> I knew I was spending quite a lot of it on social media, but I wasn't sure how much exactly. I also knew I was working quite a lot and wanted to quantify exactly how much (spoiler alert: not that much). I hoped that keeping track of what I do would help me to identify chunks of time that were being wasted and to turn them into quality time.
Tracking time doesn't inherently have to be to optimize for "making someone else rich"; she specifically did this with the goal of spending more time on things that "really matter".
I'll raise my head above the parapet and admit that I don't get it. How about just scheduling things? If you want to spend more time on things that matter, just pick a date and time, and get going.
That said, perhaps the alluring part was gathering data on one's self.
akrasia
akrasia /əˈkreɪzɪə , əˈkrasɪə / (also acrasia)
▸ noun [mass noun] mainly Philosophy the state of mind in which someone acts against their better judgement through weakness of will.
– ORIGIN early 19th century : from Greek, from a- ‘without’ + kratos ‘power, strength’. The term is used especially with reference to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
Procrastination would be one such behaviour, certainly. An example of a non-procrastinating behaviour that is an example of akrasia is poor diet adherence: I know that I will be healthier not eating this pint of ice-cream, but I do so nonetheless.
How about scheduling consistent time for work and then at the end of the day, logging whether the work session was 100% focus on the task or if there was any distraction.
Then you can see how many days in the month were focused, how much were distracted and if you care about it enough, you could set a goal that 95% of the sessions in a month should be distraction-free and keep working towards that.
'renewiltord mentioned Akrasia. That's one big thing.
Another thing is that you may not have enough time to fit the things you want with your schedule - and you first need to optimize your things in your life. That may involve optimizing your productivity at work, to free up time or energy for your own things. That also will involve taking a look at what you do around and after work. All of us live at least partially on autopilot, so bad habits tend to sneak up and stay unnoticed. You need to shine a light every now and then to identify and eradicate them - and then that's more time and/or energy freed up for doing the things that matter to you.
Perhaps a less contentious way of saying "focus on productivity" is to say "making the wisest use of the 24 hours one has in a day".
Hi,
I agree with your view. And over a couple of years of (failed) scheduling/optimizing techniques, I learned a thing or two that I would like to share.
The approach OP used in her article is undoubtedly, a great way of looking at your footprints. I used to do a similar (revising over time) thing, but looking back on how much time i "wasted" and how little i was "productive", was not worth the effort.
Over time, I've changed and perfected (well, kind of) this approach to a new way.
The New Way*
I divide my day in 3 sections. The first one, Morning Drill, from a set wakeup time (it really helps) until breakfast. I comprises things like regular morning routine, say exercise, freshening up, etc. It give me a good start into the day. I prefer not to do anything "productive/work-related" in the morning. Next, I take up my todo list for the day (i manage is using Todoist), understand my priorities and think of a general direction of the day, is it going to be a work-day or a fun-day?. I'm strict about my list, but not so much that I would not talk to anyone till i'm finished. I like to play it cool. The third section, i've finished all i had planned today, so i can do anything i want, read a book, go out with friends, and other cool stuff.
This kind of summarises a day.
> All of us live at least partially on autopilot, so bad habits tend to sneak up and stay unnoticed.
I love keeping notes, and reading old notes and revising your day, really helps for such a thing.
Results of new approach:
When I go to bed, I sleep sound realizing the day wasn't a complete mess as opposed to drooling over "I've not been productive enough".
All in all, this was a wonderful article with beautiful insights and a magnificent approach of data science in daily life.
Conclusion:
"The more you focus on productivity, the less you make it."
PS. I have been following *this approach for over 5 months now, and I've never been better.
Thank you for sharing this anecdote, it neatly fits in with a revelation that has been slowly unfolding in me over the last 6 months, graduating from my burnout stage of youth into a mores sustainable and enjoyable way of being and working.
Do your 3 sections have time limits? As in, the morning section is confined to 2/3 hours, the second section 8 hours and X hours for the 'freestyle' final section?
Hi,
First of all, thank you for taking interest!
> Do your 3 sections have time limits?
No, as this would be against the fundamental idea of my approach. Usually, the first section (or "the morning drill", as i call it) lasts till breakfast. After usual morning stuff, if i have time left, i browse social media, tunein to a ted talk, check mails. After Breakfast, second section goes as long as there are tasks left to be done. It may be just a couple of hours, or the whole day. Then there is section three, which is nothing much to plan about.
Before going to bed, I prefer writing a log/diary and setting up tasks for the next day.
Thanks for getting back to me and clarifying that point - I had assumed as much, but just wanted to make sure.
