Ask HN: How would you plan your days when you are unemployed?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41724445

by Venkatesh10 • 2 years ago

5 17 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

As the title says, What would your average day look like improving or exploring various aspects of life from Health, Skills, Physical, Growth and more?

cranberryturkey3• 2 years ago

I wake up at 4am -- light a cigar and brew a cup of coffee. I sit in the garage and watch the neighborhood wakeup.

At about 11am I take a 3 hour nap.

taylodl• 2 years ago

They said unemployed, not retired! :)

fuzzfactor• 2 years ago

Really, the only difference is whether it's your final employer or not.

And it may not always be possible to be sure :\

jarule• 2 years ago

Same except replace cigar with spliff.

cranberryturkey3• 2 years ago

I'm transitioning from cigars to weed.

Venkatesh103• 2 years ago

Sounds like something I'd like to do once I've FIRE'd

vlod3• 2 years ago

Work on a project and pretend you're still employed.

Use Trello (or equivalent) to project manage yourself i.e. set deadlines, do extra to hit targets, do releases etc.

I think it's very easy to punt things.

Venkatesh103• 2 years ago

Would you recommend any good framework for time/project management?

vlod3• 2 years ago

For my work-work job, I maintain a dev worklog. The simpler the better. You're not going to increase your productivity by using fancy tools IMHO. KISS it.

Personally I have a text file and using vscode (w/ an extension called 'Insert Date String'), so I have a keyboard shortcut.

I insert the datetime and what I'm currently trying to do and log any pita stuff that happens or general stuff that if my micromanager asked me details of why my ticket took 2 hours to complete and I have a log of all the yak shaving I've done. I also put references to any cool stuff I find that might help me later (I just ctrl-f find them)

If I go for lunch or anything more than 10mins I insert another datetime and enter 'done', when I'm back, same thing but 'start'.

Really-really simple no-brainer. At the end of the day, tally the work and insert something like: === 10 hours. I have one text file for months.

There will be a strong temptation to over complicate this. There be dragons.

yen2232• 2 years ago

Maintaining "office hours" for working on projects works really well for me

nitwit0052• 2 years ago

I just made sure I took a daily walk and made healthier meals.

Planning sounds like pointless stress. Are you going to schedule every hour of your retirement?

Venkatesh103• 2 years ago

Not retired, just unemployed ATM.

nitwit0052• 2 years ago

You're still going to have goals when you're retired though. The status is quite similar.

yen2232• 2 years ago

I haven't had traditional employment in months. I've been working on my project instead (see my profile).

Here's some random points:

- I follow "office hours". Monday-Friday 9am-5pm is creative work time. My rule is I try to do things I would only do in the office, i.e. work, chat, HN on the side, lunch, etc. How well I stick to this is ... debatable.

- Time management is easier and harder. Easier because there's no more Jira or sprints or all that busy-work, harder because I now have to manage my own time. I found that setting hard deadlines for subgoals (e.g. launch the app on May 5, whether it's "ready" or not) works really well for me.

- Growth-wise: There's about a billion things that needs to be solved when working on my project. I figure out what the next problem is and try to learn enough to solve it. That's where my growth has come from.

- I have personal fitness goals. I make it a point to go for a run, outdoors, at least three times a week. This rule forces me to go outside every so often, otherwise it's too easy for me to stay indoors all day.

Ask HN: How would you plan your days when you are unemployed?

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