I admit, I started reading this extremely skeptically. Perhaps somewhat snootily I thought "Ahh, the joys of youth. Wait until this guy gets to late middle age and starts to wonder 'Wait, what exactly am I optimizing all this for???'"
But I admit I was wrong and found myself (someone well into middle age...) really agreeing with lots in this post. I particularly liked this paragraph:
> While developing an optimization mindset can pay huge dividends, it's also important not to take it to an extreme. Obsessively optimizing every minor daily task runs the risk of becoming an energy and time drain itself. There is such a thing as "paralysis by analysis," where you spend more time tweaking and planning than actually doing. Additionally, removing all inefficiencies can make life feel overly regimented and sterile. A degree of spontaneity, imperfection, and slack is necessary for creativity, relaxation, and enjoying the journey. The goal should be to increase overall productivity while leaving room for flexibility, not transforming every waking moment into a tightly optimized process. Moderation and balance are key - optimize where it counts, but don't lose sight of other life priorities.
That is, by optimizing stuff that you essentially "need to get done", it can actually lead to more space and freedom to enjoy the creative parts of your life.
"Waiting periods are one of the biggest causes of unoptimized processes in real life. You need to identify waiting periods and try to reduce or eliminate them."
That's just 1 way of dealing with wait time. And not even a good one: some wait times can only be reduced at ever-increasing effort (diminishing returns).
Another way is to make the wait time useful so it's not 'lost'. It's kinda like a scheduler in multi-tasking OS: some process 'blocks' (wait time starts), in response you just switch to a different activity. No busy waiting, no 'cpu time' lost.
The "wait time" in practicals is a good opening for lab partners get to know each other. There shouldn't be too much but 5 or 10 minutes here or there is good.
Sometimes natural slack is better for this than explicitly provided socialisation cues.
When you optimise ideally you should ensure you are thinking about the whole system.
It sounds like the changes here were positive but it's good to be mindful that everyone has blind spots and systems involving humans often have unstated objectives or things going on that aren't part of the "spec".
What does the optimization make time for? What is the goal? Maximum accumulation of resources? Health? Happiness? If I save ten minutes by meal prepping, do I have to optimize _those_ ten minutes?
Time is the most finite resource any of us have. If you can create more time in your day, you have more to do literally anything else, including doing absolutely nothing if you so choose.
Hmmm! Bookmark your comment here and come back after a few years, or perhaps a decade. I hope you smile by then, and then spend some time doing nothing.
I figured if you were as crazy as OP about "optimizing" then sitting doing nothing would surely be anathema.
Similar to doing nothing being valuable, sometimes doing something "optimally", just isn't worth it -- how do you enjoy cooking a meal you've never cooked before of You're trying to hyper optimally meal prep for the week?
I would say the goal is up to you. If you have a set list of things you want to accomplish in a week, you’d optimize to ensure those tasks are done, and any leftover time can be spent on leisure. That’s just one model.
But I admit I was wrong and found myself (someone well into middle age...) really agreeing with lots in this post. I particularly liked this paragraph:
> While developing an optimization mindset can pay huge dividends, it's also important not to take it to an extreme. Obsessively optimizing every minor daily task runs the risk of becoming an energy and time drain itself. There is such a thing as "paralysis by analysis," where you spend more time tweaking and planning than actually doing. Additionally, removing all inefficiencies can make life feel overly regimented and sterile. A degree of spontaneity, imperfection, and slack is necessary for creativity, relaxation, and enjoying the journey. The goal should be to increase overall productivity while leaving room for flexibility, not transforming every waking moment into a tightly optimized process. Moderation and balance are key - optimize where it counts, but don't lose sight of other life priorities.
That is, by optimizing stuff that you essentially "need to get done", it can actually lead to more space and freedom to enjoy the creative parts of your life.
Kudos to the author, I was pleasantly surprised.