Hey all I 24M work 7-3pm 5 days a week. I usually sit around on my phone for at least half my shift. How can I be more productive and potentially make more money? My job is really stable and I make a decent income. I just feel like I could be using my time so much better instead of scrolling on social media. Any and all advice would be appreciated:)

I am into AI alot but I am wondering about how I can use it to stay more productive. People who are already using functioning ways to stay productive using AI please suggest some ideas. Also, are people using premium subscriptions for frontier model providers or just free versions. Thank you!

Ive always thought my problem was that I needed to organize myself better, but im starting to think I might just be trying to do a completely stupid amount of things at the same time.

Because if I look at my life right now theres the stuff I actually have to do, but then theres also projects I started months ago that I still consider active, things I wanna learn, business ideas, random personal projects, courses I said id finish, books, stuff I wanna build, and things I havent touched in weeks but for some reason I still havent mentally let go of.

Thats what I find weird. I dont really “quit” most things. They just stay somewhere in the background as something im definitely gonna come back to, which means I constantly feel like theres something else I should be doing.

And then whenever I get a new idea I somehow add that too instead of deciding what it replaces.

I started wondering how common this actually is because when people talk about productivity its usually about procrastinating or having too much work, but mine feels more like I have way too many self-created priorities and refuse to admit I cant do all of them at once.

If you actually counted everything you currently consider an active project/goal/thing youre learning, what number would you get?

Not your todo list. I mean all the stuff in your head where youre still telling yourself “yeah im working on that.”

I’ve been personally on a path to self improvement and I wish to gain more knowledge through books. I have Atomic Habits right now and I’ve been considering these two books : Reality Transurfing or Rethinking Positive Thinking. I believe after reading the reviews, rethinking positive thinking might be the better one. However, I wondering if any of y’all have any other suggestions for these type of similar content to those two books?

I was very active on social media five years ago. I ran instagram account, wrote posts to telegram channel etc.

Basically I was doing things that didn't have instant feedback. Make a reel, post it, wait for views, and then maybe if you're lucky you will get some leads. No guarantees, only probabilities.
Due to this I learned to enjoy process itself. Getting great results (which obviously didn't always happen) was just a nice bonus.

Then, because of some stuff that happened in my life, I went all-in on programming which works differently. You write a piece of code, run it, and immediately see the result. Five years of doing this day after day got me completely hooked on instant gratification.

And it fucked me up a bit. Now I find it genuinely hard to make myself do things that don't give me a clear, immediate result. I've started escaping into pointless tasks more often, making up a ton of unnecessary work just because I know exactly what the outcome will be. I'd rather spend a month coming up with a marketing strategy and writing dozens of posts that never see the light of day than just fucking publish them.

So, why am I bringing this up?

With AI agents becoming accessible to pretty much everyone, tons of people have jumped into building their own projects. In most cases, those projects never get their first users. Instead, the newly minted vibe coder keeps endlessly polishing their app, adding a million features nobody asked for, until their subscription runs out or they simply lose interest. And I feel like a lot of these people are doing exactly what I've been doing: replacing important business tasks with low-priority technical and product work. So here's what I'm wondering:

Is this just another form of procrastination, like in my case? Or has vibe coding basically become a new form of entertainment, where the goal isn't to make $XXX in revenue, but simply to enjoy the process?

26M and my iPhone screen time report made me feel like I wasn’t doing anything else with my life than scroll. What hurts is if I’m going to spend time looking at a screen, I’d rather use it to work or learn something, not get pulled into soul-sucking short-form content.

To cut back I set up a rule for my phone where before I can open the social media apps I’m wasting time on, I have to call a friend/family member first. It’s helped in 2 ways from what I can see:

1. After making a call I don’t feel like using social media anymore. It’s almost like I’ve consciously chosen real social interaction over consuming media, so scrolling feels beneath me in that moment.
   
2. I’ve been much closer to the people I care about. Since moving from university into full-time work, it’s been harder to keep up with old friends, and this gives me a daily excuse to reach out.

Thought I’d share because this made a big difference in my life.

Looking for better binder dupe alternatives, thanks!

I have this problem often when I’m working. Where it feel like my brain gets so overloaded with everything that I feel like I can’t function or do anything except maybe the work task at hand.

