A few things, selected somewhat randomly and somewhat for being possibly useful to others. They’re mostly marginal, but I think overall I have been able to make a noticeable change to my hard-workingness over time.
Co-working with others. In particular, working in ‘pomodoros’ where each person sets an intention for the next half hour and then reports back. Some combination of social accountability and comraderie.
Thinking through consciously how many hours I endorse working. I went through a period after having a kid where I felt both guilty for not working hard enough and for not being a good enough mother. That led me to set up my life with insufficient childcare (because it felt like more would make me a bad mother) but was then often wanting to somehow make up for that. Thinking directly about what I thought it looked like to be a good parent (and talking to people I trusted about it) led to me setting up a system I better endorsed and was more sustainable, with more childcare and more hours deliberately set aside for work.
Planning ahead and having policies for ways of making time productive.
For example, I have a personal policy of buying internet on long haul flights. In the moment it feels expensive and dubiously worth it given that it’s not that reliable. But I think it’s a significant motivator for me to continue working for at least half of a 10 hour flight, which I’m reliably happy I did. (Though I’m answering this as part of my work time on a flight, so it’s not clear it causes me to prioritise optimally ;-) ).
Other things that helped on this trip: thinking a couple of weeks in advance about who I ought to meet with while in the Bay and setting that up while people still had space in their calendar; having a battery pack with me for my phone so I could use it continuously including to hotspot; getting a data plan for while I was in the US so while I was at places where I didn’t have wifi I could still work
Using melotonin and a podcast I find soporific so that I’m more liable to fall asleep easily and don’t need to stop working as long before bedtime
Asking for help on things that are causing me to work less / less productively:
Debugging an aversive thing with a friend / colleague
Tech help eg to figure out how to listen on my phone to something I need to read/watch while travelling to use that time better.
A few things, selected somewhat randomly and somewhat for being possibly useful to others. They’re mostly marginal, but I think overall I have been able to make a noticeable change to my hard-workingness over time.
Co-working with others. In particular, working in ‘pomodoros’ where each person sets an intention for the next half hour and then reports back. Some combination of social accountability and comraderie.
Thinking through consciously how many hours I endorse working. I went through a period after having a kid where I felt both guilty for not working hard enough and for not being a good enough mother. That led me to set up my life with insufficient childcare (because it felt like more would make me a bad mother) but was then often wanting to somehow make up for that. Thinking directly about what I thought it looked like to be a good parent (and talking to people I trusted about it) led to me setting up a system I better endorsed and was more sustainable, with more childcare and more hours deliberately set aside for work.
Planning ahead and having policies for ways of making time productive.
For example, I have a personal policy of buying internet on long haul flights. In the moment it feels expensive and dubiously worth it given that it’s not that reliable. But I think it’s a significant motivator for me to continue working for at least half of a 10 hour flight, which I’m reliably happy I did. (Though I’m answering this as part of my work time on a flight, so it’s not clear it causes me to prioritise optimally ;-) ).
Other things that helped on this trip: thinking a couple of weeks in advance about who I ought to meet with while in the Bay and setting that up while people still had space in their calendar; having a battery pack with me for my phone so I could use it continuously including to hotspot; getting a data plan for while I was in the US so while I was at places where I didn’t have wifi I could still work
Using melotonin and a podcast I find soporific so that I’m more liable to fall asleep easily and don’t need to stop working as long before bedtime
Asking for help on things that are causing me to work less / less productively:
Debugging an aversive thing with a friend / colleague
Tech help eg to figure out how to listen on my phone to something I need to read/watch while travelling to use that time better.
Huh, I find the 80k podcast pretty interesting.
:-p