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Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

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Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#1

Post by nikivi »

I wrote a piece in my wiki about tools & methods I use to stay focused.

https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing

I found this system to work well for me. It's a Trello board of goals separated by time. Weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly. Where month goals are ideally based off my year goals and week goals are based on month goals. This kind of system gives me structure and focus and I allocate time with events based on the goals I have set. And more importantly it gives long term perspective to the things I do now & the things I want to achieve in life.

The link also goes over some nice tools I use to automate distraction as I have most 'news feed' like websites blocked (front pages of twitter/hn/lobsters/github/..). And only have few times I can actually visit those sites with goals of intentionally viewing them and not out of a habit.

I also try to systemize as much as I can to the point where I create some guidelines ([rules](https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing/rules)) I wish to follow. It helps me keep things in order and I iterate on them as I gain more experience.

I am curious what systems & methods you guys found that work well for you to achieve this goal of being more mindful of your time and the things you truly want to be doing in life?

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#4

Post by nikivi »

chipuni wrote: post #2

I also use a Pomodoro-style system to get myself to concentrate. Right now, I'm using the _Forest_ app on my Android to tell me to concentrate. Good luck!

Yeah it's great. Although I love the automated approach of fixed intervals in which you ideally focus on being productive. With scheduled breaks inbetween. I find this takes the friction out of starting that first pomodoro as you have the system already in place.

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#5

Post by mfatica »

Make discipline an important part of your life. Do not rely on motivation or passion or interest to get things done. Tell yourself what you will do and then do it without question. The more you practice this the better your time management and focus will be - your mind has nowhere to wander for excuses because there are no excuses to be made.

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#6

Post by behnamoh »

Before focusing:

1. Write down the list of things I need to do today AND tomorrow. (If there was a list of things that I like, "list" would be at the top of that list :)

2. Draw "points" beside some items, indicating their urgency.

3. Choose one which better fits my current state of mind (late at night I work on repeating tasks, in the morning I work on creative stuff, in the afternoon, esp. after lunch (!) I mostly think and strategize, so I do programming then).

During the focus:

Either

1. Café noise app (or online web apps)

2. Nature sounds (rain, thunder, ...)

Or

3. Soft music (if what I'm doing requires attention) or chill music (if the task is boring and repetitive, ugh!)

4. keep going as long as I __feel__ doing it. I don't believe in Pomodoro or similar apps.

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#7

Post by tedmiston »

The most useful tools for me are:

1. Pomodoro sessions and timeboxing with a visual timer. I like the Time Timer brand.

2. When I'm working I take notes for personal reference in markdown files of things like bash sessions and code or approaches I tried to a given problem that did / didn't work. Project-wide searches of my notes repo save me a lot of time later.

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#9

Post by dmos62 »

mfatica wrote: post #5

Make discipline an important part of your life. Do not rely on motivation or passion or interest to get things done. Tell yourself what you will do and then do it without question. The more you practice this the better your time management and focus will be - your mind has nowhere to wander for excuses because there are no excuses to be made.

That's good advice, but it must be mentioned that discipline (and attention) are like muscles, you can strengthen them, but you can also strain them to dysfunction. A one-sided approach, where you're always "on" can't work, it needs to be intermittent. You have to pace yourself. In a way, discipline is to be able to do when you're not doing, and to be able to not do, when you're doing. This last point should ring true to those with tendencies to obsess and burnout (like me).

Re: Ask HN: What tools/methods do you use to focus your time well?

#10

Post by juvoni »

I utilize a similar system to "reverse engineer the year".

Breaking down the major outcomes I want for the year into quarters which each having a specific focus and theme. At the end of each quarter I have a 90 day review to reflect on how I'm doing, where I'm heading and if there is any recalibration that needs to happen from changing priorities.

Each month I is essentially 3 "Acts" that play out the goals of that quarter and those in turn have weekly sprints.

With all that said the day is the most important of it all. What I choose to do each day reverberates across the year. This is where deep investment in intentionally building habits and focusing on systems over goals come into play.

I write more about that system here: https://juvoni.com/you-are-a-rocketship/

A great book that talks about that system is The One Thing by Gary Keller

As for time management tools I’ve focus on four categories

- Tracking

- Quotas

- Blocking

- Scheduling & Task Management

I talk about the tools I use here: https://juvoni.com/tools-of-the-time-manager/

Big highlights are:

- Rescuetime

- Freedom

- TickTick

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