Clocks vs alarms is a new insight. During hour-scale procrastination, I do check the clock often. An alarm near the deadline, instead of clock-checking, could force me to start the task immediately because of uncertainty. I'll try it right now.<p>EDIT: I just tried it. Unable to check a clock, I felt a real urgency to get things done. Very interesting idea.
That must be nice if all you are doing is being a student. I on the other hand don't even get off work till 6. Home by 7, then dinner. If I'm lucky I sit down to study at 8. Lets face it, you really don't realize how good you have it as a student, but your advice isn't terribly useful to the rest of us now in the work force also trying to continue to learn/enhabce/keep up.<p>tldr: student life has a lot of freedom and perks over working a job, nanananana.
One trick I've always tried to maintain is daily releases, namely that I'll always check in code at the end of the day so that it can run in the smoke tests overnight.<p>Running stats on our version control, I do about 4000 checkins a year, the next highest is 1000, and most team members average about 300.<p>That being said, my focus is horrible. Using the pomodoro technique has helped me in the past, there's something about not being allowed to multitask that means you can avoid context switching off of a difficult task to something easier (eg: the coding equivalent to cleaning off your desk).<p>My other problem is a willingness to work overtime. It's one thing to do it for deadlines, but because I internalize monthly deadlines I always have something that I think is so important that it Has To Be Done Now.
"I’ve noticed a trend. The ones who are most successful seem to be the ones who value their physical and mental health."<p>This could be skewed. I'd imagine entrepreneurs who are already successful have the mental peace to order their life and make time for these things. Those without success will be overly concerned with making something work and figure they can deal with physical and mental health when they have achieved success. So the statistics or things you are reading may look like there is a causal relationship between exercise, sleep --> success, but it is really success --> exercise, sleep.
I'm sorry but I can't see how this is applicable for my situation. What kind of studies are you talking about? University (First degree)? Second degree ? High School? I've just started my first year of computer science and mathematics. I study all day long and still don't find time for anything else. Also, try adding a girlfriend or a spouse to the equation. With all the positive sides of it, it adds a lot of distractions during the day that you can't control.
My problem with this is this: "I tell myself that everything has to be done by 5pm"<p>Thing is, i cant tell myself anything if its simply not true. I cant force myself to get everything done by 5pm because i simply dont have to, i can do it later and i know it even if that means stress and doing it in the last hours.
For me, productivity changes on a day by day basis. There are days when I'm able to stay focused and work from 8am to midnight, taking a half-hour lunch break and a 5 minute break every 3 hours and I actually get <i>a lot</i> done in that time. On other days I work for hours on end on the same thing and won't get it done because I keep procrastinating, checking HN, reddit, whatever.<p>I think it's a lot about being motivated and excited about what you do. If it feels really interesting, the work is basically doing itself. If I've got other things on my mind (which I have lately), everything feels like a chore. Still have to do it though. The same even applies to my personal projects to a lesser degree.
This is great, and honestly I've found the same. I'm actually taking this term off from school to work on my business while remaining on campus. I also need to follow a pretty rigorous exercise schedule as I'm on the varsity track team.<p>I've found that achieving a consistent sleep and exercise schedule has been extremely difficult without any real commitments in the morning. I think one of the best things you can do to stick to a schedule is to commit yourself to something at 9am every morning.<p>That said -- the evenings are hard not to indulge. Weed and alcohol are pretty hard to resist... got any tips for that? :)
YMMV. I'm also working part-time along with full-time school, and my average school day doesn't end till around 3. This ends up with me not home till 8 usually. I would never be able to hold to any kind of schedule like this, since my days vary so wildly, both in amount of school work and work work.<p>Personally, what keeps me from procrastinating is that at this point of my school career the work I have to do at home is mostly project based, so I actually find most of it somewhat interesting, unlike the busy-work laden gen-ed courses I was in the first two years (when I did have a big problem with procrastination).
I think it essentially is a question of personal character. I consider myself very lazy and procrastinate all the time, so it would not help to just cover the clocks for me to get things done. I would still procrastine, probably even more.<p>The change needs to happen on a completely different level to get out of the old routines of laziness and inability to focus.
I'm talking about some kind of life-changing experience. For example, people being diagnosed with cancer often makes them appreciate life and spend their time more carefully -- or something else that has an impact on our core values and instincts.
I essentially did this throughout my college career. I don't think it was 5pm, though, more often 7pm. What set me off was getting so frustrated one night doing Calculus at 10pm. I tend to need 8+ hours of sleep per night, so by 10 I wasn't in the best mood for studying.<p>It got easier once I moved out of the dorms. I'd have most (if not all) of my work done by supper and finish up a little bit after. I studied Saturdays but not Sundays. That left my nights open for things like irc or setting Red Hat up on my machine.<p>I found I was a lot less stressed than my friends that played N64 all day and STARTED studying at 8pm.
Are you actually able to get all of your work done by 5pm on a consistent basis? I really like the idea you're promoting (and I may well try it myself), but that seems like a stretch for me. Between 2.5-3.5 hours of class a day, lunch, and the time it takes to go from class to another etc, that would really only leave me 2-3 hours for work every day...I honestly don't think that would be enough even if I could focus 100% for the whole time. Is your experience different?
It's the same story every time someone posts one of these.
1. Be Motivated
2. (optional) Use (1.) to be healthy, and therefore increase your ability to be (1.).<p>Yep, that's been the story for as long as people have been thinking about success and communicating to others on how success works.
This is cool and all but a lot easier said than done. The author is in college where free time is in abundance. I'm not disparaging the principles but working a full time job, getting 8 hours of sleep, and exercising an hour every day isn't always possible...
You have some great student life there.
I'm 2nd year, full time CS student + working part time(30h/week) as a developer. My day starts at 6.30am and usualy ends at about 1am working/studying all day.<p>I could only dream about your schedule.
What classes are you in? The labs for my OS class seem to usually take on the order of 20 solid hours per week and my school requires at least 5 classes per semester.
thanks for the insights. it's always amazing to see in what convulted ways our brains works. if we'd all be completely rational minds we wouldn't need to limit our daily work/study time. yet here you go - and now that the article mentioned it, I actually remember quite a few (academically successful) friends who limit their daily study time as well.