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Ways to manage your time better

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Re: Ways to manage your time better

#21

Post by kbutler »

cjf4 wrote: post #12
crispyambulance wrote: post #8

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.

weight...

Though maybe "wait" is appropriate for a thread on time management?

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#22

Post by [deleted] »

smackay wrote: post #9

The biggest time saver for scientists would be a funding process that does not involved writing voluminous proposals with key metrics and other make work information that keeps bureaucrats happily well-fed and well-paid. I'm not saying there is no need for some way of making sure the money is spent effectively but the grant proposal process is largely a sham and a charade that needs radical overhaul.

[deleted]

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#23

Post by hartator »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

> 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…

That’s awesome. Just signed up.

Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. Like I keep refreshing my emails for no real reasons. But if I block myself to this feed, I will just switch to another feed. Eg HN or Reddit.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#24

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

hartator wrote: post #23
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

> 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…

That’s awesome. Just signed up. Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. Like I keep refreshing my emails for no real reasons. But if I block myself to this feed, I will just switch to another feed. Eg HN or Reddit.

Thank you! Please keep in touch and let me know what you think. I've found that using Pony is both strangely underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time... would love to hear other people's experiences.

> Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue.

That's exactly why I built Pony: to remove the self control factor. If the whole point of technology is to make us better, than why should we have to improve ourself (ie. improve our discipline, self control) just to use technology?

> But if I block myself to this feed, I will just switch to another feed. Eg HN or Reddit.

That's something I've experienced myself. For that I sometimes edit my hosts file to block services, or DNS at the router level. Of course that's kind of ridiculous...

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#25

Post by asark »

bunderbunder wrote: post #16
cjf4 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The good ones, in an organization with any sense at all, keep you from having to answer "when will it be done" and "why isn't it done yet" questions from non-team-members, which is wonderful. Those questions will come up, and if ICs are answering them to anyone outside their own team then your (the general "your") process likely sucks and is slowing everything down and making everyone miserable.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#26

Post by asark »

m_ke wrote: post #14
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #5

> 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.

RSS-to-email once a week, maybe with some other kind of filter (quality, popularity, keywords) in the middle for sites with too much noise (HN qualifies, lots of stories in a week). I think there are a couple sites that do that for HN, but aggregating everything would probably be a DIY job.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#27

Post by [deleted] »

asark wrote: post #26
m_ke wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

RSS-to-email once a week, maybe with some other kind of filter (quality, popularity, keywords) in the middle for sites with too much noise (HN qualifies, lots of stories in a week). I think there are a couple sites that do that for HN, but aggregating everything would probably be a DIY job.

[deleted]

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#28

Post by hartator »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #24
hartator wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s awesome. Just signed up. Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. Like I keep refreshing my emails for no real reasons. But if I block myself to this feed, I will just switch to another feed. Eg HN or Reddit.

Thank you! Please keep in touch and let me know what you think. I've found that using Pony is both strangely underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time... would love to hear other people's experiences. > Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. That's exactly why I built Pony: to remove the self control factor. If the whole point of technology is to make us better, th…

That’s a good point. Not sure if I have an answer. The thing is there is a real - small but real - value of checking your emails or refreshing your feeds every 1h. Like if there is some kind of urgency or you’ll be missing out on something important. The added stress is not worth it though and it’s where I join you.

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#29

Post by [deleted] »

hartator wrote: post #28
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Please keep in touch and let me know what you think. I've found that using Pony is both strangely underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time... would love to hear other people's experiences. > Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. That's exactly why I built Pony: to remove the self control factor. If the whole point of technology is to make us better, th…

That’s a good point. Not sure if I have an answer. The thing is there is a real - small but real - value of checking your emails or refreshing your feeds every 1h. Like if there is some kind of urgency or you’ll be missing out on something important. The added stress is not worth it though and it’s where I join you.

[deleted]

Re: Ways to manage your time better

#30

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

hartator wrote: post #28
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! Please keep in touch and let me know what you think. I've found that using Pony is both strangely underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time... would love to hear other people's experiences. > Wonder if the answer should be technical. It feels like more a self controlled issue. That's exactly why I built Pony: to remove the self control factor. If the whole point of technology is to make us better, th…

That’s a good point. Not sure if I have an answer. The thing is there is a real - small but real - value of checking your emails or refreshing your feeds every 1h. Like if there is some kind of urgency or you’ll be missing out on something important. The added stress is not worth it though and it’s where I join you.

Yeah, I agree. I am starting with one delivery per day because that's simple and easy to communicate. But really I'd like to gather feedback and add delivery options. A delivery style I would enjoy, for example, is actually linking the time to sunrise/midday/sunset based on user location. Also, I think it would be nice to let users choose one or more of the delivery times, instead of just one. And once an hour, like you said, might work well for people.
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