Questions regarding how to handle the use of time in one's life.
36
votes
12answers
4k views
What to do while compiling?
Reading about producitivity lately, it seems that multi-tasking is a bad strategy* (and I certainly feel that it contributes to stress), but I'm not sure how to avoid it when working on legacy ...
28
votes
15answers
688 views
How to spend less time cooking?
What are some good tips to streamline the process of preparing food?
While i enjoy cooking and eating fresh, the whole thing takes up a lot of time.
What do you do to speed that up? Do you prepare ...
26
votes
8answers
1k views
How to be more productive at my own side project while having a family and a full-time job?
I have a 9-6 full time job and trying to develop a project on my own. I can only work on it during my off hours, meaning after 7pm.
It looks like I have full 5 hours till midnight, but after dinner ...
25
votes
16answers
2k views
What to do when tired instead of surfing the internet?
After a full day, I am tired, and often end up mindlessly surfing the internet in the evening. It is the easiest thing to do when I've already made a lot of decisions during the day. Unfortunately, ...
22
votes
8answers
1k views
What is the best way to approach large tasks, such as reading scientific papers, that require intense focus?
I'm in graduate school, and part of my job is to read widely in my field. Scientific papers are very dense and I tend to read slow, so I average around 2-3 pages/hour. Consequently, long papers can ...
19
votes
10answers
612 views
How do you fill in the “dead” time when using a computer?
Working with a computer generates periods of "wasted" or "dead" time. I'm talking about the time during which the computer compiles your program, performs a sophisticated computation or downloads an ...
17
votes
10answers
644 views
How to stop your rss feeds becoming a mess/information overload?
So like probably many i use Google Reader to manage, read, filter my subscribed rss feeds. Subscribing only as much feeds as you can read doesnt really work. From time to time i delete some feeds, but ...
16
votes
5answers
443 views
How to organize my gaming time?
I see all kinds of people (including some of my friends) that simply don't know when to stop playing (for instance, wake up, play WoW, eat , play WoW, eat, play WoW , sleep). Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
I ...
14
votes
10answers
1k views
Is there a proven method for managing emails?
I find I often have an overflowing email inbox. Are there any methods or systems to help efficiently and effectively filter through, sort, and reply to emails?
13
votes
8answers
4k views
How often should you take breaks for maximum productivity?
When working on a project, how often should you take breaks and for how long for maximum productivity? Are there any studies or research on optimal use of breaks (universally), or is it more of a ...
13
votes
8answers
631 views
How to prevent oneself from feeling overwhelmed?
Sometimes, there are a lot of things that you are expected to do and you just don't know where to begin.
You feel like you are being overwhelmed with a lot of tasks and deadlines.
How should one ...
13
votes
4answers
405 views
How do I gauge the effectiveness of my time management system?
I'm guessing a lot of people here have some sort of time management system. I'm curious what techniques people use to improve that system over time.
For me at work:
Weekly look at where I spent ...
12
votes
4answers
476 views
How do other parents find the time?
I've been a father for several years and I find that my most productive personal hours outside of typical work day are between the hours of 9:30-11pm. Everything before that is consumed by work, ...
12
votes
10answers
1k views
Windows Freeware/Shareware programs for tracking daily tasks?
I once had a cool little Java program that allowed me to name each task, and toggle back and forth between tasks to track the time spent on each. At the end of the day I could export the data and ...
11
votes
5answers
387 views
What do I do with abandoned pomodoros?
This morning I decide to try applying the Pomodoro time boxing technique in my coding, but using it for software development raises some questions I would like to try and resolve before continuing.
...
10
votes
5answers
290 views
how to avoid temptations
well I usually do prepare a very good plan, but due to lot of temptations and their consuming nature and few of their execution I find discipline bit very hard in day to day life...
plans are ...
10
votes
4answers
518 views
Can working less get more work done?
I wonder if it is possible to get more done by working less.
Lets say that on a normal day: I work 8 hours and finish 10 units of work.
If I work less in a day, there are 3 possibilities:
I finish ...
9
votes
11answers
417 views
How can I use the travel time (car driving) efficiently?
My job requires me to drive about 30 minutes to the firm and 30 minutes back to home.
How can I use this otherwise wasted time efficiently?
Do you have special audio CD's or tracks you do listen to in ...
9
votes
4answers
261 views
One hour a day or 4 continuous hours a week for an activity?
Should I practice an activity, say drawing, programming, or even sport, in short day-sessions of one hour for example, or do it all at once in a week?
If I choose to do one hour a day, I might waste ...
9
votes
7answers
583 views
How to use bathroom time effectively
I spend a non-neglible time in the bathroom, sitting on the pot.
It occured to me that I could be using the time better and not let precious productivity time literally go to waste.
So, how do I ...
9
votes
8answers
465 views
How to deal with dreaded tasks?
How do you deal with difficult tasks, which take long to complete?
My problem, for example, are emails which require a lot of writing or research. They are not the main core of my work, and usually ...
9
votes
3answers
354 views
How to manage multiple simultaneous private projects?
I have a number of private web design projects that I work on during my spare time. Non of the projects have any real deadline, other than my own urge to finish them.
As there is no real deadline, I ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there an automatic time tracking application? [closed]
I'm looking for a time tracking tool to monitor and boost my productivity. What I have in mind is a program that works in the background and keeps track of which application is active at any given ...
9
votes
3answers
242 views
How can I decide when it's worth it to spend money to save time?
I've recently started thinking that I should spend more money in order to save time. Examples of this include:
paying to get my laundry done instead of doing it myself
sometimes taking a taxi ...
8
votes
5answers
450 views
How to efficiently use time during a long bus trip?
