
-
26 Sep 07
-
16 Sep 07
-
21 May 07
-
03 May 07
-
27 Mar 07
oronmizGetting Back To Work: A Personal Productivity Toolkit
-
09 Mar 07
-
05 Feb 07
-
08 Jan 07
-
30 Dec 06
-
29 Nov 06
-
10 Nov 06
-
Positive Associations
There are some places that I just associate with work. The local rehearsal studio, for example. When I show up there, I know that we're there to make music. Yes, there's a certain amount of socializing that we do there, but mostly, we're there to work.
A sense of place like this can be created subtly. Even in the same office, in the same cubicle, at the same desk, simple things can change the "mood" so that you're more likely to associate it with work. We have 5 senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Any of these can be used to create an association with work. In offices, probably the most common is sound. People will put on their headphones when it's time to get down to work. Rather than being a distraction, this can serve to remind you of other times when you worked in the past and help recreate that environment.
This works, I've done it for years. I go bicycling on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes I'll go three or four times in a week, and then not go for a month. Whenever I want to go, but just can't seem to get to the point where I'm taking my bike off of the wall and getting on it, I start to listen to my walkman (or MP3 player or whatever). Because the only time I listen to my MP3 player is when I go bike riding, it creates a strong association with bike riding, and before I know it, I'm changing my clothes and checking the tire pressure. It's hard to believe that such a small thing could create such a large change in my behavior, but it never fails.
The key here is to only use this thing when you're actually doing work. You don't need to do it every time you work, but you should only use it when you're working. You can use one of those scent things, or a nature sounds CD if you're afraid music would be too distracting.
If you already listen to music when you're goofing off, then using a nature sounds CD, or just choosing a particular artist or style of music to represent work music can also be effective. For a while, I used to listen to the same album every time I went bike riding. I probably couldn't listen to that album now without thinking about bike riding. I had a handful of albums I listened to every time I drove long distances in my car, and guess what. Listening to them now reminds me of driving (even though I don't own a car). One of them - Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Going On was great at getting me to drive at the speed limit and letting everyone else pass me by, rather than me trying to get past everyone else.
Just by changing the album, I could change the way I drove.
When you're in a state of Flow, or know you're about to start doing some real work, turn it on. Then the next time you want to work, you can simply turn this on, and it will turn you on.
This positive association extends to your work tools as well. By simply having your tools around you (if your work is on a computer, having the applications open) can go a long way towards getting over that hump and actually doing work.
I want to experiment with different desktop themes. I use the no-frills Windows 2000 skin, but I wonder if I could associate the standard Windows XP skin with working and get myself to work by putting on certain music, opening my tools, and changing the windows skin all at once. I haven't changed my physical location, but still I manage to create an environment that I associate with work.
You want to create an environment where work is more likely to happen than not happen.
-
-
25 Oct 06
-
16 Aug 06
-
15 Aug 06
-
03 Aug 06
-
31 Jul 06
-
25 Jul 06
-
22 Jul 06
-
16 Jul 06
-
11 Jul 06
-
10 Jul 06
-
Paul Terry WalhusWork is a sort of conditioning. It's not natural to sit at a desk for hours on end, nor is it natural to perform dull, repetitive tasks, but we train ourselves to do it. Unfortunately, it's easy to lose that conditioning, and it takes a while to get it b
-
23 Jun 06
-
19 Jun 06
Paul WatkinsI procrastinate. You procrastinate. We all procrastinate. Let's get back to work.
productivity procrastination lifehacks organization gtd tips
-
29 Apr 06
-
27 Apr 06
-
10 Mar 06
-
23 Feb 06
-
14 Jan 06
-
03 Jan 06
-
16 Dec 05
Nathan ReinConditioning yourself to be productive, by the creator of "<a href="http://www.marktaw.com/getbacktowork.htm">Get Back to Work</a>."
blogclip del.icio.us_import howto print_and_read productivity
-
07 Dec 05
-
08 Nov 05
vikramsjnI procrastinate. You procrastinate. We all procrastinate. Let's get back to work
gtd productivity procrastination organization lifehack deliciousExport20110319
-
21 Sep 05
-
03 Aug 05
-
21 Jul 05
camryl9e.g. using pavlovian conditioning to make yourself do certain tasks
-
15 Jun 05
-
07 Jun 05
-
27 May 05
Are Halland"I procrastinate. You procrastinate. We all procrastinate. Let's get back to work."
-
23 May 05
-
23 Mar 05
-
21 Mar 05
-
Everyone knows the story of Pavlov and his salivating dogs. Ring a bell just before feeding the dogs often enough and they'll start to salivate just because the bell rang. It happened to me today when I opened the jar of horseradish to spread on a sandwich. It's called conditioning. ... A sense of place like this can be created subtly. Even in the same office, in the same cubicle, at the same desk, simple things can change the "mood" so that you're more likely to associate it with work. We have 5 senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Any of these can be used to create an association with work. In offices, probably the most common is sound. People will put on their headphones when it's time to get down to work. Rather than being a distraction, this can serve to remind you of other times when you worked in the past and help recreate that environment. This works, I've done it for years. I go bicycling on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes I'll go three or four times in a week, and then not go for a month. Whenever I want to go, but just can't seem to get to the point where I'm taking my bike off of the wall and getting on it, I start to listen to my walkman (or MP3 player or whatever). Because the only time I listen to my MP3 player is when I go bike riding, it creates a strong association with bike riding, and before I know it, I'm changing my clothes and checking the tire pressure. It's hard to believe that such a small thing could create such a large change in my behavior, but it never fails. The key here is to only use this thing when you're actually doing work. You don't need to do it every time you work, but you should only use it when you're working. You can use one of those scent things, or a nature sounds CD if you're afraid music would be too distracting. If you already listen to music when you're goofing off, then using a nature sounds CD, or just choosing a particular artist or style of music to represent work music can also be effective.
-
Everyone knows the story of Pavlov and his salivating dogs. Ring a bell just before feeding the dogs often enough and they'll start to salivate just because the bell rang. It happened to me today when I opened the jar of horseradish to spread on a sandwich. It's called conditioning. ... A sense of place like this can be created subtly. Even in the same office, in the same cubicle, at the same desk, simple things can change the "mood" so that you're more likely to associate it with work. We have 5 senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Any of these can be used to create an association with work. In offices, probably the most common is sound. People will put on their headphones when it's time to get down to work. Rather than being a distraction, this can serve to remind you of other times when you worked in the past and help recreate that environment. This works, I've done it for years. I go bicycling on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes I'll go three or four times in a week, and then not go for a month. Whenever I want to go, but just can't seem to get to the point where I'm taking my bike off of the wall and getting on it, I start to listen to my walkman (or MP3 player or whatever). Because the only time I listen to my MP3 player is when I go bike riding, it creates a strong association with bike riding, and before I know it, I'm changing my clothes and checking the tire pressure. It's hard to believe that such a small thing could create such a large change in my behavior, but it never fails. The key here is to only use this thing when you're actually doing work. You don't need to do it every time you work, but you should only use it when you're working. You can use one of those scent things, or a nature sounds CD if you're afraid music would be too distracting. If you already listen to music when you're goofing off, then using a nature sounds CD, or just choosing a particular artist or style of music to represent work music can also be effective.
-
-
20 Mar 05
-
15 Feb 05
-
14 Feb 05
-
03 Feb 05
-
02 Feb 05
-
22 Jan 05
-
20 Jan 05
-
19 Jan 05
Page Comments
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.