I recently watched a video[1] by a fellow called Lex Fridman, an AI researched, and a productivity power-house. A commenter on that video aptly pointed out that Lex comes from a lineage of hyper-productive and scholarly folks, and thus his rigid schedule of 10+ hours of productivity is not necessarily attainable for the rest of us mortals.
I think I have been trapped in a disillusion for a long time that:
A) I should aspire to perform 8+ solid focused hours of work per day, otherwise I am failing.
B) Most people achieve a solid 8+ solid focused hours of work per day.
In reality, due to some recent research and your initial comment in this thread, it has become clear to me that this is simply not the case. The reality is that it's much more of a 'different strokes for different stokes' scenario, and I think I'm gravitating towards the more 'structured unstructured' way of setting up my days, with less of a focus on expected output and more of freedom to enjoy the work and process without the paralyzing pressure of expectations.
I also think I'm nearing the 'final stages of productivity enlightenment', in which one realizes that the constant research and obsession with productivity (productivity porn?) is also a distraction, and that at some point you have to block it out and focus entirely on applying instead of finding the next kernel of truth.
Not everyone is able to stick to a schedule. This can be for internal reasons such as akrasia as the sibling comment mentions or for external reasons due to being in chaotic environment and not being able to change that.
There are other productive activities besides those that increase your wealth. For example, if I'm trying to learn an instrument, then I would consider practicing to be a productive activity. In this sense productivity is not a scam at all; it's a necessity to live a good life.
Speaking purely in terms of money: yes, doubling the productivity of those working for you is better than doubling your own productivity. But many of us don't have that option. If you are a normal employee, increasing your productivity is one of the few ways to increase your earnings.
But I never said tracking time inherently does that. I agree with you. It's a great way to put things in perspective.
It's just my personal experience that the majority of time we label as "productive" is in fact productivity for the sake of someone else profiting on top of it. I have nothing against the OP or the article.
Most people work for someone else, the productivity is a for a paycheck. But secondarily you are also learning skills which can either propel you up a career ladder or give you the basics to start your own business. Sour grapes over how much profit shareholders are getting does not serve ones own interests—either start your own business or maximize your own salary/billable rate in the labor marketplace, but don’t cut off your nose to spite your face by focusing on how much profit-sharing you are not getting in one particular situation.
Sometimes it's just more pleasant to focus on the work, even if it's boring and we are doing it for someone else. We have to spend the time anyway, we could spend it by being alert, or distracted and drifting off. Being alert feels good and there is some satisfaction from the work being done. Being distracted is mentally draining.
Also, it's not only the stake holder that is profiting from the work, it's society as a whole - we all depend on this work.
Are we even allowed to assume 'gal's 'use she/her pronouns' though?
More seriously, I never had a problem using 'they' for gender unknown, indeed it was normal and what I was taught in school, and then it suddenly seemed to be he vs. her with 'they' as some weird third thing even fewer people 'identify' as. For centuries we've happily referred to an unspecified person 'with they/them pronouns'.
It seems like its still safe to refer to someone of gender unknown as "they/them".
It actually normalises the use of those pronouns which makes it simpler for people iddntifying as non-binary too.
I don't mean that it's unsafe, just that it's somehow become controversial or at least less usual, people laboriously writing 'he or she' where I'm sure they wouldn't have ten years ago; 'they' isn't a modern invention it was always fine, and I suppose for the modern world is more inclusive than 'he or she' anyway!
I have met people who are queer and don't like being refered to with "they/them" because they view these words as totalizing. A lot of trans people have a lot of disliking for cis gay men and call their own poor practices"homonormativity". As a result, they balk at being included as "queer" or even at the existence of terms like "LGBT" as they don't feel solidarity with CIS gay or bisexual men. Many of these queers embrace and demand recognition of their unique pronouns. If they prefer xe/xem, you may get an earful for saying "they/them".
Yep, you got it right. It used to come from "RTFA" (read the fucking article) years ago when people would ask questions in the comments that were clearly answered in the article, then eventually morphed to include FTFA (from the article) and just TFA.
Edit: just googled this to see if I was giving you wrong info also, and it looks like it came out of RTFM (read the fucking manual) for people in early Unix communities too.
> I knew I was spending quite a lot of it on social media, but I wasn't sure how much exactly. I also knew I was working quite a lot and wanted to quantify exactly how much (spoiler alert: not that much). I hoped that keeping track of what I do would help me to identify chunks of time that were being wasted and to turn them into quality time.
Tracking time doesn't inherently have to be to optimize for "making someone else rich"; she specifically did this with the goal of spending more time on things that "really matter".