
Ask: How do you apply “programmer’s” efficiency in everyday life things? - 5_minutes
I notice myself towards fellow human beings that I try to optimize simple everyday tasks. “They” mainly try to optimize certain events, by using Google Maps for the shortest route.<p>But I try to do this with numerous things, from filling up the dishwasher, to taking out the thrash, to (quite often to irritation to my SO), postponing things: to add things up and then to everything in one-efficient go.<p>Some of these moundaine tasks are “repeated” items with a reminder of a todo-app. Or by paying all bills every 2 weeks, instead of when they come in.<p>My wife (2 kids) cleans the house basically constantly. While when I’m alone, I just do it at the end of the day, cause it doesn’t matter to clean up multiple times the toys.<p>I buy things that don’t expire (like toothpaste) in bulk. While she buys them by one.<p>Do you guys&#x2F;girls have similar instincts and events happening? It’s really not about non-chalance, but rather the strive to do things as efficiently as possible with as little effort as possible, while having the same good outcome.
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wskinner
I store physical items in my home in an LRU cache. Items I use all the the
time are close to the places where I use them. Less frequently used items are
stored further from the place they are used, for example in a closet or the
garage.

This clashes badly with my roommate, also a programmer, who strongly prefers
to store items by category. He will put all the kitchen gadgets on a shelf by
the kitchen even if those gadgets go months without being used.

The advantage of his method is that you always know where something is,
because it’s in the right place. The advantage of my method is that most of
the time I get things done faster, though sometimes I end up spending some
time looking for a thing I use only infrequently.

It turns out he also has much more stuff than I do. Since caches are more
efficient with a smaller working set, it makes sense that we would each prefer
our own strategy. Who knows which direction the causation goes.

~~~
Cieplak
This reminds me a lot of Marie Kondo's book, _The Life-Changing Magic of
Tidying Up_ , which had a huge impact on how I organize things.

~~~
tchaffee
Also reminds me of Sandra Felton's book _The Messies Manual: The
Procrastinator 's Guide to Good Housekeeping_ which had a huge impact on my
approach to most things in life requiring organization. I'll one-up the idea
of an LRU cache: you can own several pairs of scissors. And the right place
for them can be the workshop, the sewing room, the art studio room, the
kitchen, and your home office. That one tip has saved me loads of time.

------
tchaffee
You are task oriented, while your wife is goal oriented. If there are twenty
dishes to wash and you only have time to wash seven, the goal oriented person
washes the seven. Goal oriented people actually tend to be better organized
and get more things done. All of the time you spend planning doesn't add up to
enough savings for it to pay off. Try timing a few things and see for
yourself. Loading the dishwasher in a different way might save you one or two
seconds total. But you spent more time thinking about it. Just get things
done. You'll find you are faster, and you spend less time thinking. Thinking
requires effort and energy. Save that for the stuff that really matters.

~~~
projektir
Such claims are very major and significant, but rarely have strong evidence
behind them, and as such I would recommend that they are not made, and that
the OP continues to do whatever it is that they find efficient.

~~~
badrabbit
Opinion does not require evidence. He was commenting based on experience.

~~~
jamescostian
GP wasn't asserting that the original comment wasn't an opinion, GP was
asserting that the lack of evidence makes the opinion unnecessary (the
question was not "Why ..." it was "How ..." and the question did not ask for
any tips).

To better demonstrate why this opinion isn't worth a lot without strong
evidence, one can imagine almost the same words, but arguing for the exact
opposite side and notice how neither argument is more helpful than the other.
For example, consider if the original comment read:

Task oriented people actually tend to be better organized and get more things
done. The tunnel vision that goal oriented people have prevents them from
performing efficiently enough to meet their goals. Try timing a few things and
see for yourself. Not thinking about things might save you one or two seconds
total. But you spent more time proceeding with an inefficient plan. Just think
a little more. You'll find you are faster, and you spend less time repeating
the same motions. Actions require effort and energy. Save that for the stuff
that really matters.

~~~
btschaegg
> The tunnel vision that goal oriented people have prevents them from
> performing efficiently enough to meet their goals.

Interesting. You basically just described various situations in which I was
flabbergasted because some colleagues of mine regularly try to slog manually
through very boring, repetitive tasks (with much sighing and moaning, of
course). I find it rather strange to have to point out possible automation
(even for one-off tasks) in an IT firm.

