For those interested in managing online time and getting ourselves offline regularly, the book Deep Work, by Cal Newport, has some very useful ideas. One that I plan to start experimenting with is the idea of scheduled internet access - allow yourself to get online only at certain times of day. This isn't just for work. Even if you're, say, standing in line at the grocery store, you don't get to pull your phone out and check your email.
As the author points out, we've forgotten how to be bored. We need to learn to engage that part of our brain again.
While I'm fond of "deep work the idea", the book was a real disappointment. It's mostly selling the idea instead of explaining how to do something with it.
I followed the author's blog for a while, and I'd say a few key blog posts are enough to get the point accross. Even there it gets repetitive quickly.
The idea is good, it just doesn't require so much elaboration.
> While I'm fond of "deep work the idea", the book was a real disappointment. It's mostly selling the idea instead of explaining how to do something with it.
However, after looking around, it seem the category "Patterns of Success for the Working World" (http://calnewport.com/blog/archive/) captures what I thought the interesting content was. It's still 100+ blog posts, so you'll have to do a bit of sorting.
Well, what to do with deep work is up to you. I wouldn't expect it to be an instruction manual for anything but "Here is how you build your mind and work habits to be able to accomplish deep work."
> As the author points out, we've forgotten how to be bored.
I find outdoor activity to be one of the best way to be 'bored'. You have to focus on what your body is doing, you're back in nature, you'll be getting exercise.
I advocate for taking time off to literally do nothing. No schedule. No purpose. No clocks. Just get up and operate based on the sun's movement and your own bodies needs. Be bored. Slow down time and fully disconnect from work. It's a hell of an experience.
I'm on vacation this week and did exactly this on Sunday-Tue. It's Wednesday now and I feel feel very, very refreshed and relaxed. Focus is much easier today than it has been for some time.
As another person mentions, the book delivers a great nessage/idea, question is if a book is needed for sometthing which could have been summarized in a post. But 99% of self-help books belong to this category.
Besides, I am wondering if HN is a good and free lead generation channel for self-help books since I see many people pointing to the right book in the right thread and context. This could be easily scaled.
I've bought lots of books through HN recommendations, more often than not they're great. I do always check a bit of the poster's submission/comment history though, because people definitely do try to pitch their eBook or SaaS here.
Kind of. But you can see boredom as the desire for novelty, a cue to find something new so we can get that dopamine hit. Phones, internet and media are fantastic at giving us that little kick to keep us going, so we don't feel the need to engage our brain in more useful ways. Without that easy access to the dopamine treadmill that is your phone, you are encouraged to seek novelty elsewhere. This might be in wandering thoughts, seeking interaction with people or things around you, or some other endeavor.
To think a little further forward, doing this tends to increase the time until the next novelty, so you get practiced in not constantly seeking immediate gratification. It helps increase your ability to be patient and to concentrate, which in part is the ability to not switch tasks at the first hint of boredom.
I feel like this is a common semantic disagreement.
Some people want to encourage disconnecting yourself from external stimulus, and just enjoying your own thoughts, and use the word "boredom" to describe this. Whereas other people feel that "boredom" means the frustrating state of being entirely unengaged.
I sometimes wonder if people who don't disconnect very often haven't experienced much of the latter kind of boredom, and so aren't as aware of it as a negative thing.
As the author points out, we've forgotten how to be bored. We need to learn to engage that part of our brain again.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/...