
Daily Routines: How interesting people organize their day. - azharcs
http://dailyroutines.typepad.com/
======
sevib
You can't underestimate the value of routine if you want to progress with the
things you do. The more you do, the tighter your routine has to be. It's
something I am constantly fighting with: trying to establish a routine and
then stick to it. There are far too much distractions nowadays. It's almost
like gathering information vs. applying that information and turning it into
knowledge.

~~~
sam_in_nyc
I feel you. Things like Hacker News, and the internet in general, tend to
masquerade as "productiveness" when you (think) you're learning from them. But
in the end, it's kind of like watching the Discovery channel: you think you're
absorbing and learning a lot, but in the end, you've been so overwhelmed with
edutainment that honestly you take away very little. A philosopher professor
once asked the class "name one thing you've learned from the Discover
channel," and to my surprise, all I could think of was "tons of things"

As far as I can tell, there really is no substitute for hands on experience.
It's one thing to obtain knowledge, but quite another exercise to apply it.
That's where routine plays in; it's showtime. I afford myself some time each
day (during breaks, warm-ups, wind-downs) for some "half-distractions" like
Hacker News, and on rarer occasion, a "full distraction" like going out,
exercise, whatever. But I really enjoy the grind of coding because it's where
I can see my ideas come alive, and look back at the day with the feeling "I
now have more tangible assets."

I went through a period of _several months_ feeling like crap because I wasn't
producing anything, only thinking of a gazillion amazing ideas that merely
lacked implementation. That all changes when you start to produce. Your
routine forms around whatever you're doing, and at this point, it's no longer
a challenge, it's a joy. The bonus is, I'm definitely not lacking in the
"thinking of ideas" category... it turns out that for me having concrete
implementations of things only helps me think of new ideas, much more so than
even spending the entire day brainstorming. This makes sense in some way...
any new ideas generally come from existing implementations, and if I make my
own new implementation of something, I can now think of _even newer_ ideas
that beforehand would have been such a stretch to come up with.

As per routines, and hours/week, I don't think there's much point debating
anything about it. Who says I'm not working while I'm in the shower, or
sleeping? I've caught bugs in my sleep, and spent the dream debugging them. I
think what matters far beyond routine is finding something that you're excited
enough to work on to have that routine naturally form.

~~~
parenthesis
Something I find very useful about reading a site like HN is the little seeds
it plants in my mind: I read about some interesting program/ language/
library/ framework/ technique/ theory or whatever, and then, six months later,
I find myself needing such a thing and remember, isn't there that thing I read
about?

Also, I'll discover something I maybe didn't even know existed and realise
that I should learn about it; and so take a mental note to do so. Then, later,
when I have the time and inclination to learn about something new, it's there
on my list.

~~~
sam_in_nyc
I agree. Every so often there's a post about something that can change my
approach or direction to a problem I'm solving. Even if it's not relevant to
what I'm doing, there's a wealth of information that's worth knowing. In a
nutshell: HN is an extraordinarily good place for a tech entrepreneur to find
out what he doesn't know.

However, in practice, I find it still takes a substantial amount of effort to
filter the information I'm exposed to into something I can use in the near
future. The amount of due diligence in figuring out if a certain technology
(especially if it's new and if you lack experience with it) is a large enough
barrier for me to usually continue on with what I'm doing. I simply don't have
time to learn a new language every month, or learn how to migrate to new DB,
or any infrastructural changes like that.[1] On the scale of things, I've
prioritized "get stuff done" as #1, with "learn how to get better stuff done
faster" as #2. HN is good at #2.

Like anything, HN is what you make of it. I personally love the fact that HN
is so densely populated with the exactly the type of people whose opinions I
actually respect (surprisingly rare for me), and who I'd like to network with.
As a result of the amazing crowd here, I get to learn what I don't know at an
astounding rate. From there I can leave it to my natural curiosity and
ambition to fill it in.

Edit: [1] Another thing is, quite often people post things on HN merely
seeking validation of what they're doing. So many blogs I read are about
"Here's how I do something, and why you should, too. (And since I'm telling
you to do it, it means I'm right)" which puts an even huger burden of due
diligence on my shoulder. So I might have _heard_ of xyz... but still don't
know if it is worthwhile.

------
mtkd
Timely line from CS Lewis "And it is essential of the happy life that a man
would have almost no mail and never dread the postman's knock."

He could never have imagined the black tide of corporate email that washes up
on my desk everyday.

------
Locke
The role of mundane activities is interesting: A cup of tea, reading the
newspaper, taking a walk, smoking a cigar, etc.

People who have trouble sleeping are, among other things, supposed to
establish a routine. Repeating mundane activities (brush teeth, lock doors,
turn down thermostat, etc) in the same way every night seems to prime the
brain for sleep.

I suspect it doesn't matter _what_ you do before you settle in to work, simply
that you establish some "it's time to work now" cues and then take advantage
of them.

------
edw519
"Sincerity begins at a little over 100 hours a week. You can probably get to
110 hours on a sustained basis, but it's hard. You have to get down to eating
once a day and showering every other day, things of that sort to really get
your life organized to work 110 hours."

\- Len Bosack, co-founder, Cisco Systems, and hero to the hardcore

~~~
marvin
I'm certain that both the Cisco founders have a "benign" variant of OCD.
Turning these people into heroes is counterproductive: for every founder that
is actually able to get something out of their 110-hour workweek, there are
100 who only make their lives miserable and accomplish nothing trying to
emulate the masters.

