“Nothing” is the secret to structuring your work
vangemert.dev250 points by spmvg 4 days ago
250 points by spmvg 4 days ago
Clearing my tabs and IDE is also the best way to lose context and miss all kinds of things I've had queued up.
I've found mostly the opposite. Some well arranged windows are quite a nice anchor, I'm working on what's there in front of me. It's like bowling with bumpers in place, instead of the ball going in the gutter, the structure keeps it in the lane. I've found it necessary to devote time to cleaning and clearing windows, and sometimes I forget what's going on, and as I'm closing out the windows because I forgot what was going on, oh! there's this half finished thing that I actually really want finished.
What am I working on, what's in progress? The work space is the map. The terrain is changing as the task progresses, and so must the map, but the map is useful, even if it takes a bit of redrawing here and there.
The desktops (multiple, 3-7) are the map of the work. Part of the work is keeping the map accurate, not wadding it up and throwing it in the trash.
I suppose different things work for different people, but I started with the suggestion here and came around to skillful use of space as the work map itself.
Cleaning and updating are continuous, not a 'big bang' clear-the-desks event, mostly. But if it's not continuous, the big bang is probably better.
Some spots are problem spots, like digital notebooks, desktop icons. When I notice a problem spot, I create a recurring task to remove one X per week, or in some of the worst cases, one X per day. I have a rule of clearing out the oldest two days of email each day. I miss some days if I'm busy, but on average rate out = rate in, because I will always catch up within a day or two applying the rule that the oldest two days of email need eviction (make a task out of it, archive it, whatever) every day. Rate out = rate in
I think it's where one plugs the external world into in their brain. For my daily work, I plug the desktop to my current thought stream (or short term memory?). Anything not immediately relevant to what I'm thinking about is an unnecessary speed bump or stutter in my speech, which means minimal window decoration, no status bars, ... and anything not visible can be summoned by a quick single "label" somehow, not by navigating a structure. This is more similar to what the author suggested.
{And if I'm getting what you said correctly} What you described, is similar to how I organize my drawers in my room. Everything is visible at once, but navigating them usually takes 2 or 3 steps. Without this visual map I'm completely lost.
I understand why people organize things around them, also on their computer. While I am working I also do it. On Gnome I have 1-2 desktops per tasks when working on multiple things. As you say say, they are "the map of the work", nice metaphor. But, jumping in the next morning I get sort of overwhelmed, especially with multiple tasks ongoing.
Over time I have come to the ritual of closing everything in the evening (end of afternoon really), what is still running is on servers in Tmux labeled with the task number, sometimes I leave Readme's open with instructions to myself (vscode or obsidian), but starting clean works better for me (like OP). I sort of slowly load the context in the morning and start to ramp up. That is what it feels like. It works for me. When I boot up, I have 5 empty desktops and zero tabs open in the browser. But it is all filled up relatively quickly again. I do have rituals/rules, like secondary, longer running tasks (ie long running data analysis workflows) are usually on desktop 4. Element/Slack/Signal on desktop 5, outlook/teams (for current client) + other side stuff in browser on desktop 1. Desktop 2 is very dynamic, usually where I spend most time, it overflows onto desktop 3 when I need more space, both are filled with terminals, vscode, browser windows. I have my laptop screen on the side, but for some reason never use it... I just use my Iiyama ultra-wide with quarter tiling (probably would tile more if Gnome would support it, KDE did, loved that, but love the simplicity of Gnome more).
I'm considering making 6 desktops haha. Oh, I really can't work with dynamic desktops, as I "need" some stuff to be on the final desktop, far away yet easy to reach.
Current client has an Excel file for tasks. Really hate that. Tried pushing her to MS Tasks, didn't really work well. But I also need a large space for context and subtasks. For some data analysis tasks I made a small Django system, with a page (model/view) per dataset. That works very well for us, it was very much worth the effort to set that up. The view grabs in data from several locations so it also helps me quickly look things up.
I'd be pretty lost without my pretty crazy zellij setup.
Zellic - wow there goes a day learning a new awesome tool. This is just what I need (I think, based on a quick glance).
Thank you for mentioning this - best tip of the day ;-)
Seems to be inspired from emacs/doom-emacs and friends … great!!!
I thought this might be a neat JetBrains thing. Turns out this is an even cooler tmux.
Thanks for sharing, I'm gonna grab this right away.
Can you elaborate? just tried zellij for the first time the other day
Sure, I have to change a lot of contexts, and each contexts has a lot of sections.
