Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

njbrown.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 57 posts

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

#41

Post by mrheosuper »

fedeb95 wrote: post #19
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…

try waking up 3-4 hours before work and do something else you want to do but requires more energy. It's hard to keep the habit in today society, but it can be done. Typically you can do your work good enough with less energy, if you've worked in the same place long enough.

sleep only 4 hours everyday is brutal on your body.

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

#42

Post by arethuza »

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.)

I have to be careful for the first hour or so of work - I get up at 6am and walk my dog for an hour and start work about 8:30 - by that point I am fairly heavily caffeinated (I am not a natural morning person) and I can be inclined to rant at people ;-)

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

#43

Post by unnamed76ri »

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…

Thank you for this comment. For my job, I am driving in my car anywhere from 4-6 hours a day. You could say I am just sitting there, why don’t I have energy to do anything else with my free time? I’ve recently begun to realize that while driving all that time, my brain is making thousands of subconscious decisions. I don’t have any study to back this up, but I think the brain only has so much capacity for decision making each day.

Many days, I end up zonking out for a 20-30 minute nap in the afternoon. It’s a visceral need to sleep right then. And then I can function at a better capacity for most of the rest of the day.

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

#44

Post by jcul »

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.

> * Human malware

That's a funny / interesting concept to think about. I'm sure I could think of plenty of corporate examples.

Though it reminds of of Kurt Vonnegut's story about the car aliens, bringing the combustion engine to earth, not realising how dangerous ideas could be to humans. I think it may have been part of Slaughter House 5, but I can't remember now.

Or a bit more sci-fi / far fetched, the virus from Snow Crash.

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

#45

Post by jcul »

HPsquared wrote: post #30
andai wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah I'm the same, I find I start being really productive in the afternoon / evening.

Unfortunately having kids is incompatible with this, so it's been flipped and I just struggle through the morning.

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

#46

Post by unnamed76ri »

hyperadvanced wrote: post #10
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 feel this a lot with music. I technically have a lot of time to do it, but usually I’m pretty mentally wiped out from work and it uses a lot of the same mental muscles as software engineering and managing other software engineers

This is why I’ve got albums worth of songs written and not recorded. Meanwhile AI prompters are pumping out full albums of music every few days and the general public thinks it is real. It’s a little depressing.

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

#47

Post by x-complexity »

roncesvalles wrote: post #40

>His greatest achievement was watching 7,000,000 Instagram Reels. There is nothing intrinsically wrong about this.

7000000 reels ÷ 50 years ÷ 365.25 (days/year) = ~383.3 reels / day

Each reel being a minute long would equal to 6 hours & 24 minutes of scrolling a day.

It would be close to the most depressing world record to ever exist.

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

#48

Post by IAmBroom »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #36
4ndrewl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> It's theoretical Productivity Porn written by a student (check the about me page) who Wants To Be Remembered For Something. I wish I'd known that before I read tfa, and then the two-part essay on How to Choose a Life Partner . This guy writes well and all, and I'm sure he means well, but he's about 20 years old. I don't need life advice from someone so inevitably inexperienced.

1. Does she have really cool hair?

2. Is she a fan of Sabrina Carpenter?

3. Does she go all the way by the second date?

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

#49

Post by mock-possum »

For an article that claims to advocate making good use of your time… this feels like a waste of my time. It’s a lot of words to just end up at “carpe diem” and has big “thanks I’m cured” energy to boot.

Consider spending those 52(38) hours not worrying about scolding people about how they spend their own discretionary time.

Post reply on HN