I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year • Hacker News Board

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#131

Post by oblio » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:15 PM UTC

CarelessExpert wrote: post #102

sunir wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have a very narrow understanding of what "productive" means. You can produce or make progress towards anything that you value. Making other people money is just one avenue. If you had a year to live, you would definitely want to be productive. There's a lot that needs to get done to wrap up your one single life well, so that your time on earth wasn't lost. Just getting your will and testament done, talkin…

> If you had a year to live, you would definitely want to be productive. No, I'd want to be happy. It's the uniquely American Calvinist view that conflates these things.

Yeah, agreed. I don't think I know any person that's written their will, for example.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#132

Post by oblio » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:21 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #14

whatshisface wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't paying someone else to raise your children... not raising children? It's like comparing a bank with actual gold in a vault and many expensive physical security measures with someone who owns a futures contract with no delivery.

I mean, yes and no I suppose. Is sending your own kids to school not educating your children? They still end up educated. And with a nanny, they still end up "raised".

School isn't like a nanny, though.

I'm quite sure that psychology studies show that children need to bond with their parents (biological or adoptive). I imagine there's a fine line with that outsourcing and it's hard to draw, as a thought experiment I'd guess if they spend 80% of the time with their nanny, they're not going to bond as well with their parents.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#133

Post by emteycz » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #126

dtran wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "being productive" vs. "time well spent" and "doing things that really matter" is a false dichotomy. It doesn't have to be this way. I know that's a statement from a position of privilege— not every has a job where they can feel like they are in a flow state while working, but do you have any side projects or hobbies where you feel both productive and feel like it's time well spent? Coming to this pretty late…

Your viewpoint still dismisses one of the best categories of "time wasting"/"things that really matter": time spent socializing with friends and family. There have been a few studies that were pointing out people in Southern Italy live very long and happy lives (I think happiness was self-reported), despite living in relative poverty compared to developed countries. Sun + healthy diets + lots and lots of intense soci…

Personally I consider time with friends and family productive time and most definitely time well spent, but surely you have noticed that even these moments can stretch out into unproductivity - maybe some members of the family or friend group want to go home and spend their time on their own things, so a little planning is useful even for family/friends/relaxation.

Productive usage of my time means I am not doing simple things the hard way, that I manage my attention, and that I spend time on things that I care about, not that I stop caring about my family.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#134

Post by kingaillas » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:26 PM UTC

Fun and interesting read!

I'm doing a vastly scaled down time logging for 2021 - I want to understand how I use my time at home after work. I'm using a time tracker app, sometimes in conjunction with a pomodoro timer (TimeCube Plus, red model with 5/10/20/25 min sides).

Since I'm only tracking my time at home, the categories are: gaming, tv/movies, music instrument, foreign language, exercise (that I can do indoors, such as weight training or flexibility: yoga, stretching), computer (email, my time right now on HN, general web surfing... anything not work related), and reading.

I'm not trying to account for house cleaning, sleeping, any outdoor activity, cooking, working, etc. I just want to get a better idea of how I spend my "free" time at home, and maybe make some changes after gathering at least 3 months of data.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#135

Post by oblio » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

emteycz wrote: post #133

oblio wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your viewpoint still dismisses one of the best categories of "time wasting"/"things that really matter": time spent socializing with friends and family. There have been a few studies that were pointing out people in Southern Italy live very long and happy lives (I think happiness was self-reported), despite living in relative poverty compared to developed countries. Sun + healthy diets + lots and lots of intense soci…

Personally I consider time with friends and family productive time and most definitely time well spent, but surely you have noticed that even these moments can stretch out into unproductivity - maybe some members of the family or friend group want to go home and spend their time on their own things, so a little planning is useful even for family/friends/relaxation. Productive usage of my time means I am not doing sim…

That's funny of you to say.

Extending my example from above, American dining habits are: you stay in the restaurant for about as much time as what you need to eat/drink, then you go away (maybe gently nudged by staff to get out if you stop ordering something after 1 hour or so). Italian dining habits are: you go to dinner and you stay there until everyone has discussed about everything they wanted to discuss, no matter how long that takes.

I imagine for someone from the Italian culture your perspective would seem completely alien.

And regarding family members or friend that want to leave, surely everyone is mature enough to just get up and go when they have to. Why do you need to manage that for them?