So basically I have
- A session for dev
- each tab is a service
- each service has a pane, vim, claude code, runner (npm run dev, go run etc)
- vim
- staing
- prod
- Misc
Every day I work on my main project, I clear my desk completely, take out a small notepad and write my overriding goal, and my next step goal, and then make a list of tasks for that next step goal.
Then I work.
Writing the major goal every day is important to not let sub-goals overshadow it. Writing the immediate goal every day is important because together the two goals create a very clear direction of action with a clear next step.
I have my screen mounted on the wall, and have side end-tables for pens, papers and notes I need, etc. so my desk is absolutely clear.
My desk is a half circle, but not that deep, because that optimizes the usefulness of the surface for work (not storage).
I have gone into doing this form time to time. And they were good times, thanks for reminding me, I'll start doing this again. I'm now 44 and always wanted to be fully digital and modern, but nothing beats the notepad and pen for me still, for certain small tasks at least.
This kind of daily goal setting reminds me a lot of this podcast, if of interest. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/invest-like-the-best-w...
Jack Dorsey suggests a similar technique for goal setting and resolution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9lTpD-yKc&t=2528
Could you elaborate as to what the difference is between your overriding goal and your next step goal?
My recently achieved overriding goal took 32 years to accomplish! i worked on it as a side project all that time and it took me places i never expected. Very happy.
I recommend being less ambitious! Or be smarter than me!
Now my major goal is to complete the first tools in that area. it’s still challenging but I think the first version will have only taken 12 months. There is just a lot of newly settled stuff that I am getting fluent in.
12 months seems like a good length of time for a major goal.
Immediate goals are the closest challenging milestone. I.e. a necessary task that requires non-trivial design and/or implementation.
I think both major and immediate goals should be stretch goals with actual impact at different scales. 6-18 months and 2 to 8 weeks are typical ranges. But as my first paragraph notes, the major goal is the big thing that needs to be done, so however long that takes. It is inspiring to aim for significance, and it pushes me to not waste time on all scales of life.
And then I replot my path to the immediate goal. Usually takes under a minute. Mundane steps and questions to settle.
I recreate a the whole plan every morning like that. The repetition embeds the plan and goals into my conscious and subconscious minds.
And also keeps everything fluid.
Every morning, any new perspective can alter anything in the plan, including the goals if need be. Altering the immediate goal, or a better definition of the major goal.
I would assume the former is the 'actual' goal - implement the feature, fix the bug, etc.; the next step goal is the current burrow of rabbit hole, the refactoring, dependency upgrade, patch to third-party lib, unexpected other ticket, etc. that you had to do on the way.
For me the process which works is the "make a mess, then clean it up" approach. Also known as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Diamond_(design_process...
Alas, I think it is far more likely that there is no secret to any of this. Different strokes will arrive at the same place for a lot of people. All the more true for things that are even remotely creative in nature.
Not to say that routine and form can't get results. It is hilarious how much of the current fascination with LLM writing can be summarized by "actually filling out a routine template will satisfy a ton of requirements." People that are surprised with how well some output works, but would have scoffed at filling out a lot of boilerplate in previous technologies.
So, yes, try it. But do not become attached to it. If it works, rejoice in that. But do not count on it always working. If it stops for a time, feel free to leave it for a time.
> The next time you begin your workday, try this: clear your work surface completely.
I prefer to clean my workspace at the end of the workday and to leave a clearly defined task for myself the next morning. I can deal with a lot of friction after noon. Not so much at 6am.
Working in a university library always feels refreshing for this reason
But I will loose it all, that's why you should bookmark everything, have terminal bookmarks of paths, use git worktrees to allow leaving workspace messy. Use a lot of notion docs, .md docs, notebooks. Places where you organize stuff, so that you can come back easily when you need it again.
A running txt file for each project/work capsule has been wonders. Then common txt files for anything you learned or, things you need to learn, notes/todos, etc.
I think I would be half as productive as I'd like without this.
Yes. I have started doing this with an Obsidian note for each project. Any ongoing lists go there, and each day has a heading with todos and thought process while solving the todos. Then in my main todo list or kanban I just link to the project with one sentence on where to resume the next day.
I've setup my ~/Stuff, ~/CurrentStuff and mkstuff some time ago and it's extremely useful to keep clutter under control for me. I use this as temporary working directories for small stuff that's not a real project yet. `mkstuff ticket-123-team-db-troubleshooting` creates me a directory `~/Stuff/2026-02/12-ticket-123-team-db-troubleshooting` and drops the shell into that. ~/CurrentStuff is just a link to current months stuff.
