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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

#231

Post by tharkun__ »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #158
coldtea wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you had a year to live, you would definitely want to be productive. You'd be surprised. That's more of rat-race-disease artifact, where a person is measured by their "achievements" and "success" (as opposed to being intristically worth). Many people of many peoples would want to either relax, love and be with family, or enjoy themselves (and more likely a healthy combination of the two).

And unless you're completely free of obligations, you'd want to maximize the time you spent "relaxing, loving and being with family, or enjoying yourself". This requires some thought and effort - and that's precisely being productivity / optimizing your life.

So much this. The productivity craze is dumb and your definition is much better. Prioritize what is important to you. If you are able to, that's productive! Screw other people's definition of productivity.

Dying of cancer? Enjoying a walk out with friends - who knows how many times you'll be able to until you are bed ridden and in pain constantly despite meds? You're "productive"! Ask me how I know... (no don't....)

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

#232

Post by hipjiveguy »

buggythebug wrote: post #219
TrackerFF wrote: post #170

I'm not sure how much alcohol you drink - could be one beer / glass of wine / drink, or it could be multiple units - but for your health, I'd recommend that you take a 3 day break between intake. Drinking for 3-7 consecutive days, is not good for your liver, even in smaller quantities.

That's all genetics. I know older men with stressful jobs who have been drinking 7-8 drinks a day for the past 40 years and they are happier and have more energy than anyone I've met.

but how do you know if you're one of the "lucky ones" ?

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

#233

Post by kaitai »

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #180
TeMPOraL wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People weren't meant to raise children in a nuclear family. It's a historical aberration. In the past, you'd offload some of your parenting to grandparents, aunts and neighbors in the village (and the latter would do the same, creating a sort of distributed parenting environment). For urban population in modern times, daycare and babysitters serve as a replacement. Put another way, taking care of a young child is 16+…

When women weren't in the workforce it was a much easier time to raise children. Now women have to work so that they can have a lower middle class life. Daycare has risen because of this - not because of grandparents not watching their grandchildren.

It is useful to look at history. Women have always worked (other than a particular subset of rich women and then, in the US and western Europe in the 1900s, a slightly broader subset of well-off women). It's just that much of that work was done in or near the home, and for most of human history men worked in or near the home as well. For almost all of human history, the effort made to produce money or food was co-located with "living". So women have for centuries taken in washing, been wet nurses, done piecework, sewing, knitting, fulling, felting, spinning, soapmaking, etc etc in a non-factory setting. This did not mean that you played with your children or really paid that much attention to them; it meant that when they were very young you kept them in a pen or tied to the bed so they wouldn't burn themselves, but could respond to their needs when they expressed them. After about age four you put them to work. Of course extended family/neighbors also were involved, but they also all needed to put food on the table.

Another reason we didn't have daycare was child labor. The history of child labor in, say, Britain is quite fascinating. Children were employed as domestic servants, coal miners, sales-kids, prostitutes, and more. In 1802, 1803 some regulations were passed; eventually children under age 9 were forbidden to work in factories and kids aged 9-16 were limited to 12 hours a day (60 hrs a week -- the Cotton Mills Acts).

It is quite fascinating to me to look at modern attitudes toward productivity and childhood. For almost all of human history the vast majority of children worked, from shepherding or scaring the birds away from the crops (which certainly could be more playful) to dirty and dangerous jobs. And now we talk about daycare or look nostalgically at a false past in which moms spent hours a day playing with kids. Time surveys indicate that even working parents now spend at least twice as much time with their children now as in 1965 [1]. Part of this is "productivity" -- we view spending time with our children as an important and productive thing to do, and in fact an economic investment. The kid is not earning us money now -- we need to invest time and effort into ensuring a return in the future. It's intriguing the stories we tell ourselves and how they affect our behavior.

[1] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/11/27/parents-...

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

#234

Post by johndubchak »

DecayingOrganic wrote: post #96
chrisfosterelli wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From TFA: > I knew I was spending quite a lot of it on social media, but I wasn't sure how much exactly. I also knew I was working quite a lot and wanted to quantify exactly how much (spoiler alert: not that much). I hoped that keeping track of what I do would help me to identify chunks of time that were being wasted and to turn them into quality time. Tracking time doesn't inherently have to be to optimize for "maki…

I'll raise my head above the parapet and admit that I don't get it. How about just scheduling things? If you want to spend more time on things that matter, just pick a date and time, and get going. That said, perhaps the alluring part was gathering data on one's self.

But, to that point, why not just ask Alexa or Siri. I’m certain they have increments at a finer granularity of time than every 15 minutes.

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

#235

Post by kaitai »

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…

Unlike many folks here, I agree with you (in that a lot of focus on productivity makes me sad).

For a point of contrast, though, every now & then I'll log my activities for a week -- just a week -- as a way of auditing my commitments. Am I spending a lot of time on things I don't value? Am I enjoying what I'm doing?

