TL;DR
电话，der
Commitment devices (using app blockers, not having your phone with you while you work) are underrated. People fairly critique poor commitment device use. That said, skilled usage has made me more productive. Productivity is an ill-structured domain, which means learning happens through reading and building upon case studies. I provide my n=1 for how I use commitment devices below.
承诺设备（使用应用程序阻滞剂，在工作时没有手机）被低估了。人们相当批评的承诺设备使用不良。也就是说，熟练的用法使我更有生产力。生产力是一个结构不良的领域，这意味着学习是通过阅读和建立案例研究而发生的。我为如何使用下面的承诺设备提供n = 1。
For brief prescriptions, don’t sleep with your phone by your bed, try ColdTurkey for a couple of websites using the “character block”, use Focusmate for those admin tasks you've been meaning to do after your workday ends.
有关简短的处方，请不要在床上用手机睡觉，请尝试使用“角色块”的几个网站，请使用FocusMate来完成您想在工作日结束后要做的那些管理任务。
Three Types of Productivity Interventions
三种生产力干预措施
Maybe you procrastinate. Possibly you'd like to be more productive, allowing you to allocate more time to your friends, family, or hobbies. Perhaps you just want a raise.
也许你拖延了。可能您希望提高生产力，使您可以将更多的时间分配给您的朋友，家人或爱好。也许您只想加薪。
The following schema captures all of the possible types of productivity habits and interventions:
以下模式捕获了所有可能的生产力习惯和干预措施：
Commitment devices
承诺设备
Internal regulation
内部法规
Identity anchoring
身份锚定
Commitment devices involve manipulating one's environment to prevent taking distractions that they would consider unwise. Internal regulation involves controlling your attention or regulating your emotions to prevent distraction. Identity anchoring involves developing personal rules that shape your views about yourself to"be someone who does X".
承诺设备涉及操纵自己的环境，以防止分心他们认为不明智的注意力。内部法规涉及控制您的注意力或调节情绪以防止注意力。身份锚定涉及制定个人规则，以使您对自己的看法形成“做X的人”。
This post looks solely at commitment devices. Internal regulation techniques, like meditation or Adderall, are not mentioned. I also do not talk about identity anchoring much at all (beyond maybe boundary cards).
这篇文章仅着眼于承诺设备。没有提及内部调节技术，例如冥想或adderall。我也不会谈论身份完全锚定的（也许是边界卡之外）。
Commitment Devices
承诺设备
Commitment devices in my life:
我一生中的承诺设备：
I keep my iPhone in a locked box in my garage most the day, with the key for the locked box in my backyard. Only using an Apple Watch for most communication.
我将iPhone放在一天中大部分车库中的锁定盒中，而后院的锁定盒子的钥匙。仅使用Apple Watch进行大多数通信。
I don't even have my Apple Watch in the morning. I instead have an emergency flip phone with only a few contacts.
早上我什至没有Apple手表。相反，我只有几个联系人的紧急翻转手机。
I time-block my entire workday on Focusmate.
我整个工作日都在焦点伴侣上。
I use extensive ColdTurkey blocks websites on my computer and Opal to block Twitter on my phone.
我在计算机和蛋白石上使用大量的Coldturkey块网站来阻止手机上的Twitter。
I use ColdTurkey to have my desktop computer unusable outside of my work-time.
我使用ColdTurkey使我的台式计算机在工作时间之外无法使用。
I leave social media apps like Instagram and Facebook uninstalled on my phone.
我在手机上留下诸如Instagram和Facebook之类的社交媒体应用程序。
I have notecards I call"boundary cards" in my pocket. I'm only allowed to remove cards during my daily journaling time and must donate $15 to charity for breaking a card.
我的口袋里有“不通知”称为“边界卡”。我只允许在日常日记期间删除卡，必须捐赠15美元才能破坏卡片。
I block ~45min in the afternoon off for journaling every day. Obsidian and supplementary apps are allowed; no web browser.
我每天都在下午盖住〜45分钟的日记。允许黑曜石和补充应用程序；没有网络浏览器。
The Internal Regulation Advocate Critique
内部法规倡导者批评
There’s a certain brand of advice that says that if one’s intentions are aligned enough, they will be productive, and they won’t need commitment devices.
有一定的建议说，如果一个人的意图足够一致，它们将是有效的，并且不需要承诺设备。
I think part of this critique comes from the angle of commitment devices often leaning towards moral masochism, and being a way to punish oneself for not living up to an ideal of productivity.
我认为，这种批评的一部分来自承诺设备的角度，通常倾向于道德受虐狂，也是一种惩罚自己不辜负生产力理想的方式。
There’s also a certain brand of advice that says willpower, above all things, is the way to being more productive.
