Wasting Time

[Dintiradan]

How do you stop yourself from wasting time at your computer? Do you have perfect self-control, or do you find your attention drifting all the time? Somewhere in the middle? How do you keep yourself working, especially when you're working alone?

 

I was discussing this with a few people at a conference last week. Web browser extensions like LeechBlock were mentioned. There was also some program or add-on mentioned, started with a 'P', can't remember it. The failing of browser add-ons is that they only stop you from wasting time on the Internet, but not with your computer in general.

 

The simplest trick I use is that I have no games or other time wasters installed on my Linux partition. My Windows partition is for leisure, my Linux partition for work. I also wrote a simple Python program several years back, which is somewhat effective:

Click to reveal..

Code:

#!/usr/bin/pythonfrom time import sleepfrom Tkinter import *class App:  def __init__(self, pause):    self.pause = pause  def sleep(self):    sleep(self.pause * 60)  def display(self, master):    self.pauseLabel = StringVar()    self.setLabel()    frame = Frame(master)    frame.pack()    Label(frame, text="\nGet to work!\n", font=("System", 24)).pack()    Label(frame, textvariable=self.pauseLabel).pack()    Button(frame, text="-", command=self.decrease).pack(side=LEFT)    Button(frame, text="+", command=self.increase).pack(side=RIGHT)    Button(frame, text="OK", command=frame.quit).pack()  def decrease(self):    self.pause -= 1    self.setLabel()  def increase(self):    self.pause += 1    self.setLabel()  def setLabel(self):    self.pauseLabel.set("(Remind again in " + str(self.pause) + " minutes)\n")app = App(10)while True:  app.sleep()  root = Tk()  root.title("Get To Work")  root.geometry('250x200+300+300')  app.display(root)  root.mainloop()  root.destroy()

Anyone else have any useful tips, or workplace effectiveness tips in general?

 

Or am I the only one with this problem?

[Randomizer]

You use your computer for work?

 

I get started in a game and I can go for hours. I'm pretty much in the group that has to have only what's needed for work on a computer.

[VCH]

It's only a problem if your work or whatever is suffering because of the distractions. If they are, than stop being distracted.

[Aran]

Pull the network plug.

 

My productivity has dramatically decreased since I got wifi.

[Erebus the Black]

See here: Violet

[Aran]

JIG reminds me of the hours I spent playing Manufactoria.

[nikki.]

It really all depends. It's never games that distract, it's "just checking Facebook" or "just reading this article"; short, 5-10 distractions that add together to equal no work done. Turning the internet off isn't really an option, because I like to research things as I go along (plus you know, online dictionary and thersaurus).

 

Sometimes though, I can sit and just do work without distractions. When I've been aware of doing this, I've tried to take note so that I can increase the chances of doing it more often, but all I seem to be able to pick up is that I work better when I'm working, and that deadlines are the magic button that creates oodles of work.

[Actaeon]

I tend to work better with short breaks, and am completely capable of finding non-computerized distractions if I don't feel like paying attention. In fact, I prefer those since they don't contribute to my cumulative computer headache.

[Kreador]

Wait, is checking game forums considered a distraction?

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: Kreador

Wait, is checking game forums considered a distraction?

Not with the right spin; I consider posting here, for example, pretty good practice for when I do have to do work. Especially in those rare threads which receive more than one-line's worth of snark.

(I suppose if you're work is somehow related to games, forums, or gaming forums, you couldn't call it a distraction either; it's for this very reason that Ephesos' absence confuses me. )

[Harehunter]

I have to admit, I have two major weaknesses; this forum and linkedin. And rising to the bait to pun at work. and every once in a while getting some surveying done on E3. and writing utility programs that will feed other programs, and...

 

Actually, while writing programs at work, I am always running into decision points. Do I write the code this way, or that way? Which is easier, which will provide functionality that I don't need now but I will need later....

At that point, I have to back away from the code, do something totally unrelated, but entertaining, while I percolate the problem through my background process, and then BOING, I have my decision, I sling code for a fast and furious hour or so, then WHAM! Another decision point.

If I try to force my way through that point in foreground, I don't find the solution as quickly. Actually, since my evening commute is about an hour, I do my best coding while driving home. How sayest thou, ye of the psychology phans?

