[HN Gopher] My work routine: plan, do, learn loops
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My work routine: plan, do, learn loops
Author : ChanningAllen
Score : 93 points
Date : 2022-01-07 16:31 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.indiehackers.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.indiehackers.com)
| noindiecred wrote:
| This is insanely helpful. Since my ADHD diagnosis, I've been
| trying to find ways to transform my brain's particular
| liabilities into assets. The strategies here are a good place to
| start. I'm intrigued by the idea of interstitial journaling - and
| I would very much like to see the author's teased post about the
| process. I've been keeping a paper journal for years now and this
| looks like a way to get more out of it...
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| I found the linked article on interstitial journaling quite
| interesting. I may try adopting the practice.
|
| https://nesslabs.com/interstitial-journaling
| _hao wrote:
| When I read PDL I thought it sounded familiar. Funnily enough
| it's from this discussion two days ago (also relevant to this
| post) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29818894
| ziggus wrote:
| This is basically the PDCA cycle (https://asq.org/quality-
| resources/pdca-cycle) that Edward S. Deming wrote about, based on
| Shewhart's work.
|
| Lots and lots of material out there about this type of process in
| industrial process design circles, a lot of which is suitable for
| soft production processes like software development.
| wfsch wrote:
| If you were curious like me what PDCA is, this is the procedure
| in the article.
|
| Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change.
|
| Do: Test the change. Carry out a small-scale study.
|
| Check: Review the test, analyze the results, and identify what
| you've learned.
|
| Act: Take action based on what you learned in the study step.
| If the change did not work, go through the cycle again with a
| different plan. If you were successful, incorporate what you
| learned from the test into wider changes. Use what you learned
| to plan new improvements, beginning the cycle again.
| news_to_me wrote:
| Also known as "PDSA" in some school districts that tried to
| implement it some years ago. It was one of the fad management
| techniques school districts make their faculty do, and
| predictably, wasn't very effective.
|
| Presumably the original PDCA has some good if applied
| correctly - I haven't studied it, but have heard good things.
| ziggus wrote:
| Yeah, it's only applicable to processes that are repeatable
| and have some amount of measurability - hence the natural
| application to manufacturing.
|
| I'm not surprised that managers in non-
| manufacturing/technical areas picked up on it, since it's
| easy to understand at a glance. However, it's difficult to
| implement well.
| robga wrote:
| In these cases you could use Boyd's OODA loop. It can be
| positioned as more able to deal with less certainty,
| epecially those that need to understand external context.
| I see echoes of it in Agile.
| marcosdumay wrote:
| If you know of any person that doesn't deal with
| repeatable processes all the day, I would really like to
| hear an example. Specifically on computing (most people
| here are software developers, aren't they?) the entire
| attention is focused on creating repeatable processes,
| that then we use computers to repeat for us.
|
| PDCA means basically that you test a change before
| completely committing to it. That concept is the same as
| our canary releases, for example, but more clearly, it's
| the same idea as running one or two iterations of your
| algorithm on paper before you go and write the program.
|
| It's not some niche thing that is rarely useful, it's
| just that people try to push it into exactly the work
| that can't use it.
| leksak wrote:
| I have ADHD and while I'm happy for the author that they've found
| something that works for them I do not consider my ADHD a
| superpower. I write this for anyone else that finds that their
| struggle is greater than any potential boons that they might
| experience.
| toberoni wrote:
| I have a similar routine and it makes me really productive -
| stacking different habits is powerful.
|
| However, in my experience this approach has one big problem:
| certain events (changing continents, moving, sickness, finished
| milestones) completely unravel my productivity for weeks or
| months. Once I lose the streak it's very hard to get back on
| track.
|
| I either have to rebuild a new routine step by step or just
| procrastinate long enough until I've found a new project I can
| build my work day around. These periods can last several months.
|
| Has anyone come up with strategies to cope with such breaks?
| ChanningAllen wrote:
| Makes sense. This might sound counterintuitive, but my solution
| is to make sure that I'm always working on multiple projects,
| which I call a "project stack." It's a mix of professional,
| social, and personal projects, so the proverbial well never
| runs dry and I always have something to do with my hands.
|
| For example, in my system, "travel to X continent" is itself a
| project, existing alongside multiple other projects. I find
| this pretty helpful not just for staying in motion, but also
| for avoiding that sense of guilt that I haven't been productive
| on days when I'm dealing with these kinds of environmental
| change. It's a reframing: "It's not that I've been unproductive
| while moving. It's that I _have_ been productive on my moving
| project. "
| csallen wrote:
| What about unexpected events, like getting sick, or getting
| stuck at an event for too long, or being distracted by
| relative, etc?
| ChanningAllen wrote:
| I can come at this from either direction, since both of the
| following statements are true: a) this system reduces the
| frequency with which unexpected events happen in the first
| place, and b) the unexpected events that do take place
| become a lot easier to handle with the system.
|
| a) The fact that I work in conscious 90-minute chunks
| allows me to take steps to prevent myself from getting
| distracted. For example, at the planning phase of a
| 90-minute session, I'll usually activate a 90-minute
| website block using an app called Freedom [1] and turn on
| DND mode across all my devices. Then when the session is
| over, I can lower all these defenses guilt-free.
|
| b) Say I have a friend or relative staying over, which is
| pretty distracting. I communicate with them upfront: "Hey,
| I have this routine where, first thing every morning, I do
| a couple hours of focused work and don't do any
| socializing. I even wear headphones to block distracting
| noise. It's not you, it's me. So would you mind just doing
| your thing for like an hour or two when you wake up
| tomorrow morning? Then we can chill and go for brunch."
| etc.
|
| As far as being sick? I guess it depends on what kind of
| sickness we're talking about lol. I've gotten COVID, been a
| little hungover, and other aberrations, and usually had no
| problem carrying myself through just a single work session.
| (Notably, my first 90-minute session of the day is a
| routine I've deeply internalized through repetition, so it
| requires much less mental effort.)
|
| ---
|
| [1] https://freedom.to
| friedman23 wrote:
| When this happens to me it's always because of an all or
| nothing mentality. Even if it's not explicitly in your thought
| process you get that feeling that you screwed up and things
| aren't worth doing anymore. I think you need to become
| comfortable with the idea of not executing on your routine
| perfectly every day (for good reasons such as moving or
| illness).
| imwillofficial wrote:
| As somebody really really struggling with ADD (diagnosed) and
| burnout due to no productivity wins, I found this article
| helpful. It may have saved my job.
| ChanningAllen wrote:
| Glad to hear it. And yeah, your comment cuts right to the core
| of what makes it work: productivity wins, i.e. little
| elevations in dopamine.
|
| Another thing I've found is that externalizing my plans takes a
| little stress off my working memory, which is also somewhat
| diminished in people with ADHD.
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