还有某种品牌的建议说，意志力最重要的是提高生产力的方式。
I agree that all these pieces of advice have merits. However, I’ll also quote Zvi in saying, “It is much, much easier to pick out a way in which a system is sub-optimal, than it is to implement or run that system at anything like its current level of optimization.”
我同意所有这些建议具有优点。但是，我还会引用ZVI的话说：“选择系统是亚最佳的方式要比以当前优化水平这样的任何方式实现或运行该系统要容易得多。”
My system works for me! It works quite well. I try and lean into the other two types of types of productivity improvement—internal regulation and identity anchoring—at times as well. I think that commitment devices are particularly useful to me, though.
我的系统对我有用！它运行良好。我也尝试倾斜其他两种类型的生产率提高（内部调节和身份锚定）。我认为承诺设备对我特别有用。
Outputs of my productivity system:
我的生产力系统的产出：
I am getting As and Bs in my college CS classes.
我在大学CS课程中获得了AS和BS。
I maintain a lively, flourishing social life.
我维护着活泼，繁荣的社交生活。
I generally feel fulfilled.
我通常会感到满足。
I practice meditation and work on other projects quite conscientiously.
我非常认真地练习冥想并从事其他项目。
I write blog posts like this!
我写这样的博客文章！
I think there are other valid criticisms against using commitment devices. If one does not have one’s priorities figured out, these devices can become a way to punish or manipulate future versions of oneself. Reminder that this post is also an n=1, and productivity is an ill-structured domain . Take this as a case study rather than a statement of advice.
我认为还有其他有效的批评反对使用承诺设备。如果没有一个人的优先事项，这些设备可能会成为惩罚或操纵自己的未来版本的一种方式。提醒这篇文章也是n = 1，生产力是一个结构不足的领域。以案例研究为例，而不是建议。
Balanced Commitment Devices
平衡的承诺设备
I do resonate with the internal regulation advocate critiques that I've shared above. I think they are valid in many ways. That said, skilled usage of commitment devices has been incredibly valuable for my life and productivity.
我确实与我上面分享的内部法规倡导者批评产生了共鸣。我认为它们在许多方面都是有效的。也就是说，熟练的承诺设备使用对我的生活和生产力非常有价值。
Skilled commitment device usage takes something like the following principles and intuitions into consideration:
熟练的承诺设备的使用情况类似以下原则和直觉：
It solves the problem of communicating with future parts of yourself.
它解决了与您自己未来部分沟通的问题。
You've reflected deeply over a period of time to determine that the commitment device is in your best interest.
您已经在一段时间内深入反思，以确定承诺设备符合您的最大利益。
You have recurrent loops to re-evaluate the commitment device.
您有循环循环重新评估承诺设备。
You have a positive emotional relationship with the commitment device.
您与承诺设备有积极的情感关系。
You've developed the commitment device through iteration over time.
随着时间的流逝，您已经通过迭代开发了承诺设备。
Additionally, I do not think you should just copy-paste other people's productivity interventions (unless it's using Getting Things Done ; I think ~all knowledge workers should use GTD). I think you should read productivity case studies and iterate based on what seems to work for you. Below are brief case studies for each of my commitment devices.
此外，我认为您不应该仅复制其他人的生产力干预措施（除非正在使用完成工作；我认为〜所有知识工作者都应使用GTD）。我认为您应该阅读生产力案例研究，并根据似乎对您有用的内容进行迭代。以下是我每种承诺设备的简短案例研究。
Personal Commitment Device Case Studies
个人承诺设备案例研究
iPhone in lockbox in garage
iPhone在车库中的密码箱中
I keep my iPhone in a locked box in my garage most of the day, with the key for the locked box in my backyard. Only using an Apple Watch for most communication. I've always had a troubled relationship with my phone. Since high school, I've avoided having it by me while I sleep. In years past, I deleted social media and attempted to keep my distance from it, though this was difficult considering I worked in social media marketing. After a meditation retreat at the beginning of 2024, I bought a flip phone and a lock box for my phone. These were excellent purchases. I've since iterated on this workflow to keep an Apple Watch on me, which allows me to keep in contact with my email and phone with quick response times while also disallowing me access from more distracting mediums like blogs or social media. With curiosity and experimentation, I've found an imperfect but good solution for cutting down unproductive iPhone screen time.
