Always Finish | Hacker News Reader

Always Finish

venturebent.com

47 pointsscottbrit14 comments

Actually, I have an alternative theory to explain what happened. There is a lot of research documenting the mental benefits of exercise, especially on aspects like focus, planning, discipline, etc. These are just the sorts of aspects the author found began to wane.

Therefore, I theorize that actually it was the decrease in regular exercise that caused the change, not a vague changing habit of "completing things." After all, finishing what you set out to do can often be beneficial, but it can also be foolish when it later turns out that what was begun was unwise or low-priority.

Something doesn't seem quite right about the "always finish" theory to me, since I know many very successful people make a point of being able to stoically change priorities when necessary rather than getting mired in pointless completion of no-longer-useful goals.

The hard thing is that although we ARE ourselves, we do find ourselves reduced to theorizing as to why changes in ourselves are happening-- looking around to find a cause.

How would one test the "finishing things" theory against the "exercise increases focus" theory? No problem-- try going back to a better exercise schedule but letting things slide as needed in non-health related areas. I predict it'll be fine, suggesting it's exercise/health specifically that is affecting habits, not some sort of "getting into a bad habit of not finishing things" effect. If it's not, that suggests I'm mistaken and provides evidence in favor of the author's theory.

I'd be interested in the results.

I'm glad particular attention was given to the gym example in this article, or more in general "health".

These days I'm generally quite disciplined with sleep and exercise, but I've been down that path of "if I skip the gym this time I'll have more time/energy to work". After a few days I find I'm much less productive than I am when I'm consistently going to the gym 5-6 times a week. It's a nice reminder.

I wonder how many successful entrepreneurs are highly disciplined about their exercise/health?

When Richard Branson was asked how to be more successful in business his response was - "Work out"

Thanks for the motivational reminder. I've been getting hardcore into my product development and sacrificing the time I'd usually spend going to the gym and other activities. I've found that I can mix social occasions with work by bringing my laptop, but with gym I can't really do that. So I better hit the gym now and get it out of the way.

For me, the gym, sleep, and work all tie together literally; when I don't get the exercise I need, I can't sleep as well (or get to bed as early), and hence, my performance suffers the next day.

I find that it's really easy to fall into the trap of skipping the gym because of work demands, until it gets to the point that I'm not going at all. It's really hard to get to the point where you value your own health as much as your work -- it requires constant conscious effort (for me, at least).

This may sound a bit frivolous but, I've found that the quickest way to change your life for the better is to develop a nice set of abs. No better anti-depressant. I do get the urge to skip, of course, but I can usually convince myself not to by putting on workout clothes and running shoes and waiting until I feel like exercising.

That's only EVERY MAN'S DREAM... and the reason that Men's Health manages to stay in business. Any tricks you can suggest on the ab front? :)

paleo diet

Lose weight, then the exercise to actually build the abs might actually be fun.

Do you know how many calories you ingest (eat and drink!) in a day? If you eat out, or prepared foods, you could easily be getting five times what's recommended. Less in, less on.

If you're not really food-fixated you can drop pounds rapidly just by supplying yourself with better hacker chow. If you're food fixated I hear learning to cook (spice) is really pretty easy. The bar is low, any positive change helps, and it keeps paying off.

I've since gone vegetarian once I learned how possible it is. (By choice. Ick, would you lick a cow?) Now I've almost got to work at getting enough calories but for once I feel full after a healthfully portioned meal.

Sure. The trick is to get to 10-12% body fat, which takes a little bit of time to get to, but it's easy to maintain once you're there.

First, a standing desk. I always get fat when I'm sitting down for too long.

Then, as soon as you wake up in the morning, eat scrambled egg whites, a can of beans, with a splash of olive oil. Take a multivitamin, and a garlic pill. Drink a lot of water.

Then workout, repeating a circuit of exercises for 25 minutes. I do 4-day splits, (out of habit, mostly) so 4 days in a row I'll exercise, and on the 5th, I rest. I just steal circuits from the 'net every two weeks or so. The key is intensity. The more intense you make the workout, the better you'll do.

Here's a sample circuit:

Pullups x 5 | Ab Wheel Rollout x 10 | Pushups x 15 | Squats x 20 | (no rest between circuits)

The rest of the day, I eat as much as I want of meats(yum), vegetables, and legumes, and I drink a lot of water. I pig out when I'm out with friends, which is every once in a while. Opt for liquor instead of beer, though.

As a complete non-exercise guy, I'm still trying to find ways (like a solid walk through SF hills) to try to get some exercise in - is there a good site / idea for working out "for the rest of us"?

Sounds like you need a FitBit - http://www.fitbit.com/ I've got friends who literally won't go anywhere without theirs now. Their website is pretty great for tracking other health data as well.

This is great advice, but I think it could be rephrased slightly:

Make sure to always do and finish that which you'll say you'll do. Especially regarding exercise, as without that, your productivity can drop. And if you can't finish, then you'll learn to be more reasonable.

Anyways, quite solid advice.

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