5 ms·

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

72 points by codelion 14y ago

calgaryeng 14y ago
I think the real key here is focus ... Meandering on Twitter for your first hour isn't going to get you anywhere.
akg 14y ago
Interestingly there seems to be a recent trend of not being a slave to your email, twitter, FB, etc. I suppose people are starting to realize that urgent things don't necessarily come from these mediums and as much as we have come to rely on them, they provide us with more noise than useful data. I've been trying to check email twice daily at scheduled times and respond to emails in "batch" instead of as they come in. It's definitely increased the number of "concentrated" hours I put into a task.
- johnchristopher 14y ago
  It's a wild guess but I am pretty sure that this "trend" always makes a come-back at the end of holidays or vacations.
- lttlrck 14y ago
  when everyone starts doing it things stop working very very quickly.
npguy 14y ago
This is very, very debatable. Solid product ideas come from cross-pollination of existing ones. How do you get existing ideas in your thought stream if you do not getyour inputs right? (in this case, email/twitter/facebook)
- codelion 14y ago
  The article doesn't say that we should never check our email/twitter/Facebook. It is about structuring and scheduling your day right from the start.
malandrew 14y ago
I love the juxtaposition of this post with the one that currently follows it on the front page (at least for me): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4453030 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4453030
espinchi 14y ago
I've been trying hard to apply the "don't check e-mail/FB/Twitter/HN/etc until 11am" rule. In my expericence, the later you open that gigantic can of worms, the better off you are. By far.
digitalengineer 14y ago
You could also add 'reading HN' to e-mail / twitter / facebook. HN can be dubble as addictive due to the good comments. You now want to read the articles and the comments.
_delirium 14y ago
It's reasonable as advice, but as an empirical answer to what successful people do with the first hour of their work day, I'd be interested in some less-anecdotal data. Are these five really representative of what successful people do with the first hour of their work day? I suspect that they aren't, and that if you did a proper survey you would find more boring results, e.g. a lot of successful people spending their first hour at work checking and responding to email, in meetings, etc.
timedoctor 14y ago
Not checking email first thing is really hard to do! I manage to do it (just) but it requires an immense amount of discipline and easy to slip back into bad habits.
- eckyptang 14y ago
  Its not a bad habit. A whole army of blog posts have spawned around this fallacy which annoys the hell out of me. It works for some but a lot of people rely on email as a primary communication medium. You just look like an asshole to your customers and colleagues.
Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
> Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” If I don't have time for that, can I try "5 minutes of self help drivel"?
- jfoutz 14y ago
  No. It's neither an alliteration nor a rhyme. 5 minutes of jive might have worked a couple of decades ago. Five minutes of fail? not bad, just doesn't sing though. I think my fave is a half kilosecond of life cheapened.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    If I were Robbins I'd start my day looking in a mirror and laughing myself silly for 10 minutes about how much money I'd made spouting this nonsense.
munin 14y ago
> “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.” this probably works when you're the CEO/founder. when you're not, you probably don't want a reputation as "the guy who never checks his email" ...
- bones6 14y ago
  I really think it would be hard for anyone to notice you and glorify you with a reputation as the "guy who never checks email before 9am". That old quote .. 'no one thinks about you as much as you do' comes to mind. He just said give it an hour, not forever.
- rm999 14y ago
  E-mail isn't a good urgent communication method for anyone regardless of their level. It's common for people to be away from their e-mail or to only check it periodically while they work. I can get 10 e-mails an hour, I don't stop everything I'm doing for each one to see if it's urgent. I expect people to walk over to me or call for anything that needs to be done in less than half a day or so.
- tjtrapp 14y ago
  i REPLY to my emails twice a day and again at night. im not a founder or c-level exec. im fine being the guy who's not replying to an email bc im paid to write code, not emails.
- junto 14y ago
  Very true. Instead you can get your email client to check emails less regularly, say once an hour, rather than every ten minutes. I found that quite useful to maintain focus and improve overall productivity.
jimmytucson 14y ago
I can't help but wonder what happened to "Shit, Shower, and Shave".
- floppydisk 14y ago
  There's an app for that.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Spytap 14y ago
What SOME successful people happen to do with the first hour of their day. Correlation != Causation.
ZoFreX 14y ago
> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".
- snowwrestler 14y ago
  Totally agree. If today were the last day of my life, I would spend it visiting my favorite spots of local natural beauty with my family. Not working, no matter how fulfilling the job. Even Steve Jobs, who was famously driven, left his career for his friends and family once he knew the end was approaching. Since today is not my last (I hope!), and I know that I want to give myself and my family a life that is fulfilling for a long time to come, I work to earn money and hopefully make the world a better place. I think it's good to remember that time is precious, but trying to guide your work habits by the "last day of your life" is not really that helpful IMO.
- batista 14y ago
  >Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes". Sure, if it was your very very last day and you knew it, you might did something extremely different (e.g, get partying like crazy, spend all your cash on expensive gifts to yourself or go out helping people, etc). That's not the point, you're seeing it too literally. The gist of the question is "given your days are finite, do you want to continue to do what you are about to do today?".
- ismarc 14y ago
  I have two tattoos that I got in response to an extremely close friend getting shot and killed by his father-in-law after being threatened by him for quite some time. It was a child custody dispute (long backstory), but the threats were if he didn't drop the lawsuit (? not sure what the word is for the trial to get custody from someone) he would kill my friend and my friend's wife (the murderer's daughter). My friend refused to on the principle that he could never let someone like that have custody of a kid. My friend was killed two days after the judgement giving him and his wife custody. The tattoos are on my forearms and say "love life" and "embrace death". It's the inevitability of death and living your life in a manner that at the moment of your death, you can look back and be proud of the decisions you made. It doesn't mean live today as if it were your last, it means live it such that if it turned into your last, you have no regrets. And if you have any regrets in your past, fix them. It quickly became second nature to consider all decisions on this axis, and if the result of a decision made you regret it, fix it quickly.

