Begin Now: +8. An excellent tactic when used in a combo with two other sub-tactics: “Begin now by creating trivial impetuses and removing trivial inconveniences between yourself and the task”. I didn’t give it +10 because while it works great for tasks that can be broken down into simple steps, it doesn’t work for big monolithic mental tasks.
80⁄20 Elimination: +8. This tactic is pure gold, especially when formulated as “concentrate on high-order bits”.
No Multitasking: +8. One, maximum two tasks per day. Another definite winner, best used together with 80⁄20 Elimination. I reduced the number of tasks per day to just one.
Self-Affirmation: +6. It worked for me 10 years ago, it still works now. My self-affirmation mantras focus on specific actionable things, here’s an actual example: “I want to design a color picker for HDR colors”. I usually repeat them when walking.
Allowing Myself to Procrastinate Up to a Certain Time: +3. I mostly use it to initiate some simple action or break a procrastination streak. Example: I look at the clock, it shows 10:47, and I say to myself: “At 11:00 I’ll close the browser and begin working on the email to John”. This technique looks similar to Eliezer’s Execute by Default.
Scheduling Aggressively to Counter Parkinson’s Law: +2. Having an externally-imposed short deadline can work wonders, but imposing such deadlines on myself requires willpower, and it doesn’t work well for big mental tasks and important decisions.
Just do it = Don’t do Anything Else: +1. Haven’t used this tactic much since my original post, because it requires too much willpower.
Deliberate Self-Priming: +1. Requires quite a lot of willpower, and hard to practice when working in a group. I now think that removing trivial inconveniences and creating trivial impetuses for the task (see above) is a better way to prime myself for the task.
I originally thought that these tactics are similar, but now I’m not sure. “Think it, Do it” is described as as soon as I become aware of something that needs to be done and can be done (without major disruption), then I do it right away, which gives me the impression that it just locks onto any doable task that happens to be around—as opposed to a task which was chosen consciously according to one’s better judgment.
and “Scheduling Aggressively...” as “Strict Scheduling”
Again, not quite. “Strict Scheduling”, as described here, means allocating a certain chunk of time to a certain activity exclusively, while my “Scheduling Aggressively” is closer to Tim Ferris’ 4-hour Workweek and means “If something can be done in an hour, allocate 45 minutes”.
Here’s a review of some of my tactics I posted here: http://lesswrong.com/lw/fu/share_your_antiakrasia_tricks/cj0
Begin Now: +8. An excellent tactic when used in a combo with two other sub-tactics: “Begin now by creating trivial impetuses and removing trivial inconveniences between yourself and the task”. I didn’t give it +10 because while it works great for tasks that can be broken down into simple steps, it doesn’t work for big monolithic mental tasks.
80⁄20 Elimination: +8. This tactic is pure gold, especially when formulated as “concentrate on high-order bits”.
No Multitasking: +8. One, maximum two tasks per day. Another definite winner, best used together with 80⁄20 Elimination. I reduced the number of tasks per day to just one.
Self-Affirmation: +6. It worked for me 10 years ago, it still works now. My self-affirmation mantras focus on specific actionable things, here’s an actual example: “I want to design a color picker for HDR colors”. I usually repeat them when walking.
Allowing Myself to Procrastinate Up to a Certain Time: +3. I mostly use it to initiate some simple action or break a procrastination streak. Example: I look at the clock, it shows 10:47, and I say to myself: “At 11:00 I’ll close the browser and begin working on the email to John”. This technique looks similar to Eliezer’s Execute by Default.
Scheduling Aggressively to Counter Parkinson’s Law: +2. Having an externally-imposed short deadline can work wonders, but imposing such deadlines on myself requires willpower, and it doesn’t work well for big mental tasks and important decisions.
Just do it = Don’t do Anything Else: +1. Haven’t used this tactic much since my original post, because it requires too much willpower.
Deliberate Self-Priming: +1. Requires quite a lot of willpower, and hard to practice when working in a group. I now think that removing trivial inconveniences and creating trivial impetuses for the task (see above) is a better way to prime myself for the task.
I counted “Begin Now” as “Think it, Do it” and “Scheduling Aggressively...” as “Strict Scheduling”; hope you don’t mind...
I originally thought that these tactics are similar, but now I’m not sure. “Think it, Do it” is described as as soon as I become aware of something that needs to be done and can be done (without major disruption), then I do it right away, which gives me the impression that it just locks onto any doable task that happens to be around—as opposed to a task which was chosen consciously according to one’s better judgment.
Again, not quite. “Strict Scheduling”, as described here, means allocating a certain chunk of time to a certain activity exclusively, while my “Scheduling Aggressively” is closer to Tim Ferris’ 4-hour Workweek and means “If something can be done in an hour, allocate 45 minutes”.
OK, separating them out again.