Laurie Hérault is a 39-year-old developer and consultant who began his career at the age of 21. Since then, he has struggled with procrastination, which he describes as his biggest struggle in life. Hérault attributes his struggles to something worth considering: he suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
According to him, chronic procrastination led him to go through a terrible period: bankruptcy and burnout, due to living on stress instead of planning and organization. However, he discovered something that he can spend hours on without losing focus: video games. So he turned to them and a printer to solve the problems that he had been carrying around with him for so long.
Bringing video game incentives to real life
Hérault believes that what keeps him focused while playing video games is the looping system: a simple action, like aiming or shooting, followed by feedback: the sound of a gunshot, the defeat of the enemy. Video games repeat similar patterns until exhaustion , so he wanted to replicate this loop in real-life tasks, in which you complete tasks following daily habits.
To start, she proposed breaking down large tasks, like cleaning the house, into microtasks — actions that take 2 to 5 minutes , like taking out the trash or making the bed. Each task is written on a Post-it note, so there’s positive feedback after completion.
Another example that there is no absolute truth to maximizing productivity, but rather the method that works for you.
Furthermore, instead of crossing off items, Hérault confesses that when he finishes a task, he crumples the paper into a ball and throws it into a transparent container. The container physically fills up, giving the impression that the work is in progress.
For feedback loops to be effective, it is recommended to start the day with simple tasks and then, with momentum, move on to tasks that require more time and effort.
Technology comes into play
The Post-it system sounds great, but there’s one problem: you have to fill them out. For a procrastinator, this is a huge inconvenience, so this developer thought of automating his work with a thermal receipt printer, like the ones you find in supermarkets.
With this, he says he was able to effortlessly print out to-do and habit lists, eliminating the friction of manually filling out Post-its. This made gamification effective. But
something was missing.
With this app, you can quickly print out all your tasks and even add new subtasks to print if you find yourself procrastinating. Hérault says the method has worked for him, and he’s doubled or tripled his productivity.
Someone on Hacker News commented that these types of productivity articles are usually published after the method has been working for a few days, so they are not representative. He agreed , but argued that the method has not worked for him for weeks, but for months. He promises to publish his application soon.
Source: https://www.xataka.com.br/diversos/nem-remedio-nem-terapia-esse-desenvolvedor-venceu-tdah-jogando-video-game
