In ./zen-coding.html, one paragraph states:
Work where you work. Play where you play. […]
I am very easily distracted. When I am focusing on some important work, it is easy for my mental to be hijacked by a simple notification from my phone. Once this element of "play"–the youtube notification–has entered my brain, it occupies space. The volume it occupies depends on a case-by-case basis, but it is often insignificant alone. It is when such distractions add up that I begin to lose my concentration.
Even worse, once this distraction is forgotten, it leaves behind residue. Residue that will require a walk or meditation to clear.
It is important to avoid such intrusions. And, the only way to achieve this is by separating the domains in which these elements exist. In other words, it is done by facilitating a working space where "play" elements cannot exist, and to establish a no-work rule when playing.
Enforcing these rules results in the invariant that I will not be distracted when I am working, unless I have already populated my brain with such distractions beforehand. In order to fight against the latter, the transition between work and play should be just long and intensive enough that it reminds me to be mindful about what I am going to do. If the transition is too quick or too easy to do, it blurs where work and play can happen, and that makes it hard to get into flow state since the mind will still be in play mode. The transition has to be an un-ignorable process.
There are a couple changes I have made, and planned to make that results in this mode of operation.
The first is to put my phone on do-not-disturb mode when I am working1.
The second is to not let physical elements of play intrude the work space. For me, that means I cannot work in the living room, where I entertain myself with games and YouTube. Ideally, I go out to a coffee shop to work, but that has not been routine for me yet.
It is also important to not let elements of work intrude places of play. This muddies the waters. When I transition for one mode to the other, the change in mindset has to be strong enough that I can sort of physically feel it. Such intermixing of spaces can dilute that effect.
Now, once a working space has been established, and once the mind has gotten used to the routine of working in a workplace and playing in a play place, the effects will be self-enabling: The act of transitioning to "work mode" will enable good work. Plus, play is more satisfying once good work is done.
So, for somebody with my degree of inconsistency, it is useful to have this mechanism for increasing the quality of focus during work, and to escape spells of procrastination.
The most dominant reason for my own procrastination is the magnitude of my task, or uncertainities. If a task is time taking, and difficult, it is intimidating to do it. If a task has uncertain properties with regards to what to do, how to do it or how much time it will take to do it, then it is not the task, but the outcomes that are intimidating. Either way, as long as one of those properties are satisfied, they can cause me to have bouts of procrastination.
The way to handle these situations is to not think of the tasks themselves when the time to act comes. It is to think of the play to work transition. In other words, instead of going "Oh my! It will probably take the whole day to get this service up and running! Woe is me!", it is better to think "The cafe is about 5 minutes of walking distance away, and it should take me ten minutes to change, pack, and leave the house."
This reframing can feel like a trick you're playing on yourself at first, but after having implemented it a dozen times, I can certainly say that it works. The key here is to recognize that no matter the magnitude of the work or the degree to which it is uncertain, what I have control over is the decision to go to my work place. If I can do that trivial task, I can guarantee that at least some work will get done since going to the work place to not do anything at all virtually never happens as long as the aformentioned transition mechanism is powerful enough. More often than not, succeeding at one thing will lead to the attempt of the other so as to keep the momentum going, which results in not just a little bit of work done, but a substantial amount.
Initiating the transition should by all means be an easy task. It should take some time, and should have a physical element to it, but nonetheless, it should be easy. It is because it is easy that the procrastinator will not fear doing it. Once the procrastinator does it, she will have no choice but to begin working, and in the process renounce the title of Procrastinator. Herein lies the power of working where you work and playing where you play. When you are refraining from doing something you should do, maybe because of stress, or laziness, you can simply do the significantly easier task of going somewhere else, and that will result in some work getting done. The alternative–to stay in the play place and do whatever–is unnecessarily risky with regards to whether you'll get the thing done, and even if you do work, it serves to break the routine of working-where-you-work, which is counterproductive.
After saying all this, I conclude by saying that the more virtuous thing to pursue here would be to be able work wherever the situation allows it. What I have been talking about is more of an aid to my lack of consistency, and procrastination, and my findings of what works in fighting that. If you have read this far, I would be glad to hear your thoughts on this, as I still struggle with getting work done on some days, and I am also open to trying new things on my good days. You can find ways to contact me on my home page.