我整天大部分时间都将iPhone放在车库中的一个锁定盒中，而后院的锁定盒子的钥匙。仅使用Apple Watch进行大多数通信。我一直与手机有困难的关系。自高中以来，我避免在睡觉时得到它。在过去的几年中，我删除了社交媒体，并试图保持距离，尽管考虑到我从事社交媒体营销工作很困难。在2024年初进行冥想静修后，我购买了一部翻盖手机和一个锁定盒。这些是出色的购买。从那以后，我已经迭代了此工作流程，以使我对我保持一张Apple Watch，这使我能够在快速响应时间内与我的电子邮件和电话保持联系，同时也不得不访问更多分散注意力的博客或社交媒体（如博客或社交媒体）。通过好奇和实验，我找到了一种不完美但不错的解决方案，可以减少无效的iPhone屏幕时间。
Protected mornings
受保护的早晨
I don't even have my Apple Watch with me in the morning. I instead have an emergency flip phone with only a few contacts. I practice meditation until noon-ish most mornings. Most inbounds will not be useful for me, as I'll only want to act on them once I get to my computer around noon.
早上我什至没有我的苹果手表。相反，我只有几个联系人的紧急翻转手机。我在大多数早晨中午练习冥想。大多数入站对我来说不会有用，因为我只想在中午左右到达计算机后才采取行动。
Focusmate timeblocking!
焦点伴侣时间屏蔽！
I time-block my entire workday on Focusmate. Focusmate changed my life in many ways. See this blog post for how Focusmate changed my social life. In terms of productivity, Focusmate helped me actually implement time blocking. Before Focusmate, I time-blocked my Google Calendar, but my time blocks were aspirational at best. Especially after having many close friends on Focusmate, I feel socially compelled to commit to my Focusmate sessions. I don't feel socially compelled in a manipulated way; rather, I feel Focusmate aligns my social nature as a human being with my long-term productivity goals.
我整个工作日都在焦点伴侣上。焦点伴侣在许多方面改变了我的生活。请参阅此博客文章，以了解聚焦与我如何改变我的社交生活。在生产力方面，Focusmate帮助我实际实施了时间阻止。在Focusmate之前，我对Google日历进行了限制，但是我的时间块充其量是有抱负的。尤其是在有很多亲密朋友参加聚焦伴侣之后，我感到社交上不愿意参加我的聚焦伴侣会议。我不会以一种被操纵的方式感到社交。相反，我觉得聚焦伴侣将我作为人类的社会本性与我的长期生产力目标保持一致。
ColdTurkey for websites
网站的Coldturkey
I use extensive ColdTurkey blocks websites on my computer and Opal to block Twitter on my phone. I've used ColdTurkey since high school. I've had mixed feelings about its usage. I don't think completely blocking sites permanently is the optimal use of ColdTurkey, though it might be for some people. I've personally found benefit from using ColdTurkey's feature that allows you to type in words to unblock webpages. This creates some natural friction to make it take a minute or two to open up an exciting web page, rather than <1 second.
我在计算机和蛋白石上使用大量的Coldturkey块网站来阻止手机上的Twitter。自高中以来，我就使用了Coldturkey。我对它的用法有不同的看法。我认为不完全阻止网站是Coldturkey的最佳用途，尽管可能是某些人。我个人发现使用ColdTurkey的功能可以使您输入单词以解开网页。这会产生一些自然的摩擦，使其需要一两分钟的时间才能打开一个令人兴奋的网页，而不是<1秒。
Frozen Turkey for off-hours
冷冻火鸡下班时间
I use ColdTurkey to make my desktop computer unusable outside of my work time. There's a feature on ColdTurkey called"Frozen Turkey" which prevents you from accessing your computer under any circumstances. I have time blocks throughout my day with this feature enabled. Of course, it's risky. There have been one or two inconvenient moments during a meeting or my work day where I didn't have the schedule correct. However, thus far, using the feature has been a major net-positive. It saves me late nights of low willpower spent browsing my computer mindlessly.
我使用Coldturkey使我的台式计算机在工作时间之外无法使用。Coldturkey上有一个名为“冷冻火鸡”的功能，可防止您在任何情况下访问计算机。我整天都有时间块，启用了此功能。当然，这是有风险的。在会议或我的工作日期间，我的时间表不正确。但是，到目前为止，使用该功能一直是主要的净阳性。它为我节省了深夜的低意志力。
Uninstalling social media by default
默认卸载社交媒体
I leave social media apps like Instagram and Facebook uninstalled on my phone. This increases the friction to accessing social media. I started doing this to completely stay away from social media, but the habit has since evolved to be a way to simply keep distance (after getting in the habit of downloading the apps from the app store).
我在手机上留下诸如Instagram和Facebook之类的社交媒体应用程序。这增加了访问社交媒体的摩擦。我开始这样做是为了完全远离社交媒体，但是此后的习惯已经发展为仅保持距离的一种方式（在养成从应用商店下载应用程序的习惯之后）。
Boundary Cards
边界卡
Have notecards I call"boundary cards" in my pocket. I'm only allowed to remove cards during my daily journaling time and must donate $15 to charity for breaking a card.