For example today I had a really rough morning at work and spent my afternoon buried in figuring out how to attack something. I was so wrapped up in it that I needed a break. I walked away from my computer but my brain couldn’t let the task go. I needed to go workout and do things after work but I cannot explain how much it feels like I cannot do those things. I can’t make decisions in these times. I feel like it’s barely functioning all I can do is this problem but even then my brain gets so tired that it’s not even purposeful.

Is this called something? People say I just need to do xyz but I cannot explain to them how impossible it feels.

First, I'm gonna give my background in case it's relevant:

I've been really lazy since undergrad. I got progressively lazier at doing homework from fall 2020 until graduating in spring 2022, until I reached the point where I was skipping all my classes, not doing any homework past the first few weeks, and I just barely graduated in 3 years due to building up a fuck ton of credits the first 2 and AP exemptions. Plus, I still passed when I was lazy because professors are so lax once you reach grad level courses, and I was able to do the exams. Deadlines or consequences didn't drive me. Indeed, I was so lazy my last year that I got fired from a few grading/tutoring jobs, or didn't receive them next semester, due to doing duties really late or not showing up. 

During grad school, I speedran all the course and exam requirements, but then did nothing after picking an advisor end of 2023 and got worried. In 2024, I started making non-trivial efforts to quit things and finally, I succeeded in quitting YuTube, Instagram (except for checking posts from who I follow quickly each day), reddit (except for asking questions) early this year. This spring, I started gym, jogging outside, and started catching up on a list of various tasks about optimizing apartment, optimizing clothes and shoes, customer support tasks, solving electronics or tech issues, making various organizations, various messaging, deciding and buying quality of life items. That doesn't seem like much, but I was so lazy before that I couldn't do tasks faster than I thought of them or they arose, even if would only take 50-100 hours to do everything on my task list combined at any given point. I got close on tasks in early 2025, but then I fell off and got back on social media heavily. 

After many relapses on time wasters and setbacks, I burned through all my tasks this summer. I relapsed on Instagram scrolling last 1/2 of August, but fixed that for good. I got set back a few times since then with sickness, back injury, getting hit by a car, but I cleaned out tasks again and now I'm finally staying on top of things, doing things in advance, and doing things the moment I'm aware. 

I just have one procrastination left, which is doing research to build up enough research for writing my thesis. Everything else feels easy to start and do by comparison and I feel in the zone until I have nothing left on some day, hours until next thing on my schedule, and have to either do research or try to find ways to pass the time. However, I feel like I'm about to get over that mental block because research isn't that hard in theory and isn't that bad the rare times I do start. It's just a series of tasks, and I'm a master of doing tasks at this point.

All that being said, I'd like to know if I should keep up my habit of just doing everything the moment it appears, or if there is a benefit to how normal people operate. I imagine the average person doesn't keep a list tracking all present and future tasks, leaves stuff for later, forgets to do things, and naturally procrastinates. The 1st order effect I mentioned isn't an issue for me because I mostly do things because they directly benefit myself, like doing a bunch of optimizations or self-improvements, but could I have missed 2nd order effects that would explain why it's better to take things easy sometimes? 

Also, I suppose the 1st order effect could matter later on. For example, suppose I don't get a tenure track position and end up in some office job. In such jobs, I'm aware you may have to do work and then sit on it until later because doing things quickly doesn't get rewarded, and you may even get punished by being assigned more work but not getting promoted. Also, could it be that serious duties like real jobs, raising a family, or running a startup tire people out so much that they don't have enough energy left to stay on top of less important things, and that I'm privileged to not be doing any serious work yet as a single grad student? If so, I can't see the energy part yet because I have spent all day on several tasks before, like some days this summer, while still having energy for gym, jog, pickleball on the same day. 

Whenever I am doing something I am used to I feel much more locked in and focused than when I am doing something new. Is this normal? I just want to get to the point where I am locked in to my new task! I guess this means I have to get used to it.

I notice a lot of advice is "do one pushup, you'll get into it anyway." "Just start for 5 minutes you'll find yourself sinking hours". This just doesn't work for me. Even if I manage to start, I'll jump at the easiest opportunity to quit. My brain is constantly feeding me reasons to quit.

