Ask HN: How can I be more effective? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I be more effective?

6 pointsryanwaggoner9 comments

I've spent the last year radically overhauling a lot of things about my life, mostly in the areas of self-discipline, building good habits, and time management. I feel really good about what I've been able to accomplish, but I feel a plateau starting to emerge. I'm not sure I can squeeze much time out of my schedule without it being unsustainable (I'm not willing to sacrifice my health, sleep, or relationships). So I now have a lot more productive time than I did before, but I'm wondering how I can best leverage those improvements for even bigger gains in the future.

How can I be more efficient with the time that I have? (doing things better)

How can I be more effective in general? (doing better things)

I realize these questions are very general, but I'm interested in hearing a lot of different perspectives and whatever general principles you've noticed from years as entrepreneurs, developers, and humans.

PS - This might sound like I'm sacrificing life for work, but I'm really not. I'm married and spend lots of time with my wife, friends, and family. I'm working on my pilot's license. I exercise, try to eat well, get enough sleep, and take time to read great literature, etc.

Well ... it sounds like you're plateaued in the "work harder" area (although incremental improvements can no doubt be found). Time to focus on "work smarter"?

Explore powerful tools, from math per se to the more mathematically sound languages and systems?

best advice I ever had on time mgmt was to read 'how to live on 24 hours a day ' www.gutenberg.org/etext/2274 - excellent advice even though written over 100 years ago.

only other thing would be to see how a VA would work to make your life better

but like all things in life you will reach a plateau, you can only refine something so far!

good luck, sounds like you are doing well!

Already have a VA :)

Thanks for the book recommendation!

its a great book, but the jist of it is wake early, spend time doing what you really want to, learn when you can.

trying to figure myself at the moment exactly what a VA could do for me. can't open my work email to them until I am self employed so just trying to figure whatever they could streamline for me.

my other time saver tip is instapaper and instantly for android. read the blogs I love when I have the time.

what does VA stand for?

virtual assistant

Further to this point. I went over to the link and found my way to an iphone app ( free ) to read free books including titles from the gutenberg.

http://www.lexcycle.com

I also want to add, you can set the reader to display as "terminal" which means im reading this book green text, black background.

I couldn't help noticing:

a) No time allotted for bathing. It's up at 9am, breakfast, then to work. None implied in the evening. I wonder how often 1890s English officeworkers bathed...

b) No time allotted for housekeeping. I suppose that was the job of the wife or the servants

Interesting read, though. The idea of doing exercises to build concentration is almost Buddhist.

Work on your health. Having physical energy and mental clarity is rooted in physical well being and both of them add to productivity.

Read books like "The 7 habits of highly effective people".

Good luck.

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