
The rule of 3 in time management & productivity. - balajiviswanath
http://blog.belimitless.co/post/73416815446/the-rule-of-3
======
westiseast
I though it was (1) Don't have kids, (2) Don't have kids and (3) Don't have
kids. No? :)

~~~
hobo_mark
You say this in jest, but I also don't understand how people chose to have a
full-time job (even worse, a startup) AND kids (not judging anyone, I just do
not understand it). There clearly aren't enough hours in a day to manage both
as well as they deserve and not live a stressful life. Before you reach for
that downvote button, this is what I am personally doing:

\- try to become financially independent (with the sweat and all-nighters that
go along with it, when needed)

\- if (and only IF) I ever manage to do so, start a family with the good
conscience that I will have the means to be there as a father

\- if not, rinse and repeat until I do

Does it make any sense?

~~~
slurry
No, it doesn't make sense. Your comment is naive and/or jerkish. You should
feel bad about yourself for posting it.

~~~
c7b0rg
This must be facetious. If not, please explain. OP's thoughts seem rational to
me.

~~~
slurry
Face-rational moralizing about people's lives and especially reproductive
choices is, as a general principle, nearly always jerkish.

"Only have kids once you're independently wealthy" qualifies as rational only
on HN or Reddit.

~~~
hobo_mark
How is it different from something like "I don't buy a house I can't afford"?

~~~
slurry
There are contexts (say, the comments section of a story on foreclosure) where
"I don't buy a house I can't afford" would be a full-on raging asshole thing
to say. But you went further than that:

"I also don't understand how people chose to have a full-time job...AND kids"

You clearly implied that holding any full time job and having kids was
irresponsible. Because "I don't understand how [something about mores]" is a
construction that American English speakers use to point out things they
consider irrational, dumb or otherwise undesirable. You even anticipated that
your comment would make people mad ("before you reach for the downvote
button", "not judging anyone"). Because you went a good sight further than "I
don't buy a house I can't afford." I think my initial judgment of "naive
and/or jerkish" stands.

~~~
hobo_mark
Except I'm not an American English speaker.

Anyhow, no "jerkishness" intended, this was mostly an observation after
yesterday's thread "Where do you find the time for side projects?"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7117131](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7117131)
where many parents chimed in on how they squeeze family time here and there
between working and juggling side gigs, great for them, but I could not do it
without burning out, and I would owe it to my family not to risk that.

So long as I want to work long hours and risk my livelihood building things on
the side and use my free time hacking, fine, I'll be on my own. The day I'll
be able to afford a family (money-wise but particularly time-wise), I'll do
so.

~~~
slurry
"Full time job" -> "side projects". I appreciate the shift.

------
pdevr
This ensures that you finish at least the top three tasks everyday. A good
start.

There is a subset of people who have more than three tasks with equal priority
to be done on a daily basis. They will still be overwhelmed, since the carried
over tasks over a period of time will be too much to handle for the "role of
3" way.

------
patrickmay
This is a variant of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology.
Instead of three items, he recommends always knowing what the most important
task is for any project, and doing that.

Definitely worth a look.

~~~
tomhallett
The biggest part of GTD which has really helped keep me organized and
achieving my goals, is recognizing your memory can be fairly terrible at
remembering things when it is important to remember them. So everything I need
todo gets written down. Then I will stop stressing about my todo list and
forcing myself to remember. He calls it "mind like water".

With this technique + kanban for my personal life (todos, open source
projects, baby books, etc) my wife is 1000% happier.

