What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day • Hacker News Board

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#21

Post by rm999 » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:12 PM UTC

munin wrote: post #14

> “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.” this probably works when you're the CEO/founder. when you're not, you probably don't want a reputation as "the guy who never checks his email" ...

E-mail isn't a good urgent communication method for anyone regardless of their level. It's common for people to be away from their e-mail or to only check it periodically while they work. I can get 10 e-mails an hour, I don't stop everything I'm doing for each one to see if it's urgent. I expect people to walk over to me or call for anything that needs to be done in less than half a day or so.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#22

Post by ZoFreX » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:22 PM UTC

> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#23

Post by jfoutz » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:29 PM UTC

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #13

> Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” If I don't have time for that, can I try "5 minutes of self help drivel"?

No. It's neither an alliteration nor a rhyme. 5 minutes of jive might have worked a couple of decades ago. Five minutes of fail? not bad, just doesn't sing though.

I think my fave is a half kilosecond of life cheapened.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#24

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:33 PM UTC

jfoutz wrote: post #23

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #13

> Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” If I don't have time for that, can I try "5 minutes of self help drivel"?

No. It's neither an alliteration nor a rhyme. 5 minutes of jive might have worked a couple of decades ago. Five minutes of fail? not bad, just doesn't sing though. I think my fave is a half kilosecond of life cheapened.

If I were Robbins I'd start my day looking in a mirror and laughing myself silly for 10 minutes about how much money I'd made spouting this nonsense.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#25

Post by snowwrestler » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 4:08 PM UTC

ZoFreX wrote: post #22

> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

Totally agree. If today were the last day of my life, I would spend it visiting my favorite spots of local natural beauty with my family. Not working, no matter how fulfilling the job. Even Steve Jobs, who was famously driven, left his career for his friends and family once he knew the end was approaching.

Since today is not my last (I hope!), and I know that I want to give myself and my family a life that is fulfilling for a long time to come, I work to earn money and hopefully make the world a better place.

I think it's good to remember that time is precious, but trying to guide your work habits by the "last day of your life" is not really that helpful IMO.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#26

Post by batista » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:25 PM UTC

ZoFreX wrote: post #22

> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

>Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

Sure, if it was your very very last day and you knew it, you might did something extremely different (e.g, get partying like crazy, spend all your cash on expensive gifts to yourself or go out helping people, etc). That's not the point, you're seeing it too literally.

The gist of the question is "given your days are finite, do you want to continue to do what you are about to do today?".

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#27

Post by ismarc » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

ZoFreX wrote: post #22

> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

I have two tattoos that I got in response to an extremely close friend getting shot and killed by his father-in-law after being threatened by him for quite some time. It was a child custody dispute (long backstory), but the threats were if he didn't drop the lawsuit (? not sure what the word is for the trial to get custody from someone) he would kill my friend and my friend's wife (the murderer's daughter). My friend refused to on the principle that he could never let someone like that have custody of a kid. My friend was killed two days after the judgement giving him and his wife custody.

The tattoos are on my forearms and say "love life" and "embrace death". It's the inevitability of death and living your life in a manner that at the moment of your death, you can look back and be proud of the decisions you made. It doesn't mean live today as if it were your last, it means live it such that if it turned into your last, you have no regrets. And if you have any regrets in your past, fix them.

It quickly became second nature to consider all decisions on this axis, and if the result of a decision made you regret it, fix it quickly.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#28

Post by tjtrapp » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 9:24 PM UTC

munin wrote: post #14

> “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.” this probably works when you're the CEO/founder. when you're not, you probably don't want a reputation as "the guy who never checks his email" ...

i REPLY to my emails twice a day and again at night. im not a founder or c-level exec.

im fine being the guy who's not replying to an email bc im paid to write code, not emails.

Re: What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

#29

Post by junto » Fri, Aug 31, 2012, 8:24 PM UTC

munin wrote: post #14

> “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.” this probably works when you're the CEO/founder. when you're not, you probably don't want a reputation as "the guy who never checks his email" ...

Very true. Instead you can get your email client to check emails less regularly, say once an hour, rather than every ten minutes. I found that quite useful to maintain focus and improve overall productivity.