I'm a new grad struggling with unemployment. I try to apply for jobs and my brain tells me it's pointless, AI is taking all the jobs, the competition is fierce, I have no skills... I try to build a project? It's pointless, it's too hard it's not gonna help etc. Then I feel like my heart is sinking, I get overwhelmed and I get some brain fog so I just give up and distract myself.

I would love to be able to "detach" myself from the emotional burden and the anxiety induced by these crappy tasks. Like even if it's pointless to apply for jobs, I still want to do it, I don't want to quit without trying my best. I want my brain to shut up and let me do what I need it to do.

Please help

I've tried many things, but eventually gave them up because my attraction always faded. I spend my free time just watching random stuff on my phone or TV. I'm kind of just going through the motions of life.

What's more is that I rarely feel guilty over not having any hobbies. When I was in university I forced myself to take up a hobby, but that was just to keep up appearances and not risk being perceived as a loser.

Does anyone use software that automatically saves live captions from Teams, Zoom or Google Meet?

I'm looking for something that runs in the background and saves the text locally, without recording audio or video.

Has anyone tried something like this? Does it work well?

I am preparing for an competitive exam with 0.462% selection chance. I must study not only efficiently but also in volume. Gladly I genuinely have interest in my studies. The only problem is I do that for few days and then completely stop studying. (last time i studied for 3 days and didn't even open a book for next 5 days)

Looking at my syllabus, competition, and final chance to prove myself, I must study by hook or by crook. Help me how should I prepare myself for next 5 months. Also, I don't think I have any other alternative other than this exam. So I must have gone through this intense phase.

I'm looking for an app, as stated, but I'm open to suggestions even if they are totally different from an app and more like approaches.

I would like something to keep organized appointments, events, job / university related stuff and a place where to put link / ideas / products I wanna save - remember

I'm trying things but never really finding something that sticks or the learning curve is too steep to stay

Thanks in advance

If you haven’t given up on yourself yet, but no amount of productivity advice has helped you consistently take action, here’s a slightly different perspective from what you might have seen before.

Your current situation

There's a chain of events that brought your life to where it is today. If you've struggled with procrastination for years, you've probably experienced how the consequences pile up. Unfinished tasks, missed opportunities, broken promises to yourself, and the growing guilt, anxiety, and frustration that come with them.

Much of this can be traced back to the actions you took, or the ones you kept putting off.

Your actions

But why don't we do the things we know we should or want to do to reach our goals?

It's certainly not because we intentionally want to waste years of our time and potential.

It's because, in the moment we're facing a task, our motivation to do it is weaker than our resistance to starting.

Think about it. When you put something off until tomorrow, isn't it usually because you simply don't feel like doing it right now?

Consider this: If I offered you $1 million to complete the task you're currently procrastinating on, you'd probably get started immediately. You might even feel excited while doing it.

The task hasn't changed, what has changed is your feeling about the task.

If that example seems silly, think about something much more ordinary.

When you brushed your teeth this morning, or did something similarly good for yourself, was it because you felt an enormous amount of motivation? Or was the feeling of resistance so negligible that doing it felt almost effortless and thus needed almost no motivation?

So, to make ourselves act, we need to either increase motivation, decrease resistance, or both.

In other words, we need to change our…

Feelings and emotions

Most procrastinators rely on feeling of motivation coming from outside.

That's why we often find ourselves taking action only when some external pressure is present: an approaching deadline, a commitment we can't afford to break (like showing up for work), or someone important coming over, forcing us to finally clean the apartment.

But on ordinary days, our natural motivation is rarely strong enough to overpower resistance.

We might experience spontaneous bursts of motivation, perhaps after watching an inspiring video. But these moments don't come often, and when they do, they rarely last.

So we spend much of our waking lives stuck in stagnation, watching time pass us by.

Motivation certainly helps, but there's a limit to how much we can naturally motivate ourselves (but there is no virutally no limit on how much resistance can block us).

Since motivation is closely related to dopamine, even medications that affect dopamine can sometimes help people feel more focused, motivated, and capable of doing things that previously seemed impossible. But they can come with side effects, and even a significant increase in motivation isn't always enough to overpower the resistance associated with certain tasks.

