Ask Slashdot: Software To Help Stay On Task?

GiboNZ writes "Like many others, I easily get distracted when working on a computer. Say I work on a task — be it a programming job or bookkeeping or whatever — and need to quickly check something on Google. Unfortunately after a while I often find myself on Slashdot or eBay or reading emails instead of continuing with the job I was doing before. Maybe if I had a 'single-tasking desktop' it wouldn't be such an issue. I couldn't Alt-Tab to my email client with tempting 200 unread emails, Alt-Tab to browser with 10 tabs open for later, Alt-Tab to unfinished document from yesterday, Alt-Tab to ... you know what I mean. I want to be forced by some technical means to work on the problem I should work on. Will alone doesn't work — I tried. Like when mowing a lawn — there I've got nothing else to do and I keep mowing until it's finished. If I could multitask in the same way I can on a computer our little backyard would take me the whole day to do. Any ideas how to inhibit the distractions ever present on modern multi-tasking internet-connected desktops? I genuinely want to be more productive but the technology is against me."

Comments

Simple Suggestion

[Ukab the Great]

Turn your wifi connection off. After the first few 404's you'll be surprised as how much work you'll get done.

Re:Simple Suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

The question then becomes: is the OP an ADHD candidate, or are they just normal and computers encourage distraction?

Re:Simple Suggestion

[sammyF70]

ahh ... the murican answer to everything : take pills. No self-control? take ritalin or aderall, and say you have ADHD (or the current hip accronyme for "doesn't enjoy his current task and would rather do something else") Can't sleep? drop a Tylenol No self-esteem? snort some coke. Dude, whilst taking medication is a viable short term alternative, and only in rare cases the only solution, the propensity to just go the lazy way and use chemical crutches to alleviate *symptoms* whenever the slightest problem arises is just incredibly dumb and counter-productive (for YOU! I'm sure your employer appreciate the fact that you are a much more productive "tool" since you started taking pills ...) If you can't concentrate on a task, go to therapy and try to find out the cause instead of blaming some extremely generic condition.

Re:Simple Suggestion

[sammyF70]

Want something meaningful?

find out why you can not concentrate on your job. You're too tired? go to sleep earlier in the evening ... works wonder. Your job is boring you? Then either it's just momentarily and you should stop procrastinating and force yourself to do it in the knowledge that the good stuff is coming soon. If it's not a momentary boringness then assume that this job is not for you. Try to find out whether it is your workplace or the occupation per se that makes it hard to concentrate on your work. If the first, then actively look for a job at a different place, if it is the second that it won't matter if you change your workplace ... you need to find another occupation that a) can pay the rent and b) makes you happier. Notice how I never talk about "get a better paid job". Money is nice but, in the end, you won't take it to your grave and past a certain "I can live more or less comfortably from that" amount, it will make NOT you happier.
If you are a consultant or running your own business and you can not find a way to actually force yourself to do your work, then consider the fact that you might not be cut out for indenpendancy. Nothing to be ashamed about, and good of you to try it, but being an independant worker means much MORE work and much stronger self-discipline than being a salary man. Try to get a job which pleases you with a fix monthly income and paid vacation. You will be a lot happier.

tl;dr: find out why you can not concentrate on your work, act to fix the problem. Do not drop some aderall, as they will NOT make you happier, just more "productive".

now, dear AC, your turn ...

Re:Simple Suggestion

[MickLinux]

I would strongly advise against the chemical path. Couldn't it simply be that he has bad organization skills? The 200 unread emails are a sign. My prescription, for first-level intervention would be:

1] A daily to-do list posted on the wall, with priorities assigned by number. Cross out items that are finished, add items that you need to.

2] better use of mail folders. One should be "personal", another "useless". I keep folders named "corporate" for stuff about production meetings, a couple for specific reports I have to file, twenty or so according to the jobs I have to do, with shipping dates on the name, and one called archive that gets all the finished jobs.

3] A calendar on your phone, with alarms for important stuff

4] use your smart phone for quick google lookups.

5] since I already have a notebook I plug an auxillary monitor into the computer and use both screens. You'd be surprised how having the priority task always in front of me helps keep me on task. I'd suggest the same for anyone with attention issues.

Re:Simple Suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

Why's this marked insightful? It's a troll. While ADD is without a doubt over diagnosed, that doesn't mean it isn't a real problem. In a world where we can scan peoples' brains and find out that yes, different brains are functioning differently than others, why do we still tolerate this level of ignorance? The idea that every person's brain is the same and that you can just will yourself to do better needs to die. We know there are numerous people who suffer mental conditions that we can actually trace to a cause, maybe a tumor or a chemical imbalance or something else, and we're still finding out more and more about the human brain. Yes, people abuse the system and make false claims, but that's a problem with everything, medicine related and otherwise. I know, you don't have this particular problem so you don't understand it, that's actually a big issue for sufferers of mental conditions. I know this because I have a friend who suffers from a condition, one that can be scientifically observed, deficiencies that can be measured, and yet still every day he puts up with people telling him he needs to get over his problems and grow up. They don't understand and refuse to listen because they are ignorant, ignorant like you. His problem isn't ADD, but with him at support groups we've met many people with ADD, a few who were overstating their attention problems, but among them are people who don't want to take medicine, who try to just trudge through their lives without any of that help, and who suffer one failure after another because they can't even focus on tasks they enjoy, a fact many critics of ADD ignore. Do you want yo know what they talk about the most at support groups? Dealing with ignorant people who don't even seem to realize we understand extremely little about the human brain and who judge everyone with a problem as a liar or some lazy bum. I can't defend everyone on medication, in fact the next most frequently discussed problem at the groups is the over-diagnosis destroying the credibility of people with legitimate problems, but I can call you out on being a troll, as full of lies as any of the fakers out there, and try to educate you a little. I leave you with this: We accept that most people are of average mental ability, some people lower, and some people higher, but we have no scientific way of measuring this, only tests/exams which can hardly be called a scientific measure of intelligence, yet we accept people as being smarter or dumber. Do you really think there's no difference anywhere within the brain to explain that? Even narrowing the range to the middle 50%, ruling out all extremes, the only reasonable explanation is that different brains are different and we don't understand why.

