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A comment on Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radically less distraction. Parent comment

Re:Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radica... by freshhawk on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @02:25PM (#12737260)
To me both the valuing of self-restriction rather than self-control and Pomodoro have similar reasoning behind them.

Self-control requires you to continuously spend willpower to resist, while self-restriction removes that continuous drain on willpower (a finite resource). Similarly Pomodoro tells you when to take a break and when to concentrate, no decisions required.

I'm not sure how valid this model of willpower is but it seems to have truth behind it. I personally find pomodoro breaks to be way too frequent, although I did do it for a while and found that it was amazing training for being better at focusing and falling back into flow after a break.

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Re:Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radica... by TeMPOraL on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @03:23PM (#12737812)
I too find Pomodoro breaks to be too frequent when I'm in the flow (and I often would skip them then), but when trying to make myself work on a difficult task, having the perspective that "it's just 25 minutes" was helping me to feel less stressed.
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Re:Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radica... by freshhawk on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @05:08PM (#12738726)
Yes, I'm in exactly the same boat but it felt like skipping breaks for hours at a time wasn't really the way the system was supposed to work and I wasn't sure if it helped when used in that way. Although perhaps just being "allowed" to take a break is enough of a benefit, that does make sense to me as I write it.
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Re:Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radica... by anotheryou on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @04:13PM (#12738221)
Certainly a valid model. I can't find it now, but there even was a study on how you would eat unhealthy after demanding tasks, so additionally cognitive load drains from the same pool, too.

edit: http://seriouspony.com/blog/2013/7/24/your-app-makes-me-fat (certainly that was a hn-post)

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Re:Deep work in practice: reimagining my workflow for radica... by freshhawk on Tuesday October 18, 2016 @05:11PM (#12738751)
As I understand it, it's a decent pop psych model, and in this context it's valid and I think of willpower this way. But I remember reading some complaints from experts that we've gotten carried away with the "pool of willpower" metaphor and were applying it too broadly so I'm more careful now.
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