Chain Yourself to Your Desk

Akrasia
1

I use a tool called Cold Turkey to block internet distractions. But many times I found myself going away from my desk to procrastinate on random tasks.

This is why I decided to build a tool for myself called perfectfocus. The idea is simple, you send some NANO (a cryptocurrency with no fees) to a random address generated for the session.

Then you define the time in minutes that you want to be chained to your desk and start the timer.

At random times, a button accompanied by a sound is going to be shown. I need to click all buttons.

If I click all the buttons I get a QR at the end of the session to get back my NANO. If I didn’t do it, my NANO is lost forever.

There is also a “Break Time” button with 30% of the total time. You can manage this time as you like.

The tools is still a proof of concept, but I have found it very useful, specially for writing.

I wrote a more detailed explanation in my new newsletter, I recommend reading it if you plan to test the app, there are some additional explanation.

You can even use it without sending any NANO, so you can be more familiar with the idea. Let me know what you think about it.

6 Likes
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How about creating a Beeminder Pomodoro Goal - say 12 pomodoros / day (that would be 6 hrs). And specify that for a pomodoro to be counted, it needs to be done at the desk. And it allows for breaks in between…

4 Likes
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Nice work building this! It reminds me a bit of TagTime with the random checks to make sure you’re working.

Do you view the prepayment via cryptocurrency as crucial? My feeling is that putting in a traditional payment method and being charged for not being at your desk would be easier for most people (I confess I hadn’t even heard of NANO though it sounds like it has much nicer properties than, say, Bitcoin). In theory you’re locking yourself in harder by prepaying but in practice… are you really going to, I don’t know, block your credit card or whatever to prevent paying what you owe if you didn’t stay at your desk? (Of course if you use NANO for other things, maybe it’s just what’s most convenient.)

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