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Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

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Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#51

Post by MRD85 »

karmakaze wrote: post #5
MRD85 wrote: post #2

Some of the points in this article I disagree with but others I like. Compared to my past self I am "super productive". I have a full-time career, a single parent to two young kids (approx 70% of the time I'm not at work I'm parenting) and I study nearly full time (3 units per semester) with a perfect GPA. I somehow still have time for "wasting", like commenting on online discussion boards, going on dates, etc. * Kee…

Which points do you most disagree with and what's your alternative?

Not keeping a schedule, i.e. ""I'm not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I can't commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if I'm available, I'll meet with you."".

I don't know too many people who would be happy about being told you value their time so much. I keep a tight schedule and I plan around it instead. I also don't feel the need for an index card each night. I already have my lists of jobs that I need to get done and some of those jobs are due tomorrow.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#52

Post by fourier_mode »

I mean there are so many tips for being productive, book X says maintain a schedule pre-planned for 2 weeks, book Y says do not maintain a schedule at all. Book X says do a bit of everything daily, book Y says devote a day for a single task. Hmph..

The only thing that works is somehow doing getting work done, rest is irrelevant. And that's why I don't see a point on self-help book in general.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#53

Post by tuxxy »

adrianmsmith wrote: post #43
tuxxy wrote: post #26

> When someone emails or calls to say, "Let's meet on Tuesday at 3", the appropriate response is: "I'm not keeping a schedule for 2007, so I can't commit to that, but give me a call on Tuesday at 2:45 and if I'm available, I'll meet with you." Is it just me, or does this come off as exceptionally arrogant? It's literally just telling people to plan their lives around yours. It just seems like time spent with this ind…

"It's literally just telling people to plan their lives around yours", I agree, but on the other hand why should people have the right to tell you to plan your life around theirs, isn't that arrogant of them? Regarding this, and also not answering the phone, and turning off email, it depends on what sort of job you have. For me this is all about: my best work comes from when I'm in the flow. So I'll do anything to av…

The examples you have given aren't really a proper equivalent to what is being described in this article here.

Scheduling isn't meant to be some Randian, individualistic practice. It's a collaborative effort between people that should say something of the effect, "My time is valuable, as is yours. You seem to be interested in something I'm doing and I'm interested in telling you about it. Let's find a time that's agreeable to both of us where we are both unencumbered and can freely associate."

If you're not interested in meeting, then you have options: 1) Ghosting (controversial, but some requests deserve this response), or 2) Refusing to meet.

Instead this reads as, "I value my time far more than anyone else I associate with. If I so happen to be available, then I'll reward you with the charity of my time."

One of these is professional and makes other people you associate with feel valued, the other makes you look like an arrogant ass.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#54

Post by ticmasta »

>> work on whatever is most important or most interesting,

how often are these two the same thing? Which are you supposed to do when you've got all this open-ended, distraction free time?

And the whole "no schedule" thing comes off as cherry-picking data and situations. Even when Arnold was making blockbuster movies do you think they just filmed whenever he showed up, keeping an entire crew on standby?

Did you notice how all of his examples are individual activities? that's great, but it's tough to accomplish meaningful, revolutionary work without collaboration. Schedules are super-useful (and I'd argue required) for short/mid-term planning and prioritization across teams where everyone is important.

The approach here is for when there is huge asymmetry between parties - like an emergency room and patients. You show up with everyone else, then they triage (hopefully by importance, not interest) and process. Guess what? even the specialist still have schedules so they can work within a broader system.

The approach here sounds like the "schedule" of a lot of affluent retired people.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#55

Post by ticmasta »

MRD85 wrote: post #44
all2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider: - 8 hours of work (a generous estimate). - 4 to 6 hours of parenting (between children's wake time in the morning and the evening). - Commute time? Is she driving? Public transit? Other? We'll neglect this. - 3 hours on study (an hour per day per semester hour). With a two hour commute, that's a 19 hour day. Without, 17 hours. That leaves no room for other daily necessities, though those could be built into…

First, I'm a father (i.e. "he"). It's heavily about time management. On Monday and Tuesday nights I don't have my children. So Monday I wake at 4am, do 3 hours of uni, spend 30 minutes getting ready for work and have 30 minutes to travel to work. I work 8 hours but I have an hour for lunch (which I study in), getting home takes half an hour. That leaves me about an hour of free time and 3 more hours of study. 7.5 hou…

When do you exercise, grocery shop, meet teams at school, get sick, enjoy your hobbies, read for fun, catch up with friends or other parents, drive your kids to activities, help with homework and projects... ?

I'm glad this works for you, but for me (and I imagine many) a hyper "productive" schedule and life seems to be missing the simple joy of living and the flexibility of unscheduled opportunities. Again, if it works that is great but for many people the time management approach is not viable.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#56

Post by ticmasta »

asark wrote: post #39
sigi45 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is still a weekend with two full days.

