

How to use last 5 minutes of a day - jakozaur
http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/01/the-best-way-to-use-the-last-f.html?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-weekly_hotlist-_-hotlist011011&referral=00202&utm_source=newsletter_weekly_hotlist&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=hotlist011011

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prs
_"You can do so much in 10 minutes' time. Ten minutes, once gone, are gone for
good. Divide your life into 10-minute units and sacrifice as few of them as
possible in meaningless activity."_

    
    
      Ingvar Kamprad, Founder of IKEA

~~~
adestefan
Remember that just because you're not working does not mean your're engaging
in "meaningless activity." Taking a vacation or spending time with loved ones
are perfectly acceptable ways to spend those 10-minute units.

~~~
TheSOB88
And just because you're working doesn't mean you're working on the right
things, or the things that will have the most effect, or working towards the
right goals.

Which is what this post is all about.

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Nate75Sanders
This is only occasionally important to engineer/programmer types (and that's
definitely not who this is geared toward in the author's defense -- it's
Harvard Business Review for god's sake). You definitely should be taking stock
_sometimes_ of "how things went with your team" or whatever, but it's not even
close to how best to use the last 5 minutes of a day.

The best use of the last 5 minutes of my work day, without question, is making
a few comments on about half a sheet of paper of what open questions I have
for tomorrow and a couple of directions I might head to solve them, along with
caveats/gotchas I thought of while working.

This way when I let go of work for the day, I don't think about it anymore
unless I really want to and I'm confident that I have enough written down to
hit the ground running the next time I want to work.

This frees me up completely to do something _besides_ work.

~~~
sruffell
I know your comment is basically part of the central premises of "Getting
Things Done" but your words "This way when I let go of work for the day.."
resonated with me.

Perhaps today is when I start using those last 5 minutes to take at least one
note a day.

~~~
Nate75Sanders
I'm actually really terrible of letting go of work, but one of the things I
noticed is that part of that is the fact that I'm trying to keep track of too
much in my head.

"I'll have to remember to copy config file X over if I move process Y to
machine Z tomorrow" "I have to factor out that piece of code, this will be the
3rd time I've written something similar" "Call person about thing" "Email
other person about other thing"

Instead, with my piece of paper, I remember one thing:

"I need to read my notes tomorrow".

It allows me to focus a little better.

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marquis
>She saw that she was working so hard and moving so fast, that even if she was
delivering quality results, she was working against herself, putting her job
at risk, and making things harder for everyone.

Maybe she just needs to start her own company?

~~~
hackerblues
If she's doing good work but is a net drain on everyone around her then yes,
the possible solutions are to 'fix' her or isolate her.

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joshklein
Many interesting things have been said in the comments, so only one short
thing to add: don't do this right before you attempt to fall asleep. Putting
your mind into the state where you consider the deep strategic implications of
your day is not conducive to quickly falling asleep. The advice to carve out
time at the end of your WORK is appropriate; follow this with play/relaxation.

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john2x
I'm doing this now without realizing it. I started last September and I
haven't missed a day since. I write a short entry everyday in a "journal"
detailing what happened in my day, how I felt, what I did, where I went, etc.
It's quite nice reading entries from a few months ago.

I can't wait to read old entries a year from now.

~~~
TheSOB88
>I can't wait to read old entries a year from now.

Knock yourself out...

------
danohuiginn
Personally, I much prefer taking stock in the early afternoon. That's the time
when I tend to be feeling low on energy and motivation, and need an extra bit
of inspiration to keep me going. And if I decide/discover that I need to make
some change in my life, I can do it that day.

What happens when you start reflecting on the day (or planning the next) late
at night? You get excited, or you remember something you forgot to do --
either way, that makes it hard to sleep. And the next day, all the enthusiasm
is lost.

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kellishaver
I'd say I do this more on an "as-needed" basis, which I doubt is every day.

I typically do sit down at the end of the day and go over a list of all the
things that have been done and those still yet to do and prepare a plan of
attack for the next day, which, from time to time, does include improvements
in workflow.

