from Hacker News

Deep Work on the Rise

by buttscicles on 3/7/21, 10:56 AM with 25 comments

• by codq on 3/7/21, 1:04 PM

  Unfortunately, with a 9-month old roaming the apartment, I haven't been able to enter a 'Deep Work' state in months.

  Child-care isn't an option due to COVID, and since I work freelance while my wife has a full-time job, I've been the de facto Mr. Mom, squeezing in work whenever I have a free 10-30-minute block—which isn't often.

  By the time he goes to bed, I'm fried from taking care of him all day, and entering into a productive 'deep work'-state is nigh impossible.

  Advice to anyone considering having kids: try to live near a parent, and/or plan for childcare if you wish to get 'deep work' done. For caring for a child is, itself, 'deep work'.

• by zach_garwood on 3/7/21, 6:36 PM

  I did contract work for Rise Science several years ago, and they never paid me for my work. Hopefully, they've managed to iron out all the issues they were having with Celery in the intervening years.

• by kderbyma on 3/7/21, 4:34 PM

  I found this but didn't really associate it with my sleep patterns. I found it was the general routine which affected my energy levels. I used to time little 20 minute coffee breaks / walks to coincide with the lows and allow me to reinvigorate with new surroundings and sometimes you run into people you know.

  If I missed my walks I was always scattered and it didn't matter if I tried to go again later because everything was out of rhythm because I didn't get the new boost at the right time. I think that lunch time is most people's separator (hell the article says afternoon peak and morning peak suggesting they cradle the noon) but they take it for granted because they try to slave to the clock. rather than slaving to the clock they should strive to be most productive and useful which includes their mental state as well

• by jokoon on 3/7/21, 3:04 PM

  I might be weird, but every time I hear about productivity, it annoys me.

  People cannot be labeled as productive. A company, a process, a group, but not individuals.

  This paranoia about procrastination and laziness has an awful impact on how we live.

  Motivation is complicated. Please watch the rsa animate video on motivation.

• by iainctduncan on 3/7/21, 3:41 PM

  The title of this is a pun, and so winds up not being a great title. But the phenomenon described is definitely real. This is expected practise in fields like music. Every serious musician has figured out the right daily rhythms for their practise to be most effective, and has the times of day at which they do technique, repertoire, improvisation, etc. It really does make a difference.

• by usrme on 3/7/21, 12:46 PM

  On a slightly unrelated note: does anyone have experience with Readng itself? It seems to position itself as an alternative to Goodreads, but I'm curious as to what the major selling point is, so to speak, besides owning your data, and what other benefits it may have?

• by xiphias2 on 3/8/21, 2:44 AM

  The only way I can focus is eliminating as many ,,shallow’’ tasks as possible (but still do the important ones). One of them would be setting up time trackers and reading self-help books.

  If I would be forced to do lots of unimportant things, I’d rather changed job.