You should really share the things you found to be force multipliers! You spend a lot of time explaining how hard they are to find and then you don't even share yours :)
One thing that I suspect has been a force multiplier for me: I have a digital notebook, and I managed to train myself for a bunch of the pages to "hook in to my life" at certain situations. For example, I have a page for when I get home from work, for when I get up in the morning, for when I go to sleep, etc. And also pages for when I encounter specific failure modes like being insufficiently alert, needing to take a break, etc. (As a way to train this habit, I suggest training the proto-habit of writing down a description of any failure mode you notice yourself entering for later review.) Then whenever I read about a new technique that seems worth using, I figure out the specific situations where it's worth using and put it on the appropriate page. Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Most self-improvement interventions seem to fade away eventually, but one that has stuck for quite a while for me is a Chrome extension I wrote to block the "related links" sections you see on webpages. This seems to have substantially cut down on the amount of time I waste online. (The key may have been to change my "oh, that looks like an interesting link" habit in to an "oh, I should add another rule to my extension to block this kind of link" habit.) I was interested in it specifically because it seemed like a painless way to make myself more productive that would not reverse itself, and that has turned out to be the case so far (have been using it since late January). I'm quite interested if people have other ideas for these sorts of not easily reversible capacity gains. And if enough people are interested in my extension I could probably release it. (You can view the code here but at this stage you'd probably have to read the source to get it to work. It also does lots of other things aside from blocking "related links". My overall objective was to add enough drag to my internet use in various ways so that I would make everything I did online intentional instead of mindless.)
Better nutrition, exercise, and sleep are also arguably force multipliers.
Comment author:Tumnus
22 June 2014 06:24:52AM
1 point
[-]
Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Massively downgrade your expectation of your average self to deal with a complex system. Adding complexity to a useful habit should be entered into very cautiously.
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You should really share the things you found to be force multipliers! You spend a lot of time explaining how hard they are to find and then you don't even share yours :)
One thing that I suspect has been a force multiplier for me: I have a digital notebook, and I managed to train myself for a bunch of the pages to "hook in to my life" at certain situations. For example, I have a page for when I get home from work, for when I get up in the morning, for when I go to sleep, etc. And also pages for when I encounter specific failure modes like being insufficiently alert, needing to take a break, etc. (As a way to train this habit, I suggest training the proto-habit of writing down a description of any failure mode you notice yourself entering for later review.) Then whenever I read about a new technique that seems worth using, I figure out the specific situations where it's worth using and put it on the appropriate page. Unfortunately I have been getting worse about using my pages as time goes by.
Most self-improvement interventions seem to fade away eventually, but one that has stuck for quite a while for me is a Chrome extension I wrote to block the "related links" sections you see on webpages. This seems to have substantially cut down on the amount of time I waste online. (The key may have been to change my "oh, that looks like an interesting link" habit in to an "oh, I should add another rule to my extension to block this kind of link" habit.) I was interested in it specifically because it seemed like a painless way to make myself more productive that would not reverse itself, and that has turned out to be the case so far (have been using it since late January). I'm quite interested if people have other ideas for these sorts of not easily reversible capacity gains. And if enough people are interested in my extension I could probably release it. (You can view the code here but at this stage you'd probably have to read the source to get it to work. It also does lots of other things aside from blocking "related links". My overall objective was to add enough drag to my internet use in various ways so that I would make everything I did online intentional instead of mindless.)
Better nutrition, exercise, and sleep are also arguably force multipliers.
Massively downgrade your expectation of your average self to deal with a complex system. Adding complexity to a useful habit should be entered into very cautiously.