The other productivity tool I want is something that helps me focus, *without* rigid schedules or artificial time slices.
An alternate mechanism, which I find valuable but have never seen productized, is *deliberate transitions*.
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So, if you want to take a break, you can do that—but as a conscious choice, rather than an absent-minded distraction.
If you want to browse Twitter, you can do that, but as a conscious choice, not out of habit.
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I have tried Pomodoro-ish things, like Vitamin R.
Have also tried distraction-blockers like and . And I use social media time limits on iOS.
They all sorta work, but I've never stuck with any.
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I think the mechanism of *time* is too rigid. There isn't an optimal amount of time to spend on social media, or optimal hours of the day, not exactly.
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I think the mechanism of deliberate decisions could work better.
Especially if combined with some desired allocation of time to different buckets, and something that nudged you towards whichever bucket was relatively farthest from todays' goal.
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I kind of want something that takes over my browser new-tab experience, so that every time I open a tab it reminds me of what I *decided* to do, and prompts me to either stick to that, or make a deliberate transition.
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I'm very interested in this general vicinity! You might enjoy this framing: notes.andymatuschak.org/z3ngvUaW5C91hN
e.g. as applied to inboxes:
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Yeah, that's good! I do like the mechanism of snoozing emails. Maybe it can be applied to tasks. Except I want something that prevents me from just snoozing to tomorrow, every day. Or to next week, every week, for weeks on end. Up the stakes somehow.
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I find the structure of your online notes pretty interesting — do you have a post on your approach to taking / organizing / managing notes?
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