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What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

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Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#21

Post by mschuster91 »

andai wrote: post #15
fwipsy wrote: post #7

I concluded years ago that I'm not time-constrained, I'm energy-constrained. I couldn't explain it in terms of neurochemistry, but it's clear empirically that for me at least, willpower or mental focus is a resource which can be depleted, and work takes most of it. To me, the best way to use those 52 hours is not achieving things but caring for myself/restoring willpower, which means some blend of socialization, exer…

I often hear "The first hour is the rudder of the day." In my case, it's "The first hour is the time during which my neurotransmitters are still mostly present." I'd also expand energy to attention, or maybe even "mental space". I notice that I'm able to think much more clearly when I don't fill my mind with random clutter. (i.e. when I make an effort to stay away from my phone for at least an hour.)

For me, it's just the other way around. First hours are a time where I'm barely a functional human being. Working against one's chronotype is horrible, but good luck trying to explain to capitalism you're the nocturnal type.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#22

Post by mschuster91 »

fedeb95 wrote: post #16

Am I the only one thinking this urge to optimize our time is just anxiety? I'd argue not spending time worried about time usage would make one use better its time. I'm not referring to the article per se, but to this kind of articles in general. On this article: why school is considered not discretionary time? Also commute and meals are somewhat discarded. While cooking, or helping, read a poem or a short story; whil…

> why school is considered not discretionary time?

Because most schools are so underfunded that, in practice, they are prisons with a food quality to match instead of providers of an environment conductive to good learning outcomes. State obviously varies by country a bit, but it's painfully obvious that schools (and their precursors daycare and kindergarten) primarily serve to enable women to join the workforce.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#25

Post by mmahemoff »

Fade_Dance wrote: post #2

Sort of not getting the point of this? We have free time, we can split it into 10 minutes blocks, and I guess make good use of it? So Arnold Schwarzenegger's book Be Useful (pretty fun to listen to the audiobook, of course 1/2 of the appeal is just the accent) also has this sort approach to time management. This seems like a potentially useful lens to see time cycles with, but it really seems to have value if you are…

> of course 1/2 of the appeal is just the accent

Deflating is the moment when Arnie's autobiography audio switches from his own voice to a random American-accent narrator. (After chapter 1 or so?)

I guess time-constrained celebrities are, or soon will be, using AI to read their books in full.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#27

Post by 4ndrewl »

kleiba wrote: post #14

I suppose that article is written by someone who doesn't have: - young kids - chores to do - a house/yard to maintain - hackernews to read ?

It's theoretical Productivity Porn written by a student (check the about me page) who Wants To Be Remembered For Something.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#28

Post by lifestyleguru »

fwipsy wrote: post #7

I concluded years ago that I'm not time-constrained, I'm energy-constrained. I couldn't explain it in terms of neurochemistry, but it's clear empirically that for me at least, willpower or mental focus is a resource which can be depleted, and work takes most of it. To me, the best way to use those 52 hours is not achieving things but caring for myself/restoring willpower, which means some blend of socialization, exer…

When I stopped working it took me around one year to stop self-sabotage and overcomplicating things. After then I finally started resolving technical and software problems the simplest way, straight to the point, consulting technical literature. It's impossible to achieve this among people motivated mostly by money and hierarchy.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#29

Post by HPsquared »

ta2234234242 wrote: post #17
fwipsy wrote: post #7

I concluded years ago that I'm not time-constrained, I'm energy-constrained. I couldn't explain it in terms of neurochemistry, but it's clear empirically that for me at least, willpower or mental focus is a resource which can be depleted, and work takes most of it. To me, the best way to use those 52 hours is not achieving things but caring for myself/restoring willpower, which means some blend of socialization, exer…

This is the worst of my linked in feeds. "If there were only more hours in the day we could work." The problem really is: * Human malware. * Managers introducing complexity where it shouldn't be. * People wasting your time on issues that could really have been emails. The fact I need a full weekend to recover from people propagating these shitty ideas is bad enough. Don't promulgate this stuff to HN.

"Work expands to fill the available time"

This includes other people's time.

Re: What would you do with 52 hours a week of discretionary time? (2023)

#30

Post by HPsquared »

andai wrote: post #15
fwipsy wrote: post #7

I concluded years ago that I'm not time-constrained, I'm energy-constrained. I couldn't explain it in terms of neurochemistry, but it's clear empirically that for me at least, willpower or mental focus is a resource which can be depleted, and work takes most of it. To me, the best way to use those 52 hours is not achieving things but caring for myself/restoring willpower, which means some blend of socialization, exer…

I often hear "The first hour is the rudder of the day." In my case, it's "The first hour is the time during which my neurotransmitters are still mostly present." I'd also expand energy to attention, or maybe even "mental space". I notice that I'm able to think much more clearly when I don't fill my mind with random clutter. (i.e. when I make an effort to stay away from my phone for at least an hour.)

Biologically, my typical morning is like waking the laptop to find it's at 1% battery and plugging it in to try and recharge, while a bunch of deferred windows updates come in.

By evening, everything has finally stabilised.

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