Productivity Tips | Original
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Focus at work doesn’t always happen as you might expect. Surprisingly, noisy or interrupted environments, like when babysitting children, can sometimes boost productivity. Your mood and mental state significantly influence your ability to concentrate, much like how they affect sleep quality.
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The main dilemma of the world is that knowledge and invention are increasing, however, our focus and study are becoming harder. Most days, it’s challenging to sit down and read books or watch courses. You can’t force yourself to focus, just like you can’t force yourself to fall asleep.
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To address this, I like to walk and drive a lot while listening to lectures or watching videos. Covering 10,000 kilometers and walking 5,000 steps every day has helped me become fluent in English and pass the IELTS exam. Now, I hope it can also help me learn math and AI. The key is to avoid mobile phone distractions and remain calm. I encourage others to try this method and provide me with feedback.
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Have fun and work on your own projects often.
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Experiment with different approaches to find what comes naturally to you. Pay attention to what actually works in practice rather than wishful thinking. Trust your instincts and physical responses as reliable indicators.
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The ways people read, write, or code vary significantly. Personally, I often prefer printing papers to read them.
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Less is more. Smaller, focused teams in companies often outperform larger teams, even when the larger teams have 10x or 100x more people, due to better communication and coordination.
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I read parts of “The Mythical Man-Month” by Fred Brooks. Its principles about software project management remain relevant in the long term.
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No productivity method works automatically - you need to experiment and adapt techniques to find what works best for your specific needs.
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Use urges to do things. Don’t force yourself. Always do what you want at the moment. This is fulfilling.
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Use code or other tools to automate tasks, allowing you to focus on the most interesting aspects.
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When you truly enjoy working or learning, you don’t worry about progress, and you don’t have a goal to rush towards. You simply want to do or learn things for their own sake. You don’t worry about how much time has passed or the difficulty of the materials. You enter a flow state.
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Sometimes, it’s hard to focus—even just reading a tutorial on the screen can be difficult. However, when you’re writing code and get stuck on a bug, you may find yourself fully focused. Try to find ways to write and run code as part of your learning process.
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There are several ways to learn something. Get hands-on and use AI to help you learn or conduct experiments. You could also work through a book or a series of course videos in a fixed order, or learn by taking exams or answering questions. Basically, you can learn with a plan or learn by following your mood. Learning can be curiosity-driven or success-driven. Always choose to learn by mood.