What to say about that kind of obsession over productivity, or the narcissism of valuing your supposedly insanely productive time so much? Hiring people to babysit a self-absorbed adult with apparently no self-control or discipline. And if that’s not enough, to look for people in developing countries to serve as low-paid audience and human to-do list.

All this to write blog articles? Code no one will cares about? Spin on the millions of ideas pouring out of your brain? Comically “optimizing” your activities and schedule? This describes a mental illness, not a productivity hurdle.

Should've added more detail to my post but the reason I want to do this is less to become more productive and more to become sane - I'm trying to create a robust system to make sure I meditate, exercise and work on health issues every day.

It probably isn't far off to describe my struggle to manage these as mental illness rather than a productivity hurdle

> It probably isn't far off to describe my struggle to manage these as mental illness rather than a productivity hurdle

You might try asking your healthcare provider for help finding a therapist or social worker. They can help you assess the issues you are facing in a way that's different from what you'd get from friends or family (for example such discussions are generally confidential), and they can check-in with you regularly if that's useful for managing your problems.

I've had a therapist before but they unfortunately didn't help as much as I'd hoped. I can often make systems that last a few weeks but single failure days cascade very easily. My hope is that with external accountability I can bootstrap these systems into working for months and become the kind of person that can reliably manage myself

You might have to try a couple therapists before you find the right one -- I'm on number three personally (with many years and much denial in between) -- but when you find one who you work well with it can be very helpful. Your desire for weekly analysis of your feelings and help debugging motivational issues is generally up their alley; I check-in with my therapist once a week via video call and our sessions often explore what's going on when I have low motivation. You might consider giving it another go, but up to you. Keeping a daily journal -- if you don't already -- may also be useful.

Regardless, I wish you the best of luck with your challenges and hope you find a solution that works for you.

Honestly, I can't comprehend or imagine the lack of self-control and discipline you describe. Most people get by with a calendar, alarm clock, to-do list, and internal motivation if they want to develop habits or just show up on time for things important to them.

I don't have the qualifications to actually diagnose mental health problems, but having suffered from OCD myself I suggest you seek professional help.

If you dont understand, why would you be insulting when a person asks for help? Wtf.

The OP asked for help hiring someone in Bangalore to wake them up, monitor, and babysit them. The link to the article that inspired their idea had more to do with optimizing productivity and dealing with procrastination than mental health problems.

To me the whole idea of an adult hiring someone to act as a parent or kindergarten teacher seems ridiculous. If an adult actually needs that level of supervision and prodding they should consider talking to a professional about possible ADHD or other issues. Hiring people to satisfy narcissistic tendencies just seems degrading to the person hired.

If the pay is fair, looks like at least two people will benefit from this. I like the idea, and it would be interesting to see the results.

We can probably predict the results. Having someone tell you what to do and when to do it describes some environments we all probably have experience with: Parents, school, jobs.

A single person working from home has none of those factors. They are left to manage their own time and priorities. Some people handle that better than others, and some people get anxious, upset, overwhelmed when they can't manage themselves. Hiring someone to essentially babysit and keep you on track may work, but it works in the sense that paying someone to feed you means you don't have to shop, cook, and feed yourself. The anxiety and the underlying problems don't go away by outsourcing them.

People who have too many details to manage and too many things to do (not just things they imagine they should do or want to do) hire assistants to handle some of the tasks. They don't hire someone to stand behind them and tell them to get to work.

Local message boards, interest groups, and job/gig sites might work best. Sorry for all the people calling you names,that shouldn't happen here on HN.

With the right series of prompts and criteria ChatGPT could probably whip up an effective virtual nanny.

I've thought about this but the problem is it has to be able to poke me in a way I can't ignore

It seems plausible to add penalties of some sort that make me take it seriously but hard for me to align it in a way that handles edge cases well