[Alorael at Large]

Rather than iron self-control, I rely on bursts of intense productivity. If I'm not "in the zone" to use the term that seems ubiquitous, I'm not going to get a ton of valuable stuff done. I can do minor, mindless tasks, especially away from computers, but I'm just not going to get anything serious done. And if I've buckled down and focused, I don't have trouble staying intently on task; when my attention starts wandering, it's usually best for me to take a break, goof off, and get ready to work again than try to force productivity. I don't get good results when I'm making myself do something when I'm not in the mindset for it.

 

—Alorael, who found that this makes him likely to be a perennial deadline pusher and last minute cruncher. He doesn't need huge amounts of work time, but he does need a lot of time, much of which isn't spent working. The solution that works for him is to get started early enough that he doesn't have to squeeze work out of himself at the last minute when he's not in a work mood.

[Student of Trinity]

I think I'm like Alorael. Some of the stuff I have to do, like grading students, is important to them, so I have to be responsible about it. Some of the stuff I do is stuff I really like to do. The stuff that I procrastinate on is usually not really important. Or so I tell myself.

 

When I was an undergrad there was this Calvinist chaplain with a PhD in philosophy who told me that he used to study in the loudest and most distracting environment he could find. His idea was that as long as he was fully alert, he could block out anything. If he were studying in a quiet place, then he might not notice when he started getting dopey, and he might waste hours studying quietly but unproductively. In a noisy place, he would know as soon as his concentration slipped off peak, because he'd become terribly distracted. So he'd take a break.

 

Depending on the kind of work you have to do, I think the same principle could say that having games on your computer is the smartest way to work. If what you have to do needs a lot of time, but not necessarily optimum focus, then it's a bad idea. If your bottleneck is mental alertness rather than time, though, distractions may actually be good.

[Dintiradan]

Originally Posted By: Harehunter

Actually, while writing programs at work, I am always running into decision points. Do I write the code this way, or that way? Which is easier, which will provide functionality that I don't need now but I will need later....
At that point, I have to back away from the code, do something totally unrelated, but entertaining, while I percolate the problem through my background process, and then BOING, I have my decision, I sling code for a fast and furious hour or so, then WHAM! Another decision point.
If I try to force my way through that point in foreground, I don't find the solution as quickly. Actually, since my evening commute is about an hour, I do my best coding while driving home. How sayest thou, ye of the psychology phans?

This makes total sense. There's been so many times I've woken up with a bugfix in my mind. Sometimes to a bug I didn't know was there!

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

If what you have to do needs a lot of time, but not necessarily optimum focus, then it's a bad idea.

This. Getting stuff done when there's a tangible deadline has never been a problem. I've never had a problem getting a presentation ready, or marking assignments. It's the far-off, get-it-done-sometime projects that get left by the wayside.

On further reflection, my issue isn't (just) that I'm getting distracted from my work by leisure activities. It's also that I'm getting distracted by my work by less important work. Why work on my dissertation when I can run some more experiments? Or refactor code? Or tweak colours on a Beamer presentation? Or do absolutely anything else that doesn't involve writing?

[Harehunter]

Do you ever wake up to the Programmer's Nightmare? You know the one; You're thrashing code in your brain, straining desperately to solve a problem, that does'nt exist, has no customers, and has no solution. You wake up in a cold sweat, and then try... just try... to go back to sleep.

[Student of Trinity]

Have you made a detailed outline of your thesis? Having that is supposed to help with writing it, because then you can see steady progress, instead of it being this infinitely giant project.

 

Creating the outline itself is, of course, no easy task. But the outline kind of generates its own outline. You can sketch out names for the chapters in a few minutes. Then you list sections in one of the chapters in another few minutes, and so on. Once you've got chapters and sections of chapters, then that's the outline for the detailed outline.

[VCH]

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity

Have you made a detailed outline of your thesis? Having that is supposed to help with writing it, because then you can see steady progress, instead of it being this infinitely giant project.

Creating the outline itself is, of course, no easy task. But the outline kind of generates its own outline. You can sketch out names for the chapters in a few minutes. Then you list sections in one of the chapters in another few minutes, and so on. Once you've got chapters and sections of chapters, then that's the outline for the detailed outline.

Don't write a thesis, write papers.

