8,760 Hours: How to get the most out of next year

Thanks for sharing that, I hadn't read it before. As an engineer just getting started with my life and career I've been struggling with the sorts of concerns in that article. It was good to read something that was sympathetic to my worries.

That said, the article doesn't really provide answers. It merely points out what maybe should have been obvious: excessive time management is excessive. It's true that productivity for the sake of productivity is a poor goal. However, suppose that with your increased productivity you are able to enrich not your life, but the lives of others. Then you are faced with the choice of working harder or letting others down. It's easy to say that taking a trip to another country for the sole purpose of filling your Instagram is just masturbatory (which might not be a bad thing!). A more difficult question might be whether it's worth taking such a trip to do charity work during a holiday that you would ordinarily spend with your family. The trade-offs between helping strangers vs letting down your family and between getting some rest vs using your time off well are complex.

At this point I am rambling. The shortest answer I have right now is the same, vague answer I have for similar complex things: operate in moderation and things will work themselves out. Finding exactly what the appropriate balance is will probably be a life long struggle.

dominotw• 10 years ago

Is it really necessary to manage your life like a software project at a big co. Would it be possible to come up with something less intimidating and practical like

'do 10 pomodoros/day for 1 month'.

mgiannopoulos2• 10 years ago

After a couple of weeks it is useful to have some context in writing: why did i set up the goal, what am I trying to achieve?

matt40773• 10 years ago

- No TV, no games, no aimless internet browsing

Without these three, you're bound to spend your time usefully. Not necessarily, but relationships / sports / learning as well.

hoodwink2• 10 years ago

This guy's guide on Anki (Anki Essentials) changed my life

sudshekhar• 10 years ago

The site is down (500 error). Can you give me a direct link to the resource you're talking about?

Thanks!

curiousgal3• 10 years ago

Here you go https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B06J4UG22bP7TUdEMjdGUW1NU1U...

hakakadera2• 10 years ago

Will be nice if you can give a glimpse of your experience.

hoodwink2• 10 years ago

Anki (and spaced repetition in general) is an amazing tool enabling you to learn more in less time. The problem is that the learning curve is quite steep. Alex's manual holds your hand up the learning curve with clear instructions and practical advice.

I tried maybe two or three times prior to integrate Anki into my flow. It wasn't until I worked through this booklet that it finally clicked.

slashdotdash4• 10 years ago

I'm trying a new approach for 2017: personal goals, made public [1].

A public GitHub repo where my goals are recorded as issues and accomplishments are closed tickets. I've created milestones for each year (e.g. 2016, 2017) to track my progress. I've backdated some of my 2016 acheivements to get a feel for how it will work.

I hope that writing down my aspirations for the year ahead will help me fulfil them.

[1] https://github.com/slashdotdash/personal-goals

nwellinghoff• 10 years ago

I hope you do and document goal #18. 1000 recurring revenue product.

tachion• 10 years ago

I applaud making goals and reaching them, but when I see 'Learn ELM' (or, in fact, 'Learn X') that was marked as completed after 2 days it makes me wonder if it shouldn't be, in reality something like 'Play with X'. I've been doing some things from that list for quite a while, some of them even for years and I still am not sure if I'd dare to say that I've 'Learned X'.

slashdotdash4• 10 years ago

That was a 2016 goal that I backdated (I had the goal months ago, but only just recorded it, and immediately marked as 'done'). To get a feel for how it will work going forward to 2017.

Perhaps I should make the goals more concrete than "learn". As an example: build a form to do X in Elm and deploy to production. Agree that learning is an ongoing, and never ending goal.

darfs• 10 years ago

I dont think it's hard to learn a language. Perl for example. But its hard to master it. I think there is a big difference.

sowbug• 10 years ago

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but you should watch this TED talk about publishing goals: https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yo... The TLDR is "people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them." As with many TED talks, the message is thought-provoking but not guaranteed to be based on solid science.

In any case, best of luck. I hope you achieve your goals -- but please don't interpret this encouragement as false social reality.

maroonblazer• 10 years ago

I've found that using one of Sivers' alternate approaches - "I'm going to do x and please kick my ass if I don't" - works remarkably well. Of course you need to choose people who actually will kick your ass, otherwise you start figuring out who amongst your network will let you slide and tell only them, defeating the purpose of the exercise.

slashdotdash4• 10 years ago

Thanks for sharing the Ted talk, will take a look.

dreeves2• 10 years ago

Sivers later clarified that it's only true for "identity goals" where telling people about the goal is part of what the goal is. Like "I want to be a runner." By saying so you're making it sort of more true in that you're identifying as at least a wannabe runner.