There's no app for that

[Goody]

You can't magically change your behavior and habits with a piece of software.

Re:There's no app for that

[Billly Gates]

A good manager will terminate him and replace him with someone who wants to work.

Not to sound like an ass, but I was one temporary covering for a friend who owned a computer shop. Time = money and so many out of work it makes me angry at the injustice when grads work at walmart and the rest watch youtube videos?! I made them work or sent them home.

I do not have time for babysitting

Re:Confess your lack of productivity

[Anonymous Coward]

What a bunch of ****es on here. Here we have someone asking for help in staying on task using computer, which DO cause attention deficit, and every post chastizes him.

There is a real issue here - I've done it myself. Wandering the Internet almost subconsciously as an alternative to doing work. The brain, after millions of years of training to seek stimulating things, is raising stimulating things to the top of awareness. The dog with the fluffy tail in a YouTube video is far more interesting than row 15 of a financial spreadsheet.

You're bored...

[evil_aaronm]

I speak from experience. Think back to those sessions where you busted your balls for who knows how long, not even stopping for a drink or potty break. You did it because it was interesting stuff, a unique challenge, right? Now, contrast that with your day to day work. Either find the discipline to deal with the boredom, or find a way to make your tasks less boring.

Chronic Media Multitasking

[whydavid]

This is called chronic media multitasking, and you are not alone (likely a large portion of those calling you a loser and telling you to get over it are avoiding doing something more important). http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2009/08/24/chronic-media-multi-tasking-makes-it-harder-to A single-tasking environment would be helpful, but at what cost? While it isn't good to read your e-mail and surf the net while you are trying to get something done, it IS often useful to look up that related e-mail or useful reference. You might use some measure to block the websites you abuse the most, but who is to say something else won't take their place? What worked for me was simply to recognize and study the problem. Once you see what a common occurrence it is, and how it affects your ability to function even after the fact, it should make it easier to prioritize fixing it. For me that meant hiding most Skype notifications, closing my e-mail client while I worked, and closing out programs that I didn't need for the current task. Your mileage may vary; this is what worked (very well) for me.

Re:Confess your lack of productivity

[clarkkent09]

Cry me a river. Here is a top on how to avoid watching youtube videos of cats when you should be working: don't go to youtube and don't search for videos of cats. I bet you somehow manage not to go to a porn site when at work and jerk off in your cubicle without help of any software, so just do it the same way when it comes to other distractions. I hate it when supposedly sane people act like they are not in control of their own behavior.

Re:termination

[Kjella]

You are thief. If I pay you an hourly wage and you goof off (...) because they are committed and work very hard to make sure all goals are achieved and not quit at 5:01.

Ah, the perfect american style of management, I own you every second of work and if you go home at 5 PM sharp despite working all day then I'm still a bad employee because it's my fault that your ridiculous goals aren't met. I'm so glad I don't live in the US, either you can pay me by the hour and if you want me to work overtime you can pay me time and a half, or you can pay me for performance and butt out of my time management. You want performance even though I'm on the clock? Then give me a performance bonus or I'll be just as slow as the guy in the next cubicle who does less and is paid the same, I'm not particularly interested in your management positions and with enough years of experience on my resume I can probably get a suitably senior position at some other company anyway. The whole "work hard now and be rewarded later" is for young naive fools.

Oh yes and I've worked a bit with Indians, not Chinese though and while some of them are very bright many of them have simply perfected the technique of looking busy. Much like the Americans who stay 10-12 hours at work to show how much work they're doing it's mostly for show, I'm not worried anyone will replace me on actual performance and luckily there's companies that care more about that than showmanship. But I guess in this respect US managers and Indians catering to US management style deserve each other. Now I try not to really goof off at work but sometimes I've found it effective to take a five minute distraction when I feel heavy-headed and that I'm not really finding the best solutions instead of working two hours on a design only to find out it wasn't all that smart. Many not so great choices now have so much piled on top they'll never be undone.

Re:Confess your lack of productivity

[sammyF70]

part of being older is the realization that all this "work is more important than ..." talk was bullshit and that you should have enjoyed your life and family instead.

Re:Confess your lack of productivity

[Anonymous Coward]

sane people act like they are not in control of their own behavior.

It is true. Don't pretend you are in control of yourself at all times. While, for now, it is considered the normal thing to do, being a control freak is only being stubborn for the sake of a cultural norm. You see people go slightly over speed limits all the time, you see them smoking, drinking, lying, procrastinating, cheating, jaywalking, ..

Are _you_ not overweight, speeding, smoking, drinking, lying bastard yourself? Good, I'm real happy for you and imma let you finish but realise that ain't the norm and it ain't realistic to expect people be robots. Flogging oneself for being human is stupid when there could be technical help to overcome that and turn him into the happy-consumer-busy-worker-bee the society expects from us. That is, if one wants to succumb to such a role.