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Rivier Grullon
Rivier Grullon

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Which techniques do u use to avoid procrastinating?

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Facundo Soria

Hi !,
My technique is keeping a TODO list with things I like to do every day, then eventually this TODO will be a routine and I won't even think of those daily tasks...
Also every morning I create my todo list related to work or things I'd like to do but aren't in my "future routine", the number of tasks you will add to your list should be realistic (don't add 10 tasks because is probably that you will not complete all and you will get frustrated).
Another advice: find the moment of the day when you are more productive and use it, set some time to do you work, and hide all the things that distract you (phone, twitter, even dev.to :o ). For example, my moment is in the morning and I set about 1.5hs or 2hs fully focused, and sometimes I use music to concentrate also.

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Margo McCabe

Same here! I'm all about the to do lists (on paper), it feels great to be able to cross things off as you go.

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riviergrullon profile image
Rivier Grullon

Oh I see!, Question! do you write your to do list in paper or just digital?

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Facundo Soria

Paper paper !, I really like having the list near me all the time and also love the feeling of marking the thing I have done.
I started to create some digital concept of the technique I mentioned before so maybe in the future my answer will be different 😂, you can see it here

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riviergrullon profile image
Rivier Grullon

(me acabo de dar cuenta que hablamos español 😂😂) pero esta buena la idea, yo recientemente comence a utilizar la tecnica de pomodoro para organizar mi tiempo

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fblind profile image
Facundo Soria

😂😂 Parece que hay bastante gente que habla en español en la comunidad 😃, justo ayer pregunté esto
BTW: estuve viendo lo que estan haciendo con trex, no tengo mucha idea de deno todavia, pero buena iniciativa !!

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Derek Hopper

For me, it’s all about how I start the day. I try to start my day with any task to get my brain primed for success. Sometimes that happens shortly after I wake up and prior to sitting down for work that day.

I’ve given this advice before. Find a way to get your brain prepared for the day. Sometimes a quick win is what you need to release chemicals in your brain to snowball your success for the day.

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riviergrullon profile image
Rivier Grullon

Nice! lately I'm having a hard time organizing my time and I just want to know more advices :)

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Carlos Rendon • Edited

I write on a Post-It the JIRA ticket of the task at hand (if there's no such ticket, then two words tops that summarizes what I have to do that I have been avoiding). Then I paste said note on the lower part of my screen. Inevitably, my eyes will have to see it constantly.

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Eleftheria Batsou

Keeping my phone away! and if possible having only 1-2 tabs open on my laptop!!

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mogwai

Quite the psychological hack, but I find that if I put the to-do tasks the night before (and shortly before my bed time), I'm more compelled to tick them off the next day. Tasks I put in during the day rarely stay top of mind.

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Jamal Mashal

I've been struggling with procrastination for a long time that I decided to write a book about it. I'm sharing part of it here

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Arden de Raaij • Edited

For me it's an ever continuing battle with ups and downs, but one of the things I've done since ages is allowing myself to give in every once in a while. Just maybe once every couple of weeks I spend an afternoon down the youtube clickhole or scrolling tweets and that gets it out of my system, and I feel more relaxed and less distracted when I decide to focus again.

From day to day, I try and do the opposite and get more accustomed to boredom again. So no phone in sight, just a few tabs open and forget about the existence of everything distracting. This way even the more boring tasks seem interesting.

Having lists with what I want to accomplish also helps a lot. I use to doist and a simplified 'getting things done' methodology.

When I really need to force myself to focus, 'pomodoro' like timers, although that sometimes more feels like I'm withholding myself something than actually re-learning how to focus properly.

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Adam Nathaniel Davis

FWIW, I recently wrote a whole article about this:

dev.to/bytebodger/developer-procra...

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Rivier Grullon

Pretty awesome blog!

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Adam Nathaniel Davis

Thank you!

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Henry Moran

I like to focus on one task as hand. When I focus on something to learn I "schedule" that into my daily routine so that it becomes one less thing I have to think of. Here's a routine I like to do in the morning which helps me achieve progress and avoid procrastination.

Morning routine:

  • Shower
  • Journal (5mins)
  • Stretch (5 mins)
  • Work on React side project (1 hr)
  • Create daily work tasks
  • Begin day at work

Having this routine has made it so that my brain doesn't have to decide what to do. All of those decisions are already predetermined.

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Jenny Mikac
  • I make a list of three things that absolutely have to happen for me to consider the day "done".
  • I use a timer. I don't feel like cleaning? I set a timer for 10 minutes and enlist my kid; we race to see who can get the most done. Time to sit down and work through my bootcamp course? I use a Pomodoro app.
  • I moved all apps off of the homescreen of my phone AND I deleted all social media apps. I even permanently deleted the account I use on my biggest offender (Instagram). I procrastinate less when my preferred distractions are out of sight.
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Jethet • Edited

I also us a timer. Because I could not find what I wanted (a simple timer that alerts me with a nice sound), I built it myself. It was the first thing I built after my bootcamp and I wanted to understand working with the DOM better, so it is pure JS working in the browser. You can use it in a new window and minimize that window somewhere in a corner of your screen. To add a bit of fun, there is a button to change the color of the timer randomly. I use it most days. It's deployed with GitHub Pages, have a look: jethet.github.io/project-timer/
I use it to set 60 or 90 minutes as dedicated working time, also to limit the time that I am sitting behind my laptop without moving at all ;-)

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Shannon Crabill

If I am really struggling with working on something, I set a time limit. Like, "work on thing thing for 10/5/2 minutes" then you can do something else.

Usually, that's hardest part and I can keep working past that initial block of time.

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marjanb
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singha-cz

None. I honor the natural need to procrastinate. After a while of necessary procrastination I usually rest a bit. Only then I am ready to get back to creating some goodness :-).