The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

latch wrote: post #3

I feel pretty confident that the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time, is to dump their TV. Following this is the trifecta of: exercise, eating well, and sleeping enough.

Yup. I'd like to add "not living with people you like". I think having social connectivity is big outside your home, but when you actually live with people you like/are peer pressured to do things within your dwelling, it is really hard to get things done.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#5

Post by Markku » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:12 AM UTC

latch wrote: post #3

I feel pretty confident that the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time, is to dump their TV. Following this is the trifecta of: exercise, eating well, and sleeping enough.

After dumping my TV some years ago, there are still some problems with time. Working, commuting, exercising and eating seem to take about 15 hours in total. Now with 7-8 hours of sleep it leaves approximately 1 hour for hacking or time with other people. A bit too little, no?

Sometimes it might be possible to combine commuting and exercising, but at the moment it's not worth it, since commuting and meditation, as well as commuting and reading, are possible with public transport.

One thing I can recommend is to get a cross-trainer or exercise bike and watch some interesting stuff while exercising. Recently I've been reviewing open courseware, Clojure webcasts etc. Saves time.

I would say working less for money is the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#6

Post by snprbob86 » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:15 AM UTC

InfinityX0 wrote: post #4

latch wrote: post #3

I feel pretty confident that the single biggest thing people can do to be more productive, or to have more time, is to dump their TV. Following this is the trifecta of: exercise, eating well, and sleeping enough.

Yup. I'd like to add "not living with people you like". I think having social connectivity is big outside your home, but when you actually live with people you like/are peer pressured to do things within your dwelling, it is really hard to get things done.

This is the beauty of finding people who you like...to get things done with. When work and play are one and the same, it's like getting two things done at once.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#7

Post by jacobr » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:30 AM UTC

This advice seems to contradict the advice given about increasing your intelligence in a recent post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2562632

Compare this:

  Efficiency is not your friend when it comes to cognitive growth. In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are engaging in. You want to be in a constant state of slight discomfort, struggling to barely achieve whatever it is you are trying to do, as Einstein alluded to in his quote. This keeps your brain on its toes, so to speak.

With:

  The proper role for your pre-frontal cortex is to decide what behavior you want to change, design the ritual you'll undertake, and then get out of the way. "It is a profoundly erroneous truism that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing," the philosopher A.N. Whitehead explained back in 1911. "The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them."

Is there a real contradiction? If yes, is there any point to intelligence if you get less important things done?

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#8

Post by InfinityX0 » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:31 AM UTC

snprbob86 wrote: post #6

InfinityX0 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. I'd like to add "not living with people you like". I think having social connectivity is big outside your home, but when you actually live with people you like/are peer pressured to do things within your dwelling, it is really hard to get things done.

This is the beauty of finding people who you like...to get things done with. When work and play are one and the same, it's like getting two things done at once.

Well played. I guess I am thinking to my singular situation of living with lazy/pressuring roommates in college. But I imagine, also, that finding highly motivated people as in the Hacker News mold is pretty hard to do in general.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#9

Post by JesseAldridge » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:31 AM UTC

Along these lines, I made a little program which yells at me whenever I have too many lines of code without a comment, or too many lines in a single file. I've found it quite helpful not having to actively think about that sort of maintenance stuff.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#10

Post by nickpp » Wed, May 25, 2011, 7:36 AM UTC

jacobr wrote: post #7

This advice seems to contradict the advice given about increasing your intelligence in a recent post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2562632 Compare this: Efficiency is not your friend when it comes to cognitive growth. In order to keep your brain making new connections and keeping them active, you need to keep moving on to another challenging activity as soon as you reach the point of mastery in the one you are…

There is a time for growth and a time for getting things done. A time for learning and a time for executing. A time for training and a time for competing. A time for sharpening tools and a time for using them.

Different strategies for different goals.