6 ms·

Optimizing inputs and becoming indistractable

82 points by PascalPrecht 5y ago

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
nireyal 5y ago
Thanks for reading and sharing what you learned in Indistractable. Glad it was helpful!
danpat 5y ago
I would love to see something like this written by someone with a young family. I find myself living JIT subject to the whimsical demands of small children for extended periods, and often wonder if it's even possible to re-arrange life in this context to try to re-capture some sanity. Usually I just give up and bathe myself in the chaos, hoping that it's just a few years and then some semblance of sanity will return naturally.
- PascalPrecht 5y ago
  Hi, the author here. You're raising a great point. While I'm not living together with my partner, we do have a little family and I'm very much with you that it's super hard to get anything done with kids around. Unless you get up super early, stay up super late after kids are in bed, or use the time when they aren't around (e.g. kindergarden), I also think that it's almost impossible to fully focus on something for a longer period. I guess it kind of boils down to finding the right routines. That certainly doesn't make it easier...
- mrmonkeyman 5y ago
  Stuff like this is useless for families. See his schedule. 7-830AM, time for "journaling"? Laughable. Try: 0600-0800 handling a bunch of small, very active and loud kids while doing laundry, kitchen, making breakfast, preparing lunch, dealing with constant messes, clothes. 0900-1200: deep (?) work, while constantly knowing you need to do like 12 baskets of laundry. 1200-1215: "lunch" 1215-1300: dealing with issue at school and sick family members. 3PM: "jimmy" comes over and poops his pants, sticks hands in poop and draws on walls. 1700: everybody is home again and the madness only now begins in earnest. 2000: "me"-time. 2100: winding down and preparing next day. 2200-0600: catch like 6 hours of sleep becayse of screaming baby, pissed pants, nightmares, whatever. All at once sometimes. Good luck with your "brazilian jiu jitsu".
- R0b0t1 5y ago
  Self-employment is the only answer I have seen provided. From memory, some people said they were able to transition into it, some others implied they felt they only had the chance at contract work due to a long onramp they made for themselves working at it earlier in their life. Hopefully we'll get some anecdotes. Well, I suppose there is teaching your children discipline; depends on what you mean by whimsical demands.
trompetenaccoun 5y ago
Not a bad read, probably the most succinctly worded self-help piece regarding time management that I've seen so far. I'm still not convinced I have to live like that. The site is ironically called sovereign-individual, yet the author seems to have every minute of their life bound by a schedule. Is that our ultimate purpose as humans?
- Darmody 5y ago
  You are a "sovereign-individual" if you have a tight schedule and that's what you really want. I wish I could do that but it looks like I can't without meds or a higher purpose (or something that motivates/obsesses me).
  - blooalien 5y ago
    > … "higher purpose (or something that motivates/obsesses me)." The magic trick here is to find something you truly enjoy doing and then figure out how to get other people to pay you to do that thing for them. Contract work/freelancing can be a joyful and rewarding way to live a "sovereign" life. ;)
  - trompetenaccoun 5y ago
    The question is why would they want to live like that? Are they still in control, or is it our capitalist society's firm grip on our lives that tells us we have to become ever more efficient, ever more robot-like? It's a serious question about the meaning of life. Do we want our societies be run like Toyota factories?
    - PascalPrecht 5y ago
      Hi, the author here. Sorry for the late reply, I didn't realize people were actually commenting here... So coming back to your question: In my case, I'm lucky enough to work for a company that is entirely distributed and decentralized and doesn't actually tell me when and how long to work as long as the output is sound. Obviously, in practice you most often have to put in some hours to get stuff done (that's what I'm being paid for after all). So while my work schedule isn't enforced, I chose for myself to work at these hours (not just for my employer) because I tend to function best at those hours. Now... do I want to reserve several hours of each day for work for the rest of my life? Certainly not. But that's what work right now for me and it can and will totally change in the future.
mlvljr 5y ago
Mikeyman here has a point, in fact

82 points by PascalPrecht 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

nireyal 5y ago

Thanks for reading and sharing what you learned in Indistractable. Glad it was helpful!

danpat 5y ago

I would love to see something like this written by someone with a young family. I find myself living JIT subject to the whimsical demands of small children for extended periods, and often wonder if it's even possible to re-arrange life in this context to try to re-capture some sanity. Usually I just give up and bathe myself in the chaos, hoping that it's just a few years and then some semblance of sanity will return naturally.

