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

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

#121

Post by guessmyname »

saberience wrote: post #93
guessmyname wrote: post #51

Great article. I have been doing the same for the last two years or so. I use Qbserve [1], a native (privacy-focused) time tracker for macOS developed by a couple living in Chile. The application keeps all the information on my computer in an SQLite database, making it very easy to analyze. I regularly reference it during my quarterly performance reviews to justify ups-and-downs in my results. I will use this article…

This comment depresses me so much. You track your own time obsessively and use it as a reference in performance reviews? This sounds like a dystopian hell out of Big Brother.

> This comment depresses me so much. You track your own time obsessively and use it as a reference in performance reviews?

To each their own.

I genuinely find the data I track useful to reflect on what I spend my time on and whatnot, especially when I want to answer questions like: Did I get enough time off from work —and programming, in general— last quarter? Did I use the X program enough to justify a license renewal? How much time did I spend on meetings versus actual programming? Did I get enough sleep last week? Am I having lunch at regular times? How much time am I spending on professional growth? Etc.

And for the sake of clarification, I started tracking my own time long before I got my current job, so clearly, I do not do it specifically for my performance reviews. I simply happen to find the data analysis useful to support some things I say, and also, as some people say “the more data you have, the more accurate the prediction”.

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

#122

Post by tra3 »

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?

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

#123

Post by hombre_fatal »

reaperducer wrote: post #99
Draiken wrote: post #49

I am always baffled how sad this extreme focus into productivity makes me. If you discovered you were going to die in a year, would you continue to spend all your time being "productive"? I figure almost everyone would shift all their focus on doing things that "really matter". Sadly I believe the world managed to make us feel guilty when we're not doing something that makes someone else rich (majority of jobs). I'm…

I'm with you. If it took one minute to log each of the previous 14, I'd rather have 24 hours of my life back. It's the same with social media. Once I realized that spending two hours a day on social media meant I was giving up 30 days of my life each year for... what? So someone in SV can buy a second boat, or a third house? I limit my social media to under 15 minutes a day now (including HN.) If the social ad tech c…

The only thing you can think of doing once you were to ween yourself from your vices (like OP and social media) is work? Even worse, making someone else rich?

You obviously don’t think that, so I don’t get why you and grandparent are projecting that onto OP.

I want to minimize my wasted time like mindless Redditing so that I can maximize my time spent doing things that fulfill me. It’s just a great tragedy that it’s so much easier to waste time in unfulfilling ways like spending a day in a heroin nod than it is to do the things that maximize my life.

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

#124

Post by 5tefan »

1.76 days idle? I'd call that impossible. How can you be busy the whole waking time? Sounds like burn out is creeping in.

Idle is my most important state of mind. Daydreaming. Suddenly some ideas pop into my mind. It is almost Zen like. Without being idle no focussed work. It fuels my work.

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

#125

Post by danesparza »

Draiken wrote: post #49

I am always baffled how sad this extreme focus into productivity makes me. If you discovered you were going to die in a year, would you continue to spend all your time being "productive"? I figure almost everyone would shift all their focus on doing things that "really matter". Sadly I believe the world managed to make us feel guilty when we're not doing something that makes someone else rich (majority of jobs). I'm…

Read the article.

The article has a completely different tone than what you are assuming from the headline.

~~~

    4 points per hour for the most productive activities (focused work towards uni & self-improvement and exercising)
    3 points for reading books
    2 points for reading blogs, listening to podcasts, lower intensity work etc
    0 points for things that are important but I do them anyway (socialising, sleep etc)
    -4 points for procrastination
~~~~

No mention of making someone else money. But a mention of being a procrastinator with life.

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

#126

Post by oblio »

dtran wrote: post #120
Draiken wrote: post #49

I am always baffled how sad this extreme focus into productivity makes me. If you discovered you were going to die in a year, would you continue to spend all your time being "productive"? I figure almost everyone would shift all their focus on doing things that "really matter". Sadly I believe the world managed to make us feel guilty when we're not doing something that makes someone else rich (majority of jobs). I'm…

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 social interactions with family and close friends.

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

#127

Post by const_HNBurner »

xkeysc0re wrote: post #36

I am really really grateful I am not this kind of person. Not everything needs to be quantified and analyzed. I'm glad OP had fun with the exercise but this drive to amass data will only lead to human suffering and oppression down the line

I get this impulse, but I think OPs experiment really does have some redeeming qualities. While I certainly wouldn’t want to bean-count my time forever, I imagine that performing this exercise for some period of time would make one more thoughtful & intentional about how one spends their time. Sometimes you need the data to see that you’re spending way more time than you’d desire on social media, or not enough time with your friends, etc. I equate it to counting calories while dieting; doing it forever leads to horrible quality of life (imo), doing it for a month or two teaches you how much food you actually need and makes you more mindful about your consumption.

EDIT: Also, the point of this sort of exercise isn’t merely to ‘become more productive’ - it’s to gather data to help achieve whatever outcome you find valuable in your life. Maybe it’s studying more for his exams (certainly different than working more at your 9 to 5 bigco job fwiw), maybe it’s spending more quality time with family, etc. The point is collecting this sort of data doesn’t necessarily lead solely to optimizing your output under capitalism, it can be a tool for better living. I think.

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

#128

Post by GuB-42 »

5tefan wrote: post #124

1.76 days idle? I'd call that impossible. How can you be busy the whole waking time? Sounds like burn out is creeping in. Idle is my most important state of mind. Daydreaming. Suddenly some ideas pop into my mind. It is almost Zen like. Without being idle no focussed work. It fuels my work.

Idle in that context is meant for things like waiting in line. There is another category for what you describe: chilling (3.49 days), plus there is certainly idle time folded into other activities, like travelling.

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

#130

Post by tra3 »

haberman wrote: post #8

For a long time I've wanted to create an Android/iOS app called "Sample Me" or something similar, for collecting exactly this kind of data about yourself. You design a survey with whatever data you want to collect, then the app gives you a notification at whatever interval you configure. A couple taps and you have a sample point about your life, which gets appended to a Google Sheet or similar, and maybe some in-app…

There's Reporter App [0] on app store. It was designed for a very similar purpose.

0: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reporter-app/id779697486

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