Hacker News Reader

Comment by ezconnect | Hacker News Reader

Just do a manual calendar with lot of spaces to write on for notes and a timer app on your computer to turn on or off when your working. Someone even made a physical device to turn on or off the timer via bluetooth so he wont forget to turn it off when something suddenly interrupts him. The timer also needs to turn off by itself in a predetermined time and you need to manually turn it on so it wont run when you suddenly fall asleep.

View on HN

Thanks. Yeah I have a timer I use mostly for billing. It's good to keep track of past time, but doesn't help much with planning. I tried doing the manual calendar, but one of the things that I find really hard is constantly doing math with time in my head. Moving stuff around is just a pain.

> constantly doing math with time in my head.

What, exactly, are you calculating? Would it help you to see the total of the non-scheduled hours for each day, inside a specific range (e.g. 07:00 until 22:00)?

I use the Nextcloud calendar app and sync with my Android devices using the CalDav protocol. I have one calendar for work, another for personal. They all display on the same monthly or daily view, just with a different background colour.

It is really hard to separate work from personal life as freelancer. Maybe OP could start there, because this calculating problems starts there. Setting working hours can help and IMO can't be that hard even with kids - I did it for some time. And when you're looking for flexible calendar - you won't find anything better than small paper calendar, pen and cheap casio watch.

I get you, to be honest, I think other people are a lot better than I am at keeping their organization in their heads. I just suck at it real bad.

> And when you're looking for flexible calendar - you won't find anything better than small paper calendar, pen and cheap casio watch.

Yeah I was thinking I should give that a shot first...

Good luck! :) I survived college with leuchtturm1917 - maybe it's some good staring point.

Thanks! just bought an hobonichi techo. It's ridiculously expensive, but I am thinking that if it's expensive, I'll feel bad if I don't use it :-D

Reply on news.ycombinator.com