
Ask HN: Time Management Tricks and Tips - wasi0013
I have seen numerous Software Engineers, Web Developers and, tech people working on various domains in different renowned companies, who are literally active in everywhere! For example, they are extremely good at their fields of work. They are equally active on Social Media such as Twitter or, Facebook etc. Also, maintain blogs with quality contents. Most of them posts valuable answers to Stack overflow, Quora etc. They also  Attend conferences&#x2F; meetup with slides full of gems and, not to mention about their high quality presentations(indicates their dedication in preparation). And, actively posts update about recent series&#x2F;movies&#x2F;musics they watched or, books they have finished reading! I might have missed some other things they do but, I just wonder how do they manage their time to such extend! 
How do they do it?
======
rb808
>they are extremely good at their fields of work.

Be careful to make the distinction between the people that talk a lot and the
people that do good work. A lot of people talk a lot on the conference
circuit, know all the cool new technologies but never really own a project for
a length of time. Its easier to be PR master when you don't have to deliver
and support a critical system.

Edit: Of course some people are a few great devs and do have some great:
blogs/videos/presentations/twitter accts. But I dont think you can do
everything and have a partner and/or family and stay sane/healthy. It isn't an
achievable goal.

~~~
chiefalchemist
There are plenty of ppl who are better at selling themselves than the actual
effectiveness of the technics they sell.

I need not name names (but GaryVee comes to mind.)

~~~
mitchellberry
To be pedantic you just named a name.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Nah. Just casually mentioned what came to mind. I coukd have said ice cream ;)

------
xlii
It’s not really time management, but rather energy management thing.

Every thing that you do is going to leave you with either energy gain or loss.
The idea is to either sustain energy level or spend what you have then gain it
- just like charging a battery.

Tricky part is doing things that give you energy gain. One thing might be very
exhausting in the evening, but give you a lot of energy in the morning. It
achanges with setting and context as well (for example after 10 days of
constant socializing you might want to be left in solitude for a few days, or
after spending week in solitude you might crave for social interaction).

So, a lot of things you’re seeing online are people for which professional
socializing is an energy gain. After full day of work (or even during work
break) they get an energy boost from sharing, answering and attending
conferences.

This isn’t for everyone - though. It might be that for you doing stuff like
this is actually energy loss. If you’re expending your energy throughout the
day and at the end you need to spend bit more to write a blog post or prepare
for the conference you are going to subconsciously push it away from you
making an illusion of “not getting enough time of doing it”.

In concrete scenario imagine situation where a person has exactly 10 minutes
(of non-allocated) time (let’s say wait for doctor appoinment). One person is
going to open a game on their phone, other is going to browse the news,
someone else is going to open a laptop and write 5-6 lines of code for the
stuff they are building and other is going to browse stackoverflow. Such
timeslot isn’t usually planned, but it builds the result from small blocks and
(usually) is following "energy gain" or at least not a energy gain.

(Note: even if for someone doing social stuff is constant energy loss there is
no reason to fret. It’s not really a requierement: while you aren’t going to
be internet famous you can still earn a very decent living without having to
take part in professional/non-professional social networks).

~~~
duncanawoods
>> _The idea is to either sustain energy level or spend what you have then
gain it - just like charging a battery_

I am beginning to believe this is a dangerously misleading analogy because
what we describe as energy in productivity terms is definitely not a resource
that is depleted and refilled, but something that behaves very differently.

For example, lets say you are in a productivity slump but then a few nice
words from customer turns it all around, you feel full of energy and
motivation and crush your work with enthusiasm. The customer has not handed
over a resource, instead, their words have changed ideas in your head. The
ideas in your head are dictating whether you feel full of energy or in a
slump, not a quantity that follows the rules of conservation.

An example of a different analogy that conflicts with the battery version is
to describe energy/motivation as a fly-wheel. If your don't put enough energy
in, it will stall and all energy you put in is lost. However get it up to
speed and it can be self-sustaining - you seem to get more out of it than you
put in. I find that more interesting than the battery but its also pretty
weak.

Addressing the true causes of productivity requires understanding how our
thoughts lead to feelings of energy and motivation. The battery analogy is
tempting because it is easy to understand and makes the problem seem tractable
but its actually disguising and hiding the hard problem.

