Focus Hacking with Complexity and Colors

I read an entire thesis in one afternoon and have only been unproductive for 8 hours this week. Surprisingly, it began with the discovery of a technique involving a Sock and a Google Sheet. Slot Machines First, to understand the intricacies of those techniques, we need to step back. Our minds are hijacked by little called smartphones. Brilliant minds work day and night so that you’re hooked on your phone. slot machines Adding Friction It’s possible to build a system where it gets very difficult to just check your emails. I call this or adding layers of complexity, adding friction. I keep only productive apps on my home screen. I turn off every notification from every app. I am almost always on Mute. Whenever not on my phone, I turn the Airplane Mode On. I don’t have an internet subscription, so I cannot connect to the internet outside. The Sock Technique Strangely enough, those 5 tricks are not enough for . Deep Work Last week, I had to read a thesis to understand an algorithm. I designed a technique that allowed me to stay focused for an entire afternoon, and read the thesis from left to right. Make sure you have your phone on Mute and Airplane Mode, and then turn it off Put your phone in a sock Insert the sock in another sock Place everything in a bag Drop the bag in your kitchen Finish whatever you have to do, because you don’t have the energy to undo step 1 to 5. Self-Control But even with those very sophisticated techniques, with no I was doomed to be unproductive. willpower Putting your phone in a sock is easy. Having enough self-control to quit is not. self-sabotage The Invisible Resource What made me empathize with my future self was that my time was a much more valuable resource than money. I came to realize that spending one hour on Reddit was worst than throwing away a $20 bill. The Google Sheet Hack Hopefully, Reddit is also full of productivity hacks. A few days ago, I stumbled upon a crazy guy who has been tracking his time every 30 minutes. I decided to take it even further, and do it . every 15 minutes Coloring My Life I have 15 colors for different kinds of activities. Close colors have close relationship. Light green: exercise/walk outside Dark green: listen to music Red: writing code Turkey red: writing articles Black: unproductive black holes Why it Works about time spent on each activity Detailed Stats : 15 minutes is the shortest time I spend on an activity High-Resolution in colors forces me to code without interruption for hours Continuity forces empathy with my Future Self (unproductive black cells are horrendous, and I do anything to avoid them) The Full Picture : no more “I haven’t done anything today”. Yes, you watched this , and spent hours trying to understand everything. But, , you had 6 hours of productive time throughout the whole day. Objectivity Westworld episode still The Google Sheet (updated in Real-Time) My Life My Colored life in a Google Sheet Prequel Work _I was born in 1995. Yet, I am still not used to the internet. Despite all of the stereotypes, us Millennials weren’t…_hackernoon.com How to Deep Write in a Shallow World 👏 👏 If this article was helpful to you, hold the button (up to 50 times) and become part of the gang. You can follow me on Medium and Twitter .