Over the last year or two, I've taken to thorough note-taking. Every time I'm
on a phone call, I take notes. Whenever I'm working on some bit of code and
happen to see something that needs improved later, make an improvement, get an
idea about a feature, etc. I take notes. Whenever I review things with a
client, I take notes.

They're all handwritten, with a good pen, in Mead notebooks I get for
$0.15/each during "back to school" sales. Each project gets its own (labelled)
notebook, and I have another one for miscellaneous notes.

This all sounds very simple and obvious, but the act of physically writing
things down in a book I can flip through, mark things out of, and scribble on
(vs. typing them in a text file to get lost somewhere on the hard drive, or in
an application I have to open amongst other windows) has done wonders for my
productivity.

------
deadmansshoes
"And, sure enough, she did."

What is this? A Mr Men story?

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joshrule
The main point of this piece is not that you take time at the end of the day,
or in the middle, or a few times throughout. The point is that, whenever you
do it, you need to take time to think, time to reflect on what you've been
doing. If you never take time to reflect and answer some of the nagging bigger
questions, you severely short-change your long-term effectiveness.

I've been running an experiment recently to take at least 15 minutes each day
to think about my research (I do neuroscience research for a university in
DC). The results have been great, and I'm starting to add in more reflective
time throughout the day, even when I'm not 'working'. If you're interested, I
have been, and will continue to be, writing about it here:
<http://joshrule.com/blog>. Look for posts about trial 2.

------
edw519

      Catchy title?  Check.
      Appropiate topic?  Check.
      Interesting story?  Check.
      Sympathetic people?  Check.
      Real world problems?  Check.
      Common sense approach?  Check.
      Actionable advice?  Check.
    

They why do I hate this post so much?

Because it's so 1990s.

Waiting until the end of the day to evaluate it is way too late. What once
took days now takes hours, even minutes. You need to be doing the
recommendations in this post _all day long_ , dymamically, as you go. If
you're looking back, you already lost.

Then what should you actually be doing with the last 5 minutes of your 2011
day?

Make a "list" of the #1 thing that you must complete tomorrow.

This one little item will probably have more impact on tomorrow's success that
anything you could possibly do about today's.

~~~
sophacles
Im sorry, but this seems like a terrible, short-sighted bit of lunacy. Yes,
you should be noting things all day, but taking the time to review your notes
as a cohesive whole seems to be the point. It will let you see bigger
patterns. It will help you deduce what you could be doing tomorrow for your
"#1 task".

Think of it like an optimization problem, small tweaks based on limited
feedback will get you caught in a local maximum -- seriously, what you
described is basically a genetic algorithm. When you step back and notice
general trends, things that turn into inefficient tweak loops and so on, there
is a lot of good that can come from it.

GO! GO! GO! is not a sane mentality, and has never helped me do much but get
work done. This is useful, excepting of course those situations where the work
itself isn't useful but I can't see that because I don't look back and
analyze. Looking back on today and this week is a nice way to keep
perspective, get some peace and have big picture understanding of what is
going well and isn't.

------
microarchitect
This advice applies to organisations as much as it does to people. Companies
need to take some time out to think about what worked, what didn't and why
not. And they also need to encourage folks to speak up about failures and be
prepared to listen to rants, complaints and concerns that employees.

This sounds really easy, but it's amazes me how many companies just don't want
to listen to bad news. A surefire way to detect a crappy company is by their
reaction when employees complain. The really great companies listen and get
the management to act. The mediocre companies suggest that the employee take
the initiative and act. The lousy companies just blame the employee.

------
samatman
Was I the only one who thought this would be advice on how to get ready for
sleep?

I don't hear "a day" and assume a business day...

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coolswan
I like to spend the last 5 minutes of a day with an interesting problem I need
to tackle the next day. Then think about it as I try to fall asleep. Sometimes
though rarely I dream about it, but for sure when I wake up, I'm thinking
about it.

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AndyKelley
What I think is pretty interesting, is that this is precisely what religious
people do when they pray. Even if god is imaginary, praying forces you to
spend 5 minutes reflecting.

