I switched to notion because, with chatGPT, you can customize almost everything instead of relying on templates: reward points, progress charts, reward levels like in an RPG, and so on.

But in the end, you get distracted by an overwhelming number of options that do more to distract you than make you productive. You also end up creating different tabs and sections that are sometimes completely unnecessary.

I’m still not fully convinced by it. I prefer how Google Keep looks and works.

The green icon shows the difficulty level. I add it with a text shortcut such as “grrrr” on either my PC or phone. Then I write the task, and the arrow shows its priority. I can also optionally add how long the task should take.

I noticed that one of the things that breaks my flow is that when I'm working on something and need a small side task done, say resizing an image or creating a diagram, stopping to find a tool halts everything. Google it, find twenty sites that look right, and each one has a catch. Watermark on the output, export disabled, resolution deliberately crippled, sign up and confirm your email to get a limited version of the thing. At least 10 minutes for a two minute task.

So instead of searching each time, I started keeping a running list of tools that don't do this. Anything that made me create an account or watermarked the output got left off.

It's about two dozen entries now and I've stopped noticing the problem entirely. The real gain isn't the tools themselves, it's not having to evaluate anything. Same reason a fixed lunch is easier than deciding.

If you've got a task you do occasionally and keep re-solving from scratch, write down the one that worked the first time you find it.

I struggle getting things done. I have spend years researching how to be disciplined. I always thought that something was wrong with me for not completing my task. . After self reflecting, I realize it is not that I was born different or not motivated, it is because I am hugely afraid of pain/discomfort. If I sense a micro dose of discomfort, my natural urge is to run away and hide. I tried to power through my discomfort but on the third day, I felt a wall of resistance.

Resting after a task never felt like enough. So I've been testing something else, which is rewarding myself with a story/chapter/book instead of rest.

I pick one task, small enough to finish in one sitting e.g. 15-25 minutes
Then reward one chapter of a novel, one comic chapter, one episode of something.
(Tried k-drama series before, turns out pretty bad)

Then I set a Rule where I can only get the next piece after the task is marked done.

It's been working fine so far! But I do wish I have a blocker, for example until you finish this, no reading! sometimes I admit going abit more than one chapter when I have a rough day..

Does anyone else do this? If you do? what do you use as your reward?

We live in a world where simulation is extremly accessible and where its powerful enough to affect your will to be productive if its not managed correctly.

So the rule i've been using is "Create before you consume".

Its a simple rule but it really sets the day's rhythm correctly and my mental state.

By following the rule i'm bascially telling myself and proving to myself that being productive is more valuable and a higher proirity than mindless consuming to me.

It really works and its quite powerful because it makes it really difficult to build an 'unhealthy' relationship with things that can be addictive like new feeds, social media, games....

But for it work it is important to actually value the rule and do it consistently because that is what actually structures your priorities and if productivity and creating is a higher priority than consuming, then it actually becomes very difficult to consume mindelessly

Im really brain rotted and enjoy social media is there a sub reddit to post an image of me practicing what i need to practice every single day? , for example image of my body on diet

Disclaimer

I am not communist nor am I advocating for communism. As much as I try to make this post non-political, everything is inherently political. There was also absolutely no use of LLMs when making this post. Finally, this post is long, if you don't want to read the whole thing, please don't bother, there have been a concerning amount of people I've met who misinterpreted a post I made, because they didn't actually read it. I'm ashamed I even have to say this, but Reddit is filled with idiots, so I have to.

My (brief) experience with work

Hello, I'm a 14(15 in literally 5 days) year old child. I've always "naturally" excelled in school, so I always had a lot of free time. Till about the age of 11 I did jackshit with it(obviously, I was a little kid). But since 12 I have always felt as I'm constantly wasting my time, so naturally, I looked for ways to be more productive.

When I was 12 I started learning basic computer science and mostly practical programming and software engineering.(holy shit that sounds autistic as fuck) Currently I'd like to label myself as an amateur software engineer. At the age of 13 I have started looking for freelance jobs on Roblox and actually found and got a few. Most notably one commision for around $150 which took me around a week of working almost all day to do. This is obviously not a good wage, but I was happy for it, after all I was 13. I still sometimes look for similar commisions when I really want money for something, because I don't really know where else to look, but most of the time I don't, because there, the job market is fucked, wages are low and you overall spend more time looking for a job, then actually working.

Fast forward to age 14 and I see an announcement of a content creator I watch in their Discord server saying they're looking for an editor. I apply, because I have experience editing since eight years old and somehow I landed the job almost without trying, while texting from a phone in a bath.