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#136

Post by emteycz » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #135

emteycz wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I consider time with friends and family productive time and most definitely time well spent, but surely you have noticed that even these moments can stretch out into unproductivity - maybe some members of the family or friend group want to go home and spend their time on their own things, so a little planning is useful even for family/friends/relaxation. Productive usage of my time means I am not doing sim…

That's funny of you to say. Extending my example from above, American dining habits are: you stay in the restaurant for about as much time as what you need to eat/drink, then you go away (maybe gently nudged by staff to get out if you stop ordering something after 1 hour or so). Italian dining habits are: you go to dinner and you stay there until everyone has discussed about everything they wanted to discuss, no matt…

Regarding my family/friends, I was talking about managing myself, my own time, not them - in this particular case I meant that I could predict when I can be home to do my own things, for example.

My perspective never disallowed me from staying at the table for hours until everyone was saturated with friendly banter. I spent many months in Italy, Croatia, Spain, Georgia, Poland and elsewhere doing just that, and I consider it time spent productively - relaxation and socialization is important to me.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#137

Post by jader201 » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

dundercoder wrote: post #111

renewiltord wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Akrasia. I currently am supposed to be doing other things but I am spending it on HN.

akrasia akrasia /əˈkreɪzɪə , əˈkrasɪə / (also acrasia) ▸ noun [mass noun] mainly Philosophy the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgement through weakness of will. – ORIGIN early 19th century : from Greek, from a- ‘without’ + kratos ‘power, strength’. The term is used especially with reference to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

So basically procrastination. Not exactly the same, but the same sentiment.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#138

Post by pmyteh » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:42 PM UTC

tra3 wrote: post #122

pmyteh wrote: post #30

My usual plug for TagTime[0], which handles this in a slightly different (and in my view better) way: it stochastically tracks your time by randomly sampling times to ask you what you're doing right now . Fair in expectation, timeless (no slacking off because you've just filled in the timesheet), accurately captures (on average) the cost of all the short phone calls and context switches. It's by the Beeminder people,…

I tried running it a couple of years ago, no luck. I can't recall what the problem was. Is it actually functional?

It's fully functional, though not straightforward. Needs a bit of setup, and doesn't handle multiple machines particularly well.

That's the perl version I linked. There's a similarly functional android version, I think.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#139

Post by jader201 » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:44 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #126

dtran wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "being productive" vs. "time well spent" and "doing things that really matter" is a false dichotomy. It doesn't have to be this way. I know that's a statement from a position of privilege— not every has a job where they can feel like they are in a flow state while working, but do you have any side projects or hobbies where you feel both productive and feel like it's time well spent? Coming to this pretty late…

Your viewpoint still dismisses one of the best categories of "time wasting"/"things that really matter": time spent socializing with friends and family. There have been a few studies that were pointing out people in Southern Italy live very long and happy lives (I think happiness was self-reported), despite living in relative poverty compared to developed countries. Sun + healthy diets + lots and lots of intense soci…

> I think happiness was self-reported

Isn’t that implied? How else can you measure happiness aside from someone telling you they’re happy?

Somewhat of a genuine question — curious if studies/surveys use some other way to measure happiness.

Re: I logged my activities at 15-minute intervals for the whole year

#140

Post by jader201 » Sun, Jan 03, 2021, 9:50 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #126

dtran wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "being productive" vs. "time well spent" and "doing things that really matter" is a false dichotomy. It doesn't have to be this way. I know that's a statement from a position of privilege— not every has a job where they can feel like they are in a flow state while working, but do you have any side projects or hobbies where you feel both productive and feel like it's time well spent? Coming to this pretty late…

Your viewpoint still dismisses one of the best categories of "time wasting"/"things that really matter": time spent socializing with friends and family. There have been a few studies that were pointing out people in Southern Italy live very long and happy lives (I think happiness was self-reported), despite living in relative poverty compared to developed countries. Sun + healthy diets + lots and lots of intense soci…

> + lots and lots of intense social interactions with family and close friends.

As an introvert, I find “lots and lots of intense social interactions” draining (by definition).

Granted, I do enjoy hanging out with friends and family, but often feel drained a bit afterwards.

Of course, I’m not advocating being a loner. I wouldn’t like that either.

My main point is, I wonder if extroverts — or those that are energized from intense social interactions — are more destined to be happy vs. introverts.