That said, being the procrastinating type, some tasks just have to get done.
The dishes don't do themselves, no matter how much you organize them :-)

~~~
tchaffee
I'm glad you mentioned procrastination. That's a key characteristic of task
oriented people. The biggest benefit I got from observing goal oriented vs.
task oriented people was to stop procrastinating (in the name of efficiency)
and to just get things done. Things like the dishes. And once I understood
there's not going to be a breakthrough in efficiency in picking up socks
around the house, I also started moving faster at those things so I could get
back to the fun stuff like thinking about how to make stuff efficient. Stuff
that really can be made more efficient.

------
pommers
I've gone down the path of minimising my choices to a small good set for a lot
of things. I do this for everything from clothes and shoes to managing my
money.

Clothes are simple. 10 shirts that are either black or grey. Three shirts that
are work branded. close to ten pairs of chinos and jeans (all work
appropriate, some kevlar lined for motorbikes) Bulk undies and socks, all
patterned so they are easy to pair up. Two pairs of shorts for summer and a
pair of sports shorts for sport and the beach. A couple of suits for the odd
time I need them (weddings and interviews)

For getting stuff done like cooking or making stuff, I operate with the
minimum number of "tools". For actual tools, this means a cordless drill and
screwdriver, couple of power tools, a good screwdriver set, a spanner set and
a socket set. For the kitchen it means three good knives, the minimum set of
kitchen utensils I need to make everything I make regularly, one good pan and
two good big tiered pots that I can steam stuff in.

Financially I assign resources as they come in. I split my paycheck into fun
money (pub and lunches/dinners out), food money (going to the shops and making
stuff myself), savings and bills. All my bills are direct debited and the
amount I put in to paying bills is higher than I worked out it would cost me
over the course of the year. This means i only ever have to think about how
much of the fun money and food money I have when making decisions.

By minimising my options when it comes to making decisions, I minimise my time
working through all the options to make them.

~~~
wskinner
What you are describing has been touched on by a few other commenters here,
and it really works for me too. Psychology even has fancy terms for why this
works: devision fatigue and the paradox of choice.

~~~
pommers
I've taking minimizing my decisions to an extreme in some areas. My meals
normally consist of food from a small group and when I'm travelling, the local
food I go out to try or when I'm meeting people is normally burgers.

------
pidge
A literal one that I probably picked up from another comment section here:

Treat your closet as an LRU cache—always put clothes away on one side, and
start looking for items from the same side. As an added benefit when you run
out of capacity, anything that has ended up on the far side is a likely
candidate to be evicted to a higher latency storage layer (bins in the attic),
or simply deleted and recomputed if ever needed again (just drop it off at
Goodwill, you can always buy another).

~~~
derekp7
You also have to add a recompute expense to that calculation. The $500 3-piece
suit that you only wear to special work events, weddings, etc. shouldn't get
deleted just because you haven't used it in a year.

------
Rjevski
Don't have much to say about how to do things, but I'd say try to _reduce_ the
number of things to do, so the little you still have to do won't be a big
deal.

For example, I only communicate with companies/suppliers via email/phone (and
change suppliers if they can't accommodate that). This means any physical mail
that arrives must be spam, and goes in the trash without even being opened -
anything I care about would instead come through phone or email. This means I
haven't needed to fiddle with papers for ages, while my flatmate still wastes
a good 10 minutes almost every day reading incoming mail (and then putting it
into a huge pile she'll eventually have to sort out - akin to technical debt).

Bills are paid out automatically (via "Direct Debit") so I don't have to worry
about that either.

Shopping is taken care by Amazon subscriptions, which means new stuff arrives
soon before the old boxes run out. Haven't been grocery shopping in ages.

Food is handled by Deliveroo/Uber Eats, so no cooking necessary. I use
throwaway forks & plates so no dish washing necessary either.

Cleaning/housekeeping is handled by a company that does it every week in the
flat while I'm away, so no worries about that either.

Not all of this is possible for everyone (things might be different depending
on your location, whether you have a family, your financial situation) but
personally it works great for now and I have plenty of time when I get home.
Basically for anything that you're doing, try to see if there's a way to _not_
do it at all or to outsource it to someone else (who might be an expert at it
and thus do it more efficiently than you can).

~~~
nso95
Disposable forks and plates seems wasteful

~~~
Rjevski
Plates are paper so the environmental impact should be relatively low. I agree
that the plastic forks are still a problem but haven't really found a
solution. I do wonder though, would never having to wash dishes offset the
impact of disposable cutlery?

Edit: never mind, see below. Apparently paper still has a ton of impact as far
as manufacturing it goes (it's not just renewable trees, there are chemicals
involved).

~~~
Topgamer7
The creation of paper is chemically intensive, from processing to dyes to
color it. It is not environmentally friendly.

