Ask HN: Weekend wasted again • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#21

Post by 464192002d7fe1c » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 2:58 AM UTC

Not sure what HNs opinion of this will be....

I used to have similar issues. It was mostly down to procrastination and overwork/stress.

Weekends were really bad since I was so busy/stressed from the week that I would get into an attitude of "i'll start doing it in an hour" and eventually it was so late that it was too late to get any work done. I had a lot to do, just very little impetus to do it now.

Fixed it by starting to smoke pot. Not even kidding. I set a timeline for my weekends for when I was working and when I was done. When I work, I work. When I'm done, I go smoke. Basically every weekend for a few months.

I've probably tripled, if not more, my weekend productivity by giving myself a defined period of work and a defined period of relaxation and a reward for getting there.

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#22

Post by Geekette » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 3:02 AM UTC

boyter wrote: post #11

Genuine question here. Why is it that some lack the discipline to just do things that they want to do? Its a common theme that appears in most books (heck Just Fucking Ship is a whole book on this) and I have noticed this over time with different people but never understood it. Is there a psychological reason behind this? Is it something that needs to be overcome with the ways listed here? I guess what I am asking is…

Why is it that some lack the discipline to just do things that they want to do?

Because levels of motivation matter. A lot of times, people want to have things, not necessarily make them; it's the difference between being interested vs driven to do something. E.g. A person wanting and daydreaming about having a wooden scale model yacht may want to design it but not actually want go through the building process.

There is also the issue of discipline and temperament: A person driven by nautical design or related toys may not go far if they often lack the discipline to finish what they start and/or get bored easily.

Ultimately, successful side-projects require a combination of factors, not just desire.

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#23

Post by 464192002d7fe1c » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 3:03 AM UTC

venkateshkumar wrote: post #15

Simple. I quit facebook and dont watch TV.

100% agreed on facebook.

TV is more complex, I can definitely waste lots of time trying to figure out what to watch, but, having a pre-made playlist of lots of fluffy TV (think 40+ seasons of law&order reruns all mixed up) provides a good background noise for me to work.

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#24

Post by gaurav-gupta » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 3:06 AM UTC

The solution might be how you spend your weekdays, finding out what you "really" enjoy doing and how you approach the weekend project.

If your stress level steadily rises from Monday to Friday, you'll need the weekend to wind down. This is the first problem to solve. Do fun things in the week days to wind down before the weekend (ideally wind down every day). What are fun things? I can recommend some ideas, but its different for everyone, but getting some form of physical execise is a BIG plus. Walk, run, swim, play... whatever floats your boat.

How to approach the weekend project? This is what works for me. Breakdown the weekend project into really small pieces. I don't mean you make a project plan for the weekend project. Just find the first one or two mini goals, something you can accomplish in an hour. Hit the mini goals. If you don't feel motivated to hit the mini goals. Find out why and iterate. Maybe try a 15 minute goal. Maybe a different project. The point is make really small nudges in the direction you want to go. If it doesn't work, find out why and fix it. When small nudges start working, it'll build up momentum and will eventually become a full weekend project! Have fun! That's the whole point of weekend projects!

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#25

Post by oxplot » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 3:28 AM UTC

I go somewhere where others are working on their own projects. Hackerspaces and coding meetup groups are examples.

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#26

Post by resonantjacket5 » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 3:58 AM UTC

I set a timer that just went off every hour.

And if i was doing something unproductove like youtube facebook etc I closed the tab.

Another thing was that instead of theorycrafting and worrying about O(n) for the smallest projects ever I just went ahead and got something running. Its pretty easy to be disappointed if you cant see your results.

For preparing for interviews you dont really need the internet. Just get a piece of paper and use the cracking the coding book.

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#27

Post by bluecat » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 4:13 AM UTC

I use the wasteNoTime plugin to block websites on safari. Also, hide the plugin so it makes it even more difficult to unblock the website. http://www.bumblebeesystems.com/wastenotime/

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#28

Post by nautical » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 4:54 AM UTC

This is what I have done : using password generator to have a password I cant remember + 2fa . Auto destruct cookies in browser . It actually prevents me from trying to login to fb , gmail etc as its too much work . After some time now I have a control over my urge to login . And start working friday night or early saturday morning .

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#29

Post by abraham_s » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 5:02 AM UTC

1)I get up early in the morning on weekends (relatively early like 7). I have sleep at a sane time on the night before to do this, instead of staying up and watching netflix till 3 in the morning on the night before.

Waking up at noon ruins the day for me. YMMV

2) Limiting the things you want to do. I had this nagging feeling that I should read all the interesting articles that come across in HN etc. I solved but installing a "save to wunderlist" chrome extension. I tell myself that I would read it later (which rarely happens).

Re: Ask HN: Weekend wasted again

#30

Post by abraham_s » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 5:05 AM UTC

You said "prepare for interview". I was doing it a few months back and I didn't enjoy it. One reason was I was thinking in the back of my mind about all the interesting (for me) thing I could be learning instead of the interview prep. I used to devote sometime to study something that genuinely interested me, regardless of whether it was helpful for interview.

Again, this helped me a little bit, YMMV