Which brings us to the other side of the equation: lowering resistance.

Resistance is the combination of negative feelings we experience when we even think about starting a particular task.

The more negatively charged a task feels, the harder it becomes to approach. And if we reduce that emotional charge, we need less motivation to act.

That's why even someone who struggles with severe procrastination can usually brush their teeth without much difficulty. There's very little emotional resistance attached to it.

So how do we reduce that resistance?

To understand that, we first need to look at where our emotions come from.

Your thoughts

Every emotion is caused by a thought that precedes it.

If someone told you, "You've won the lottery," your mind would immediately jump to thoughts like, "That's amazing! Think of everything I can afford now and all the problems I won't have to worry about anymore."

And a wave of positive emotions would follow.

The same process happens with negative emotions, including the ones responsible for resistance.

When you think about how much longer that fucking report is going to take, you feel frustration, dread, or despair.

When you think you're probably going to fail, just like the last time you tried, that invisible wall of resistance becomes even stronger.

The more negative thoughts you associate with a task, the harder it feels to do.

This helps explain why the same task can feel trivially easy to one person and almost impossibly difficult to another.

It's not necessarily that one person is some superhuman high achiever with extraordinary discipline. They might simply have very different thoughts about the task.

From the outside, it can look like they possess incredible self-discipline and are constantly pushing through resistance. But when resistance is low or absent, very little discipline is needed. Taking action feels natural.

On the other hand, even the smallest task can feel like climbing a mountain when your thoughts about it are overwhelmingly negative.

That's why advice like "Don't think, just do it" or "Think positively" makes sense in theory and can sometimes help.

But there's a problem.

It's incredibly difficult to think something you don't actually believe.

If you've ever tried using positive affirmations to change your life, only to find that they did absolutely nothing for you, you probably know what I'm talking about.

And that brings us to the deepest layer of procrastination we have some control over:

Your beliefs

Imagine you're sitting in a restaurant, and the waiter places a plate of food in front of you.

It looks absolutely disgusting. Like something that's been rotting in a dumpster for weeks.

Would you eat it?

Of course not. You have no reason to believe it's anything other than spoiled food.

You can cut it into smaller pieces.

You can tell yourself you're allowed to quit and spit it out after just a few seconds of chewing.

You can try every mind trick you've ever read about on the internet that's supposed to make difficult things easier.

But the chances of you actually taking a bite remain pretty slim.

Until something changes.

The waiter returns and introduces you to the chef.

It's Gordon Ramsay himself.

He tells you he personally prepared this dish and spent five years perfecting the recipe.

Then you check your phone and discover countless articles from respected food critics praising this exact dish as one of the most extraordinary culinary creations in years.

Do you still believe, with the same certainty, that it's just spoiled food you'd never be able to put in your mouth?

Or has that belief been challenged, even a little?

Once your belief changes, your thoughts begin to change too.

Suddenly, instead of thinking, "If I eat this, I'm going to get sick," you might start wondering, "What if this actually tastes incredible?"

And because your thoughts have changed, your feelings change as well.

The dread you initially felt begins to fade. You might even become curious or excited to try it.

As the emotional resistance decreases, taking action becomes easier.

And you might end up experiencing one of the most extraordinary dishes you've ever tasted.

Notice that the dish itself never changed.

What changed was your belief about it.

Beliefs shape thoughts. Thoughts shape emotions. Emotions determine how much resistance we experience. And resistance influences whether we take action.

The good news is that beliefs can be changed.

Unlike the experiences from your past that helped form your existing beliefs, your current beliefs aren't set in stone.

You don't even have to get up from where you're sitting right now.

To identify false or partially false beliefs, start by noticing situations where you feel strong resistance to taking action.

Ask yourself what you expect would happen if you actually started, and what assumptions are behind that expectation.

Then challenge those assumptions. How do you know they're true? What evidence supports them? What experiences contradict them?

Try looking at the same situation from different angles. Recall experiences that might contradict your assumptions, consider alternative explanations, or imagine circumstances in which your beliefs wouldn't hold true.

You might discover that some beliefs are completely false, while others contain a grain of truth that you've exaggerated or generalized far beyond what the evidence supports.

The goal isn't to convince yourself of the opposite, but to introduce enough genuine doubt that what once felt like an unquestionable fact becomes just one possibility.

