3 ms·

I just cannot imagine investing this amount of effort into managing my life's details. I feel an energy drain just reading it. But, maybe much younger people th

I just cannot imagine investing this amount of effort into managing my life's details. I feel an energy drain just reading it. But, maybe much younger people think this is how to live a good life. More simply: I'm pretty sick of productivity porn, and the empty promises it makes.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gnuj3 4y ago
I feel exactly the same. How the hell people have time foe all this? It’s procrastinating in a fashionable way to make yourself feel like you’re productive.
- rchaud 4y ago
  Check out Hobonichi. It's a whole cottage industry dedicated to making your notebook/planner look nice. I like looking at the designs, but, like most people, I never have a need to re-open notebooks, so there's no point in trying to convert my idea scratchpad into art.
- clnq 4y ago
  I think there’s immediate gratification in this. You feel like you’re making progress towards your goals by planning them out, even if you don’t actually progress. You just add a superfluous step of documentation and complete it. A small industry has formed around this feeling. I think one can achieve a lot in life with much more rudimentary planning tools, like pen and paper. I am yet to find a situation where that doesn’t get the job done for me personally.
  - ravagat 4y ago
    I think you're right with the immediate gratification in this sort of thing. Then I think that's the problem right there.
ttul 4y ago
Yes, I'd like to see how this tool would function under the weight of three kids, an aging brain, and a few life-crises.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  That's pretty much a perfect description of me, and my only planning/organizational tool I use as a regular part of my life is setting alarms, timers, and reminders on my phone so I remember I was supposed to do a thing. Usually I just rely on myself to figure out why the hell my phone's bugging me, don't even bother to record what it is. It's working pretty well for me. Every other tool I've tried to use has been about 20x more effort than it's worth, and remembering to keep whatever-thing with me or to check it is harder than the entire rest of what I'm trying to accomplish with it. I always have my phone, and I don't need to check it because it'll scream at me when it's time for something. "WTF is that noise? Wait, what time is it? Oh shit, time to get so-and-so ready for practice!"
rchaud 4y ago
Often times these templates are made by students, who aren't in the workforce but want the trappings of professionalism. For some that is exactly the kind of productivity porn you mention. It's addictive, I can't lie. I would love to have a perfectly designed, neat workflow that captures all my tasks and quantifies my productivity with precision. The reality of work is that I already have to apply these principles to documenting things at my job. The last thing I want to do is to also need to maintain a perfectly manicured to-do list for myself.
- clnq 4y ago
  Ah yes… Jira and Confluence at home. All that’s missing is a micromanaging product owner.
  - fragmede 4y ago
    You could get married and arrange for your mother-in-law to live with you, if that's what you're looking for.
mcky 4y ago
I think some people (like myself) just like some order to things, or at least the feeling of it. Fiddling with my notion calendar of how many gym sessions/runs I made/missed is easier than actually going to the gym of course, but I like to think it helps me stay on track in a “what gets measured gets managed” kind of way. But maybe when I’m older and more wise I’ll see it for the fallacy it is
darkteflon 4y ago
On the one hand, agree that the system outlined in the article is a bit too full-on for me. On the other hand, I have tens of thousands of words of text files in an Obsidian vault in support of my one hobby: game dev in Blender and Unreal. Workflows, gotchas, footguns, checklists. I have no idea how my middle-aged brain would remember how to, e.g. layer blend two materials after 6 months away. This complex pursuit would be altogether impossible (for me) without my notes.
ravagat 4y ago
Yes this is the problem I've seen young and old happen to deal with. They get obsessed with the details. Maybe, they don't have that many things going on.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

gnuj3 4y ago

I feel exactly the same. How the hell people have time foe all this? It’s procrastinating in a fashionable way to make yourself feel like you’re productive.

rchaud 4y ago
Check out Hobonichi. It's a whole cottage industry dedicated to making your notebook/planner look nice. I like looking at the designs, but, like most people, I never have a need to re-open notebooks, so there's no point in trying to convert my idea scratchpad into art.
clnq 4y ago
I think there’s immediate gratification in this. You feel like you’re making progress towards your goals by planning them out, even if you don’t actually progress. You just add a superfluous step of documentation and complete it. A small industry has formed around this feeling. I think one can achieve a lot in life with much more rudimentary planning tools, like pen and paper. I am yet to find a situation where that doesn’t get the job done for me personally.
- ravagat 4y ago
  I think you're right with the immediate gratification in this sort of thing. Then I think that's the problem right there.

ttul 4y ago

Yes, I'd like to see how this tool would function under the weight of three kids, an aging brain, and a few life-crises.

yamtaddle 4y ago
That's pretty much a perfect description of me, and my only planning/organizational tool I use as a regular part of my life is setting alarms, timers, and reminders on my phone so I remember I was supposed to do a thing. Usually I just rely on myself to figure out why the hell my phone's bugging me, don't even bother to record what it is. It's working pretty well for me. Every other tool I've tried to use has been about 20x more effort than it's worth, and remembering to keep whatever-thing with me or to check it is harder than the entire rest of what I'm trying to accomplish with it. I always have my phone, and I don't need to check it because it'll scream at me when it's time for something. "WTF is that noise? Wait, what time is it? Oh shit, time to get so-and-so ready for practice!"

rchaud 4y ago

Often times these templates are made by students, who aren't in the workforce but want the trappings of professionalism. For some that is exactly the kind of productivity porn you mention. It's addictive, I can't lie. I would love to have a perfectly designed, neat workflow that captures all my tasks and quantifies my productivity with precision. The reality of work is that I already have to apply these principles to documenting things at my job. The last thing I want to do is to also need to maintain a perfectly manicured to-do list for myself.

clnq 4y ago
Ah yes… Jira and Confluence at home. All that’s missing is a micromanaging product owner.
- fragmede 4y ago
  You could get married and arrange for your mother-in-law to live with you, if that's what you're looking for.

mcky 4y ago

I think some people (like myself) just like some order to things, or at least the feeling of it. Fiddling with my notion calendar of how many gym sessions/runs I made/missed is easier than actually going to the gym of course, but I like to think it helps me stay on track in a “what gets measured gets managed” kind of way. But maybe when I’m older and more wise I’ll see it for the fallacy it is

darkteflon 4y ago

On the one hand, agree that the system outlined in the article is a bit too full-on for me. On the other hand, I have tens of thousands of words of text files in an Obsidian vault in support of my one hobby: game dev in Blender and Unreal. Workflows, gotchas, footguns, checklists. I have no idea how my middle-aged brain would remember how to, e.g. layer blend two materials after 6 months away. This complex pursuit would be altogether impossible (for me) without my notes.

ravagat 4y ago

Yes this is the problem I've seen young and old happen to deal with. They get obsessed with the details. Maybe, they don't have that many things going on.