6 ms·

> A feeling of incompleteness will motivate you to come back and finalize your work the next day. Unfortunately, in between there's sleep, which is the great f

> A feeling of incompleteness will motivate you to come back and finalize your work the next day. Unfortunately, in between there's sleep, which is the great feelings eraser / emotional cache flusher. So all that'll happen is that said "feeling of incompleteness" will distract me for the rest of the evening, then disappear at night. Come morning, it won't be there, so I'll have to read the plan to hopefully induce that feeling again.

bayindirh 1y ago
I do the same thing as the author does. Moreover, I keep these notes more frequently, to the project's notebook with my other thoughts during the day. When I return to the task, I get up to speed in ~10 minutes, and things way go smoother because a) I'll be rested, b) My brain would have processed the plan and came up with a refined version of it. When I read the plan I wrote, I automatically recall the refined version most of the time. Then, I get to work and finish what I have started. Interestingly, sleep doesn't erase my emotions, but pause them. I just continue from where I left.
- pvtmert 1y ago
  sounds like you are more of a morning person, as a non-morning person, it usually takes me about 4-6 hours to get up-to-speed. because there would be some unexpected twists and turns that will distract me from the task. meanwhile, exact opposite. if i cannot "solve" an issue, if i just wait till the evening by going for a 100+km bicycle ride, i magically solve the problem in the evening (right about at dusk and after).
  - satvikpendem 1y ago
    I don't get it, what do you do for 4 to 6 hours? I can understand an hour as sometimes I get coffee and relax into the work but 4 to 6 hours? That's like most of the workday already gone.
    - pazimzadeh 1y ago
      > That's like most of the workday already gone if you don't work in the evenings, which he explicitly mentioned he does probably he does things easy tasks, things that can be done on autopilot, gradually moving on to initial attempts at harder tasks?
      - satvikpendem 1y ago
        So they're just in a state of quasi work for the entire day in the evenings too? If they spend 6 hours on easy tasks when do they have the time for the hard tasks unless they work something like 12 hour days?
        pazimzadeh 1y ago
        it sounds like they have time to go on a 100+ km bike ride throughout during the day, which isn't work. just going off of what they wrote.. seems like they enjoy what they do and/or enjoy what they do, which is critical for non-morning people
    - rolisz 1y ago
      Brain don't work (comment written at 8AM my time). I'm not a morning person either. Coffee doesn't really help. For me it not 4-6 hours, but 2 is common.
  - auggierose 1y ago
    That doesn't sound like you are a non-morning person, but that you have a very inefficient start of the day. Good news: you might be able to add as much as 20 hours of productivity to your week!
    - j_bum 1y ago
      I’d love to hear how to start today efficiently. Please do share! Sincerely, A true night owl.
      - auggierose 1y ago
        Go to bed not later than 11pm. Wake up not later than 6am. Try to avoid HN after waking up and get straight to work. If you are productive as a night owl, you will be even more productive this way.
        satvikpendem 1y ago
        The problem is the falling asleep part for many night owls, insomnia is the issue.
        smartbit 1y ago
        Have you tried sports? Someone mentioned bicycling 100km which imho is quite exhausting and gives me a good night of sleep.
        pvtmert 1y ago
        I do cycling, currently based in Luxembourg. I cycle (for fun & sports) about 10.000 (ten-thousand) kilometers per year. I also like 100+km rides, although I do that weekly mostly between mid-April to mid-September period... I can easily sleep 10 hours, start at any time. It's not a problem of falling asleep, it's a problem of waking up :)
        auggierose 1y ago
  - bayindirh 1y ago
    I'm not a "very" morning person. I generally wake around 7am in the morning, and start my wind-down at 11:00 pm. I generally plan my next morning and half day before I go to bed. This allows me to create a routine with some flexibility for the morning. While I can, and like to work, at nights, I do it less and less. Increasing the efficiency of my work routine is a more rewarding process for me. Also, I'm more conscious about my biorhythm now, so I want to give my bods enough time to detox itself, esp around 1-3pm, when your brain "takes the chemical trash out".
- TeMPOraL 1y ago
  > Interestingly, sleep doesn't erase my emotions, but pause them. I just continue from where I left. That is interesting for me. It's something I wish was the case for me, because I've been struggling with this a lot. I started referring to it as "lack of emotional continuity" or "emotional cache flush". It's like a context switch, but on emotional layer. I basically can't seem to hold on to my emotional state for extended duration, and in particular it gets reset at the day boundary (i.e. when I sleep). This affects both positive and negative emotional states. Practical consequence of that is that I prefer "sprints" to "marathons" when dealing with tough problems, whether intellectual or emotional - it can take up to an hour for me to "work myself up" the right way to focus on a hard task, or to talk about some difficult personal topics, so I need to make the best of it. I really, really wish there was a way to do the emotional equivalent of the "write down plans and thoughts at the end of day, read them again in the morning" trick.
  - bayindirh 1y ago
    Curious. That's the complete opposite of me. My sleep is akin to MacBook's Power Nap. Everything stays put except some small background processes. My version also has good and bad sides (esp. dealing with hard events in life). I understand how your emotions/body work and how upsetting the current "configuration" is, but maybe it's the way because your body is trying to process or overcome something in the grand scale. Did you try meditation, esp. not the canned ones from the apps, but a proper practice with a proper instructor and mentor? A good practice generally help you to understand what makes you tick, or live a more balanced inner life, which may help you reducing in this "work up" time, or change the things which you doesn't like about yourself.
ambicapter 1y ago
A good night of sleep induces its own feeling of well-being, excitement, awesomeness. I swear, I have terrible sleep and when I get an 85+ sleep score I'm a different person.
- TeMPOraL 1y ago
  I have 3 small kids. Sleep is an achievement itself. I only get to experience at most two of "good", "night" and "sleep" :). (Back before that, in some previous night, my body would still take 8-10 hours of sleep if I let it, and the more I did, the more tired I felt throughout the entire day.)
chasil 1y ago
I will first offer you a cliche from a movie that I saw in my pre-adolescence in the '70s from a much older era, the title of which I do not recall: The palest ink is better than the best memory. How I obey this rule at the end of the day is to continue my code in the necessary points, interspersed with "blahs" if I am feeling verbose (and necessary means that nothing critical is left out, and nothing irrelevant is included in reminding tomorrow). How I disobey this rule is to verbally say (out loud) the idea that comes to mind in odd moments, as they are prone, followed by "note this" (at which point everyone around you admires your incomprehensible spontaneous demeanor). This imposes a tag on the inspirational memory of perspective and involvement, and I find that I retain it until no longer needed. This works for me.
geomcentral 1y ago
> that said "feeling of incompleteness" will distract me for the rest of the evening I find that it can even ruin an evening. I'll find myself trying to solve a problem in my head rather than being present with my family. The only thing that works for me is waiting for clean breaks that happen mid-late afternoon. As soon as I reach a happy stopping point, I must stop and switch to shallow work for the rest of the afternoon. Then it's easy to leave my computer at the end of the day. It's hard but after years of struggling with this, I found a sustainable way to balance work and life. I also track my consistency with doing this so that I notice myself slipping back and correct it before it becomes a problem.