I believe that for specific, discipline-oriented goals -- like "I want to run 3 times a week" -- you're well advised to shout it from the rooftops, as common sense would dictate.

Sivers's clarification, along with his original TED talk: http://sivers.org/zipit2

ipnon• 10 years ago

There is evidence that making your goals public actually makes you less likely to accomplish them because the act of being praised is in itself a reward.

slashdotdash4• 10 years ago

Interesting to hear that. I didn't look into the evidence about public goal setting and its affect on achieving them. I'll need to reflect on the approach and report back.

agumonkey• 10 years ago

Ha! using github PR as a todolist, fun.

ps: as a deep nerd, my system is 4 notepad.exe (yes notepad.exe) opened with a bunch of markdown lists... the shame.

amelius• 10 years ago

Build a product that has a monthly recurring revenue of $1,000 (USD)

Don't we all want this? :)

Anyway, good luck! It would be interesting to see how far you get, so please post to HN about your experience.

erikig• 10 years ago

You'd be surprised by how many don't want to.

shubhamjain• 10 years ago

I don't follow any specific goals or planning but I have come to realise the value of their intended purpose. I think many people — as did I — see these lists as overburdening. But, the more I have worked towards creating or accomplishing something the more I have realised how many things are under realm of attainment with a little push. These small accomplishments make you more confident and happier.

Earlier, I lacked focus to read a book without fiddling around my phone and managing only a few pages in a spurt. Few months back, I pushed myself to concentrate and try to finish even if my mind pushed me towards just checking HN / Reddit. I managed to finish four in a month which is not a bad considering that earlier figure was one. I didn't lose any hours of my happier life but spent some in being more knowledgable.

chillwaves• 10 years ago

Even without the knowledge, I find intrinsic value in training yourself to focus. Also find it helps to focus on how the activity is enriching myself, or future benefit. I might want to leave a sink full of dishes overnight, but if I do them now I frame it as a gift to my future self and the amount of relief I feel having tied up loose ends like this each day is enormous. The more I do it, the better and more efficient the habit becomes, the less time it takes.

There is more resistance to get started because of inertia but once I get going that inertia works in my favor.

codyb• 10 years ago

I find that thinking about things I have to do is much less enjoyable than actually doing those things. It's definitely true that the more often you convince yourself to just get up and at 'em the easier it is to overcome those mental hurdles in the future.

edem• 10 years ago

I get database error when I try to visit the page.

matt40773• 10 years ago

At least you'll have an excuse :)

markbnj• 10 years ago

I think I'm just going to enjoy it and do my best not to count the number of hours in it. I imagine I'll probably get some stuff done though.

0xCMP• 10 years ago

I wish I produced content which made my website die, but I also would never want that to happen to me. I can't understand why everyone doesn't just run an S3 static website for most of these personal websites/blogs.

And then I remember almost every tool/plugin/theme/etc. is for wordpress and I think "Oh man, must be nice..."

Always a tradeoff.

alexvermeer2• 10 years ago

Sorry for the potato server everyone. Will fix asap.

Alternate download link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2PaeRjVqAN7MngxTXFPQkpLVj...

lyoshenka• 10 years ago

Do you have a text version of this? The PDF is nice, but a single-column webpage is way easier to read. Thanks.

WCityMike• 10 years ago

Quick run through pdftotext and minor cleanup: http://pastebin.com/raw/V7FaFS0Q

PanosJee• 10 years ago

How should some one get the most of anything?

getlasterror• 10 years ago

Ask a lot and then decrease

welanes• 10 years ago

This is good. Especially this:

A review of your “ideal you,” your ideal future, your major goals and desires in life.

One 'problem' with many task management methods is that when you slip (which most of us do) there's an aversion to opening up your Wunderlist/Excel/moleskin months later and seeing how far your current self is behind your aspirational self.

Task managers are good at atomizing goals into objectives but overlook motivations and outcomes. They lack a 'remind me again what's in it for future-me?' feature.

I'm currently attempting to code such a feature into my app. By way of example, take learning French as a goal:

* Tasks: the usual list of todos. Go to evening classes; Watch 5 hours of TV5Monde each week. etc.

* Resources: links to Youtube videos, uploaded language podcasts, communities on the web.

* Inspiration: images of French cities you want to visit, scenes from a favorite French film, quotes, a mini journal-entry about that French girl or guy you met that one time. Snippets of things the French-speaking-you will appreciate.

