Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

Native french speakers often leave a space before their punctuation.

(Not commas though! usually sentence-ending punctuation like ?,!,.)

Start tracking your time with a simple app like https://github.com/projecthamster/hamster When you start the timer you should only focus on that one task. If you get distracted stop the timer. After a week or month you will have lots of info and it will be easier to decided what to do.

I had the same "problem" that you have in the past.

I created a company wile studying engineering, while traveling the world and learning languages.

I solved it... well I did not solve it at all.

For creating a company alone you need marketing, sales, hiring people,self management, handling money and planning skills.

It felt I was not doing nothing at all. It was hell.

But somewhat it worked really well in the end. I started delegating some work, but I had done this work myself so I knew who was great at what I wanted to delegate naturally.

I was wrong too thinking that I had not learn anything. Now I know I know a lot because I compare with people that does not know what I know every single day of my life. When you really learn something it becomes obvious to you.

My recommendation is:

1-take notes and computer index anything you learn, with the most important things from a book, talk, whatever, something similar to what Derek does:

http://sivers.org/book

Watching again a lecture is nothing bad if you need it. But next time you watch it you can do it in 5 or 10 minutes, focusing on what you need.

I extract the audio of every talk I watch and speech recognize it automatically, so I can search for it. I write down the important words of the talk and basic structure.

I use open source(vlc, handbrake, command line tools) programs for most of it(everything but speech recognition).

2- learn memory tricks,mind maps, and speed reading so you learn faster.

3- Learn to self manage and be happy while working. I like Eben Pagan productivity program "wakeupproductive".

You have a beautiful problem and you are aware of it and seeking fresh input on how to deal with it. That's a lot. Many people just go with robotic intertia but you created an opportunity window to break intertia here.

In the incoming years life might add some constraints you are not experiencing now and they might decide for you, so you should use your currently wider spectrum of choice to decide what you really like to invent for your future life. What opportunities want to optimize and increase chances of making them happen? I always kept a lot of attention on optimizing personal freedom. If you align things you really want with values then you'll probably increase aligning your passion with what you do (and if you do the opposite you screw it).

Final words on this nice conversation: meditate absorving all, then ignore everybody (including this) and please please please read The War of Art from Steven Pressfield. Is the most enlighting, short, provoking and encouraging words I've read to deal with The Resistance.

"The War of Art"? This book? http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/RWWMMSWYRYY10/ref=cm_cr_pr_pe...

Really?