~~~
xlii
I'd like to point out, that you shouldn't link energy with productivity but
instead of how compatible person is with the workflow.

I can have a lot of energy, but be totally unproductive. Good example are
students, who (usually) don't have as much obligations as work force people
and procrastinate a lot. There's is joke they're going to do everything except
studying - mostly because anxiety of studying for exams creates somewhat
mental barrier that in turns into perception that studying takes much more
energy than it actually will.

On the other hand - one can have almost no energy and still be productive
(have you ever worked so hard, that you fallen asleep 10 minutes after you'd
finished?).

Obviously, battery analogy is not 100% true, because humans don't really have
a full/empty condition. You can borrow your energy almost ad infinitum to the
moment that you're going to experience burnout and heavy depression. And even
then people can still get some energy in crisis situations. As always when
talking about people's psyche there are a lot of conditions and baggage to
discuss, yet, on basic level battery analogy usually works fine.

You need to be aware of your energy and need to take care of yourself. Both
physically and mentally.

~~~
duncanawoods
Its a good point - I think the language being used in productivity discussion
is painfully informal and wooly.

I think energy in this context is often used to mean "enthusiasm" or
"motivation". Its the energy that can be applied in a desired direction - a
combination of actual gas in the tank as well as a panoply of psychological
factors.

> You can borrow your energy almost ad infinitum to the moment that > you're
> going to experience burnout and heavy depression

Sama says something quite interesting here that indicates the psychological
rather than the energy aspect of burn-out. He believes its impossible to burn-
out if you are experiencing success. I think there is truth there, failure to
progress and dis-satisfaction is a common feature in burnout cases. I suspect
burnout is often a protection mechanism to get us to stop a behaviour rather
than an actual state of energy depletion. Its a bit like the growing evidence
for psychosomatic backpain occurring in response to psychological not physical
factors.

------
reubenswartz
To combine multiple comments into one...

It's helpful if you have a sense of purpose or Mission (the Elon Musk
comment).

Using GTD, or something like it to manage your own task pipeline is really
useful. Trying to figure out the exact next step wastes a lot of cycles. I've
found that when I'm in that state, it's because I haven't broken down the task
into small enough chunks.

Manage your energy (this has something to do with the tasks themselves, and a
lot to do with what you eat, how you sleep, how you exercise, and your general
mental state).

Offload, automate, or drop tasks that you don't actually need to do
(yourself).

Remove distractions to make it easier to focus and control your attention.
(I've been thinking a lot about this quote lately: What information consumes
is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth
of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that
attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that
might consume it. -- Herbert Simon)

~~~
justadudeama
I agree with everything you say. The one thing I would add (going again mostly
with the GTD approach), is review and self-evaluation. On a weekly basis, go
over your goals, your tasks, and everything you need to do. If you can keep
everything in one system, your brain can trust it and you can feel a lot less
stress due to not having to remember everything.

------
falcolas
The only thing I don't see covered in other comments is that writing and
public speaking are skills. At first, they're really hard - you'll spend a
month or more making a good 30m speech, or writing a high quality but short
blog post. However, after years of writing high quality blog posts, it only
takes 4 hours. That hour-long speech in front of your peers takes only 10,
spread across a few weeks.

More, high quality talks given at conferences tend to be talks that have been
given at a few different conferences, allowing those speakers to take
advantage of the long tail of even 80+ hours of effort over a few years.

Think of your programming work. When you first started, how long did it take
to create a correct CRUD app. How long does it take you now? The same will
apply to your speaking and writing skills, once you build them.

------
jdavis703
First off, don't measure your productivity against what others are doing,
measure it against yourself. Perhaps some of these people you're seeing have
"developer evangelist" or "architecture" roles, allowing them to spend more
time posting on social, writing articles, giving presentations and less time
producing software artifacts.