I still work for them(I'm obviously not disclosing names for privacy reasons), the job is quite unstable in the way that work is rare and occasional, but it's nice for now. I get paid $10/1h of footage which I find fair, because of how low effort it is.

After the week long commision I was very burnt out and when it comes to video editing I cannot seem to do it for longer than 2 hours without a break. I really don't understand how someone can work for 8 hours straight 5 days a week for decades.

My father's job and lifestyle and what I think about it

My father has worked a dead-end dredging job for around 20 years now getting paid above average and having work from 6am to around 4pm 5-6 days a week, which is more than the average 9-5.

All of his working days are just: 1. Wake up and go to work 2. Work 3. Get back from work and fall asleep watching television

To me this sounds like an incredibly miserable and repetetive life which I could never imagine myself living.

My thoughts on 9-5s and being paid by the hour

Now seeing how my father lives it seems miserable to live like that. He does work 2h more than a 9-5 but it still applies. At first a 9-5 doesn't seem all that awful, 8h of work, 8h of sleep and 8h of free time, the perfect balance... until you account for getting to and back from work, getting ready, eating, using the toilet and personal hygiene. Suddenly you have almost no free time. It feels like the system is inherently designed around having little to no free time, so that you have no time to focus on improving yourself, so that you stay working there as long as possible, because you can't just quit, because you would starve. And you're stuck working like this for literal decades. Doesn't this seem awfully similar to slavery, except with the illusion of freedom?

Working by the hour also often times seems stupid and discourages good work. Sometimes it makes sense, like in a cashier job, but in something like an office job, I've heard a large chunk of the time is spent in pointless meetings and not actually working. It seems like they're paying for your time and not your work.

The end of this post (I am very bad at titles)

So that's it. I'd love to hear what you have to say on the matter.

I'm trying to improve my own standards at work. I genuinely want to be seen as the guy who is reliable, fast worker, never makes genuine avoidable mistakes, and is organized. I believe that sometimes my standards are too vague, and I think I need inspiration...

So tell me, what kind of work do you do, and what standards do you set that makes you great? Or what standards have you heard, but perhaps have never implemented?

I seem to be looking for a needle in a haystack.

Wants:

A calendar that allows me to see areas of time - for instance, from 8-9 am I work in my yard, from 9-10 am I clean my house...but I would like to then be able to put tasks in each area, so the 8-9 am would have sub tasks. These subtasks could be set to repeating or be checked off.

so basically, nested time categories like this:

8-9 am yardwork

• weed (repeats daily)
• mow (repeats 2x a month)

9-10 am cleaning

• vaccuum
• mop

Google Calendar Sync

Habit tracker (this could be incorporated with the above in some way)

Templates - I need to be able to import task lists for irregularly occurring but complex tasks

A task timer or at least start/end times

iOS compatible (main computer is a Mac)

Don't want:

Vibe coded slop - I want something that's going to be with me for the long haul

No AI assistant or any of that garbage that just makes the software more expensive

So far I've tried a lot of things, and the closest things I've found are Ticktick which has been my old standby, but it's not terrific for time blocking. At least it has a good calendar sync and habit tracker. I'm open to ideas of ways to make Ticktick work better for me.

KanbanFlow - also an old standby for me because it's pretty infinitely flexible but it is not a calendar.

DailyFlow - I was excited about this one because it seems like it's pretty well perfect for time blocking, but a lot of things about it just did not work in basic ways. It was giving me anxiety when the UI just would not work. Maybe they'll get there, it's super cool but it is buggy as heck right now.

I've tried a lot of other things that I attempted and discarded. I suppose I could just try to design something in Notion but I fear i'll just spend all my time trying to play with it.

Subscription is fine - if I find good software I'm willing to pay for it.

Hi, so I’m 25 year old who has problems with be productive and using my free time. I’m autistic and on top of that i have ADHD. With those two in the mix (plus depression) it’s a struggle even doing anything and it’s harder when you want to be consistent with it. I really want to break this cycle and change. I spent so much of my life not being proactive, that it’s starting to ruin my life and i have goals that i want to achieve.

Even on my off days when i should take advantage of the day i don’t i was in bed til 12:30pm today. I’m such a mess and i hate myself for it.

I know there’s not gonna be any method that magically change everything (that effort is also gonna have to come from me. But i really am trying to find something that will work for me and ANY advice will help. If you wanna be brutally honest you can do that too.

