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Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

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Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#111

Two specific resources for you. First, the Eisenhower matrix of important/urgent: https://www.techtello.com/eisenhower-productivity-matrix/ Use this framework to filter your content. I bet most of it fits in quadrants 3/4. Second, check this time management talk It's not what you read, it's what you ignore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWPgUn8tL8s Tons of useful information there. One key takeaway is: do less stuff…

Here's a free Franklin Covey lecture series (3 hourlong parts), explaining how to manage a diary using the Eisenhower matrix [0].

It breeds the habit of prioritizing/scheduling taskflow as things come in and trying to maximize time spent on non-urgent but important tasks.

[0]https://youtu.be/vEVWAhrZNcE

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#112

What I learned from the COVID vaccine is that seeing something twice separated by frequency is a pretty good model for other things. So instead of bookmarking something the first time I see it, I make a mental note, and then the next time I see it, I go add a bookmark or learn more about that. For example, rqlite has been on my radar for a while. I heard about it, thought "that's neat" and promptly forgot its name. T…

I’ve heard this natural-filter technique referred to as “time-shifting,” and it helps me a lot too. I’ll throw stuff I find on my “daily notes” page and rely on revisiting it later.

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#114
Well... in terms of todos... Or they are done or they are simply procrastinating, there is nothing that can help if they are real TODOs, otherwise are just wishlists that normally grow and that's nothing wrong with such growth, instead they might hold informational value for your ancestors if they recover some useful ideas in a more or less far future.

In IT terms you simply feel IMVHO the lack of desktop operating environments, like classic Xerox or LispM, witch means systems designed to be user-centric instead of service-centric a small example:

- if ALL banks/financial institutions just publish a public OFX feed you can subscribe with your own desktop tools, with legal value since any entry is digitally signed by the bank AND any dispositive operation is also signed by you (before) and the bank (after) you'll have MUCH LESS work to do to handle your finance: anything will appear in the same place, with the same UI you like, with a common auth mean etc AND also banks have much less crap to produce, maintain and hosts for their porcals (portals are another thing);

- IF we have a unified payment method for taxes, federated of course, we have far less overhead in paying pretty anything but divide et impera means profit for those who offer a specific payment service, a specific UI/service etc;

- IF we only have FLOSS classic desktops for the modern world we will have our own end-user automation and ANYTHING will be simpler;

IF, if, if, if. The point is simple: tech is a tool, can be developed for a purpose and being more or less effective for such purpose. Actual tech have a purpose mostly AGAINST users for profits of a little cohort, so we feel frustration and issues. That's not a tech issue, that's a social issue and correcting it demand decades of (missed/lost) development and social push in that direction witch means awareness.

Personally I have almost-zero inbox thanks to Emacs (notmuch, fetchmail, maildrop under EXWM) witch makes some things quickly: noting things in org-mode via org-roam to access quickly "my personal semantic Google search" with org-attached files and easy elisp automation just to generate the right text in the right place I cut many time doing many things because almost anything run far quicker and friction-less, anything is at my fingertips. Unfortunately being a not-so-developed territory that's work after a certain time investment AND until something changes radically. For instance in the recent past I've invested few hours in few days to automatically:

- see certain mails in my inbox, the ones from my main voice/data carrier;

- extract the attached pdf bill (maildrop pipes to uudeview)

- rename the attached files (pdfgrep-ing the invoice numbers and due date)

- add an entry in my relevant note (a note per contract with subheadings per any bill, with invoice number, date, amount, status etc

- alert me via org-agenda if after few days post the due date from my ledger the relevant entry is not appeared

than a day my main carrier decide to send just empty mails asking for logging-in in it's porcal to manually download the bill. Sure they want some proof I've received the message, perhaps a clickable dedicated links suffice for them in tech terms and legally have the same ZERO value (in my country, a log entry from someone who say I'm logged in have no value since there is no neutral third party that certify some fact) but as a result I've wasted my time automating. Than I tried woob to automate the web part, it works, unfortunately they like to change their porcal often witch means breaks my automation.

That's the point: our IT development is NOT DONE for us humans citizens and as a result we can do something to compensate but we can't solve the issue alone. We need to unite and IMPOSE a human-centered IT and society, something that have happen in the past, but it's very unlikely now.

Now probably we can just try to be part of a small élite that it's united and do things for themselves. For instance ALL banks quality is evolved from bad to worse, but private banks, at least some, at least if you are good enough for them, still works enough, they are a liability since they are few and far bigger than their typical customers but they still function while the rest do not.