I will be going on a bus tour of Europe soon. I'll spend some time looking out the window or chatting with the other people, but we'll be spending a lot of time travelling. I can spend time reading ...
8
votes
8answers
356 views
How to stop obsessing over my to-do list?
The past two years have been crazy. In 2010, I graduated from college and my now-husband and I purchased our home. In 2011, I started a master's degree and we got married. This year, I started a ...
8
votes
5answers
467 views
Tips to get back a healthy “Early to bed,early to rise regime”
I feel a little bit of a back-story is necessary here:
I was an under-grad student up until last year. I had this habit of sleeping way too late and waking up with time enough to get to classes on ...
8
votes
7answers
363 views
What is the efficient way to remember things we read?
I read variety of things in a day; But I forgot those things in a week or so. I identified that 'spaced repetition' will help me to keep remembering things. To do spaced repetition, i take note of ...
8
votes
4answers
284 views
App to track activities and progress on them
I need to find application to track my activities and progress that I did on it (for example number of pages I read or exercises I did). I need to be able to look on what I spent last month for ...
7
votes
8answers
1k views
How to study efficiently few days before the exams [considering that one hasn't throughly studied any subject by now]?
I am having exams in these two weeks. But I still haven't studied thoroughly on each subjects. For physics, I have spent more than a week studying electric charges, yes, only electric charges. I spent ...
7
votes
5answers
222 views
Why is my productivity the lowest in afternoon?
Is it just me or is productivity low in the afternoon for general population? I find that I'm unable to do simplest of tasks between 1pm and 5 pm.
7
votes
5answers
282 views
How do you estimate time for a new task?
I have designed a site using WordPress. This was just a test WordPress site.
I am now okay with the coding in PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and WordPress. Now my senior wants me, just by looking at a JPEG ...
7
votes
3answers
486 views
How can I make my evening work time more productive?
I have always been at my most productive in the morning. However I have recently had a child which has required that I rearrange my schedule somewhat. I still wake as early as possible and get work ...
7
votes
4answers
537 views
How big is your backlog and how do you manage it?
How big is your backlog and how do you keep it under control? Do you actually keep track and do all of it, or do you have a method of eliminating old but valid tasks such as declaring e-mail ...
7
votes
3answers
325 views
Is it a bad idea to work in the evenings or at night?
Sometimes when I'm bored I work in the evenings and even into the night on work related projects. Is this a bad thing?
Will it harm future productivity during the day? Should you strictly limit ...
6
votes
6answers
283 views
How do I prevent myself from feeling too relaxed during the uneventful weeks preceding big deadlines?
The situation goes like so: big deadline one month from now. So I make some plan. But it gets too easy to procrastinate early on, to put one thing off, to allow a distraction here & there.
How ...
6
votes
9answers
271 views
Simple program with subtasks
I need a program (something similar to Google Tasks but with showing/hiding subtasks) with following functionality:
tasks
subtasks (with multiple level, so I can, say, create a task with 3 ...
6
votes
3answers
153 views
Productivity in the gaps
I'm in a situation where I find myself with a few moments of downtime each day where I'm waiting for a bit before starting again. Most of these periods are 10 to 20 minutes long. I can, and do, use ...
6
votes
3answers
145 views
Do it yourself or delegate? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I decide when it's worth it to spend money to save time?
I found out that I'm a person who likes to do many things self but I found out that many people ...
6
votes
2answers
479 views
What is Gathering Point in Time Management?
What is exactly Gathering Point in Time Management?
What is the benefits of Gathering Points?
6
votes
3answers
229 views
Balancing time and quality
Are there any proven or benchmarked methodologies that can be leveraged to balance the challenge between maintaining quality in spite of strict timeline through a disciplined and consistent approach? ...
6
votes
3answers
154 views
How to track time spent across individual websites?
I've used Rescue Time, but unfortunately, they don't offer the (free) ability to track time across your browsing, only showing that you were using a browser during that time.
I spend a lot of time ...
6
votes
5answers
540 views
Flexible time management software
I've been using RescueTime to track my productivity, it's so-so, needs a lots of setup.
What I need is a software which is flexible and web based
I can reach it from my phone and computer.
I can ...
5
votes
2answers
483 views
Site with examples of templates for day planner?
I have developed my own template to use each day. It is personalized to account for routine tasks, emergent tasks, a to-do section for ASAP/tomorrow/this week/long term items, along with a section ...
5
votes
4answers
196 views
How to prepare a course or a talk?
In one week from now I am holding a course in computer programming, which takes place twice a week. The course has 30 participants. It is the first time I am holding a course.
Now I have to prepare ...
5
votes
6answers
296 views
Single tasking vs Mulitasking
I'm a student and hoping to be an entrepreneur. Besides study I spend most of my time working on software development and recently thinking of organizing a team to work on the field of software and ...
5
votes
8answers
818 views
Where can I get a custom designed notebook from?
There are people out there who are just like me. We rarely memorize information just for the purpose of having it. We use Google to know things and we look things up as we need them. We are those ...
5
votes
3answers
283 views
What are the techniques to sleep effectively
I often do programming tasks at night. When I'm working on a programming task, times I get Ideas and will implement them at a stretch. Subtle, I don't get Ideas that faster and I pause my task. ...
5
votes
5answers
262 views
How can I deal with others who have different personal productivity goals?
I have many interests in personal productivity. I don't like to waste time so I sometimes pass up social events (going out or to bars) for 'bettering myself' through some extra work on a weekend ...
5
votes
6answers
2k views
A time-management watch with alarms, timers and vibration?
I'm looking for a wrist-watch that can help me in various time-management tasks.
I'd like to
regularly write down what I'm doing (time logging) so I know where my time is going, the watch could ...