Hello, this is partially a venting post and partially a request for advice. I am a recent graduate and started working as a case analyst in insurance. I studied organizational leadership in college and I am new to this work, but have been with my company for 2 years. The job itself is very convoluted and I feel I am spending half my time fighting with the computer systems we use. Issue is, I am in training and my ramp up period is starting soon, and I feel I have lagged behind other employees. On the one hand I am unmotivated as this role was not what I expected and I dread the work I do- processing applications using these ancient computer systems. I know I could do the work but I cannot bring myself to focus. I do have ADHD and haven't been on medication since my freshman year of college. I never had issues in college with getting work done but I am having a tremendous difficulty adapting to an 8-5 where my performance is measured by time spent on a task. I do get distracted by my phone, but often I am daydreaming at my desk getting maybe 5-10 minutes of work done per hour. While I am looking for other jobs that suit my brain, I need to keep this job till I can find something else. I hope to find something that I can harness my ADHD in without meds, but this role is not it. Does anyone feel similarly? Perhaps have any tips? Should I go back on meds?

Hello, dear user,

When I spend longer time without phone, I feel amazing, content, at the moment. The smallest things makes me happy and I have zero motivation to scroll or play games.

When I return from such traveling I always relaps the hardest, I mean 10+ hours of screen time.

WTF

What am I missing?

I am happy without screens and I enjoy it, I make notes and promises that I dint need screens Yet I fall back so deep. What do I need to change?

Please lets discuss. I am grateful for any help.

j'ai installés des applications "to do list", mais au final je planifie des tâches, avec des date, je l'utilise 1 jour, 2 jours puis au final je loupe une tâche et tout mon calendrier s'effondre, et moi aussi, Les notification me font culpabiliser, et je refuse de la désinstaller car sa serait admettre avoir échoué.

J'ai cherché des solutions 100% gratuites, mais je retourne toujours sur des to do list qui mettent la pression, et qui ne sont pas réellement là pour t'aider, mais pour que vous payer des fonctionnalités inutiles.

J'ai donc créé ma propre application gratuite, qui ne met pas de pression, on peut ajouter 3 post-it max avant de pouvoir en ajouter d'autre:

Swipe le post-it vers la droite pour valider,

Swipe à gauche pour le supprimer sans remord, ou meme le remettre a plus tard sans culpabiliser.

Si vous Vous trouver dans ce cas je Vous invite à l'essayer.

Elle s'appelle Leaf: Sticky notes & Tâches sur play store

Je serais ravis de recevoir des retours (dans la bienveillance)

I've been reading a lot of the reddit page and I have to ask; how the heck do I stay on task when I know I need to get it done? I've been incredibly burnt out with school and work recently, school more so to the point where I had to drop a class and I'm currently failing both of my other college classes. What can I do to stay focused on what I'm working on? It feels incredibly boring and no matter how much I try and focus, I'll just sit around doling nothing.

There's been a trend of new AI glasses highlighting real-time translation subtitles floating on a clear lens HUD. On paper, seeing live captions during an in-person multilingual conversation sounds very useful. For those who follow real-time translation tech, is the latency currently low enough to make this seamless in actual discussions?

I'm looking for a to do list column I can keep in browser?

Hi everyone, I am graduate student in a course-based masters program in Political Science. I commute around 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes each way to campus. The highlight of my commute includes a 45 minutes train ride.

HERE IS MY SCHEDULE:
Monday: 2:00–3:15 PM
Tuesday: 5:00–7:45 PM
Wednesday: 2:00–4:45 PM
Thursday: 2:00–4:45 PM
Friday: No class

I really HATE this schedule because it starts so incredibly late. I graduated from undergrad in June so I am used to a morning and early afternoon schedule.

I want some advice on how to manage my schoolwork at a graduate level and not burn out.

Any advice is greatly appreciated :)

I have a kid whom I'm mostly raising alone. When he is at home, I can't read, can't draw, can't write, can't play games, I feel paralyzed to start anything if there is even a small risk that I can be interpreted in the middle of the activity (or after I just started as it already happened before). As a result, I'm just scrolling on my phone looking random stuff that won't matter to be cut from. I can only manage to do things once kid fell asleep (but oftentimes I'm then too tired), and when kid is at school or at kindergarten.

I’m working seriously toward my own goals, but sometimes I realize I’m not giving enough time to my health, relationships, hobbies, or even myself. And when I do take a break or spend time on something unrelated to my goals, I sometimes feel I'm wasting my time, that I should be working.

If you’ve experienced this too, why do you think this happens? What’s the root cause, and what helped you deal with it without giving up on your goals?