This way I have everything about a ticket in a place and if someone is like "uhh, you did something to something some 3 months ago or so?" - ~/Stuff/2025-1{0,1,2} probably knows, I certainly don't. I can find things again like this :)
I'll eventually have to setup some automated archiving for it, but so far it's not using too much space.
Yes, I do believe you own the correct answers - however, can you make a long form blog post about this and share it on Hacker News? We need the rest of the information.
My room should be messy when I come back to it - how else would I find anything if it wasn’t where I left it?
I started working on a task management app that could handle the massive amounts of context switching I do on a daily basis - aggregated over slack, iOS reminders, Jira, linear, and obsidian... I'm glad I'm not alone in having such crazy environment.
Maybe this is why I still prefer working with a very vanilla vim setup, when I start with a coding task, I have to think for a moment about what files I need to work in and start by opening one. There is no IDE with 5 files already open. I do sometimes cheat and put a TODO comment in some files so that `git status` helps me remember where I left off previously.
Another thing that I've enjoyed a lot is a browser plugin called OneTab, when I start a new task or context switch I just hit the button and all the browser tabs are saved and closed. I then go through the list and only open up the tabs relevant to the task or I just start from scratch.
When I write book chapters I write, throw away, write, throw away. Mostly with no a-priori outline
But eventually I get to a point where all the failed attempts crystallize and it flows out of me start to finish in one sitting. Every piece of knowledge from those failed attempts crystallizes into one gestalt of how it’s supposed to be.
Those final “easy” 20 pages always come after 100 pages of discarded, frustrating, exploratory work that feels like it’s going nowhere.
Also a deadline helps.
Yeah, one of the toughest but most rewarding lessons I've learned about writing is how valuable it can be to set aside your current draft and start from scratch.
It's very tempting to want to write an outline & then revise the outline until it's perfect, so that your first draft can be as solid as possible. That never works out well for me, though. It's only after I've written a substantial chunk of the thing that I realize half my ideas were bad and the other half are being poorly realized, and I start to understand the story I really want to write.
I'm very taken with this one HYTRADBOI talk [1] that applies a similar approach to software design. It's not something I've ever gotten a chance to apply, but it really appeals to me.
[1]: https://www.hytradboi.com/2025/03580e19-4646-4fba-91c3-17eab...
I have a system for electronics projects where a new project gets a labeled container to store extra parts, papers, spare PCBs, weird cables I might need later...
It works pretty well, especially when I want to take a project to a meetup.
Unfortunately, I also have a bin labeled "Projects".
Same. I've got a couple of folders in my ~/Documents titled "Other".
Also, if you have projects with lots of parts, and you've got a 3D printer: have you discovered Gridfinity? (or others like Multibuild?) For the uninitiated, these are wall/drawer 42mm grids, in which you place bins that are multiples of 42. So you get perfectly-sized Tetris-like drawers and walls.
The most important part is to just pay attention to how your current setup affects your mood, creativity, focus, etc. It'll be way easier to adjust once you're in tune with that.
It's really easy to end up on autopilot with the structure of your workdays, only to notice that it doesn't work for the current project all that well. Getting stuck on the 'nothing' approach can be just as bad as getting stuck on a 'hundred tabs' approach if you're just doing one or the other because you've always been doing it.
You can go one further and start with no desk. Think out your solution while you go for a walk.
My digital workspace is a complete mess. Tabs keep piling up, whether in Chrome, Notepad, or other apps. I don't even know why I still have so much old stuff open, I'm thinking I might need it one day, but that day never comes...
But in contrast, my physical workspace is completely empty, I might be a bit schizophrenic.
If your work doesn't revolve around a web browser, try closing it completely when you try to do work. It might actually feel unsettling to work without having the browser open, almost the same feeling as reaching for the phone to check emails even though you know there are no new ones.
I recently realised I can do 70% of my work with only the terminal open and nothing else. Can get it up to 95% with terminal + single IDE at a time. The last 5% is browser-based, which can get distracting really fast - like HN and youtube rabbit holes.
If you really want to shine a light on the cockroach that is digital hoarding, try nuking your entire browsing history and tabs, delete all your movies/series/games collection. I 'cured' myself of being this kind of hoarder just before covid started and I haven't had the urge to store anything besides some private/precious data. On my one machine I've explicitly set firefox to not remember tabs and to also wipe history/cookies/tmp data on every close. Feel weird the first week but then if you see someone else's browser with 100+ tabs, its like looking at one of those picture of a hoarders car that is filled with trash. I think on some level the brain likes this kind of trash hoarding, some kind of rat behaviour. I jest but I hope you get the picture.
