Ask HN: How to not waste time throughout the day?

13 points by srckinase123 5 years ago | 8 comments

There are those equipped with the ability to not waste time. By wasting time I mean using their time to either gain more knowledge and to better themselves. For example, I would like to study subjects x, y, and z throughout the day. But my inability to focus on the task prevents me from advancing in subject x, let alone y and z.

What are techniques you use to not waste time? I have tried the pomodoro technique, but the five minute break turns into an hour break, and so on. It may be that I am spreading myself too thin trying to learn so many various different things, that it overwhelms my mind and the mind retaliates by doing nothing.

I believe this is an important topic for many people, especially in the HN community. Many aspire to accomplish lofty goals, but the giant obstacle is time. If only we could not waste our time, and work on that side project one was always wanting to do, or study that subject you always wanted to know more about.

sna1l 5 years ago |

Few things:

1.) Make sure the thing you are procrastinating is something you _actually_ want to do. If I'm truly passionate about something, I don't generally find myself lacking in motivation (caveat below).

2.) Even for things I'm really passionate about, there are less interesting aspects of the work. My general strategy is to block off time (on my calendar) for 15 minutes a day doing X task. The following week I increase it to 30 minutes and so on so forth. Start out small so you guarantee success. Your brain will get addicted to it.

3.) Definitely make sure to only focus on one thing at a time. Your brain can only hold and retain so much information at a given point in time. Most ultra successful people focus on a singular area and go extremely deep on it. They don't move on from something until they've mastered it. Very similar to the concept of progressive overload in weightlifting.

StratusBen 5 years ago |

It may sound silly but I try to project forward to the end of the day and simply have my future self judge what my current self is doing. Would I be happy if I wasted time or would I be happy if I made progress on a project? That usually centers me to get the "right" things done.

sp332 5 years ago |

Make sure your basics are covered: food, shelter, sleep, exercise. Address anything that's stressing you out. If it's still an issue, check with a doctor or therapist about an attention disorder. Finally, consider that maybe you're not very good at the thing you are studying. Decide whether to tough it out or play to your strengths.

Jugurtha 5 years ago |

>For example, I would like to study subjects x, y, and z throughout the day.

Study x, and x only, that day. In other words, reduce scope. Sequential works. Completely shatter something, and then go on to the next thing.

Even then, "study" is pretty vague. Having something quantifiable and observable helps. I want to read and summarize in my own words article A this afternoon.

After you do something, you should be able to tell if you "did it" or not. "Study" has no beginning and no end. You can't really know if you "studied", but you can know if you did a problem set.

>It may be that I am spreading myself too thin trying to learn so many various different things, that it overwhelms my mind and the mind retaliates by doing nothing.

Most likely this.

Queuing things works. You want to learn about topic X and found a really nice tutorial but you're doing Y, put it into a task, and keep doing Y.

When you have time for X, block two hours, and commit to do X and only X and nothing but X for two hours. You'll be way ahead than trying to octopus your way around learning things.

I use TaskWarrior. The files are committed to a repository management system. I can pull them from any laptop. I have categories "read", "watch" for articles or videos.

I use "Video Speed Controller" to speed up videos that have no slides up to 16x: the video becomes the slides. I verify that information density is acceptable for the topic I want to learn, and it helps me weed out videos that don't contain what I'm looking for. At 16x, a one hour video becomes 3 or 4 minutes. I can weed out videos pretty fast.

I use "YouTube Captions Search" to search text in a YouTube video (from Closed captions). I'll see the treatment of it. I can index that, too, and go back to a video I know addressed an issue and go right back to the timestamp where an issue was talked about.

I also aggressively spend money not to waste time on X in order to generously spend time on Y. Always did (even if it meant skipping lunch in college to afford catching a cab home and save six hours daily). These reclaimed hours went to things I wanted to do more than waiting for the bus. These can be intimate life, work, learning, family, health, friends, rest.

I'm similar to what you describe yourself to be, and these have worked for me.

flurly 5 years ago |

I really like using https://tomato-timer.com/. It basically forces me to do productive things by making me feel like I'm in a race. Also helps make sure I take breaks :)

stevenalowe 5 years ago |

There is no way around time-boxing; your choice of signal/tracking mechanism. Pomodoro is great but you have to use the timer for breaks too. This assumes no ADHD et al, of course.

sethammons 5 years ago |

I use a version of the Rule of Three:

> First, write down three things you want to accomplish today.

> Second, write three things you want to accomplish this week.

> Third, write three things you want to achieve this year.

morninglight 5 years ago |

It is so very appropriate that you found this on HN. LOL.