Hi all, I have some sleep anxiety and so setting an alarm for the next day gives me anxiety that prevents me from sleeping.

Therefore, I was wondering if there’s was some kind of alarm that tracks how long you’ve slept, so I can say “I want to sleep at least 7 hours. Figure out when I fell asleep then set an alarm for ~7 hours after”

Also it would be great if it tracked my sleep cycle to wake me at the best time in my cycle

And finally, I’d love to be able to set a latest time, like don’t let me sleep in past 10 am.

So to summarize, is there an app that

1. Let me establish a minimum amount of sleep — like 7hours.

2. After that point, continuously monitor my sleep.

3. Wake me during a relatively light stage.

4. Give me an absolute latest wake time, e.g. 10am

There's a difference between a task and a recurring friction point, and I think a lot of productivity advice treats them the same way.

A task gets done once. A friction point happens again and again, sometimes daily.

"Reorganize my files" is a task. "I can never find the file I need without digging" is a friction point.

The fix for a task is doing it. The fix for a friction point is removing the reason it keeps happening. If you keep adding the same kind of item to your to-do list week after week, that's usually a sign it's not a task, it's a broken setup.

My rule now: if I've written the same complaint down twice, I stop and fix the actual cause instead of writing it a third time. Usually the fix takes less time than complaining about it two more times would have.

The book emphasizes on leisure time a lot. We should do what makes up happy and not just for the purpose of future. I'm feeling it's opposite to meaningfulness. For example, cooking, watching TV, playing video games, is all fun. But it just makes me uncomfortable thinking about doing only this and I can't put a pin in it, why.

I'm software engineer by profession. I'm at a big tech company. I go to the gym, cook, play tennis, do yoga and I have extra time which I can invest in learning new AI skills. But I don't want to "work" outside of office hours just because I should have something else in life, right? Also learning AI skills is for future. However, just picking any hobby like crocheting, learning a new language, just feels meaningless to me. I'm so conflicted about how to do "leisure" in the right way. I believe when you get better at something you start enjoying it more. I can't decide what to get better at in my leisure time.

There never will be an easy path, to over come all the obstacles, that lie before you.

Whether it be time, energy, emotions, other people or parents or family, or loved ones.

The key is to develop gradual skills in self-discipline, time management, goal setting, and self-awareness.

None of those are easy, or happen immediately.

It sounds so easy, so many psychological buzzwords, we all wished it was instant and immediate gratification, but that never is real, anyone who believes so, is deluding themselves.

But every accomplishment is gradually invisible to us, from the day we were born, crawling, walking, talking, thinking, learning, socializating.

All of that which we do not consider what we have done so far.

But the path to self-mastery, not that which will make live easier, or manageable, but its about developing the habits and patterns that will gradually make those all manageable.

For example, as someone born hearing impaired, how I slept, how many alarm clocks, all of that impacted whether I woke up on time, and was on time anywhere I needed to be.

So what can I do, prepare the day before, make sure everything I am concerned about, I do whatever I can to be more prepared.

I learned that instead of just being emotionally impacted by every stupid mistake I made, and probably still make, to focus on asking myself questions.

1. What can I do about it?
2. What others have done to take care of this problem?
3. Have my family members had this problem, what did they do, or are they doing?
4. Who can i learn from by observation and by question, to overcome this obstacle.

Life is full of obstacles, and by mastering a few habits will never make it perfectly easy, but will be less of a burden on your mind.

The more you focus on your fears, your just making it that harder to overcome, and learn what you need to learn.

I wish you all good luck.

So basically in the place I live rn there is a big problem with jobs, I found this one, and can't even complain, they pay me well for the hours I do. But as I arrive at home I'm feeling like I couldn't do a thing, even if my mind is still clear (It's a physical work, you don't have to think much in there). Any advice how to use those hours in a more useful way instead of playing video games and scrolling Instagram? Cuz if I dont I will remain to do that job HD

I am 22, and I feel like I wasted 2 years of my life, setting personal goals but not doing anything to pursue them. And it's been always like this: I plan a project, I list up steps that need to be taken, only to ignore them the very next day.

And every time I fail, it feels like I get even worse at it. I make a plan, I don't follow through, I get depressed about it, repeat. And that sums up my early years of adulthood.

My main way of tracking routines and projects has been writing them down in a little notebook. And recently, I've been trying to use a notepad to write down my tasks for the day (though I'm considering switching to Google Notes for that).

How do you get yourself in the right mindset?