How to Start a Productive Day | Hacker News Reader

How to Start a Productive Day

freelancefolder.com

37 pointsfogus12 comments

"Get a good night's sleep," "Eat Breakfast", "Get into work mode"? Wow.

What about "Sit in front of the computer," "Type some stuff," and "Don't stop breathing"?

Seriously, this isn't Delicious Popular, I sincerely hope no one here needs some random blog's top 5 list to help you "start a productive day".

What about "Sit in front of the computer," "Type some stuff," and "Don't stop breathing"?

When I'm "in the zone", there is no better advice.

When I'm not in the zone, there is no worse advice.

Don't be fooled into thinking that "time in front of computer" = "work done". I've made that mistake too many times.

When I'm not making good progress in front of the computer (and I admit that this is sometimes very hard to tell), that's when it's time to get up and get away. Take a walk, go to the sofa with pencil and paper, hell, go to lunch, anything but continuing to sit and code in circles all day.

Even though OP's advice was very basic, I'd like to think of it as "how to get into the zone". Once I'm there, I don't need any advice. When I'm not in the zone, I'd do almost anything to get back there.

> When I'm "in the zone", there is no better advice.

> When I'm not in the zone, there is no worse advice.

Oh, sorry, I should have used more outlandish examples. I was intending to be completely facetious w/ my suggestions.

I am better at 5 ways to start a productive afternoon/night. In the morning I just have too much little stuff to get out of the way before I feel that I am going to get a big enough block of time to do meaningful work. Once I have the other stuff out of the way, I can dive into coding without distraction from, say 11-6. On the other hand, if there was a bug I couldn't fix the night before, looking at that first thing in the morning seems to work as if I'd been solving it in my dreams.

I'm sorry, but what a bunch of bullshit! From my personal experience there's only one way to have a productive day (whatever the hell that is): care about what you do. If you don't give a shit about what you do, no breakfast in the world will save you.

I keep forgetting the "good night's sleep part" and man, I just feel like a god damned zombie before noon.

And here I am on Hacker News.

Heh. Most mornings I start my day with /., HN, etc... knowing full well that it isn't particularly optimal. One thing that I think is effective, if you're in this habit like me, is to do an hour or so of work on a project before checking these sites or reading e-mail. I find that hour to be particularly productive. If you can do it on monday you'll feel like a saint. Plus, it seems fewer people are interrupting you that early (perhaps because they're too busy reading HN & email? ;))

Exactly. I'd estimate approximately a 10-fold increase in productivity if I removed the HN RSS feed from the top of my iGoogle page. But...

But then where would find tips on how to be productive?

What really works for me is just time. Give yourself extra time in the morning to sit and think. The morning is the most peaceful of day and I find that enjoying quiet solitude every day before heading to work really helps me to find inner focus.

For me, #4 "Clarify EXACTLY what would make your day productive" comes before #1 "Get a good night’s sleep".

More specifically, I always have my to do list for the day completed before I go to bed the night before. And that list only has 1 item on it. But that item is thought out in complete detail, sometimes with marked up hard copy, sometimes with just a few scratch sheets. I internalize and dream about all of it.

Waiting to plan your day after you wake up is way too late. Your gazelle was eaten by a lion while you were in the shower.

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