~~~
kimdotcom
So, no toilet paper and paper towels then?

Just a washcloth and bidet?

~~~
Topgamer7
Certainly more environmentally friendly, although transitioning to those for
public settings requires more maintenance and procedure than simply having a
waste basket in the bathroom.

My girlfriend did exchange in Brazil and fell in love with bidets there.

------
lovich
I dont. If I applied what I did at work all day to what I do at home, both
would become very monotonous. Sometimes I like to do things slowly just to
take enjoyment in the act of doing, or I like to keep a routine so I can do
chores on autopilot and not have to really think about it

------
teeray
I have a hybrid system with my closet and Evernote:

The closet was something of a mess—assorted things used with varying
frequency. After purging what obviously could go, I bought identical boxes
that would fit in the shelves of the closets and labelled them with letters.

I then created an index. Each box got a new note in a dedicated Evernote
notebook named according to its label, and in the body of the note I listed
its contents.

My closet now had full text search. This made it ridiculously easy to find any
random item I might need. I just had to type the name of the thing, and the
matching note's name would tell me what box to look in.

Also, when I needed to find something, I always added an "x" on a newline
under the thing when I retrieved it. This updated the last modified time of
the note. After awhile, the boxes with the oldest last modified times became
prime targets for future purging. It also made it very obvious when frequently
used items should get dedicated space with quick access.

------
brlewis
I use the "sort first" optimization more than non-programmers in my household.

For example, my technique for putting away groceries is to take the contents
out and set them next to the grocery bags, then sort them by where they're
going (kitchen fridge, pantry closet, etc.). This is faster than repeatedly
taking one or two items out of a bag and bringing them where they go.

~~~
analog31
Amusingly, my family has an additional habit: Our shopping list is organized
according to the aisles of our preferred supermarket. It really speeds up
shopping.

~~~
brlewis
Is it a paper or electronic shopping list? I've thought about that, but we're
still using a pad of paper stuck to the fridge with a magnet, so it seems hard
to implement. I generally do the shopping, and as I move to a new section of
the store I run through the list placing dots left of items in that section.
Then when I get each item I draw a vertical line through it. I find it easier
to spot breaks in a vertical line than to spot missing check marks.

~~~
analog31
Paper. We print it out and cross off the stuff we don't need.

------
kqr2
Also see the book _Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human
Decisions_ :

[https://smile.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-
De...](https://smile.amazon.com/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions-
ebook/dp/B015CKNWJI)

------
strictnein
I have very similar instincts, and it weirds me out sometimes. I have an in-
depth understanding of the efficiency difference of the direction I mow my
lawn (NW/SE is the best for the shape of the yard, but you can't do that every
time. N/S is second most efficient. E/W is third and I can't stand it), and am
constantly wondering if there is a better way to snowblow my driveway.

Past that, I feel myself optimizing paths through the office and hand
movements for juggling things and the door, stuff like that. And then when I
see people use less than optimal routes and techniques I wonder why that's the
case.

~~~
jrrrr
Just be mindful of what you're optimizing for. Like, minimum energy exerted or
minimum distance traveled might not be the best choice for a sedentary office
worker.

I, too, spend an unreasonable amount of thought on mowing optimization.

------
FrozenVoid
Classifying tasks into priorities. 1.Urgent and required. Sorted by urgency.
2.Required. Waits until all #1 completes. 3.Optional. Waits until all #2
completes. 4.Leisure/Misc. Waits until all #3 completes.

Reducing wasted space by putting items with lower usage into storage space
category that is in proportion to usage: 0.Items with daily use priority 0.
1.Items which aren't used daily get priority -1. 2.Items which aren't used
weekly get priority -2. 3.Items which aren't used monthly get priority -3.
etc, the less used items occupy their own category(e.g. yearly use "yearly
storage space") .

Reducing decision space iteratively: 1.Enumerating all possible
choices/options. 2.Discarding all low-quality choices. 3.Discarding all
mediocre choices. 4.Selecting a set of top choices. 5.Writing down a
comparison table for #4. 6.Filling the table in #5 7.Eliminating choices that
sound worse than average. 8.Repeat #7 until you're left with one choice.

Solving complex problems by breaking them into sub-problems. 1.Formulating on
paper the scope of the problem as separate sub-problems. 2.Sorting the sub-
problems in order of difficulty. 3.Connecting the sub-problems to their
potential solutions. Like a graph from sub-problems -> solutions 4.Selecting
the most connected solution. 5.Improving the solution to include more
connections(so a single solution solves all or most sub-problems in #2) 6.If a
solution can't be improved, try next most connected solution. Focus on the
solutions that can be improved. 7.The best-performing solution is implemented.
8.Repeat with next best solution.

------
wenc
Whenever I'm trying to look for something in a (mostly) sorted list, I always
do a binary search. I can't recall the exact circumstances this has come up in
real life but it has.

