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Ways to manage your time better

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Re: Ways to manage your time better

#12

I'll never forget the time shortly after switching into industry from a purely laboratory workplace, that I had my first encounter with a professional project manager. I got so pissed off that some un-introduced remote person on a conference call was try to tease out what all my "tasks" where, when they would be done and in what order (as well as when everyone else's would be done). Thus began my career-long love/hat…

Depends on the quality and style of the PM, but a good one is worth their wait in gold. By coordinating the meetings, managing the dates, and keeping everyone accountable, it takes those burdens off other team members, letting them focus on the work.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#14

> Take a long, hard look at your relationship with e-mail and social media. Although they are vital to everyday communication, they can claim much more attention than they deserve. Consider shutting them off completely as you work on a task that requires your full attention. For me this strikes at the heart of a fundamental problem: on one hand we all want to maximize our attention span. On the other hand, the task o…

I really want a client like that for HN, subreddits and my twitter feed, ideally with a feedback mechanism that can be used to rank the content based on my interests and filter out all of the other crap.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#15
post #3

Saved you a click >Make a plan >Beware of distractions >Learn to say ‘no’ >Give yourself a break >Don’t try to chase every great idea >A plan can help in a crisis

Yes, but there is more helpful detail in the article. Specifically taking five minutes each morning to block out my calendar for specific tasks is something that has greatly improved my working days

What I do for myself is I have a hard computer logoff time (11 PM), but I can work with paper / read books, so I work on the paper planner after that.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#16
post #12

I'll never forget the time shortly after switching into industry from a purely laboratory workplace, that I had my first encounter with a professional project manager. I got so pissed off that some un-introduced remote person on a conference call was try to tease out what all my "tasks" where, when they would be done and in what order (as well as when everyone else's would be done). Thus began my career-long love/hat…

Depends on the quality and style of the PM, but a good one is worth their wait in gold. By coordinating the meetings, managing the dates, and keeping everyone accountable, it takes those burdens off other team members, letting them focus on the work.

I hate to say it, but the litmus tests seems to be, "Do they have a PMP?"

If the answer is yes, run away fast, you're in danger of being crushed under a mountain of paperwork.

If the answer is no, I guess the answer isn't so clear cut, but I have definitely worked with ones who are worth more than their weight in gold.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#17
post #11

step 1: read articles on how to manage your time better on Hacker News

step 0.5: research which sites have the best articles on how to manage your time, evaluate the history of Hacker News, search Quora for opposing opinions on its voting model to avoid bias, skip work, write a language-independent pattern analysis framework to determine whether /pol/ is leaking into your site, lose your job, put your framework up on Github and spam HN for advice, get tons of comments on how great your idea is, create a Patreon so you can eat, and by the end of the month determine that the best option for articles on how to manage your time is Hacker News.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#18
post #12

I'll never forget the time shortly after switching into industry from a purely laboratory workplace, that I had my first encounter with a professional project manager. I got so pissed off that some un-introduced remote person on a conference call was try to tease out what all my "tasks" where, when they would be done and in what order (as well as when everyone else's would be done). Thus began my career-long love/hat…

Depends on the quality and style of the PM, but a good one is worth their wait in gold. By coordinating the meetings, managing the dates, and keeping everyone accountable, it takes those burdens off other team members, letting them focus on the work.

Yeah, I was being somewhat facetious. There certainly is a difference in the way that scientists and people in industry work. I think that folks that have crossed over from Science to industry experience a level of culture shock regarding the way work is done.

They can both learn from each other, but having been in industry for a while, I feel like in too many places there's a soul crushing amount of project-management busy work. And I've heard my friends in academia complain about a lack of "project management" leading to a nightmarish amount of loose-ends and things never actually being "finished".

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#19
post #14

> Take a long, hard look at your relationship with e-mail and social media. Although they are vital to everyday communication, they can claim much more attention than they deserve. Consider shutting them off completely as you work on a task that requires your full attention. For me this strikes at the heart of a fundamental problem: on one hand we all want to maximize our attention span. On the other hand, the task o…

I really want a client like that for HN, subreddits and my twitter feed, ideally with a feedback mechanism that can be used to rank the content based on my interests and filter out all of the other crap.

Me too. It seems like instantaneity does not actually, by default improve everything. Instantaneity was one of the biggest, most novel things about the Internet/digital communication so it was adopted by default in all applications. But now I think it must be rethought.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#20
In university I studied engineering/science, but when I transitioned into the working world, I transitioned into project management. To me this article is somewhat click-bait promising to "just do these # of things..."

I guess it provides helpful tips or a more simplistic way to begin to manage your time better if that is something you are struggling with and feel overwhelmed with how to even start to improve it. But I strongly feel the thing that makes me a great project manager is that you know how much rigor is appropriate for a given project so you know just how much to spend time planning and how much you need to focus on execution.

And "Beware of Distractions" is a huge understatement. I think this area deserved a little more because, IMO, you shouldn't just be aware, you need to actively manage this. You need to set specific time aside to look at your email. You need to put your phone down and not surf the web at random times. You need to be deliberate with your time, especially if you have a lot to get done. This is where having a list of "tasks" or things you want to accomplish in a specified amount of time can be helpful, because you can prioritize getting through that before you go to your emails, texts, etc.

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