72 points by codelion 14y ago

I think the real key here is focus ... Meandering on Twitter for your first hour isn't going to get you anywhere.

akg 14y ago

Interestingly there seems to be a recent trend of not being a slave to your email, twitter, FB, etc. I suppose people are starting to realize that urgent things don't necessarily come from these mediums and as much as we have come to rely on them, they provide us with more noise than useful data. I've been trying to check email twice daily at scheduled times and respond to emails in "batch" instead of as they come in. It's definitely increased the number of "concentrated" hours I put into a task.

johnchristopher 14y ago
It's a wild guess but I am pretty sure that this "trend" always makes a come-back at the end of holidays or vacations.
lttlrck 14y ago
when everyone starts doing it things stop working very very quickly.

npguy 14y ago

This is very, very debatable. Solid product ideas come from cross-pollination of existing ones. How do you get existing ideas in your thought stream if you do not getyour inputs right? (in this case, email/twitter/facebook)

codelion 14y ago
The article doesn't say that we should never check our email/twitter/Facebook. It is about structuring and scheduling your day right from the start.

malandrew 14y ago

I love the juxtaposition of this post with the one that currently follows it on the front page (at least for me): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4453030 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4453030

espinchi 14y ago

I've been trying hard to apply the "don't check e-mail/FB/Twitter/HN/etc until 11am" rule. In my expericence, the later you open that gigantic can of worms, the better off you are. By far.

digitalengineer 14y ago

You could also add 'reading HN' to e-mail / twitter / facebook. HN can be dubble as addictive due to the good comments. You now want to read the articles and the comments.

_delirium 14y ago

It's reasonable as advice, but as an empirical answer to what successful people do with the first hour of their work day, I'd be interested in some less-anecdotal data. Are these five really representative of what successful people do with the first hour of their work day? I suspect that they aren't, and that if you did a proper survey you would find more boring results, e.g. a lot of successful people spending their first hour at work checking and responding to email, in meetings, etc.

timedoctor 14y ago

Not checking email first thing is really hard to do! I manage to do it (just) but it requires an immense amount of discipline and easy to slip back into bad habits.

eckyptang 14y ago
Its not a bad habit. A whole army of blog posts have spawned around this fallacy which annoys the hell out of me. It works for some but a lot of people rely on email as a primary communication medium. You just look like an asshole to your customers and colleagues.