Use your capacity to overthink here to your advantage.

And if you're already thinking, "Interesting, maybe I'll try that later," there's a good chance some underlying belief is contributing to that thought too.

I don't know which beliefs are holding you back the strongest, but I can share some of the ones (leaving out a few of the more personal ones) that held me back for far too long before I realized they were completely or partially false.

• "What I want in life requires years of grinding, endless workdays, and sacrificing everything I enjoy." In reality, I realized that just four genuinely productive hours a day were more than enough to make meaningful progress toward my goals, leaving plenty of time for everything else I enjoy.
• "Doing productive tasks means enduring mental pain and misery, so I need to feel prepared before I begin." In reality, most tasks were nowhere near as miserable as I had imagined. And even if it was somewhat miserable, the previous false belief, that I have to do it for days and years made everything even harder.
• "I can't start right now because I don't even know where to begin." In reality, figuring out where to begin was simply the first task.
• "If I commit to something productive, I'm giving up the freedom to do whatever else I enjoy." In reality, my freedom of choice was progressively shrinking as the consequences of procrastination and missed opportunities piled up. I wasn't protecting my freedom. I was committing myself to a life of mediocrity and increasing misery, one day at a time.
• "Someone is going to come and save me." In reality, everyone else was busy living their own lives, passing me by left and right. Most people didn't give a shit what I chose to do with mine.
• "If I can't finish a task today (or do it perfectly), I might as well not start." In reality, there's always more work to be done, and perfection can always be taken further. Waiting until I could finish something perfectly was often just another way of avoiding starting.
• "I work best under pressure." In reality, external pressure was simply the only thing that reliably forced me into action. Meanwhile, all those days without pressure were disappearing into a void of stagnation. Deadlines work because when you're six hours away from disaster, you finally stop believing you can still do it tomorrow.
• "Unlike normal, productive people, I'm broken in some irreparable way." In reality, I had simply been too stubborn to question and challenge some of my most deeply held beliefs.
• "I'll do it tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, when my mind is clear and everything feels easier." In reality, being well-rested certainly helped, but it was rarely the deciding factor when the same underlying beliefs were still paralyzing me.

What I also discovered is that many of these beliefs reinforced one another. Once I started questioning some of the deeper ones, several others began losing their power without me having to address each one individually.

TL;DR: Your beliefs are what hold you back in life, and nothing else. Boosting motivation (dopamine) and applying other productivity tips comes later, once your beliefs stop standing in the way. Beliefs are often stacked on top of one another, so challenging even a single deeply rooted false belief can cause a huge chunk of that invisible wall of resistance to collapse.

I am planning to start work at night and I feel like I can focus more at night than day specifically for computer work. Before I used to do that but since 2024 I have changed and I wake early morning do whatever task i get. I feel like waking up early and starting computer does not give any productive energy which I get at night work. Sometimes early morning work feels like depressing and get distracted easily. It happens at home mostly but if I go uni or workplace where I am not alone and work with other people then I don't feel depresssed that much because of socializing.

(When I work at night and sleep in the day time, after waking up I feel fresh and my mind stays calm but if I get sleep at night around 8 hours and wake up early moning then I don't get that much energy or refreshment)

I am just curious to know those who work at night like learning new skills,studying or doing gig work.

How long do you work at night?

(If you have part time or full time work or studying then do you still work at night)

How do you feel at night working?

If You work at night, some days probably you have to wake up early beacuse of work or study then how do you manage it?

Could You share your experience how you feel?

I would really appriciate whatever experience you share.

I've recently started working for a new company and they are big on using an AI app that records meetings and offers meeting notes and actions afterwards, in a hope of making sure that nobody misses anything from these meetings. While it sounds useful, the reports it produces are really verbose and it's not really able to separate the important things from the non-important things. Then again, everything we talk about is there, so it does ensure that we don't miss anything.

If we're not paying attention and not computing what's important and what's not, it feels like we're giving up an important skill. Do I have a point or am I just an old luddite, shouting at the clouds?

1) Find a "workout with me" video. There are tons of them. Even 5-10 minutes is enough to start.

2) Open your favorite show or series in another tab or on another screen. This will distract you from your suffering.

