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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

#311

Post by danesparza »

Draiken wrote: post #150
danesparza wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 poi…

I did read it :) My point is that the majority of "productive" things we do are geared towards our jobs. And the majority of jobs enrich the people at the top at the expense of your expertise and time invested. YMMV. Not sure why so many people assumed I had a bad view on the article or the OP. I think what was done was fascinating, but it made me sad.

Again -- I feel like I'm reading a different article. You're totally allowed to feel however you feel about the article.

"focused work towards uni & self-improvement and exercising" doesn't mean just learning a new language or getting experience with a new tool or framework. To me it means making time for mental health, emotional health (destressing), physical health, meditating.

Perhaps I'm reading it completely wrong.

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

#312

Post by chaoticmass »

I am reminded of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shields_(diarist)

Robert Shields was best known for writing a diary of 37.5 million words, which chronicled every five minutes of his life from 1972 until a stroke disabled him in 1997.

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

#313

Post by wngr »

pmyteh wrote: post #138
tra3 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried running it a couple of years ago, no luck. I can't recall what the problem was. Is it actually functional?

It's fully functional, though not straightforward. Needs a bit of setup, and doesn't handle multiple machines particularly well. That's the perl version I linked. There's a similarly functional android version, I think.

Yeah, the Android app is also quite dated, but functional.

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

#315

Post by mcjkrw »

renewiltord wrote: post #103
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.

Because Akrasia. I currently am supposed to be doing other things but I am spending it on HN.

How about scheduling consistent time for work and then at the end of the day, logging whether the work session was 100% focus on the task or if there was any distraction.

Then you can see how many days in the month were focused, how much were distracted and if you care about it enough, you could set a goal that 95% of the sessions in a month should be distraction-free and keep working towards that.

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

#316

Post by mcjkrw »

Draiken wrote: post #152
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…

But I never said tracking time inherently does that. I agree with you. It's a great way to put things in perspective. It's just my personal experience that the majority of time we label as "productive" is in fact productivity for the sake of someone else profiting on top of it. I have nothing against the OP or the article.

Sometimes it's just more pleasant to focus on the work, even if it's boring and we are doing it for someone else. We have to spend the time anyway, we could spend it by being alert, or distracted and drifting off. Being alert feels good and there is some satisfaction from the work being done. Being distracted is mentally draining. Also, it's not only the stake holder that is profiting from the work, it's society as a whole - we all depend on this work.

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

#317

Post by appletrotter »

ketanmaheshwari wrote: post #81
remirk wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'The world' is relative. My world is different than yours.

I was talking about Summit[1]. Now the second largest. [1] https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/olcf-resources/compute-systems/sum...

I only meant to joke. Very cool that you get to work with such a machine!

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

#318

Post by miguelrochefort »

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #117
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…

I'd love this on an apple watch. Would be especially nice to combine with an NFC tag. e.g. when you brush your teeth, just hold your watch to the brush which has an NFC tag, then start brushing. That activity is now recorded somewhere. It's really not a big deal to open an app, browse to the particular activity, and register it. But somehow in practice it is. It's another chore that I never really get around to doing…

I've been doing that for a year.

I have NFC tags everywhere (toothbrush, dental floss, water bottle, toilet, pills, plants), and I just tap my phone on them to track things. For the rest (e.g., exercise) I use Google Assistant on my phone and smart speakers.

It's working very well.

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

#319

Post by thecoppinger »

tanujraghav wrote: post #288
thecoppinger wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing this anecdote, it neatly fits in with a revelation that has been slowly unfolding in me over the last 6 months, graduating from my burnout stage of youth into a mores sustainable and enjoyable way of being and working. Do your 3 sections have time limits? As in, the morning section is confined to 2/3 hours, the second section 8 hours and X hours for the 'freestyle' final section?

Hi, First of all, thank you for taking interest! > Do your 3 sections have time limits? No, as this would be against the fundamental idea of my approach. Usually, the first section (or "the morning drill", as i call it) lasts till breakfast. After usual morning stuff, if i have time left, i browse social media, tunein to a ted talk, check mails. After Breakfast, second section goes as long as there are tasks left to…

Thanks for getting back to me and clarifying that point - I had assumed as much, but just wanted to make sure.

I recently watched a video[1] by a fellow called Lex Fridman, an AI researched, and a productivity power-house. A commenter on that video aptly pointed out that Lex comes from a lineage of hyper-productive and scholarly folks, and thus his rigid schedule of 10+ hours of productivity is not necessarily attainable for the rest of us mortals.

I think I have been trapped in a disillusion for a long time that:

A) I should aspire to perform 8+ solid focused hours of work per day, otherwise I am failing.

B) Most people achieve a solid 8+ solid focused hours of work per day.

In reality, due to some recent research and your initial comment in this thread, it has become clear to me that this is simply not the case. The reality is that it's much more of a 'different strokes for different stokes' scenario, and I think I'm gravitating towards the more 'structured unstructured' way of setting up my days, with less of a focus on expected output and more of freedom to enjoy the work and process without the paralyzing pressure of expectations.

I also think I'm nearing the 'final stages of productivity enlightenment', in which one realizes that the constant research and obsession with productivity (productivity porn?) is also a distraction, and that at some point you have to block it out and focus entirely on applying instead of finding the next kernel of truth.

On that note — back to work!

[1] "A day in my life | Lex Fridman" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m3hGZvD-0s

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

#320

Post by lemming »

vntok wrote: post #308
lemming wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No country can have a sane default for “who should look after my kids if both parents die suddenly?”. That will always be a very personal decision that depends very much on your family situation.

The sane default is that the family is functional enough that the closest living relative will know best.

Which family? Mine or my wife's? Who chooses that?
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