Second I think meditition is extremely important. Yes it'll take time from
your day but you'll start training your mind on how to focus, so the hours you
do spend trying to produce work artifacts are more focused (and free of
depression, anxiety and mindless thoughts). You can try apps such as Calm or
Headspace to learn more about how meditition can be practical for your daily
life.

Second plan out your work and goals for each day and hour or whatever your
relevant work unit is. Set a timer so you take frequent but planned short
breaks. Go for a walk or make some coffee. Don't get on social media or Hacker
News on your short break. When your break is over stay focused on your work,
using mindfulness techniques that you hone during meditition.

Lastly figure out ways to block out distraction. If you like to daydream, set
aside time to do so and keep your notes in a journal. If there are really
noisy Slack channels, mute or leave them. Turn off email notifications, and
only check it when you start the day, around lunch time and before you leave
for the day. And put your phone on airplane mode during the day if you can.

------
meesterdude
Time management: #1 tool is GTD. Not so much GTD itself, which is for task
management. But it's a great start, and leads to other thinkings and
evaluations that make you more effective at the things that matter to you.

But a lot of what stop us is not time, but emotions. Especially if you're
trying to do creative ventures. And for that, a great read is "the war of
art". my favorite quote: "Hitler found it easier to start WW2 than stare at a
blank canvas".

~~~
zacurry
Is GTD a software or philosophy? Could you please provide a link ? I could
only find the link to a book .

~~~
justadudeama
Philosophy.

Basically:

* Write everything down that comes to your head. Review that information.

* Categorize everything into actionable tasks, or waiting items within a project (Anything that takes more than one task)

* Clear your inboxes (Physical and digital) often

* Weekly review of how the system is working for you

Coming along with that is a lot of software to try and make it really easy to
follow. I personally use Todoist, a lot of people in the Apple ecosystem like
omnifocus, but really any task-app and a calender can do (paper works as
well).

I suggest reading the book if you are someone who struggles with productivity
or wants an imporoved system. I like the book because even if you don't fully
adopt the system, just about everything in the book works independently (You
don't have to do EVERYTHING in the book to get an improvement, as I see often
with other similar books).

~~~
gt_
Do you use the Todoist Windows app? I like Todoist and have used it for a few
years but the Windows app is crumbling! They moved to the Windows Store and
the new app has tons of bugs. I keep losing tasks _while_ trying to edit them.
I will rearrange a task only to find now I have a duplicate. I try to delete
one and I lose both. So, the whole ‘task list’ idea has been undermined by the
app’s bugs.

The legacy Windows app still works but is getting it’s own set of bugs as time
goes by.

Have you had these experiences? Just wondering. I’m currently shopping for
another solution. I have e-mailed them and the customer service seems to be
waning along with the software support.

~~~
justadudeama
No, I use the Chrome App.

~~~
gt_
All Chrome apps are coming to an end in the next month or two :(.

------
UK-Al05
One secret is a lot of these people have help.

I know people who are active on social media, who have other people post for
them.

They also flesh out articles, and have other people edit and polish them up
and so on.

What are you trying to do compete with multiple people being paid to build a
brand.

They are also employed in jobs where they are allowed to do these things in
work time. They are not heads down workers.

~~~
nunez
> They are also employed in jobs where they are allowed to do these things in
> work time. They are not heads down workers.

This, 100%. The big names in Tech are definitely not heads-down engineers or
aren't on a daily basis. They are paid to travel the country/world, give talks
and write books because they are a passive inbound sales engine. Talks, books,
etc. generate a LOT of inbound revenue because they establish credibility.

Visit their LinkedIn profiles sometime. You'll notice that a giant swath of
those big names don't report to Engineering; they report to Sales/Marketing.

------
hkmurakami
A lot of what you list is output. Output is actually not that hard once you
actually know your domain very well. It's just putting what you already
know/understand well onto paper.

