
Most time management is rubbish - oscardelben
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/03/26/most-time-management-is-rubbish-here-are-ten-things-that-work-for-me/
======
chime
Overall, I agree that time management does not work for everyone in the same
way. I certainly hate Outlook yelling at me 10 times a day about doing X and
attending Y. Thankfully, I am in a position where I am not obligated to live
by Outlook and can choose my own system.

I wrote a super simple webapp <http://untodos.com/> (mostly for myself) that
is pretty much the opposite of every time/schedule management app out there. I
don't care about the preciseness of the tasks, I care about the priority.
Inside my mind, I can't visualize 4:15pm-5:45pm Friday next week. The only
time horizons my mind intuitively understands are today, soon, and whenever.
My app and now my life is designed around that principle. After years of being
burdened with feeling stressed and overworked, I think I finally have a handle
on my busy schedule now and I know my stress is much lower.

My biggest gripe with traditional time management method is that you lose
sight of the big picture and only concentrate on the small urgencies. We
forget the important due to the urgent. If writing a book is one of your life
goals, where does it fit on a calendar? I know where it fits on mine, in the
"whenever" section. Once a day, I go over my "today", "soon" and "whenever"
sections and move things around as I deem necessary.

I feel my view of managing my time is more encompassing than
compartmentalizing. I am one person, I don't want "buy groceries" on a
separate list from "meet clients" because both happen within hours of each
other anyway. My life is one life, why have separate types of calendars and
events. I thought deeply about what actually matters to me and realized that
all I care about a task is whether it is "work/chore" or "fun/relaxing." As
long as I have a bunch of fun tasks interspersed between my regular chore
todos, I can manage my time well.

I guess the key lesson about time management is that you have to know yourself
and figure out what works best for you. For some, it's Outlook, for some it's
GCal synced with iPhone using RememberTheMilk app merged with iCal feeds from
your fridge. And for some like me, it's just a no-deadline, no-reminder list
of tasks with varying priorities. Find what works for you and grow with it.
And if something doesn't work, don't blame yourself and personalize the stress
as being caused by your inefficiencies but rather seek a system that fits your
personality.

~~~
davidbnewquist
Your "work/chore/business", "fun/relaxing/pleasure" dichotomy seems to be
universal. I can look at any task on my to-do list and instantly put it in one
of those buckets. Probably anyone with a to-do list can.

Why is this?! Assuming this ability is universal (and not just something chime
and I are good at:), there must be an innate psychological reason. Possibly
even a "simple" reason.

I will venture a guess: real or imagined self-threat is always associated with
failure to complete a "work" task. This is never true for an individual "play"
task.

Thoughts?

~~~
chime
My method of dividing the tasks into two buckets is very simple. Is it fun? If
it takes me more than 5 seconds to answer that question, it's not fun. Fun is
easy to categorize. So the complement of fun is thus easy to categorize too.

The reason I break it down into two is because of how I look at tasks with
respect to stress. Nearly every task either adds (even if slightly) to my
stress or relieves it. Very few are on the border and if they are on the
border, I'd say they add to my stress just because they're not actually
relieving it. My goal is to mix it all up in a healthy balance that best suits
my personality.

~~~
davidbnewquist
I may not have posed my question clearly.

You say: "Nearly every task either adds ... to my stress or relieves it." My
question is: why does this seems to be true for everyone?

The answer is not necessarily related to energy or time expenditure. For me,
playing consecutive games of intense full-court basketball is
fun/relaxing/play.

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visitor4rmindia
I find David Allen's "Getting Things Done" to be an excellent system for
managing tasks.

I've been using GTD for the past four years and I can honestly say it has
really improved my handling of time and tasks.

Additionally, it has really really reduced my stress levels because I _know_ I
haven't forgotten anything and I never miss anything important.

~~~
sgoraya
I've tried a to implement GTD a few times but am never able to stick with it -
Its an interesting system and the only one that I ever tried to implement.

I called David Allen's company to see how much the 'coach' would cost so that
a couple of my colleagues and I could get started, but it was way too high for
me to consider.

I always revert back to moleskine & 3x5 notecards.

~~~
jlees
I tried implementing GTD but it didn't stick either. However, there are tons
of useful things you can pick up just by reading GTD-the-book, going through
some of the methods and seeing what clicks with you. For me the two-minute-
rule and concept of breaking a task down into actionable steps really changed
the way I do things.

Another thing I picked up from GTD was 43 folders - although I don't use it as
gospel, the concept of sticking things that don't have to be done yet away in
a folder for when they _do_ need to be done saves me so much brain-bandwidth
(I use RTM to manage this).

I recommend the book to everyone, really; even if you don't end up a GTD-
lifehacker, I'm pretty sure you'll find a few things that work.

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jwilliams
This actually isn't too bad - It's basically a rehash of the things you'd
expect, but with some personal commentary.

I think the big thing about time management is it all comes down to this uber-
productivity philosophy. Works well for getting "stuff" done, but sometimes
being productive means having a terrific idea when you're out on a hike.

For me, time management is simply about getting all the cruft (bills, etc,
etc) out of my life -- and enabling me to be free the rest of the time... So,
I think a lot of these productivity kicks are probably really useful -- they
just take it too far.

~~~
electromagnetic
The problem I have with most time management techniques is that I'm a writer.
Sometimes sitting down and trying to write for an hour is like trying to bleed
a stone, some days it just isn't going to happen.

I've noticed I can easily get 3,000 words done in a few days without a
problem, but the extra 2,000 words before I finish a chapter tends to screw me
up. Suddenly I'm doing two jobs at once, I have to finish one story line but
tie it to the next. I also hate the advice of 'you should write _n_ words a
day no matter what', because it's inherently useless advice. I don't write
unless I'm writing something I know is half-way decent, I don't believe I
should write simply for writings sake.

I don't think any programmer here would add an extra 500 lines of random code
'just cause'.

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russell
The only time management advice that I took to heart was "If it takes less
than 5 minutes, do it now, don't schedule it." It is amazing how much stress
it saves, particularly with my SO, and it takes about as much time to do it as
write it down

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esila
I'm really surprised that one has yet to mention this book / system - Time
Management For System Administrators:

<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596007836/>

This is a wonderful system focusing on goals, priorities, proper breakdown of
tasks, stress management, relaxation, maintaining focus, etc. It gives a
wonderful breakdown of how to manage planners, and this system has been
working for me for years now. Hope you find some value out of this!

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ryanwaggoner
"Time management systems don't work...for me...well, except for this one."

~~~
coglethorpe
The author's apparent todo list:

\- Write blog post

\- Put paid link to one site in.

\- Do internal SEO to other post with paid link

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raintrees
I have recently been wondering if all of this multitasking I was so proud of
is a prime reason that time seems to pass too quickly... You mean it's almost
April already?

I have been working at purposely slowing down, doing a more thorough job. My
clients and friends seem to appreciate having my full attention. So does my
wife :)

And I still get enough done that I am satisfied. Maybe it is because I am not
having to do things over so much?

~~~
josefresco
You have too much free time. Get some more clients so you can make more money.
Doesn't your wife want ...'things'?!?

~~~
raintrees
But then I would have less time to pore over HN!

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josefresco
In other news ...Most Top 10 Lists are Rubbish

More at 11