[SamSniped]

My weaknesses are Europa Universalis 3 and a forum for another game I play. And soon to be this also, if I decide to download GF4, AV3, and a couple other games again

[Student of Trinity]

Originally Posted By: VCH

Don't write a thesis, write papers.

Yeah, this. These days a thesis made by loosely sticking papers together is best.

But the outline approach works for papers, too.

[Dintiradan]

Originally Posted By: Harehunter

Do you ever wake up to the Programmer's Nightmare? You know the one; You're thrashing code in your brain, straining desperately to solve a problem, that does'nt exist, has no customers, and has no solution. You wake up in a cold sweat, and then try... just try... to go back to sleep.

Not so much this. My programming dreams are just very very boring. Like writing WSDLs by hand boring.

Originally Posted By: VCH

Don't write a thesis, write papers.

So if I haven't been able to publish yet, I should wait until I do? Besides, most people seem to think that the "papers stapled together" style of thesis is an anti-pattern.

Making an outline isn't the tough part for me, it's the actual conversion to sentences, and crafting a coherent 'narrative'.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Besides, most people seem to think that the "papers stapled together" style of thesis is an anti-pattern.

it makes for a bad thesis but good papers. guess which one is more important to your career in the long run

[Student of Trinity]

If you haven't yet published anything, what you should do is fix that.

 

Is this a Master's thesis, or a doctoral dissertation? A Master's normally doesn't have to report original research, but getting a paper out of your Master's project is an excellent idea if you can. A Master's thesis is normally supposed to take about a year, so you probably won't have time to finish a paper and get it through peer review before the thesis needs to be submitted. But you should be aiming to submit the paper version of your material shortly before you submit the thesis, or very soon afterwards.

 

If you're doing a doctorate in the humanities, your goal is to publish your thesis as a book, so you need to finish the whole thesis first, but in doing that, you're preparing a publication.

 

Otherwise, if you're doing a PhD in natural or social science, you should be getting publications before you finish your degree, since the point of a PhD is to do research, and research means publishing. If your advisor isn't already pushing you hard to be writing up papers based on your results, you might want to talk to them — or talk to someone else about them. In physics, at least, the norm is to have your name on two or three papers before you graduate.

 

As to outlining and writing: figuring out your coherent story is the step you need to do before the outline. It's hard, but it shouldn't be a tedious task that keeps getting put off. It should be interesting. Your advisor should be helping you with it, too — that's a major part of the 'advising' that they're supposed to be doing.

 

There are a lot of books on how to do scientific writing. They're worth reading. It's an enormously important part of science, it's not at all a trivial topic that anyone can just pick up easily, and yet it's almost never formally taught.

 

This is a really stupid situation and I can't understand how it has persisted so long. My wife and I just started holding classes in scientific writing, a year ago. She's making a sort of gig of it, getting invited to hold seminars at other universities around the country, too. She's an appreciably more successful academic than I am, who has supervised many doctoral students and been associate editor for major journals in her field, so she knows the topic from all sides.

[Randomizer]

It depends upon the papers. If all the papers are unrelated then it would be hard to merge them into a thesis. Also same experiment is repeated with different samples.

 

What you want is to expand the paper in more detail than publications would allow unless you are already famous or it's a major discovery.

[VCH]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

Besides, most people seem to think that the "papers stapled together" style of thesis is an anti-pattern.

it makes for a bad thesis but good papers. guess which one is more important to your career in the long run

Yeah, go for papers. But it doesn't matter if you don't publish them right away. It's the layout and style that matters.

The best advice I ever received was to forget about writing a thesis and focus on writing papers in the same style that a journal would like them to be in. This takes the focus away from writing a book and puts the focus on writing chapters, which coincidentally is more or less how a thesis turns out in the end.

I admit that if your individual research projects are not related in some way, this approach will be difficult, if not impossible. But if you can do it, the only thing you need to add to your thesis is an introduction and a discussion that ties everything together.

Of course my advice is based on research in the natural sciences (Biology: Ecology) so you may be hindered by things I don't have to deal with.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

It depends upon the papers. If all the papers are unrelated then it would be hard to merge them into a thesis. Also same experiment is repeated with different samples.

What you want is to expand the paper in more detail than publications would allow unless you are already famous or it's a major discovery.

I wouldn't expand the paper at all. Short and to the point is a much better read than long and wandering. Ask your committee, I suppose.