Input or synthesis based activities are much harder and take more voluntary
investment imo. For many of us, becoming very good at our craft (ex: day job)
will be the input activity, and the retained knowledge can be channeled as
output over multiple mediums.

~~~
synthmeat
In agreement, this pretty much sums it up - it really isn't hard if you
already have something to say. The hard part is building internally so you
actually have something to say. Related poem. [1]

[1] [https://allpoetry.com/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-
Writer](https://allpoetry.com/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer)

~~~
tw334
While this may be the case for the poet and many like him, it isn't true for
all writers. Not having something to say can be a good starting point and
shouldn't discourage those who want to practice and improve their writing.

------
hliyan
1\. Automate. If I find myself doing something more than three or four times,
I look for ways to automate it. The obvious way is some sort of script. At
other times, the solution is to write a script for a human being -- a detailed
guide -- and offload/delegate to someone else.

2\. Think ahead. A lot of my time-wasting interruptions used to be due to
things not going according to plan (mostly in the form of bug reports). I've
since learned to do extensive error handling and unit testing. Fewer
interruptions mean more time in flow.

3\. Break your tasks down into small (preferably 2-minute) slices, as I've
commented elsewhere in this thread. This neutralizes your inertia against
picking up tasks from your todo list. You can build up a nice personal
velocity.

------
kzrdude
Internet shrinks the world and make those that are absolutely amazing and
ahead of most others more visible.

I think it's good to not fall into the trap and compare oneself too much with
the best. Just consider if it is a net benefit for you, and realize that on
the web you risk not just trying to be the best in your room, your school or
city but in the wide world.

~~~
noir_lord
Pretty much this, I'm a good not great programmer, I know this and I accept it
however because I hang around the communities of the various languages and
projects I'm interested in I get exposed to the great programmers and so I
find myself comparing myself to them and the result is unflattering.

Then I remember that I'm dealing with a collective group that represents the
top end of the community (self selection pays a part, people who go home and
carry on programming with passion are not representative of the average
programmer I've worked with).

As an example on friday I took something that used to take 140s to render in
the browser (not kidding - it also used 3GB of RAM per request and returned
27MB of 'XML' after I lifted the limit to stop PHP throwing an OOM exception)
and made it take under a second (by adding indexes to joined fields,
implementing server side pagination, tuning the mysql instance and then
finally writing a vue component wrapper over the implementation of the
datatables library the system uses).

Literally none of that was advanced nor voodoo, it's something I'd expect any
programmer on here to be capable off but there are so _many_ bad programmers
who just skate by producing terrible code with no thought put into things _at
all_.

The final kicker was that it now searches three times as many fields including
sales lines (on a sales order you'd kind of expect it should have done that to
start with).

------
Delmania
Here's some tips:

* They use tools like Buffer to be active on several social media accounts at once.

* They're active on Stack Overflow during working hours.

* They use work as fodder for blogs and presentations.

* They seek out challenges at work.

It just comes down to using your time wisely to achieve several goals at once.

If this is what you want, then I'd recommend every morning to plan out your
day and keep track.

Also note, many of these people do not have children.

------
muzani
Maker/manager scheduling:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html)

I find that most people who are active bloggers and on social media are at the
top of the chain. They are more managers than makers. Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk,
Paul Graham, Marc Andreessen, Joel Spolsky... these guys were once great
makers, but now they're great managers.

When on the manager schedule, your job is to basically be available to your
team. You are an information router, you have to make sure information passes
from one part of the organization to another quickly.

But there's a limited number of things to do in the manager schedule. So they
plenty of time to do nothing but writing.

When on the maker schedule, they get into flow and stay in flow, avoiding all
distractions. This is where all the programming happens.

It's also not uncommon to see people working two workdays - making late at
night but managing in the day.

------
danabe
Here's a short list of some ideas I like to share when we start doing any
"agile transformation" work with organizations and teams:

1) Recognize the difference of being "busy" vs "effective"

2) Work-in-Progress = Waste (until it's done - so 1 thing done is better than
1000 "in-progress")

3) Multitasking doesn't work

4) Parkinson's Law: perceived work will expand to the time you allot it. Break
it up and set short deadlines.

5) Pareto's Law: 80% of the value is from 20% of the "features". Many things
over that base 20% can be skipped or not undertaken yet still provide value.

6) Empowerment Failure: outsource some tasks but don't micromanage. Let smart
people make decisions and help them learn how to do so.

7) Email: check it 1-2 times per day at a set time.

“Get off the cocaine pellet dispenser and focus on the execution of your top
to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies.” – Tim Ferriss (The
4-hour Workweek)

8) Meetings: stop them whenever possible. Insist on agendas beforehand from
the organizer when it's not possible to escape.

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations
and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot
actually masturbate.”

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not
achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be
‘meetings.'”

– Dave Barry (Pulitzer prize-winning columnist/humorist)

(Also listed here: [https://www.scrum.city/article-categories/general-
productivi...](https://www.scrum.city/article-categories/general-
productivity/) )

------
iovrthoughtthis
I would love some people who do all of these things to break down their day
(days) at a quite granular level!

------
kirubakaran
I wrote [https://crushentropy.com/](https://crushentropy.com/) for myself and
I've been consistently using it for the past three months. It makes it easy
for me to follow the scheduling technique recommended by Cal Newport in "Deep
Work" and the unscheduling technique that Neil Fiore recommends in "The Now
Habit".

I can say without exaggeration that this has massively increased my
productivity, mainly by making me be more mindful of how I spend my day.

