Why time management is ruining our lives • Hacker News Board

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#91

Post by iagooar » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:18 PM UTC

tedmiston wrote: post #79

As I read this well written piece I can't help but to stop and think about the irony of reading a 22-minute article about priorities and time management instead of getting back to spending time with family and friends over the Christmas break. I will stop and react to one piece: > In an era of insecure employment, we must constantly demonstrate our usefulness through frenetic doing This is why I started my own compan…

May I ask you how you did the jump to self-employment? Did you build up your network while working for a salary and then switch to your own company? I know I'd love to be my own boss, but it seems tough to find enough clients in order to pay yourself a salary.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#92

Post by ahh » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:19 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #82

Weird tangent: A couple years ago I had a wicked bout of insomnia, and one of the things I did to combat it was to scrub all my screens of clocks, so that I couldn't easily succumb to an anxious urge to check the time when I was having trouble falling asleep. I've found that not having a clock in the upper-right corner of my screen slightly but noticeably chills me out. Like the little red badge on the email client t…

Is there an easy way to remove a clock from Android? How about OSX?

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#93

Post by andyidsinga » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:23 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #53

rdiddly wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, so you're one of those folks who doesn't answer my emails! Makes me pester you multiple times, by email, SMS, Skype, and if I'm truly desperate, the dog park. You're just outsourcing the work of communication onto me. When you ask for a favor I will pretend I didn't hear it! Winky emoticon.

Thank you for pointing that out. Not answering one's E-mail is on my list of "rude things that somehow have become acceptable". It's part of individual companies' cultures. I've worked places where people can generally be relied upon to get back to you, and places where you might as well print out the message and shred it--it's not going to be responded to. The former means your working relationship with me is going…

your suggestions about calling out urgency and indicating the non-response action are great. I really appreciate when people do this.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#94

Post by elihu » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:24 PM UTC

A good book about time management is Momo, by Michael Ende. It's a children's novel about a time-saving bank that comes to town and provide a service whereby any time their customers save can be deposited in an account to be paid back later with interest.

The townspeople become more hurried and efficient and remove the things from their lives that give them meaning, and pretty soon everyone is rushing around and miserable, because they don't have any time for anything. The bank of course is a ponzi scheme.

(reposted from my reddit comment a few days ago on the same article)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(novel)

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#95

Post by andyidsinga » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:26 PM UTC

debt wrote: post #63

andyidsinga wrote: post #12

I suspect that the notion of managing one's inbox creates a sort of kruger-dunning effect with the inbox owner in terms of perceived productivity. I've given up active or structured management of my inbox : I read a few times during the work day, try to keep up, but don't get worried about missing 40% of things that come through. I'm at-ease with the notion that important communications have a way of finding me (emai…

Management is not in your future.

hehe, its already here. But for the record, I don't get a job due to my organizational skills and email responses - much more about energy, tech skills and having fun ...and at least plausibly driving towards results for the project.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#96

Post by serb348 » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:29 PM UTC

"A Short Cartoon about Time" by david firth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idCFV0KF4uo

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#97

Post by amazing_jose » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:33 PM UTC

Negitivefrags wrote: post #88

rauljara wrote: post #16

My favorite quote from the article: > One of the sneakier pitfalls of an efficiency-based attitude to time is that we start to feel pressured to use our leisure time “productively”, too – an attitude which implies that enjoying leisure for its own sake, which you might have assumed was the whole point of leisure, is somehow not quite enough.

I see this attitude fairly pervasively in hacker news when it comes to consuming media. When famous tech people like Bill Gates post lists of books, there is almost never any fiction on there. It's like reading is frowned upon as a waste of time unless it's non-fiction. You can get away with literary fiction but only if it's high-brow enough that it still feels like learning. Can I not just read a fantasy book becaus…

I read somewhere that Bill Gates' wife forced him to read at least one general magazine every month because he was completely disconnected from reality. He only consumed financial books and magazines and never watched the news. He used to find famous people in parties and events and never recognise them or know why they were famous.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#98

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:39 PM UTC

On a similar note, efficiency is good but if you run a perfectly efficient operation then you're extremely vulnerable to disruptions. If all you care about is beating other competitors so as to be #1, then of course you want to be as efficient as possible, just as a professional athlete orients everything around the exercise and practice required to excel in competition. That's great, but it also has pitfalls - specialization can result in inflexibility in changing circumstances, and if you operate close to the envelope of capability all the time then a small mistake can have drastic consequences.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#99

Post by ddingus » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:40 PM UTC

omilu wrote: post #78

andyidsinga wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hmmm - I think there is both sorrow and joy in both ..no?

there is lot's of joy in the past, but it's sad because it is distant and gone.

No way. Fodder for good futures, inspiration in the present.

Re: Why time management is ruining our lives

#100

Post by SBCRec » Sat, Dec 24, 2016, 9:44 PM UTC

Negitivefrags wrote: post #88

rauljara wrote: post #16

My favorite quote from the article: > One of the sneakier pitfalls of an efficiency-based attitude to time is that we start to feel pressured to use our leisure time “productively”, too – an attitude which implies that enjoying leisure for its own sake, which you might have assumed was the whole point of leisure, is somehow not quite enough.

I see this attitude fairly pervasively in hacker news when it comes to consuming media. When famous tech people like Bill Gates post lists of books, there is almost never any fiction on there. It's like reading is frowned upon as a waste of time unless it's non-fiction. You can get away with literary fiction but only if it's high-brow enough that it still feels like learning. Can I not just read a fantasy book becaus…

Of course you can. It is your time to spend, not Bill Gates or any one elses. I don't read fiction although I enjoy reading history books even though some of them could be considered fiction by critics.