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> It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours. I don't know man, I've been struggl

> It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours. I don't know man, I've been struggling with this myself. Obviously it's not literally true, but the problem is that after you account for 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work and chores/eating/hygiene/cooking/commute, every thing you want to do starts seriously cutting into the time that's left. Need an hour more sleep than average? Wanna do some kind of workout on regular basis? Go out with friends, on a date, see a movie? Have a serious hobby that takes 2-3 hours 2-3 times a week? If you put it on spreadsheet it will fit but it's just seriously exhausting (yeah, better hope you actually have pretty high energy levels, that also varies from person to person). There is not much slack there.

triyambakam 6y ago
I was there not very long ago, and sometimes I still feel that way. But the change I made is to be strict without being restrictive, discipline with a sense of freedom. The biggest habit that has helped me is to just choose 2-3 most important things to do in the day and try to get them done as early in the day as possible. It feels so great to accomplish, and it's challenging but not unreasonable. Choose one goal and I feel like a failure and if I don't do it. Choose ten and I won't even do one. But a few good goals is the perfect balance, if I miss one but get the others I feel good. (This habit I learned from Zen to Done which also has nine othrt useful habits to slowly adopt over time)
- balfirevic 6y ago
  Do you mean outside of work? Things like side project, learning, reading and so on?
  - triyambakam 6y ago
    Well, I do it for work and outside of work, but they are separate counts - I choose 2 MITs for my work day and 2 MITs for personal development
PragmaticPulp 6y ago
I hear you, but I'll tell you what I tell my mentees: Most of it distills down to being honest about your priorities. If you value relaxed mornings, relaxed evenings, and never feeling rushed before or after work, then there's nothing wrong with that. You're not obligated to go out with friends or allocate hours to hobbies during the weekday. The problem comes when people say they value one thing, but when decision time arrives they do something else. If you have a hobby that requires 2-3 hours per week, then you make time a few nights per week to do it. If you want to go out with friends, then you make time to go out with friends. Going to the gym is perhaps the easiest example. If you really value going to the gym, finding one hour three times per week is only about 3% of your waking hours. Find a gym located between your house and your office and travel time falls out of the equation. Personally, I freed up an enormous amount of time by tightening up my schedule. Learning how to get out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get out the door in under 30 minutes was a game changer for me, and it wasn't even that difficult. Likewise, learning how to consolidate my chores and meal prep into small windows of time was an enormous improvement. If you sleep 8 hours per night, you have 112 waking hours per week. If you spend 40 hours working and have a 30-minute commute each way (5 hours commuting per week), that leaves 67 hours of your own time. Even if you allocate half of that to chores and meal prep, you're still left with 34 hours, or basically an entire work week of personal time. Realistically, you're not going to spend 33 hours on chores, though. It's all about priorities. If you don't want to real rushed or pressured during your off time, you don't have to, but you can't have it all.
- zemvpferreira 6y ago
  Adding to what you said, when I worked more intensely I found lots of success in freeing time by stacking, delegating, batching and subtracting: -lots of passive pleasures can be enjoyed while commuting, shopping or dishwashing. You can read, listen, move. Some people even manage to produce (eg write novels) on the train to work. -lots of stuff can be done by other people. Eat takeaway, have your clothes and house professionally cleaned if you don’t enjoy doing it. Is it expensive? Yes. But if you’re a high achiever you’ll get a lot more ROI out of putting the energy you’re saving by delegating into either work or more rest. -still unnafordable to eat out every meal even if it’s a good idea? Cool once a month or once a week. Shop once a month or once a week. It’ll save you oodles of time and money. Apply to every possible chore. -still taking too much time and energy to take care of everything in your life? Pull a Soylent. Delete entire categories of concerns. Adopt a uniform. Get brutal with time wasters.
ibeckermayer 6y ago
That’s just how life is my dude. You can’t have all the things, all the time. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/17/what-billionaire-ray-dalio-taught-his-son-about-business-and-life.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/17/what-billionaire-ray-dalio-t...

triyambakam 6y ago

I was there not very long ago, and sometimes I still feel that way. But the change I made is to be strict without being restrictive, discipline with a sense of freedom. The biggest habit that has helped me is to just choose 2-3 most important things to do in the day and try to get them done as early in the day as possible. It feels so great to accomplish, and it's challenging but not unreasonable. Choose one goal and I feel like a failure and if I don't do it. Choose ten and I won't even do one. But a few good goals is the perfect balance, if I miss one but get the others I feel good. (This habit I learned from Zen to Done which also has nine othrt useful habits to slowly adopt over time)

balfirevic 6y ago
Do you mean outside of work? Things like side project, learning, reading and so on?
- triyambakam 6y ago
  Well, I do it for work and outside of work, but they are separate counts - I choose 2 MITs for my work day and 2 MITs for personal development

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

I hear you, but I'll tell you what I tell my mentees: Most of it distills down to being honest about your priorities. If you value relaxed mornings, relaxed evenings, and never feeling rushed before or after work, then there's nothing wrong with that. You're not obligated to go out with friends or allocate hours to hobbies during the weekday. The problem comes when people say they value one thing, but when decision time arrives they do something else. If you have a hobby that requires 2-3 hours per week, then you make time a few nights per week to do it. If you want to go out with friends, then you make time to go out with friends. Going to the gym is perhaps the easiest example. If you really value going to the gym, finding one hour three times per week is only about 3% of your waking hours. Find a gym located between your house and your office and travel time falls out of the equation. Personally, I freed up an enormous amount of time by tightening up my schedule. Learning how to get out of bed, get dressed, eat breakfast, and get out the door in under 30 minutes was a game changer for me, and it wasn't even that difficult. Likewise, learning how to consolidate my chores and meal prep into small windows of time was an enormous improvement. If you sleep 8 hours per night, you have 112 waking hours per week. If you spend 40 hours working and have a 30-minute commute each way (5 hours commuting per week), that leaves 67 hours of your own time. Even if you allocate half of that to chores and meal prep, you're still left with 34 hours, or basically an entire work week of personal time. Realistically, you're not going to spend 33 hours on chores, though. It's all about priorities. If you don't want to real rushed or pressured during your off time, you don't have to, but you can't have it all.

zemvpferreira 6y ago
Adding to what you said, when I worked more intensely I found lots of success in freeing time by stacking, delegating, batching and subtracting: -lots of passive pleasures can be enjoyed while commuting, shopping or dishwashing. You can read, listen, move. Some people even manage to produce (eg write novels) on the train to work. -lots of stuff can be done by other people. Eat takeaway, have your clothes and house professionally cleaned if you don’t enjoy doing it. Is it expensive? Yes. But if you’re a high achiever you’ll get a lot more ROI out of putting the energy you’re saving by delegating into either work or more rest. -still unnafordable to eat out every meal even if it’s a good idea? Cool once a month or once a week. Shop once a month or once a week. It’ll save you oodles of time and money. Apply to every possible chore. -still taking too much time and energy to take care of everything in your life? Pull a Soylent. Delete entire categories of concerns. Adopt a uniform. Get brutal with time wasters.

ibeckermayer 6y ago

That’s just how life is my dude. You can’t have all the things, all the time. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/17/what-billionaire-ray-dalio-taught-his-son-about-business-and-life.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/17/what-billionaire-ray-dalio-t...