~~~
jolmg
Dictionaries and other sorted books is what comes to mind for me. Always open
from the middle and pick the next stack of paper to split from either the left
hand or right hand until we get to the page we want.

In school, we'd need to open a specific chapter of our textbooks, and I'd
search by the same method.

------
bradlys
I try to parallelize as many tasks as possible. My SO absolutely hates this a
lot of times because it means you have to work for longer period of times
instead of breaking up tasks. But stuff does get done in less absolute time.

Example: We're baking something. Say cornbread. My usual thing is to
immediately wash the dishes after putting the stuff into the oven. This means
two things happen at once: dishes and cooking. Then when while we're eating,
the dishes are drying. So then someone can put away the dishes and then the
other can start putting any other dishes we used into the sink.

Basically, I just try to parallelize tasks as much as possible. Grouping them
is good too but sometimes mentally it's too much to wait for the grouping to
occur. I do cost benefit analysis on things like multiple trips vs one heavy
and awkward trip. Sometimes multiple trips is faster and less stressful. Try
to factor things in like: well if I have less stuff in my arms I can /run/. I
can't do that when I have a bunch of stuff in my hands.

Other things I do are like: try to step up 2 steps at a time at the pace of
doing 1 at a time. Basically 2x up stair climbing performance. Run/jog to
various parts of the home or between the car and getting inside. Just trying
things to speed things up and get little bits of exercise in.

Unfortunately, I live in very small spaces so I frequently optimize for time
over space (cost of being a newer resident in the Bay area). Very small cache
here so no option to buy in bulk. :)

Oh and other unusual things: try to do stuff with your non dominate hand. I
only brush my teeth with my non dominant hand. Incredibly difficult at first
with a manual brush (small circles are hard!). But after 10+ years, much
better. I try this with various tasks just to try to up my dexterity and keep
life interesting.

------
bad-joke
I tend to "think" in Logo. Often this comes down to shouting "forward" at slow
pedestrians but thankfully my family has learned to keep me away from the
reptile exhibit at the local zoo (I have been ejected several times).

It's really quite stunning how many people have difficulty thinking of things
in terms of birds and turtles.

------
roryisok
Loving the LRU cache IRL posts :)

I'm constantly tweaking my laundry sort algorithms to try and find the
fastest. My latest is to have bins for the two youngest, two oldest and myself
and my wife. I grab and chuck dry clothes into each. Then I take those to the
appropriate place in the house and sort.

I also have toy cleanup bins stashed in each room so I can pile stuff away
quickly for easier tidying.

And I have a dustpan just for toy tidying, scooping things off the floor.

And I try to keep the vacuum in the centre of the house where it has the least
distance to travel to any room.

And I try to quietly take the messiest toys (small parts) out of circulation.

And all our devices use the same charging cable, and there are charge points
with those cables in the most strategic places in the house.

And I try to tidy as a background "garbage collection" task, never leaving a
room without removing something that's not supposed to be there

------
simonpantzare
Hard to measure but I believe I think more about how things might fail than
other family members.

~~~
taberiand
I've seen similar - Them: "You're too pessimistic" vs. Me: "You haven't
thought this all the way through".

There's a balance to be struck though, because often worrying too much about
things that don't happen or saying "I told you so" when they do only really
serves to annoy people.

~~~
jolmg
There is indeed a balance, because opportunities tend to have time limits.
Thinking things through for too long to arrive at a sure and optimal way of
doing something might mean failing to take the opportunity you had to do it at
all.

------
peterburkimsher
When someone's walking towards me head-on, I don't do an awkward side-step in
sync with them. That usually ensures a collision. I stop still, and close my
eyes. They then avoid me.

Taking a bus in a foreign country (e.g. China) without reading the timetable
is challenging. So I would get on the first bus going the right direction, and
stay on until it deviated from my desired path. Then I'd get off, walk to the
next stop, and repeat.

------
DougN7
I plot my routes in the car based on the total score of a route composed of
points for left turn, right turns, lights, etc. Avoiding left turns at a light
is a big goal. I know others do this too (notably UPS’s supposed optimization
of only making right turns).