> Tabs keep piling up, whether in Chrome, Notepad, or other apps. I don't even know why I still have so much old stuff open, I'm thinking I might need it one day, but that day never comes...
I do this. But every now and then, I have what I call "The Purge", in which the browser window gets closed. There are a few tabs that survive The Purge. One window has [GMail, Calendar] as pinned tabs. Another window has [Gmeet] as a pinned tab. Everyone else is expendable. If they are needed, they will be reopened.
(I do give a little thought to it. "Is there some actually ongoing thing I realistically need to save, and can't reopen?" Those tabs might be pulled off.)
I did this this week. "This will close 437 tabs. Are you sure?" Purged.
I’ve always have wanted a clean project area on my computer, never managed it though.
I try to keep a space for organization (slack, jira, whatever) and another for the ide, for example. Start working, and pretty soon I need to check an old pr on GitHub, and see it side to side with the ide, next someone sends a link in slack that opens a chrome window which is a doc with links that go into tabs. Hold, I have to hop in zoom for the daily… aaand we’re back at 20 windows and 15 tabs.
I wonder if it’s just the mess imposed by modern workflows. Picturing an engineer decades ago working alone and disconnected in its own office sounds like a dream, but I might just be idealizing it from today’s mindset.
Multiple desktops in Windows can help with this. Ctrl+Win Right/Left cursor keys to switch.
I cant stand it connecting app instances into 1 group. If i have 2 excel files open on Desktop 1, and then i try opening 3rd on Desktop2 -> it will jump back to Desktop 1 and open it there.
I mean that's the easiest thing for me.
mkdir NewProject
cd NewProject
Wonder how many people don’t even shut down their work computer.
I shut down work computer every day and every day in the morning I start it up.
Sometimes if I really have something I didn’t finish and want to start on early in the morning then I leave it running with all apps open.
I like to force myself to restart my computer and work desk every day.
I do this reset for my business side work, my programming project repo and my clinical work (I'm a kid physician).
I feel It both liberates me and at the exact time forces to understand my workflow and think of logical folders and separation of responsabilities. If something doesnt belong anywhere, maybe It is ephimeral and deserves to be erased... Though, but practical and I LOVE It.
The Windows Update lady comes in once a month to give me a clean working surface.
My secret was vibe coding my own jira type if system. It makes sense to no one, but it feels very intuitive to me. It has features like caching all my google docs shared with me so I can search by title. Ironically, it works better than google drive’s search.
Anyway I did this because our version of jira isn’t great, so all the features I found complicated, I put that in my system. For the rest, I use jira because with other things it’s really intuitive.
I did something similar in Django for an overview of analyzed datasets. It's messy, does not have all the tests and still runs in development mode. But man did I set it up quickly and man does it help me keep an overview/find stuff fast.
Every Friday, I close every app and turn off my laptop. I have been doing it as a ritual to fully enjoy my weekend. When you close your laptop lid, you leave your thoughts on the desk with it. Go meet your people.
I believe we clutter our workspaces because we suck at keeping iterations short. We always want to add one more feature, tweak one more thing, etc.
Eventually, some external pressure (boss, client, IM, whatever) causes us to open a second context simultaneously. Then it happens with a third, a fourth, etc
This is happening because the world is expecting shorter and shorter time to results due to better tooling in the last 10 years, but most have not figured out that all the LLMs and agents in the world won’t shorten the loop, only the person using them can do that.
I find that for any given problem, if I don’t see results in 30 minutes, it’s time to stop that problem and likely reshape it. If I don’t actually get the result in 90-120 minutes, I’m doing something wrong.
Every morning I close all work browser tabs from prior day. 99% of them I don't need again/can just reopen if I need. The 1% I'll note on a todo list or keep open somewhere.
My office mate turns off his computer every night when he leaves, turns it back on again in the morning. Annoys the admins because they like to schedule updates at night.
I do this too. And start the day with a `sudo nixos-rebuild boot --upgrade` and reboot if needed. Feels so fresh, like rebooting the brain.
Having the right context is far more effective. Context-switching cost is a major component of procrastination. At least for development work, having the right set of tabs open, the right project loaded in the IDE with the right console windows open is far better than "Nothing".
I think that's sort of what I got from the article - open the right tools for what you're actually working on, not everything you might need for all the tasks in your backlog.
My work day starts with "what must I accomplish today?"
Then I tackle that list.
Sometimes the list changes.