~~~
stinkytaco
This looks cool. I don't suppose it's something that could be self-hosted,
however?

~~~
kirubakaran
Thanks! At the moment, it can't be self-hosted. Hope you still find it useful.

------
DoreenMichele
_How do they do it?_

Some people only need four to six hours sleep a night. Such people do a great
deal more than folks who routinely sleep eight plus hours a night.

Some people have streamlined their life to cut out a lot of time sinks that
many people believe are simply not optional. They, too, get more done than
average.

Some people would die of boredom if they didn't have tons going on. Their many
activities often feed on each other. Their blog posts grow out of other
activities.

------
polote
Well, you see all these activities separated, but many times preparing a
presentation, attending a conference and being active on Social media can be
done during work.

Also people with normal jobs (8h per day) need to sleep about 8h per day, then
they still have 8h per day to do other things, not even counting the weekends
!

~~~
mandeepj
Not exactly . I think you forgot about following

1\. Getting ready

2\. Commute

3\. Eating

4\. Work out

5\. Errands

6\. General daily stuff - calls, unexpected events

7\. Family and kids (if applicable)

I guess during weekdays you don’t have spare hours more than 1 or 2 or at a
stretch 3

~~~
polote
I didn't, these are all part of the "8 hours for other things".

If you want to live far from your job, then you have a lot of commute, same
for food if you want to take your time for eating. Working out is not
mandatory.

You can always optimize time, I work 10 hours per day, I workout every day and
I still have about 2 hours of free time per day

------
nickjj
It's just a matter of sitting down and doing the work. There are no tricks,
but there are a couple of things you can do to help you build better habits
initially.

I wrote a couple of posts about this at [https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/learn-
how-to-schedule-your-ti...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/learn-how-to-
schedule-your-time) and [https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-overcome-
procrastinati...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-overcome-
procrastination-with-a-3-pronged-attack).

------
_Codemonkeyism
I call mine the "What would Elon Musk do?"

Would Elon Musk sit here watch Netflix?

~~~
kamaal
I think Elon Musk would watch Netflix. The question is not if he watches TV.
The question is when does he watch it.

My guess is the top of the line productive people use recreation as a way of
recovering from stress and fatigue. Other people seem to tire watching things
like TV.

------
partycoder
Gathering data on how you spend your time can help identifying windows of
available time, or comparing one day to another.

Regular sleep, hydration, nutrition and exercise helps.

Also, reducing stress/anxiety is important. Take a moment and relax, stretch,
breathe. Maybe have a quick nap.

Then, set small and attainable goals. And as you get more consistent and
better, make those goals more ambitious.

Also, writing down what you are doing can help you resuming that train of
thought later.