PascalPrecht 5y ago
Hi, the author here. You're raising a great point. While I'm not living together with my partner, we do have a little family and I'm very much with you that it's super hard to get anything done with kids around. Unless you get up super early, stay up super late after kids are in bed, or use the time when they aren't around (e.g. kindergarden), I also think that it's almost impossible to fully focus on something for a longer period. I guess it kind of boils down to finding the right routines. That certainly doesn't make it easier...
mrmonkeyman 5y ago
Stuff like this is useless for families. See his schedule. 7-830AM, time for "journaling"? Laughable. Try: 0600-0800 handling a bunch of small, very active and loud kids while doing laundry, kitchen, making breakfast, preparing lunch, dealing with constant messes, clothes. 0900-1200: deep (?) work, while constantly knowing you need to do like 12 baskets of laundry. 1200-1215: "lunch" 1215-1300: dealing with issue at school and sick family members. 3PM: "jimmy" comes over and poops his pants, sticks hands in poop and draws on walls. 1700: everybody is home again and the madness only now begins in earnest. 2000: "me"-time. 2100: winding down and preparing next day. 2200-0600: catch like 6 hours of sleep becayse of screaming baby, pissed pants, nightmares, whatever. All at once sometimes. Good luck with your "brazilian jiu jitsu".
R0b0t1 5y ago
Self-employment is the only answer I have seen provided. From memory, some people said they were able to transition into it, some others implied they felt they only had the chance at contract work due to a long onramp they made for themselves working at it earlier in their life. Hopefully we'll get some anecdotes. Well, I suppose there is teaching your children discipline; depends on what you mean by whimsical demands.

trompetenaccoun 5y ago

Not a bad read, probably the most succinctly worded self-help piece regarding time management that I've seen so far. I'm still not convinced I have to live like that. The site is ironically called sovereign-individual, yet the author seems to have every minute of their life bound by a schedule. Is that our ultimate purpose as humans?

Darmody 5y ago
You are a "sovereign-individual" if you have a tight schedule and that's what you really want. I wish I could do that but it looks like I can't without meds or a higher purpose (or something that motivates/obsesses me).
- blooalien 5y ago
  > … "higher purpose (or something that motivates/obsesses me)." The magic trick here is to find something you truly enjoy doing and then figure out how to get other people to pay you to do that thing for them. Contract work/freelancing can be a joyful and rewarding way to live a "sovereign" life. ;)
- trompetenaccoun 5y ago
  The question is why would they want to live like that? Are they still in control, or is it our capitalist society's firm grip on our lives that tells us we have to become ever more efficient, ever more robot-like? It's a serious question about the meaning of life. Do we want our societies be run like Toyota factories?
  - PascalPrecht 5y ago
    Hi, the author here. Sorry for the late reply, I didn't realize people were actually commenting here... So coming back to your question: In my case, I'm lucky enough to work for a company that is entirely distributed and decentralized and doesn't actually tell me when and how long to work as long as the output is sound. Obviously, in practice you most often have to put in some hours to get stuff done (that's what I'm being paid for after all). So while my work schedule isn't enforced, I chose for myself to work at these hours (not just for my employer) because I tend to function best at those hours. Now... do I want to reserve several hours of each day for work for the rest of my life? Certainly not. But that's what work right now for me and it can and will totally change in the future.

mlvljr 5y ago

Mikeyman here has a point, in fact