"Focus work" happens as pressure vs desire mingle.
The real question is "what is expected of me in the next four hours?" And suddenly my work is structured.
An acquaintance of mine calls their system, “Two-Do.” They figure out 2 things that must get done each day and then do those 2 things and sometimes repeat if time and their energy allows.
Someone called my method “chaotic neutral”
I try to start most days on my machine by closing almost everything I had opened the previous day.
This is my focus protocol. Whenever I find myself having trouble trying started on a task, I create a new desktop and open windows related to the task only. DnD on. Pick a next step. Execute.
I like it when my managers assigns the work to me and specifies the order to be completed in.
“But I will lose my X" Some may object that they cannot have a clean desk because they'll lose things. They fear cleaning up…
I intensely dislike the authors smug self satisfied sense of superiority.
the author is either glib or autistic enough to opine on a clean desk as beyond reproach , i give him the benefit of the doubt and distill the idea that an empty context window offers more room
The website doesn't work it's just a black screen
Why not just say "reboot machine when done" if that is what you mean?
It explains what it means.
Microsoft Outlook and Team are about the messiest places on my desk.
I literally just started doing this yesterday. Sometimes the tabs I have open help and sometimes they don’t. Yesterday they didn’t.
You know what works for me? Read these kinds of articles, and then immediately get to work just to prove the guy wrong.
I'm quite pumped.
Meh. This just sounds like all the interface theory stuff we users have to deal with, where useful things are removed in favor of a 'clean' and empty interface that makes you work harder to get your actual work done.
Then there's Adobe who remove features to add feature and justify it's next version; or clones it into a separate product so they can justify it's next subscription rise; or moves it into a different product so they can justify it's subscription expansion.
Why does a personal blog need a comically large cookie spam popup?
Um, I guess this might useful to some number of readers, but I don't think it's universal and I don't think it's a secret—more like its one of a few dozen pithy focus hacks that regularly make their way through the blogosphere and social media for those interested in "productivity".
To try my hand at reductive advice, I would say this: know your strengths and what work you do has the most value. The structure exists to serve the work and not the other way around. Habits and processes can serve the work, but can quickly become a form of procrastination for certain types of personalities. Reading about productivity on the internet will not generally make you more productive. Only through honest self-reflection can you actually improve your personal productivity and impact.
rm -rf ~
Yup been doing this for a while it works great, and really forces the work onto the organizational layer and search layer. Now if only I could be better at that.
Oh look another article of “this works for me therefore it must work for everyone else”
As opposed to what? "Here's my 40k sample double blind study on productivity"?
"Some people say a cluttered desk is the sign of a brilliant mind. Hogwash. A cluttered desk is the sign of a lazy mind." —Tim Bryce
He didn't do any actual proper engineering; might take advice from politicians on engineering next
nice blog site!
The end of every night should start with an empty page
and then start every morning with an empty page
It's pretty simple.
As a data hoarder something like onetab is amazing, there is still a lot of room for improvement though in browser ergonomics, session resets that force you to log back in and refind your place, it's nice to see some tools like data bricks that will at least let you reauth in a new tab.
So I'm one of the people who shuts down their computer at the end of the day and starts fresh. I don't use any type of session resume at the OS level or in the browser, I don't like it.
But! I've learned to harness the power of ending the day without complete closure. I stop work when I know the next step I'm about to do fully. Then the next day it's completely obvious what to start with, and I'm back in the flow without procrastinating as much.
It took some attempts to get comfortable with this; NOT finishing can be kind of excruciating if you're not build for work/life separation. But once I learned to delay my gratification in this regard, I found it set me up for many other things that require daily habits. I also balk much less at "this will take daaaaays" scenarios in general. I'm more comfortable now with things that stretch over longer periods.
Fellow shut-down-er? :P
I somehow started doing this from the very start of my computer interaction, so I never understood why people find it weird. But now if I keep my system on, I feel uneasy, as if I have work pending, so I am make sure to shut it down at the end of day everyday :)
I'm like that too. Sometimes I work for too long and go for dinner, get kids to bed etc... And then take some time to shutdown the computer. Sometime I write myself a note in a readme of the current task. But I close every window on every desktop manually (inc browser which start with clean session), thinking about if I still need anything from it. Then relaxing can begin.
The idea of clearing physical and digital workspaces is part of the system discussed in Work Clean:
I’ve been using a personal variation of this system for over 4 years now and it’s outstanding for me. I firmly believe that for the vast majority of people (myself included), working without a plan is one of the dumbest things they can do.
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