------
hellofunk
And many also have kids! My guess is they just don't sleep.

------
johnhenry
I could write down few tips about how to best plan your schedule, but being
able to understand and manage one's own depression and anxiety is key for some
people. It can really affect one's will to just get our there and do stuff
versus putting something off until it becomes inconvenient.

It's been hard for me to tell when I've been in a "funk", but anytime I've
come out of one, it's immediately obvious that something was wrong and I
become much more productive in every area of my life.

For some people, it a constant battle, but it's easier to deal with if you
have a core support group of friends and family who can help you realize when
you're not quite being yourself, though, this is somewhat of a catch 22.

------
chiefalchemist
As a foundation, I highly recommend the book "Your Brain at Work" by David
Rock. There are plenty of time management hacks. YBaW helps you understand why
they work, or more importantly why for you they might not be working.

------
kleer001
A few things I haven't seen mentioned already, a little bit of fuel for the
fire:

Fear of failure. Actual, knee knocking, watery leg, deep child-like fear-of-
the-dark, kind of fear. Not all the time, but certainly there. Tongue in
cheek: do your best or an eternity of suffering awaits you.

Lack of pride. If you think you're shit you'll do anything to prove yourself.
Well, you are, now do your mighty mighty best to prove me wrong. Your only
real competition is your truest potential and your highest ideal.

Good luck, and don't fuck it up.

------
a-saleh
One day I would like to get good at this as well, but so far, with job and
wife an daughter and attempts at still having a social life, thing that helped
most was making it part of my job.

My manager knows that from time to time I will be working on a talk or a
workshop during work-hours. I even have it as part of my career plan :)

So far, I have presented to ~100 people total and half of those were my
colleagues on internal conference. I still like it, and one day I might have
something worthwhile to say to a bigger crowd :)

------
greggarious
One time sink I found was my morning news reading. I'd pull up WaPo and The
Guardian and next thing I know, 45 minutes have gone by.

Since then, I've started listening to news podcasts (NPR and NYT both do a
daily news summary, total runtime ~40 min).

I purchased a cheap shower radio[1] from Amazon, and by the time I'm dressed I
feel like I've been relaxing rather than doing chores and more able to jump
into work.

------
baby
Little social life, lots of work-related RSS feeds, job that allows this kind
of throughput.

------
zwischenzug
FWIW I wrote mine up here:

[https://zwischenzugs.com/2017/12/03/how-i-manage-my-
time/](https://zwischenzugs.com/2017/12/03/how-i-manage-my-time/)

------
sshagent
Maybe these types of people are too busy to be on HN, but let's hope not.

------
welder
1\. Prioritize, then make sure you get at least your top priority thing done.

1\. Use [https://wakatime.com](https://wakatime.com) to feel good about the
things you worked on.

------
rguzman
use a calendar.

i don't mean for appointments. i mean get rid of your todo lists and all
similar abstractions and explicitly allocate your time using a calendar.

i wrote this up with some more details here:
[http://rz.github.io/articles/2016/oct/time-on-your-
side.html](http://rz.github.io/articles/2016/oct/time-on-your-side.html)

------
puuush
Perhaps they are using Getting things done methodology. Have a look at it. It
makes you more relaxed & productive.

------
dmichulke
Do they have kids?

------
puuush
Getting things done

------
gaius
_are literally active in everywhere! For example, they are extremely good at
their fields of work. They are equally active on Social Media such as Twitter
or, Facebook etc. Also, maintain blogs with quality contents. Most of them
posts valuable answers to Stack overflow, Quora etc. They also Attend
conferences / meetup with slides full of gems_

Answer: they don't. What you are seeing is the "technology evangelist", a sort
of guerrilla marketing thing where people pretend to be an ordinary developer
just like you who just loves the products of company X - and is supported in
producing all this content by the marketing team back at the company. Don't be
fooled, they are selling snake oil.

------
kapauldo
Distraction is the #1 time killer. Put your phone on dnd and don't check email
for 1 hour blocks. I guarantee a change.