My suggestion is simple: in IT terms try to rediscover tools from the past, they have age issues, but they are far more modern and advanced than modern one, just look at https://youtu.be/B6jfrrwR10k for a quick showcase than decide if invest the needed amount of time to learn and implement your own desktop environment to help YOU not some third party data-and-money-munging service...

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#116
post #10

For the TODO list, I can share one frame of mind that I use. I have a "now", "soon", and "later" section in my TODO list. "Now" grows and shrinks, but never gets out of control. Things sometimes move from "now" to "soon" or "later." I am constantly working off of this list. The "soon" section varies. Often, things get pulled into "now", when they become time sensitive. Some things stick around long enough and it beco…

I have a similar approach, I found some kanban concepts useful to prevent queues

- board structure to aid sorting before a "commitment point", e.g. "Options/New" - Later(6 weeks) - Soon (in the next 7 days)

- Now (usually just the top or highlighted item in "soon") - Done - Closed

- Closed" to place items that are dismissed

- Work in Progress (WIP) - Limits on all columns - maximum number of items

Throughput

- average capacity: number of cards completed or closed in a typical week

- useful to keep track of: when I complete a card, I add a dot somewhere (usually on a "note card") to count it for the week, and add info when blocked by sth

- this number varies, but is a useful indicator how much I can realistically process in a week - for example, 5 items/cards

WIP (Work in progress) limits

- visualize expectations - what can realistically be achieved in this timeframe

- set per column limits - when more cards are in the column, I have to remove some or transfer them to a wishlist

- wip limits determined by average number of cards closed or done per week (throughput); e.g. "Later (WIP 20)"; "Soon" - WIP 5;

Managing Flow / preventing queues

- planning with smaller steps (could each be done in a day) to enable learning

- avoiding a situation when too many things are started but not completed

- understanding the cost of queues: nothing gets done for a long time, and then all at once (unpredictable patterns); or the value diminishes (cost of delay)

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#118
Several months ago I got rid of 600+ browser tabs.

Well, not completely. Some 50 of them went to bookmarks.

But I'd say start deleting based on the following question: "am I willing to go through this link, with 100% of the attention needed to make use of it, in my free time later today?".

If you answer "no" then the chances are at least 90% that you will not want to next week, next month, next year.

I was hoarding so much virtual stuff and one day I just realized that I'll never consume it. I deleted at least 50% of my bookmarks and I almost don't touch them nowadays (I am also looking into deleting more of them in the future). I figured I'll very sparingly grow them and only when I am absolutely certain I'll need the content for my future work or hobbies.

And nowadays I have a private Telegram channel where I post things for review no more than a month from now. And I ruthlessly delete links from it if I haven't visited them in the last month. Think of it as a short-lived Kafka queue. :)

In the end it all boils down to how honest you are with yourself. So be more honest with yourself and you'll very easily find a way to get rid of the dead weight.

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#119
I can relate to your feelings.

Your suggestion are good. Perhaps a combination of them would be most effective.

However, often the problem isn't completely solved with a specific technique. I found that the growth of my inbound is just a symptom not the root cause.

To me, the root cause was not accepting the following fact:

I am a finite being, with finite time, living in a world with infinite possibilities. Regardless of how productive I am. I probably will miss on 999% of what the world has to offer. And that is OK.

By treating time as a resource that must be optimized. I found myself trying to fit in as much as possible. Which paradoxically sucked the joy out the very things I scheduled. Every thing became a chore.

I found much more helpful to practice being fine with the fact that I will be missing on most of the things out there. Afterwards, the productivity techniques magically became much easier to stick to.

Re: Ask HN: How can I stop my inbox/wishlist/bookmarks/tabs/todos from growing?

#120
You need to read this:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374159122/fourthousandwee...

Realise that you will NEVER catch up with anything. And even if, think about the amount of “new” things produced each minute.

New in “” because really, nothing is really new or exciting. I deployed the following strategy:

- Have a priority list (mine is: Health, Family, Friends, Creativity, Work)

- Based on this, make sure what needs to be done (workout, eat healthy, text or call a family member or friend, catch up on work-related news).

- Everything else comes afterwards. And if there is not enough time, it falls over and it’s fine, since it didn’t impact or matter to your overall wellbeing anyway.

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