The main idea is to use willpower as little as possible.

That's it! I started in 2023 with 10-minute workouts, Monday to Friday. Over time, I increased them to 15 minutes, then 20. By August 2024, I was working out for a full hour.

Later, I bought some dumbbells and continued following workout videos. Eventually, I started creating my own workouts.

I'm going through a pretty difficult time in my life right now. The last three months have been very stressful because I’ve been afraid of losing my job. But even during this difficult period, I still manage to work out at least twice a week. So yeah, I guess this approach works.

I'm freaking out. I'm 22 years old, and i live alone in a big city because of college. I've been dealing with severe anxiety and depression even since i can remember, and I'm tired.

my biggest issue at the moment is dealing with a million little tasks at the same time. i have all my assignments and articles from college. i have to cook for myself, do laundry, clean the house. I'm moving out to a new apartment (i actually already live in the new apartment but i still have a lot of stuff to bring from my old one) and i have to deal with that. I'm trying to get into a program in my college for low income students (which will also help me get a job), and i have a ton of documents i need to pull together for this, not only my own documents but also my brother's and mother's. I'm saying all of this just to give a general ideia of the amount of responsibilities and tasks i have to deal with, but there's so much more, and i constantly caught myself overwhelmed by everything. i have already failed 3 semesters in college because of burn out and agoraphobia, this current semester is my "comeback". I'm here to ask for HELP. from anyone. please, tell me how does one manage so many tasks, and I'm talking about everything, from cleaning the house to sending an email. i get overwhelmed even by the smallest stuff and end up procrastinating everything or simply not doing it, and this is literally destroying my life. if i don't fix myself and learn how to be a functioning adult, I'll have to leave college and go back to my horrible small town to live a miserable life.

if anyone reads this, please, help me, I'm desperate. i can't keep up with the rhythm of life, but i need to, otherwise I'm screwed

before ending this, i just want to clarify something. looking at everything I've said, i know i my come off as lazy, privileged and that i never accomplished anything in my life. to be honest, that may even be true. i have been diagnosed with depression since I'm 12 years old, but tbh sometimes i even doubt myself, and maybe i just can't do anything because I'm a lazy piece of shit. i don't come from a rich family, but my mom was always overprotective, i could never leave the house and i was never taught to do anything by myself and today my parents shame me because of that. i know i can't blame them forever, but i just wanted to give a little bit of context of why i am the way i am.

if I'm doing something wrong, if i should post this somewhere else, please tell me. i promise I'm trying, and i just want to do my best, finish college, get a decent job to create a better environment to me, my family and my boyfriend. if anyone can help me, I'll be forever grateful

I work at a desk most of the day, and I've noticed I can go hours without getting up when I'm really focused on something. It's not as bad when I'm doing admin work or answering emails since those are easy enough to pause. But when I'm writing a report or working through something complicated, I get so caught up in it that I completely lose track of time.

I don't want another timer going off in the middle of a difficult task, especially when I'm finally concentrating. I either ignore it or tell myself I'll get up after finishing one more thing, and then another hour passes. Then I'll realize I've barely moved since lunch.

Has anyone found a way to work short movement breaks into a job where you need long stretches of uninterrupted focus? I'd rather change the workflow than rely on an alarm I keep snoozing.

Sounds so silly writing it out. But it’s my reality. Is there something like a playlist or hack you used to get focused again to read for extended time periods? I’ve tried playlist, but i tend to focus on them too much. I use ambient eletronic music ones because they make me feel like i’m engaged mentally.

I just can’t seem to lock into a book anymore where i’d look at the time and be suprised how much time has passed since i’ve started reading.

I was doing some work from home today like usual. But I had a sudden burst of sleepiness. Usually, I can't focus because my focus is trash, but today my focus was actually really good until I got sleepy; I literally could not keep my eyes open. I woke up at 4am but crashed around 2- 3 p.m. I took adderall and some caffeine, but that didn't even touch me. I decided to take a nap. My work output was so low, and rather than keep trying to push through, I thought maybe I should take a break?? I slept for maybe 30 min. Now I am taking a walk to the store. I will work later tonight than expected and miss out on free time. Not sure if I made the right choice. What do you productivity experts have to say about this?