Parenting time tends to take over most of the hours that would have been work-time, on weekends. At least until your kids are old enough that they don't want anything to do with you anymore (or so I hear). With kids it's usually possible to do something either productive or fun alongside the whole kid-taking-care-of thing. It's just very hard to do anything you like that is productive or fun. You gotta roll with the…

This is very true in my experience. I covet and zealously guard the hours between 8pm and my bedtime and/or ~6am and when the kids wake up. It is very hard to do deep intellectual work when you have kids around, but easy to get more rote tasks completed.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#57

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

adrianmsmith wrote: post #42
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. That actually made me mad. I took that time off to talk to you, so you better be there. I may have even spent time preparing to talk to you, so not only have you canceled and thrown out my day, you've wasted my time. >Or, if it's important, say, "You know what, let's meet right now." This would become the messaging for every meeting, at which point you've now limited all issues to being category 1 issues and ca…

In this case the person would communicate "I am not reserving time on a calendar this year", so you'd know that you needn't reserve time or prepare for the meeting, as the person has not agreed to it.

Ah, so you wouldn't try to hold a meeting, and would have to just accept that working with them means that you can never meet, unless they desire to.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#58

Post by MaulingMonkey »

ticmasta wrote: post #54

>> work on whatever is most important or most interesting, how often are these two the same thing? Which are you supposed to do when you've got all this open-ended, distraction free time? And the whole "no schedule" thing comes off as cherry-picking data and situations. Even when Arnold was making blockbuster movies do you think they just filmed whenever he showed up, keeping an entire crew on standby? Did you notice…

We tend to be interested in important things we're competent at. That's how we got competent at them in the first place. Shepherding interest - trying to figure out what's interesting about something important that you haven't tackled yet - can be useful to get competent at new things, of course.

In the emergency room, the pathologist will be interested in the sick kid instead of the guy with the broken leg, even if the latter is "more important". Unless the staff are getting overwhelmed by a mass-casualties incident, that's probably actually the right approach. (I'm no doctor though.)

I like email and other asynchronous/recorded communication for collaboration where possible, in lieu of synchronous meetings interrupting flow. But as you point out, there's a lot of cases where this doesn't work. And even a bunch of lone wolves working on solo projects can benefit from synchronizing lunch with their coworkers for some socialization and facetime. I schedule that. It's flexible and not super rigid, but it's still a schedule.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#59

Post by glitchc »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #37
glitchc wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmmm.. Are you secretly hoping that these powerful people will raise you to their level someday? Give you a just reward for your serfdom?

No, I'm saying if my boss tells me to be at a meeting everyday at 10 and I'm not there for 2 weeks I'm probably going to get fired.

Punctuality is overrated in general, and especially in software. Most meetings are a waste of time because no decision is made in them.

Re: Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity (2007)

#60

Post by MRD85 »

ticmasta wrote: post #55
MRD85 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, I'm a father (i.e. "he"). It's heavily about time management. On Monday and Tuesday nights I don't have my children. So Monday I wake at 4am, do 3 hours of uni, spend 30 minutes getting ready for work and have 30 minutes to travel to work. I work 8 hours but I have an hour for lunch (which I study in), getting home takes half an hour. That leaves me about an hour of free time and 3 more hours of study. 7.5 hou…

When do you exercise, grocery shop, meet teams at school, get sick, enjoy your hobbies, read for fun, catch up with friends or other parents, drive your kids to activities, help with homework and projects... ? I'm glad this works for you, but for me (and I imagine many) a hyper "productive" schedule and life seems to be missing the simple joy of living and the flexibility of unscheduled opportunities. Again, if it wo…

I'm in the military, I have an hour of PT every morning at work as part of my work day. I don't do any study when my kids are awake, they get my full attention. I take them grocery shopping Wednesday afternoon, I do nightly homework, we have activities on weekends and some school nights (i.e. this week is dentist Thursday and school disco night Friday). Most of my friends have children of similar ages so I tend to see them a lot on weekends. I simply spend my free time studying. The average North American watched 5 hours of media per day in 2015, that's 35 hours per week.

I know this life isn't for everyone, for me this is a necessary thing I need to do if I want to change from military to software development. I can't stay in the military forever as a single parent, it's simply not feasible, so I'm doing what I can to set myself up post-Army. It's not the most enjoyable life but it's temporary and it's an investment in my future. I'm not trying to say it's the solution for everyone but if you have goals you want to achieve then it's certainly a possible life for most people.

I think what a lot of people, especially parents, lack is energy. There is a reason I do most of my study in the early morning with a very early nightly bedtime, it's because I have more energy before work than after work. After 7 hours of study and 8 hours of work, I'm exhausted. When my head hits the pillow I'm out. It's probably a good part of the reason why so many people rack up 30+ hours of TV per day, they want to sit on the lounge doing nothing of a night. Having daily PT at work has been a blessing, it's kept a high level of fitness up and I feel this gives me more daily energy.

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