Tyrannosaurs 14y ago

> Robbins suggests setting up an “Hour of Power,” “30 Minutes to Thrive,” or at least “Fifteen Minutes to Fulfillment.” If I don't have time for that, can I try "5 minutes of self help drivel"?

jfoutz 14y ago
No. It's neither an alliteration nor a rhyme. 5 minutes of jive might have worked a couple of decades ago. Five minutes of fail? not bad, just doesn't sing though. I think my fave is a half kilosecond of life cheapened.
- Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
  If I were Robbins I'd start my day looking in a mirror and laughing myself silly for 10 minutes about how much money I'd made spouting this nonsense.

munin 14y ago

> “If something urgently needs my attention, someone will call or text me.” this probably works when you're the CEO/founder. when you're not, you probably don't want a reputation as "the guy who never checks his email" ...

bones6 14y ago
I really think it would be hard for anyone to notice you and glorify you with a reputation as the "guy who never checks email before 9am". That old quote .. 'no one thinks about you as much as you do' comes to mind. He just said give it an hour, not forever.
rm999 14y ago
E-mail isn't a good urgent communication method for anyone regardless of their level. It's common for people to be away from their e-mail or to only check it periodically while they work. I can get 10 e-mails an hour, I don't stop everything I'm doing for each one to see if it's urgent. I expect people to walk over to me or call for anything that needs to be done in less than half a day or so.
tjtrapp 14y ago
i REPLY to my emails twice a day and again at night. im not a founder or c-level exec. im fine being the guy who's not replying to an email bc im paid to write code, not emails.
junto 14y ago
Very true. Instead you can get your email client to check emails less regularly, say once an hour, rather than every ten minutes. I found that quite useful to maintain focus and improve overall productivity.

jimmytucson 14y ago

I can't help but wonder what happened to "Shit, Shower, and Shave".

floppydisk 14y ago
There's an app for that.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Spytap 14y ago

What SOME successful people happen to do with the first hour of their day. Correlation != Causation.

ZoFreX 14y ago

> [I ask myself] "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes".

snowwrestler 14y ago
Totally agree. If today were the last day of my life, I would spend it visiting my favorite spots of local natural beauty with my family. Not working, no matter how fulfilling the job. Even Steve Jobs, who was famously driven, left his career for his friends and family once he knew the end was approaching. Since today is not my last (I hope!), and I know that I want to give myself and my family a life that is fulfilling for a long time to come, I work to earn money and hopefully make the world a better place. I think it's good to remember that time is precious, but trying to guide your work habits by the "last day of your life" is not really that helpful IMO.
batista 14y ago
>Really? If today were the last day of my life I'd do things very, very differently - I can't imagine that answer ever being "yes". Sure, if it was your very very last day and you knew it, you might did something extremely different (e.g, get partying like crazy, spend all your cash on expensive gifts to yourself or go out helping people, etc). That's not the point, you're seeing it too literally. The gist of the question is "given your days are finite, do you want to continue to do what you are about to do today?".
ismarc 14y ago
I have two tattoos that I got in response to an extremely close friend getting shot and killed by his father-in-law after being threatened by him for quite some time. It was a child custody dispute (long backstory), but the threats were if he didn't drop the lawsuit (? not sure what the word is for the trial to get custody from someone) he would kill my friend and my friend's wife (the murderer's daughter). My friend refused to on the principle that he could never let someone like that have custody of a kid. My friend was killed two days after the judgement giving him and his wife custody. The tattoos are on my forearms and say "love life" and "embrace death". It's the inevitability of death and living your life in a manner that at the moment of your death, you can look back and be proud of the decisions you made. It doesn't mean live today as if it were your last, it means live it such that if it turned into your last, you have no regrets. And if you have any regrets in your past, fix them. It quickly became second nature to consider all decisions on this axis, and if the result of a decision made you regret it, fix it quickly.