------
taurath
Moving is pretty easy. Everything is staged in a priority queue, all boxes are
“databased” by room -> type. Also since I’m lazy, it’s pretty good easy to
classify things that are wasting time, though a good distraction is definitely
sometimes worth it.

------
rajacombinator
Perhaps you should be optimizing for overall happiness of your household
rather than your own. Perhaps you should try communicating in a collaborative
manner with your family.

------
dmh2000
I have a glass walled shower, and I experimented with different patterns of
squeeging it until I got one that looked like the best. I would have solved it
analytically if my math was better.

------
serf
i'm meticulous about checklists, mostly due to programming.

I have extensive records, self-kept for a few hours a week, regarding any and
all finances, home maintenance, car maintenance, etc.

It mostly serves as a form of self-flagellation in the form of financial guilt
associated with over-spending, but it's a useful trait to have once-in-a-
while.

I was a prodigious note-taker in school, too. I think that may be related.

~~~
tonyarkles
I was hoping someone else would mention checklists. It’s the closest I’ve come
to “automating” a lot of chores. These are kept in org-mode with habits
associated with them, so they’re both reoccurring and have a nice chart to
show how frequently they’re being done.

As an example, “kitchen - daily”. My partner and I have determined that I’m
totally blind to things, so I have a checklist that looks like:

\- clean dishes from dishwasher to cupboard

\- inspect counters, clockwise starting at dishwasher

\- dirty dishes from sink to dishwasher

\- if dirty, wash and oil cast iron pans

There’s a bunch of these, one for each living area, and a daily/weekly one for
each. They pop up in my schedule with the rest of my consulting tasks, and
since I work from home I can just grab one from the day’s master todo list
when I need a break.

------
jaco8
I structure things , whenever possible, around a simple rule: Faster, better,
more efficient .

------
megaman22
I can't help trying to ruthlessly optimize repetitive tasks. It's sort of like
the rule of three in real life. Quick example:

Yesterday, I was building a set of shelves in my garage. These are pretty
beefy to hold hardware and tools and stuff, so I was building them with a 2x4
frame and plywood on top. Three levels, and I wanted them to be 10 feet by 2
feet, so I had ten foot front and back rails, with shorter stringers every two
feet. So I had six rails, and six stringers per level, total of 18.

For the rails, I measured one, marking center lines for each stringer. Then I
lined up all six, and drew the lines across all of them with my square.
Probably saved fifteen minutes compared to marking and measuring each one
individually.

For the stringers, each one needed to be 21 inches, and you really want them
to all be as close to exactly the same as you can get, or else your the frame
gets all out of true. If you try to measure each one and cut them one at a
time, you never get them just right, and it takes forever. So I figured the
first one, and screwed down a stop block to my miter saw bench, to make a jig.
Now I don't have to measure, I just slide the 2x4 down to the stop, hold it
against the fence, and zip zip zip, I cut the whole batch in a couple minutes,
all just the same length.

Going onto the assembly, I've got my rails all marked out, and my stringers
all cut, so I can start screwing things together. The hard part is lining
things up, holding it all together, and trying to get the screws started and
driven without anything shifting. So I went down my rails and started all 24
screws on each rail where I had the center lines started. Works best if you
drive them just through, so there's like a sixteenth of the point sticking
out. Now I've just got to line up the stringer square and hit the already
started screw with my driver. It also helps keep everything square and reduce
walking around if you do them in a snake pattern, so start on one end, screw
to one rail, go to the other rail and screw the other end, stay on that rail
and start the next stringer, then go to the other side.

Last, getting to the installation, the really fiddly part is trying to get
everything lined up and level, while you're trying to hold the assembled shelf
up and then screw it all in. Real PITA if you're working alone. I was screwing
them into the wall studs against the back wall of the garage, with a few posts
on the unsupported front. So I cut some cheater blocks out of scrap 2x4, that
would span two studs, and that the shelf could sit on as I'm installing it.
Measure where the shelf should fall on one stud, and screw one side of the
cheater there. Then take a small level to level it up before screwing the
other side. Then use a four foot level to mark where the other cheater should
go, and level that up. Even better, I was in a corner on one side, so I had
another stud I put a third cheater on, leveled up kitty-corner with the
others. Now when I pick up the whole heavy shelf, I just set it on my blocks,
and I've only got to worry about supporting one corner as I'm getting it
leveled and attached to my outside post. When that corner is level, everything
else is level. Repeat three times for the three shelves.

I do this kind of decomposition and optimization in everything, and always
have, way before I even saw a computer...

