Suspect a time machine and a dose of immortality would come in handy, but a close second is hiring many other people to do everything for you.
For the rest of us, just prioritise what's important to you and do what you can.
Ask HN: How does one do it all?
31–38 of 38 posts
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#32I can’t do it all.
You have to figure out what you really want and then make a plan.
All the other stuff you have to put less focus on.
Time management and focus are important.
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#33I don’t follow any time management techniques outside work hours and have accepted the fact that I can’t do everything. So, I do things in phases, for some weeks I play a lot of video games, for some weeks I go to gym very regularly, for some weeks I read a lot of books etc etc. Keeping in touch with people and maintaining a social life is an entirely different ball game. I am struggling on that front, you tell me when you figure it out.
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#34Highly recommend this book. The author did a project that tracks working mom's time spent for a week. Very interesting findings. Also a fun read.
https://www.amazon.com/Know-How-She-Does-Successful/dp/01431...
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#35Most people do just a few of the things on your list at a time. However, life is long, so you can alternate over time - e.g. at some point you can take a less demanding or part time job (or even be FIREd already) which opens up time for other aspects of life. Even then, you'll have to choose just a few that you focus on, but again, you can still alternate over time - say focus on studying humanities for a couple of years, then maybe later do art for a couple of years etc.
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you use GTD on a daily basis and does it help you? I found the system terrible and convoluted. David Allen is a member of The Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, which I've read is a cult. The history of the system seems a bit shady when you look at it from this perspective. Essentially GTD is actually just a cult like any other. Scientology is meant to use science to actualize people to their full potential, a…
Yeah I hadn’t heard it was a cult, and I wouldn’t read too far into it. Anything taken to the extreme gets weird, and he has made his life from it so he’s as extreme as it gets. I think for him it’s definitely something he came to while taking psychedelics, so it’s probably spiritual and “the right way to live”. In my mind to have a cult you need other people, and I’ve never met with anyone for a GTD meetup. To me th…
I'm not reading too far into things, I'm looking at things objectively. At the beginning of the book, Allen thanks his "spiritual coach J-R." He is referring to John-Roger, the founder of the MSIA cult. GTD started as seminars given to members of corporations. It is no coincidence that the MSIA cult started as a series of spiritual seminars. John-Roger went on to author a self-help book called Life 101 [1]. Paul Allen went on to author a self-help book called Getting Things Done. You can find online allegations of the seminars being used to recruit people into the cult. There are allegations of the cult telling women to abstain from marriage and perform sexual acts on their leader who is god incarnate.
[1] https://www.amazon.ca/Life-101-Peter-McWilliams/dp/093158078...
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I hadn’t heard it was a cult, and I wouldn’t read too far into it. Anything taken to the extreme gets weird, and he has made his life from it so he’s as extreme as it gets. I think for him it’s definitely something he came to while taking psychedelics, so it’s probably spiritual and “the right way to live”. In my mind to have a cult you need other people, and I’ve never met with anyone for a GTD meetup. To me th…
I'm not reading too far into things, I'm looking at things objectively. At the beginning of the book, Allen thanks his "spiritual coach J-R." He is referring to John-Roger, the founder of the MSIA cult. GTD started as seminars given to members of corporations. It is no coincidence that the MSIA cult started as a series of spiritual seminars. John-Roger went on to author a self-help book called Life 101 [1]. Paul Alle…
Slight correction for those reading -> David Allen (not Paul of MSFT) went on to author the self-help book called GTD.
But that’s fascinating. Reading the acknowledgements is further than I had read into it - I honestly never looked at the acknowledgements in the years of having the book, let alone researched J-R or heard of MSIA until this comment.
For me personally, I am not quite sure what to do with that information. It looks like J-R is dead, and if anyone took my original book recommendation as saying “join MSIA” and go to spiritual seminars, that’s not what I meant. GTD frees up your time and attention to do whatever you want with it. That’s why I also recommended of Essentialism, Make Time, and Four Thousand Weeks. I guess someone could dig into it and wind up at spiritual seminars. Essentialism is written by a Mormon, and I wouldn’t think that people who read that book suddenly go and join the Mormon church (or to even know that about the author).
I guess it is sort of like separating songs from their creators? I can like the music, but not be a huge fan or follower of the musician?
Re: Ask HN: How does one do it all?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not reading too far into things, I'm looking at things objectively. At the beginning of the book, Allen thanks his "spiritual coach J-R." He is referring to John-Roger, the founder of the MSIA cult. GTD started as seminars given to members of corporations. It is no coincidence that the MSIA cult started as a series of spiritual seminars. John-Roger went on to author a self-help book called Life 101 [1]. Paul Alle…
Slight correction for those reading -> David Allen (not Paul of MSFT) went on to author the self-help book called GTD. But that’s fascinating. Reading the acknowledgements is further than I had read into it - I honestly never looked at the acknowledgements in the years of having the book, let alone researched J-R or heard of MSIA until this comment. For me personally, I am not quite sure what to do with that informat…
Yes, nothing at all to do with Paul Allen, the wires just crossed in my brain. No I don't think it's anything like separating songs from their creators. L. Ron Hubbard conducted seminars on Dianetics and later authored the self-help book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. As you probably know, he later went on to found the church of scientology. I am a programmer not a journalist so this is as far as I'll go. I think the moral of the story is don't take these books as gospel and don't treat them as your bible.