What "Super Achievers" Know About Time Management | Hacker News Reader

What "Super Achievers" Know About Time Management

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35 pointscwan24 comments

Not the way they are taught by their proponents. Too many use the to do list not just to set priorities but to project plan at the micro level. They estimate it will take so long to do this item and then match that with an available time slot throughout the day. The to do list wastes more time than it purports to save.

Straw man. Who the hell uses their todo list like that? Who are those "proponents" who suggest playing this sort of silly "estimate the task and match it to a time slot" game? I've never met one.

Todo lists are for one thing only: to take the things you said you'd do out of your mind so you can focus on that one most important task.

I know of a proponent of todo lists who happens to be a pretty remarkable achiever: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity

Yup, he is very selective in his sample. He sampled a bunch of "super-achievers" and some of them don't use to-do lists. He didn't say how much or what qualified as a to-do list. Then he ignores people who are successful and use to-do lists.

There's also huge selection bias. What about all the disorganized people who don't use to-do lists and aren't successful? I can assure you there are a lot of them.

To-do lists are probably very weakly correlated with success, if at all.

Straw man. Who the hell uses their todo list like that? Who are those "proponents" who suggest playing this sort of silly "estimate the task and match it to a time slot" game? I've never met one.

You've never seen a Gantt chart? You're lucky, then.

A Gantt chart is not a todo list. And a todo list is not a Gantt chart. Ranting against the evils of over-planned projects is one thing. Equating that to the humble todo list is not only silly, it's also very wrong. Terrible advice.

i've seen many people have this approach and misuse to-do lists. plenty of people will whizz through the peripheries first so they feel a sense of accomplishment and then wonder why they're up until 3am working on the big things.

This is the "makers' schedule" vs "managers' schedule" again. Donald Trump doesn't need a "To do" list because he (presumably) works on a manager's schedule -- if he decides he needs to do something he'll tell his assistant to set up a meeting with the relevant person, then he'll meet with the relevant person at the appropriate time and the thing will get done. Also, he doesn't need to worry about the minor errands which most of us need to fill our to do lists with either, since he can just bark "make me a dental appointment!" at somebody and it gets done.

To do lists are only relevant to those who actually need to sit down and do things on their own. Did Einstein have a To Do list? I don't know, but if he didn't then it was for very different reasons to Donald Trump.

You know what Super Achievers don't do? Blog about the secrets of Super Achievers.

Seriously. This sadly written article lacks weight of any sort.

To-do lists can work for some people, but here's why they're dangerous:

1) The urgency-importance matrix theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MerrillCoveyMatrix.png). Given the 2x2 matrix of (important, unimportant) x (urgent, not urgent), the two urgent quadrants tend to get done and the other 2 don't. In the case of the (unimportant, not urgent) quadrant, that's probably fine. But for the (important, not urgent) quadrant, this is a problem. To-do lists can make it even easier to focus on the urgent, short-term tasks while starving the important, long-term ones.

2) To-do lists provide fuel for the procrastination fire by helping you find ways to occupy yourself while you put off a big task that you don't want to do. See http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

I think that's the crux of his argument. People who achieve a lot can see the big picture; they can see the long term. They don't let the small tasks get in their way.

Ironically, I first misread your argument (1) as an argument IN FAVOR of to-do lists, because to-do lists have at least the merit that they preserve the (important, not urgent) items for the next review opportunity.

The phenomenon you describe, unimportant short term tasks crowding out important long term tasks, is not so much caused by KEEPING to do lists, but by not properly MANAGING them. I don't see how one would become better at managing priorities by NOT having a reasonably accurate overall picture of what the tasks at hand are.

[Disclaimer: As is probably evident from my argument, I'm a somewhat recent convert to the "Getting Things Done" methodology]

If I had to guess I would say that "Super Achievers" are people so excited to work on something that they constantly feel frustrated when they're not getting it done. To fight this, they probably tweak and adjust their habits until they find ones that minimize their frustration. So you'll find some people that swear off todo lists, and some people that swear by them. Some people who plan things out meticulously and some who wait for inspiration to strike and then work till 2:00 am. There's probably a few basic techniques that seem to be universal (though I don't think not using to-do lists is one of them), but the most important is to fiercely want to do something - everything else will stem from that.

_In the corporate structure the to do list doesn't appear at the "C" level._

I guess nobody at "C" level has actually anything that he has to do. These people just wander around dreaming solely or collectively with similar people and/or yelling at subordinates.

In the corporate structure the to do list doesn't appear at the "C" level.

In my experience within a Fortune 50 company, this is false. Maybe it is an exceptional part of the culture here but the C levels I have interacted with both at the business unit and corporate level are mad for todo lists. Not in the "I need to slot this piece of work into this slice of time" sense, but certainly in the "Twenty Things I have asked for from people that work for me (And will certainly follow up on the next time I speak with them) and Five big ideas I want to explore" sense.

Good concise article. The real gem here is about compartmentalizing. I think this is the real key to getting things done. And I think the #1 thing that makes it difficult to compartmentalize is working longer hours than you should.

I find that when I put in extra long hours I have trouble "turning it off" when I get home to relax. Not having that recharge time makes me stressed out and therefore a less effective worker when I pick-up where I left of the next day. It's a vicious cycle.

Agreed is a very good article, especially advocating you focus on the right targets rather than items on to-do lists, which went well with me as I don't use them.

>It is very appealing to figure out how to squeeze more out of each 24 hour day.

This I thought was a spelling mistake, it should have read:

It is very appalling to figure out how to squeeze more out of each 24 hour day.

And I think the #1 thing that makes it difficult to compartmentalize is working longer hours than you should

i find that living and working in the same space is the the #1 thing that makes it difficult to compartmentalize for me. it's hard to "turn off" when your bed is 3 meters away from your desk.

On the other end, it can be hard to "turn on". My main reason for working away from the apartment.

I am much more likely to follow the David Allen, Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology - and not only because its a more detailed study. What I found this article lacking was the suggestion of a learning curve, or how a scatterbrained person can become more organized and effective. The GTD lectures highlight the importance of finding a methodology and a set of tools that work for you. There is no silver bullet, and I bet a very small minority of super-achievers skipped over the whole organizational tool phase. They probably used them, then internalized the processes.

How the hell did this get to the front page?

Maybe there are some HN readers who are part of small teams trying to build profitable businesses from scratch and they need to figure out how to wear 10 different hats and get 100 hours of work done every 24 hours and still have time to sleep.

are you in my office?

Because, while it doesn't provide particularly useful advice, it is at least a good starting point for discussion on an interesting subject?

Also, because people upvoted it before taking time to read it carefully and think about whether the advice was really valuable?

While I find this interesting, I'm not sure it applies to the lion's share of people, especially here on HN. Maximizing your opportunities is a great principle, and for people working in startups and especially in marketing/sales positions, it's something they might face everyday.

For people in a "makers" role on a day-to-day basis, however, I wonder how they can do what is being said here. For those, I think that swombat is right - todo lists serve to get the things that need to be done out of your head so you can use that brain power more effectively.

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