* Insights: how much time you're dedicating to the goal, hours already spent and estimated completion date based on your current rate of productivity.

So your task manager serves not only as a checklist but also as a control-room (or if you like, moodboard) for that goal. Tasks, tools, motivation and a feedback loop all in one place.

andy_ppp• 10 years ago

Love the inspirational stream...they could be global and shared between users; I often think about this for giving up smoking, ever time I get a craving I want to be reminded that it'll pass, that going outside to take a breather is okay and that spending your life worrying about getting ill is very repetitive.

mgiannopoulos2• 10 years ago

Take a look at Beeminder [1] Each goal includes an open text "fine print" where can put anything like what you describe above.

[1] https://www.beeminder.com/

dreeves2• 10 years ago

Thank you so much for that plug! The author of the article, alexvermeer, is also a longtime Beeminder fan! See https://alexvermeer.com/beeminder/

wineisfine• 10 years ago

You're definately on to something here. Not sure if "Inspiration" is the right wording. Perhaps this could be configurable.

I personally do not need "Resources" or dairy features in my tasklist system. (Then again, this is typically you get 1001 opinions when asking 1000 people).

theonething• 10 years ago

I've been using Complice [0] for a couple of months now and it does something akin to what you're describing.

[0] https://complice.co

angrow• 10 years ago

I use it too, and it's been shockingly effective for something so simple. I find the prompt to _think_ about what I _really_ want to do incredibly inspiring

It's also inspiring in another way, as a solopreneur-hacker-bootstrap success story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11999757

eta: the creator has also posted in this thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13251497

malcolmocean2• 10 years ago

I remember a classic breakdown of 7 areas of life which has in a few places when reading about goals etc: Career, Family, Financial, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual. These aren't terrible decent, but I think Alex's breakdown is much better for sparking useful thought:

• Values & Purpose • Contribution & Impact • Location & Tangibles • Money & Finances • Career & Work • Health & Fitness • Education & Skill Development • Social Life & Relationships • Emotions & Well-Being • Character & Integrity • Productivity & Organization • Adventure & Creativity

I actually liked these so much that I integrated them right into the yearly review section of the productivity app I run, Complice (https://complice.co/). The app is subscription-based, but you can use the yearly review without paying :)

To get to the yearly review, make an account then go to https://complice.co/YOUR_USERNAME_GOES_HERE/reviews/2016/yea...

matt40773• 10 years ago

The actual model is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

Almost all these self-help "how to do X" guides focus exclusively on Conscientiousness. Yeah, they all pay lip service to "relationships" but it gets the same treatment as "bigger car": work! work! work! daily goal!

• Values & Purpose • Contribution & Impact • Location & Tangibles • Money & Finances • Career & Work • Health & Fitness • Education & Skill Development • Social Life & Relationships • Emotions & Well-Being • Character & Integrity • Productivity & Organization • Adventure & Creativity

That list is absurd. If you're unhappy enough with your life to turn it into a 24-point daily checklist you need a vacation and possibly treatment for depression. If you think that's not it, here's some advice:

Get "Values & Purpose" straight and everything else will follow.

malcolmocean2• 10 years ago

There is something important to be said about the effect of having a really clear sense of purpose. I think this is seriously underrated.

But I think it's also the case that part of how we discover purposes to orient towards is thinking about areas of our lives and envisioning how they could be different.

(Also I'm not sure why you're comparing the Big Five list with these lists)

cairo_x• 10 years ago

I am not my achievements. I am not my goals. I shall smell the roses and enjoy the process and struggle without lust for result. Namaste, mofos!!!

Zelmor• 10 years ago

And an article about why it's all bullshit. Posted the same day. How ironic.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235654

maxxxxx• 10 years ago

I think a good goal would be to do one thing that you are really proud of per year. Much better than trying to be busy every second.

sireat• 10 years ago

This hyperproductivity might only be advisable in small doses and only when one is young (under 30 if not under 25) Then it has a small chance of leading to some "greater" utilitarian good (ie you become next Elon Musk)

As I get older I realize how little time I have left. There are myriad of things I will never get to do no matter how hyper organized I get.

The worst realization is that there is no real time to master something new when you are older past the age of 40. You can fake it by setting lower goalposts but that feels deeply unsatisfactory.

Only solution is to enjoy the present (family, friends, my existing skills, a good book, a game, etc) as there is no real success in the end (the pieces all go in the same box).

8,760 Hours: How to get the most out of next year

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