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The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

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Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#51

Post by Markku »

latch wrote: post #47
Markku wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A simplified example day: 07:15-08 Wakeup, shower and breakfast 08-09 Commute+reading 09-19 At work, includes lunch and snack 19-20 Exercise 20-20:30 Grocery shopping 20:30-21:30 Commute+reading 21:30-22 Dinner 22-23:30 Hacking 23:30 To sleep (slightly late) This routine gives a small amount of extra working hours to use for time off later. Cutting work to 8 hours gives 2 hours of which 1 usually goes to a longer exe…

Your commute is long, but at least you get to read. Our schedules are similar. My morning commute is 15 minutes. I walk home at night, which takes about 45 minutes..i count that as part of my exercise time, and I also pick up quick groceries. I guess I should add long commutes to my list of productivity hacks.

Yeah I sometimes get off the bus earlier and walk home to combine the two. I'm considering running sometime too but have to get the gear with me. And sometimes I walk home from a shop for the same exercise.

In the winter I mostly slept/meditated in the bus but now I have enough energy to read. I found out that coding is practically impossible in the bus because of the sun.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#52

Post by fmavituna »

latch wrote: post #23
lsc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over the last year, I've spent /far/ more time on HN than I have watching TV or movies (excluding time spent watching movies while exercising)

When I say stop watching TV , I don't mean stop doing sedentary things . I specifically mean stop watching TV . You can do almost anything else and I sincerely believe that you'll be better for it. Read a book, exercise, learn to cook, program, help your kids with homework, play video games, go out with friends...anything is better than watching TV.

:) Clearly you are not a hard-core gamer or you don't have any friends who spends 200~ hours on a MMORPG per month. Although I generally agree with that TV argument.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#53

Post by Markku »

JacobAldridge wrote: post #15

I'm a massive fan of life-task automation, for the benefits of not worrying about certain things (and therefore being generally happier in life). Classic example for myself - when I used to commute to work, I would change lanes at exactly the same point every day. There was a month of trial and error to begin with, but this route and those lanes gave me the 'most likely fastest journey'. No more thinking about traffi…

Can you give more examples of things you have automated and how they worked out? And what didn't?

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#54

Post by Markku »

JesseAldridge wrote: post #9

Along these lines, I made a little program which yells at me whenever I have too many lines of code without a comment, or too many lines in a single file. I've found it quite helpful not having to actively think about that sort of maintenance stuff.

I am thinking along the same lines. If something is not "policed", then it won't happen in the long run as interest shifts. Includes programming practices, testing coverage and the usual stuff. And more effective to automate such things and spend code reviews on interesting issues, not "punctuation".

I wonder if anyone has examples for or against of running such checks against your codebase? I can imagine some horror stories of how those tools would slow down all useful work. But some success stories? I guess I have to try on myself first :)

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#55

Post by Tichy »

msie wrote: post #11

I read somewhere that it was a myth that willpower is a limited resource and that we imagine it is limited, but it's not. Does anyone else remember where this was mentioned?

I am sure it must be more complicated than "not eating a cookie depletes your willpower". So if I stare at 100 cookies in the morning, all my willpower for the rest of the day will instantly evaporate?

I was half expecting the advice to be: "the only way to achieve stuff is to give in to the less important cravings. That is, you get extremely fat eating cookies, but in exchange you finish your weekend project".

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#56

Post by epi0Bauqu »

Markku wrote: post #53
JacobAldridge wrote: post #15

I'm a massive fan of life-task automation, for the benefits of not worrying about certain things (and therefore being generally happier in life). Classic example for myself - when I used to commute to work, I would change lanes at exactly the same point every day. There was a month of trial and error to begin with, but this route and those lanes gave me the 'most likely fastest journey'. No more thinking about traffi…

Can you give more examples of things you have automated and how they worked out? And what didn't?

Not OP, but here's something that has worked out great: putting all our bills on auto-pay.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#57

Post by Tichy »

"Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them."

I don't think this implies our brains become more capable with more enhanced civilization. For example I can eat an apple without knowing how to plant and tend to apple trees because I live in a civilization where farmers and software developers can exchange services. I don't have a ritual that allows me to grow apples without thinking about it. The whole process of growing apples has been completely outsourced from my life.

So I doubt that creating lots of rituals will work out in the long run. Eventually they might overrun my schedule. And it takes energy to remember the rituals.

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#58

Post by Tichy »

JacobAldridge wrote: post #15

I'm a massive fan of life-task automation, for the benefits of not worrying about certain things (and therefore being generally happier in life). Classic example for myself - when I used to commute to work, I would change lanes at exactly the same point every day. There was a month of trial and error to begin with, but this route and those lanes gave me the 'most likely fastest journey'. No more thinking about traffi…

"when I used to commute to work, I would change lanes at exactly the same point every day."

Wouldn't it be easier to just take a train then? :-)

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#59

Post by Markku »

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #56
Markku wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give more examples of things you have automated and how they worked out? And what didn't?

Not OP, but here's something that has worked out great: putting all our bills on auto-pay.

Online banking is easy. But then it's easy to forget how much money you waste on said auto-paid bills every year. Sometimes it's good to have to work for something to realize maybe it's not necessary after all. I cut my magazine subscriptions to half, twice, and still get a bit too many to read ;)

Re: The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

#60

Post by Estragon »

BruceForth wrote: post #30
nickpp wrote: post #16

This is Gold, Jerry, GOLD. And the best advice on creating these rituals, or HABITS is Seifeld's "Don't break the chain", coupled with Pavlina's 30-day trials. http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se... http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success/

From the second article: > I lost seven pounds in the first week, mostly from going to the bathroom as all the accumulated dairy mucus was cleansed from my bowels (now I know why cows need four stomachs to properly digest this stuff) WTF? Does he think cows eat dairy? Or did I parse that wrong?

Pavlina's usually pretty out there. It suprises me that he still gets as much attention as he does. There's one born every minute, I guess.
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