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Busy to Death

barryoreilly.com

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Re: Busy to Death

#51

Post by AlwaysRock »

shubhamjain wrote: post #11

I am often bemused how people actually end up being so busy. At times, I have felt insecure about my "free time" — sort of how I might be running behind people who are constantly occupied. But, taking a closer look, you can see how a lot of work that busy people do is something that can be reduced, optimised, and even completely done away with. Checking emails, and reports, taking calls that need not be taken, endles…

Yesterday at 6:00PM I realized I had no pressing business or personal things to get done but it felt very odd trying to decide what to do with that time. It almost felt like wasted time if I didn't do something productive with it.

Re: Busy to Death

#52

Post by Danihan »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #21
MaulingMonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working. Easier said than done, but some unsolicited suggestions: 1) Acquire the self confidence that your results will speak for themselves, appearances be damned. 2) Realize your coworkers also value thinking, and recognize it properly. 3) Realize your coworkers are probably too busy worryi…

> 5) Consider journaling / take stream-of-concious notes / mind-mapping. Might slow your thinking down some, but might compensate for memory some too. I found myself unable to focus on thinking in the office, when there are other people present. I learned to compensate for that by doing my thinking in writing - I just start dumping my thoughts and talking to myself through my text editor. It feels a bit slower, but i…

Same, exactly.

Re: Busy to Death

#53

Post by [deleted] »

coldcode wrote: post #45

I work at a big company where my manager is always 100% booked in meetings all day, and so are all the people he has to interact with. I never talk with him except for quick slack questions. Meanwhile we are finally pushing the biggest release ever of one of our apps to the app store this week after working for more than a year on our part, yet the next big release is supposed to be code complete next week already. I…

[deleted]

Re: Busy to Death

#54

Post by ryandrake »

diogenescynic wrote: post #48
coldcode wrote: post #45

I work at a big company where my manager is always 100% booked in meetings all day, and so are all the people he has to interact with. I never talk with him except for quick slack questions. Meanwhile we are finally pushing the biggest release ever of one of our apps to the app store this week after working for more than a year on our part, yet the next big release is supposed to be code complete next week already. I…

I relate to your comment a lot. My boss is completely unavailable except for a brief 1:1 meeting every other week. We are constantly given arbitrary, yet impossible deadlines to meet. Then the objectives change mid-stream and have to start over... It seems totally toxic and I'm already looking for another job. I'm totally burnt out of working like this.

Good luck. I don't think I have ever in my life worked for a single company where management was not fully booked in back-to-back meetings for 10 hours each day. What you've described is standard and normal, and something you will find in most companies. The grass is not greener...

Re: Busy to Death

#55

Post by criddell »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #21
MaulingMonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I feel compelled to make clickety-clack noises on a keyboard, continuously and unproductively, lest people think I'm not working. Easier said than done, but some unsolicited suggestions: 1) Acquire the self confidence that your results will speak for themselves, appearances be damned. 2) Realize your coworkers also value thinking, and recognize it properly. 3) Realize your coworkers are probably too busy worryi…

> 5) Consider journaling / take stream-of-concious notes / mind-mapping. Might slow your thinking down some, but might compensate for memory some too. I found myself unable to focus on thinking in the office, when there are other people present. I learned to compensate for that by doing my thinking in writing - I just start dumping my thoughts and talking to myself through my text editor. It feels a bit slower, but i…

Is a text editor more effective for you than pen and paper?

I like a text editor because I can type faster than I can write, but something about writing on a paper works better for me.

Re: Busy to Death

#56

Post by stinkytaco »

baby wrote: post #32
TeMPOraL wrote: post #19

Looking busy can sometimes be a defense mechanism for protecting your own space and peace of mind. When your cow-orkers, friends and family see you Very Busy, they'll be less likely to interrupt you all the time with irrelevant bullshit. In fact, this works extremely well, because people usually respect the fact that someone is working. On the other hand, when they see you not working, they think it gives them the ri…

> On the other hand, when they see you not working, they think it gives them the right to acquire your time Sure, for close people, but your friends will stop talking to you if you do not have time for them. I remember reading that a good technique could be to organize a meetup (a movie, a bbq, a dinner, drinks, ...) with all your friends once a week (or once every other week or ...) This way your friends know when t…

Or just spend time with your friends. It's not about "you take up too much of my time" because then they wouldn't be friends, it's more about "you are expecting my time RIGHT NOW".

Re: Busy to Death

#58

Post by flavio81 »

kelvin0 wrote: post #47
ayan wrote: post #40

This went a long way to make a Vanilla Ice joke.

I don't see how you can go from 'Busy to death' and segue into a 'Vanilla Ice the Rapper' joke. Care to enlighten us? Alright stop, collaborate and listen...

The article does make a Vanilla Ice joke, if you read carefully.

Re: Busy to Death

#59

Post by TeMPOraL »

criddell wrote: post #55
TeMPOraL wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 5) Consider journaling / take stream-of-concious notes / mind-mapping. Might slow your thinking down some, but might compensate for memory some too. I found myself unable to focus on thinking in the office, when there are other people present. I learned to compensate for that by doing my thinking in writing - I just start dumping my thoughts and talking to myself through my text editor. It feels a bit slower, but i…

Is a text editor more effective for you than pen and paper? I like a text editor because I can type faster than I can write, but something about writing on a paper works better for me.

Pen and paper can reflect my thinking better, but I'm an order of magnitude faster with a text editor than with handwriting - and the benefits of keeping flow and writing at the speed of thought more than compensate for lesser expressive power.

Re: Busy to Death

#60

Post by rdiddly »

chaostheory wrote: post #50

7 Habits of Highly Effective People goes into this in depth with its quandrant system of time management: q1: important and urgent q2: important and not urgent - the focus of the article q3: unimportant and urgent q4: unimportant and not urgent i.e. video games

Many interruptions are q3 - unimportant (to my goals) and urgent (to the person interrupting)
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