At this stage in my career/life, I actually want to put a limit on my employed hours. Side projects, family life, exercise, hedonism are the things I want to balance with that paid work -- I've done the burnout thing and am simply not interested in doing it again. These semi-regular audits are in some sense reassuring, in fact, and allow me to appreciate all the possibilities I have. "Ah, if I shift this to there, I can do this cool thing. Ah, I do spend five hours per week on leisurely and delicious morning meals. Life is decent!" And sometimes they find tasks or commitments I realize I want to eliminate, or point out that if I simply took ten minutes on Thursday to talk through with my spouse what I want to do on Saturday, then we'd have tickets to the museum/ingredients to make a roast duck/whatever -- the things I want to be doing on a weekend.

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

#236

Post by tanujraghav »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #154
DecayingOrganic wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll raise my head above the parapet and admit that I don't get it. How about just scheduling things? If you want to spend more time on things that matter, just pick a date and time, and get going. That said, perhaps the alluring part was gathering data on one's self.

'renewiltord mentioned Akrasia. That's one big thing. Another thing is that you may not have enough time to fit the things you want with your schedule - and you first need to optimize your things in your life. That may involve optimizing your productivity at work, to free up time or energy for your own things. That also will involve taking a look at what you do around and after work. All of us live at least partially…

Hi, I agree with your view. And over a couple of years of (failed) scheduling/optimizing techniques, I learned a thing or two that I would like to share. The approach OP used in her article is undoubtedly, a great way of looking at your footprints. I used to do a similar (revising over time) thing, but looking back on how much time i "wasted" and how little i was "productive", was not worth the effort. Over time, I've changed and perfected (well, kind of) this approach to a new way.

The New Way* I divide my day in 3 sections. The first one, Morning Drill, from a set wakeup time (it really helps) until breakfast. I comprises things like regular morning routine, say exercise, freshening up, etc. It give me a good start into the day. I prefer not to do anything "productive/work-related" in the morning. Next, I take up my todo list for the day (i manage is using Todoist), understand my priorities and think of a general direction of the day, is it going to be a work-day or a fun-day?. I'm strict about my list, but not so much that I would not talk to anyone till i'm finished. I like to play it cool. The third section, i've finished all i had planned today, so i can do anything i want, read a book, go out with friends, and other cool stuff. This kind of summarises a day.

> All of us live at least partially on autopilot, so bad habits tend to sneak up and stay unnoticed. I love keeping notes, and reading old notes and revising your day, really helps for such a thing.

Results of new approach: When I go to bed, I sleep sound realizing the day wasn't a complete mess as opposed to drooling over "I've not been productive enough".

All in all, this was a wonderful article with beautiful insights and a magnificent approach of data science in daily life.

Conclusion: "The more you focus on productivity, the less you make it."

PS. I have been following *this approach for over 5 months now, and I've never been better.

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

#237

Post by Der_Einzige »

OJFord wrote: post #211
theli0nheart wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he specifically did this You got the wrong pronoun. "One gal's quest to optimise her life" is the blog's subtitle.

Are we even allowed to assume 'gal's 'use she/her pronouns' though? More seriously, I never had a problem using 'they' for gender unknown, indeed it was normal and what I was taught in school, and then it suddenly seemed to be he vs. her with 'they' as some weird third thing even fewer people 'identify' as. For centuries we've happily referred to an unspecified person 'with they/them pronouns'.

I have met people who are queer and don't like being refered to with "they/them" because they view these words as totalizing. A lot of trans people have a lot of disliking for cis gay men and call their own poor practices"homonormativity". As a result, they balk at being included as "queer" or even at the existence of terms like "LGBT" as they don't feel solidarity with CIS gay or bisexual men. Many of these queers embrace and demand recognition of their unique pronouns. If they prefer xe/xem, you may get an earful for saying "they/them".

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

#238

Post by 8bitsrule »

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 often feel the same sadness when thinking of how so many get pulled into losing their most vital years.

Decades ago I spent a day travelling with a company salesman. That afternoon we spent an hour non-productively talking. In a candid moment he confessed that, out on the road, he'd missed most of his children growing up. He encouraged me not to make that mistake. Somewhat later in another place, a college professor, in a non-productive moment, related a similar story and advice. These revealing moments changed my life.

Recently I saw the video "50 years off-grid" about a couple that moved onto 240 Cali redwood acres in 1968 and took back their lives. Eventually they grew and sold Xmas trees for support, and raised two children. Not for everyone ... but point being that there are options, depending on what desires we nurture and sacrifice for.

Such chains have been woven and worn as far back in history as we can see. And still, true freedom can be a terrifying prospect. Which explains some modern leadership choices.

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

#239

Post by davchana »

I too did this in 2016, for about 3-4 months. Mine was a single excel sheet, 30 minutes each. S for Sleeping, W for Work, D Drive, F Food eating & cooking, N for Bathing Cleaning etc, F for Fun, W for Time Waste. Simple conditional formatting. Last column counted the Ws Fs Ns & all. Next Sheet had some bar charts. My job was in Excel, so it was easy to log data. I used to use an A6 size simple printout to mark things. It was fun while it lasted, but I thought it was too much work.

Now, as I learnt Google Apps Script, can use a simple HTML app, with GAS to easily log the hours or time slots.

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

#240

Post by vntok »

maya24 wrote: post #203
oblio wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's irresponsible for anyone with kids to have not done this.

Completely depends on where you live. Many countries have sane defaults for simple cases.
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