There is no way any halfway sane person is able to work 110 hours a week on a
"sustained basis". Your physical and mental health will start to suffer after
a pretty short time. Genius comes with insanity, not the other way around.
There are a few crazy, brilliant people out there, but you will know
beforehand if you are one of them. Ripping out piercings on stage will not
turn you into Marilyn Manson, breaking all the sexual conventions will not
turn you into Oscar Wilde and leaving only 8 hours a day for life-supporting
routines will not turn you into Len Bosack.

Normal people should play by the normal rules. You're only wasting your life
if you keep telling yourself that you have to be hard, cold and miserable in
order to succeed. The crazy geniuses in this category don't read Hacker News.

~~~
iuguy
Having had sustained periods of 112 hour weeks I agree that the physical,
mental and emotional toll is incredible. Having said that, I do belive that
some people can work longer hours than others, particularly when they enjoy
their jobs and are passionate about what they're doing.

I try to keep myself down to 50-60 hours a week. I'm not quite sure what I'd
do if I limited myself to 35!

~~~
electromagnetic
I personally don't believe there's anything wrong with working every waking
minute if it's your only job at that time. If you don't have kids, and don't
have a spouse or partner and at that period of time you're content with it
then I say go for it.

However, I wouldn't idolize someone who does do that. The true hero is someone
who can work for 10 hours a week and get done what the man doing 100 hours a
week does.

Sadly an addendum to this, as a writer my output is directly correlative to
the time put in. However there's a limit to how much I'll actually get done.
Sometimes ignoring my writing seems to get more done. I've sat down and
written for 6 hours in a row and only been snapped out because I was dying
from hunger and I'd drank like 4 sodas and hadn't gone piss. I got more work
done in those 6 hours than I normally do in 30 hours.

------
colins_pride
Each of these people finds a form of structure that works for them. The trick
is to get the benefit of discipline without giving up any creativity.

------
prakash
Nice website, good find.

I found comments from HN's edw519 very useful:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=191275>

~~~
azharcs
Thanks man, i found it through twitter (another reason for Hackers to join
twitter).

~~~
bd
_another reason for Hackers to join twitter_

Or to follow HN new submissions :)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=421255>

------
simplegeek
Good find. I'm pretty amazed at the fact that Charles Darwin used to work only
for 3 hours. I think 3 hours of work without any interruptions is better than
my 8 hours spent on computer (plus at the end I always have a feeling I
couldn't complete the stuff today---yet again;( ). Amazing. I'm just guessing
that these guys must have settled on such routines after lots of hit and
trial. Not sure, what should I do with my routine as mostly I'm tired of my
sleeping routine and I've almost given up on that.

------
jgrahamc
Churchill's routine sounds ideal to me. Just have to replace the mail and
papers with the Internet equivalent.

------
run4yourlives
I don't see a lot of commuting in these "habits". Interesting how much of a
time waste the average drive into the office creates for most people.

It seems if we wanted to look for realistic ways to increase productivity in
our society, we'd really focus on this one.

------
Tichy
While these are interesting anecdotes, and I am certainly not in a good
position to criticize (being especially good at procrastination), I wouldn't
not put too much weight on these stories. Maybe some of them are more myth
than reality, and trying to follow the ideal might do more harm than good?

Certainly it sounds like a good idea to have a strict daily routine, but maybe
it doesn't work for everyone. Maybe it didn't even work for most of those
interesting people, but some PR person or biographer or whatever deemed it
necessary to portray these people's lives as such.

------
indiejade
There is such thing as too much routine for creative types. An analogy: think
about it like . . . genetic mutations sometimes arise from too much routine.
Not all genetic mutations are bad; sometimes they contribute toward survival
of a species.

------
diN0bot
obama: '"Even as he is sober about these challenges, I have never seen him
happier," Mr. Axelrod said. "The chance to be under the same roof with his
kids, essentially to live over the store, to be able to see them whenever he
wants, to wake up with them, have breakfast and dinner with them — that has
made him a very happy man."'

so true. i became much more productive with more freedom on how to divide my
day and with whom.

------
keltecp11
It is amazing to me how efficient of a society we have become. We can get as
much work done in one day as what used to take probably months!

~~~
eru
And vice versa.

