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How I got to 200 productive hours a month

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Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#241

Post by nstaoe983n »

walshemj wrote: post #130
ensignavenger wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bank doesn't know how much my bill is going to be every month, so I have to put the amount in. Fortunately, I use simple.com and paying a bill with their mobile app takes a couple of seconds (once I have entered the companies info). Some companies have decent recurring billing via ACH, and I use that on most of my credit cards (I still check the statements each month), but my electric, water, sewer, and gas compan…

You don't have direct debits for this sort of thing ie bill is paid automatically?

I can't speak for others, but there's no way in hell I'm giving any company direct debit abilities to my bank account. Given the fuck-ups we see here daily by banks and businesses, I think anyone who does that is playing with fire. But if it works for you, go for it! I'll spend the 5 minutes every other week to type in the amount needed on my bank's website to send whoever an electronic payment rather than letting them pull money from my account. It's worth the time to me.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#242

Post by 33W »

BatFastard wrote: post #219
II2II wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A well run company will always have more work for each employee than is possible for them to complete. That depends. It may do wonders for efficiency, yet there are a number of ways it can breakdown: failing to complete regulatory or contractual requirements is a big one, since they rarely allow for flexibility. Clients may not receive the service they expect, so the organisation's reputation will be damaged. In ca…

No, there should ALWAYS be more work. If there is not more work, then as soon as work runs out the team is idle. So you have to plan ahead.

I think that there should always be more work, but there should not always be more critical work. This minimizes idleness while allowing non-critical tasks to be pushed aside when handling emergencies.

For example, my team has a backlog of work to be done. There are certain things that cannot slip. There are plenty of things that could be pushed out to handle a production outage, or a shiny object, etc.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#243

Post by brookside »

falcolas wrote: post #204
loco5niner wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ADHD is very much a cause whose impact goes far beyond just procrastrination. It causes people to Just because ADHD causes other problems doesn't mean that ADHD itself comes out of nowhere. The previous post has a valid point that ADHD itself is a symptom of something else and that drugs aren't necessarily the best way to reduce/eliminate ADHD at the source.

The currently understood source of ADHD is a mis-wiring of the brain. Currently we don't know of a better way than meds to alleviate such a condition. CBT helps to a degree, CBT + meds works much better for more severe cases.

> The currently understood source of ADHD is a mis-wiring of the brain.

Is that actually understood, though? We had the heavily promoted social consensus for a long while that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, which is now seen as a somewhat disproven theory that never had much evidence.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#244

Post by Symbiote »

ensignavenger wrote: post #222
walshemj wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have direct debits for this sort of thing ie bill is paid automatically?

YOu have to setup the ACH/Direct Debit with each utility here, you can't just set it up at the bank. And the utilities have crappy websites/processes for doing so- if they allow you to do it at all. They have a monopoly, so why bother with improving customer service?

They should bother because it saves administration, and they get the money at the expected time.

Most utilities companies in the UK are private and must compete, but even the few exceptions encourage people to pay using direct debit.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#245

Post by Symbiote »

nstaoe983n wrote: post #241
walshemj wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have direct debits for this sort of thing ie bill is paid automatically?

I can't speak for others, but there's no way in hell I'm giving any company direct debit abilities to my bank account. Given the fuck-ups we see here daily by banks and businesses, I think anyone who does that is playing with fire. But if it works for you, go for it! I'll spend the 5 minutes every other week to type in the amount needed on my bank's website to send whoever an electronic payment rather than letting th…

In the UK, and I think many other European countries, the direct debit system is very heavily slanted in favour of the customer.

Here[1] is the UK Direct Debit Guarantee. It's extremely easy for the customer to reverse a transaction, and (advising the merchant) "Given the limited scope for appeals [against counterclaims] within the Direct Debit scheme, most disputes happen outside of it".

https://gocardless.com/direct-debit/guarantee/

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#246

Post by graeme »

shoover wrote: post #121

I read this as a single article distillation of the principles in Deep Work by Cal Newport, very well done. It's been a while since I read Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt, but the article feels familiar with that, as well (I recall a helpful section on meditation). The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is another great resource. Newport's sources showed that most people are capable of about four hours of…

You can get one for $60-$100 on amazon. I'd say it's worth it. What gets measured gets managed. If you can deduct such expenses, even better. And the effects on cognitive function of high co2 are stark, according to the linked article.

These two had good reviews on amazon. Same company, one keeps a log, one just displays current. I ordered the one with a log.

https://www.amazon.com/Autopilot-Desktop-Monitor-Data-Logger...

https://www.amazon.com/Autopilot-APCEM-Desktop-CO2-Monitor/d...

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#247

Post by graeme »

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

Nice mind map. Is there a larger version? It is very blurry when viewed on my ipad.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#248

Post by graeme »

emodendroket wrote: post #232
imhoguy wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both busy earning? Hire a housekeeper.

OK, it's one example. Nobody is going to brush my teeth for me, and I'm not sure why this should be the first answer rather than not working an insane amount of hours.

The personal part is actually quite small. I spent a month working in a country where the host family did all my cleaning and cooking. All I had to do was eat, clean myself, and exercise. I felt I had a vast wealth of time. I was extremely productive yet had more leisure than normal.

A stay at home spouse or a full time housekeeper is a vast multiplier. However, the former is rare/undesirable, and the latter costs a lot of money + introduces management complexity.

Still, it's worth thinking cleanly about which part of chores actually require personal effort.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#249

Post by emodendroket »

graeme wrote: post #248
emodendroket wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, it's one example. Nobody is going to brush my teeth for me, and I'm not sure why this should be the first answer rather than not working an insane amount of hours.

The personal part is actually quite small. I spent a month working in a country where the host family did all my cleaning and cooking. All I had to do was eat, clean myself, and exercise. I felt I had a vast wealth of time. I was extremely productive yet had more leisure than normal. A stay at home spouse or a full time housekeeper is a vast multiplier. However, the former is rare/undesirable, and the latter costs a…

I mean, sure, I think I am probably going to hire someone to cut grass next year because I hate doing it. But still. If I'm going to optimize my time it's so I can spend more time doing things I like to do or spending time with my wife, not so I can work more.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#250

Post by flyinglizard »

wolco wrote: post #164
flyinglizard wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm thankful for working at a position where I enjoy putting in hours above and beyond what's required by contract. I'd advise anyone to prioritize having a work they thoroughly enjoy well ahead of a work that requires less hours. When you enjoy something, it makes sense to want to be doing that something for a prolonged duration.

It sounds like you feel a sense of ownership around the work you do. That is great but I hope you understand that you do not own the code. You are a contractor and have no stake in the future success of the project. All of the extra free hours you are spending could be used to build your own product that you would have a stake in.

I've built my own product, now building someone else's product at a scale that was inaccessible to me in my previous adventures. I've had lots of back and forth with myself on that as it's the first time I hold a corporate position in 10 years and I found the idea of working for someone else very unlike myself.

Eventually I understood I just like building stuff, the monetary compensation is just a bonus. If you let me build big enough stuff and pay me enough so that money is inconsequential, I'll be happy, at least temporarily; the end game is taking a startup "all the way", but what I'm doing now is an indispensable lesson in large scale stuff.

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