我的口袋里有标识，我称之为“边界卡”。我只允许在日常日记期间删除卡，必须捐赠15美元才能破坏卡片。
"Boundary Cards"
“边界卡”
Afternoon journaling time
下午日记时间
I block ~45 minutes in the afternoon off for journaling every day. Obsidian and supplementary apps are allowed; no web browser. Journaling is up there among mindfulness meditation and the Getting Things Done weekly review, and one of my most important habits. Putting words to ink significantly increases how reflective and intentional I am. I consider having a recurring time every day where I journal to be instrumental to who I am as a person. I usually just write and reflect on various things I feel are of importance or are especially present in my mind on a given day.
我每天都在下午休假45分钟。允许黑曜石和补充应用程序；没有网络浏览器。日记在正念冥想和每周完成的事情中都在那里，这是我最重要的习惯之一。插入墨水可以显着增加我的反思和故意。我考虑每天都有一个经常出现的时间，我的日记对我作为一个人的身份发挥了作用。我通常只是写并反思我认为重要的各种事情，或者在给定的一天中尤其出现在我的脑海中。
Conclusion
结论
Productivity is an ill-structured domain. Productivity advice instantiates inconsistently. There is no one rule for productivity (beyond, maybe, using Getting Things Done ). Per cognitive flexibility theory , learning in ill-structured domains is better done through learning about case studies and extrapolating from there, rather than learning abstract principles. While the principle of “outsourcing my self-control” resonates for me, it may not work for you. I would advise you to take my experience as an n=1 as something that works for me. A case study. Possibly experiment with some of the interventions I’ve tried. If any of them work, or don’t work for you, please feel free to share with me!
生产力是一个结构不足的领域。生产力建议不一致。没有人的生产力规则（也许是在使用完成工作）。根据认知灵活性理论，通过学习案例研究和从那里推断而不是学习抽象原则，可以更好地完成结构化领域的学习。尽管“外包我的自我控制”的原则对我产生了共鸣，但它可能对您不起作用。我建议您将我的经验作为n = 1作为对我有用的东西。案例研究。可能会尝试我尝试的一些干预措施。如果他们中的任何一个工作，或者不适合您，请随时与我分享！
If you want to try the bare minimum of what I’ve recommended here, try the following interventions:
如果您想尝试最低限度我在此处推荐的内容，请尝试以下干预措施：
Don’t sleep with your phone next to you at night; put it in another room. If you really need to be available for urgent messages, you can leave your Apple Watch or equivalent on.
晚上不要用手机睡觉；把它放在另一个房间里。如果您确实需要用于紧急消息，则可以将Apple Watch留下或等效。
Download ColdTurkey . Set up a blocker for some of the websites you wish you would spend a little less time on. Specifically, I recommend using the blocker, which makes you type words for a chosen amount of time. Set it for 90 characters (10–30ish seconds). This will provide some delay between stimulus and response for checking a website.
下载Coldturkey。为您希望花费更少的时间设置一些网站。具体来说，我建议使用阻止器，这使您在所选的时间内输入单词。将其设置为90个字符（10-30秒）。这将在刺激和检查网站的响应之间提供一些延迟。
. Set up a blocker for some of the websites you wish you would spend a little less time on. Specifically, I recommend using the blocker, which makes you type words for a chosen amount of time. Set it for 90 characters (10–30ish seconds). This will provide some delay between stimulus and response for checking a website. Try doing a Focusmate session after your work day to do those admin tasks you’ve been meaning to do.
。为您希望花费更少的时间设置一些网站。具体来说，我建议使用阻止器，这使您在所选的时间内输入单词。将其设置为90个字符（10-30秒）。这将在刺激和检查网站的响应之间提供一些延迟。工作日后尝试进行聚焦伴侣会议，以完成您想做的那些管理任务。
Seriously, by the way. Set a 5-minute timer right now and try one of these things! Find a place to put your phone tonight besides your bed and set a reminder on your phone at bedtime; download ColdTurkey and enable a quick block; make a Focusmate account and book a session for this evening. I believe with high likelihood that your future self will thank you for it.
说真的，顺便说一句。立即设置一个5分钟的计时器，尝试其中之一！今晚找到一个地方，除了床以外，还可以在睡前设置手机上的提醒；下载ColdTurkey并启用快速块；制作一个焦点帐户并预订今晚的会议。我相信您的未来自我很可能会感谢您。
See also
参见
Comments? Ideas? Want to discuss further?
评论？想法？想进一步讨论吗？
Say hi through X/Twitter, email, or schedule a time to meet!
通过X/Twitter，发送电子邮件或安排时间开会！
