Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I got to 200 productive hours a month

qotoqot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 296 posts

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#91

Post by mistersquid »

syllogism wrote: post #53

When I read the article I was thinking there was actually something quite simple missing from it. I found that just measuring the number of productive hours per day was enough to be very helpful in breaking some bad habits, because it made me mindful of how I was spending my time. I was going to suggest the Qbserve tracker for this --- then I saw that that's actually your app! I guess you didn't want to plug it more,…

I've been using Timing, an amazing software with a very small memory and resource footprint. [0] If it matters, Timing's UX is very macOS-y both in my experience and in the opinion of Mac aficionado John Gruber. [1]

I have no relation to product except that I'm a satisfied customer.

[0] https://timingapp.com

[1] (disclosure: advert) https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/07/02/timing

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#92

Post by nickjj »

Void_ wrote: post #11
kobeya wrote: post #8

> Two years ago I could spend a week not working because I was avoiding some task. This is a great article and there’s plenty to talk about in organizational systems, even if this seems to be subtly pitching his own products in places. But if anyone reading this identifies with this sort of chronic procrastination, consider seeking psychiatric help. This is a giant red flag for adult ADHD, which is a serious and ofte…

Well actually I think people should first try getting off social media - and not just that - getting off Internet.

I wrote about this last year. I called it the "social loop of death":

https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/schedules-arent-a-constraint-...

It's super distracting, but you can easily break out of it with being accountable for your time.

Nowadays I've found a healthy balance and am more productive / happy / successful than ever.

A lot of it had to due with following these 3 things too: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-overcome-procrastinati....

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#93

Post by codeulike »

nurettin wrote: post #62
mbrock wrote: post #26

TL;DR: Basically getting up early and doing 4 hours of deep work has changed my life from really stressful and bad to really productive and nice. One thing really fundamentally helped me, as someone who works from home on a large project in an asynchronous 100% remote organization. I work on a fairly involved project that demands a lot of hard work. At the same time there are other things I want to get done: some adm…

I miss the times developers would optimize their lives without all the online rants and the sensitive encouraging, nodding and enabling of said behavior. That said, don't you have banks which automatically pay your bills (electricity/gas/water)? Which country are you from?

I think 'paying bills' here is shorthand for the general administrative burden of being alive, which seems to have grown substantially in recent decades.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#94

Post by ivm »

syllogism wrote: post #53

When I read the article I was thinking there was actually something quite simple missing from it. I found that just measuring the number of productive hours per day was enough to be very helpful in breaking some bad habits, because it made me mindful of how I was spending my time. I was going to suggest the Qbserve tracker for this --- then I saw that that's actually your app! I guess you didn't want to plug it more,…

Thank you! I like to keep it subtle, especially considering that many readers are not Mac users. I think it's totally possible to measure everything with a start/stop kind of tracker.

I heard good things about Selfspy for Linux: https://github.com/gurgeh/selfspy

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#95

Post by Johnathanb »

amigoingtodie wrote: post #68
michaelmior wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer not to pay my bills automatically because it doesn't take much time and lets me make sure they are correct.

Plus, you can more easily switch banks. Provision and migrate accounts with Ansible?

In the UK the banks take care of switching over your direct debits and standing orders when you switch bank accounts.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#96

Post by ivm »

dsenkus wrote: post #51

Thanks for great article, I found some good ideas how to optimise my workflow. I think everyone should spend some time adopting these techniques, instead of relying on "autopilot" mode. Here's my mindmap of this article if anyone is interested: https://imgur.com/a/RnRgV

This is awesome, thanks! I will definitely make some mindmaps for our future articles.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#97

Post by fidraj »

One of my coworkers is doing this: wake up early at about 6am, work till 4pm = 9 hours with a lunch break and commute.

After he comes back home, he spends time with his gf watching tv but still coding for another 2 hours at least.

This way he can work 220 hours a month not counting his side projects he works on weekends/free time.

He is easily pulling about 250-260 hours a month.

Yes, he's a workaholic.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#98

Post by Asdfbla »

empath75 wrote: post #73

>Such news don't actually inform us but spread sensationalism, negative emotions, and outright lies to capture attention. What do you gain from following the latest political crisis or some scandal? You can't do anything meaningful about these events. They only depress you and occupy space in your mind. It's better to direct your focus toward things that we can actually impact and improve. This is a depressing point…

That statement doesn't preclude some political activity if you consider it to be something that you can actually "impact and improve", in the author's words. Of course I can only speculate about the author's original intent, but I think I agree insofar that most daily news out there is irrelevant for most individuals. Even if you have a political cause you are interested in, you have limited time and energy, so it might be better to just stay informed in those areas that concern you and ignore the rest of the daily news.

You can't fix the world as an individual, so it's pointless to concern yourself with things you can't impact. Of course that still means that everyone should probably find a little thing where they can try to make a change.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#99

Post by ivm »

zerr wrote: post #2

Interesting. Yet another "Mac" time tracker and todo management app. Do all these apps make some ramen income (at least)? An article on this would've been more useful ;)

> Do all these apps make some ramen income (at least)?

Yes, but 3-4 times less than I can earn by just freelancing. But it's mostly a visibility problem — time tracking keywords are too competitive.

I wouldn't recommend developing Mac-only apps because they are too hard to promote. Press is not interested in reviewing software for 15-20% of their readers. Even Apple-centered press is more about iPhones nowadays.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#100

Post by smelterdemon »

codeulike wrote: post #93
nurettin wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I miss the times developers would optimize their lives without all the online rants and the sensitive encouraging, nodding and enabling of said behavior. That said, don't you have banks which automatically pay your bills (electricity/gas/water)? Which country are you from?

I think 'paying bills' here is shorthand for the general administrative burden of being alive, which seems to have grown substantially in recent decades.

In what ways has it grown? It seems easier than ever to track and automate personal finance.
Post reply on HN