bayindirh 1y ago

I do the same thing as the author does. Moreover, I keep these notes more frequently, to the project's notebook with my other thoughts during the day. When I return to the task, I get up to speed in ~10 minutes, and things way go smoother because a) I'll be rested, b) My brain would have processed the plan and came up with a refined version of it. When I read the plan I wrote, I automatically recall the refined version most of the time. Then, I get to work and finish what I have started. Interestingly, sleep doesn't erase my emotions, but pause them. I just continue from where I left.

pvtmert 1y ago
sounds like you are more of a morning person, as a non-morning person, it usually takes me about 4-6 hours to get up-to-speed. because there would be some unexpected twists and turns that will distract me from the task. meanwhile, exact opposite. if i cannot "solve" an issue, if i just wait till the evening by going for a 100+km bicycle ride, i magically solve the problem in the evening (right about at dusk and after).
- satvikpendem 1y ago
  I don't get it, what do you do for 4 to 6 hours? I can understand an hour as sometimes I get coffee and relax into the work but 4 to 6 hours? That's like most of the workday already gone.
  - pazimzadeh 1y ago
    > That's like most of the workday already gone if you don't work in the evenings, which he explicitly mentioned he does probably he does things easy tasks, things that can be done on autopilot, gradually moving on to initial attempts at harder tasks?
    - satvikpendem 1y ago
      So they're just in a state of quasi work for the entire day in the evenings too? If they spend 6 hours on easy tasks when do they have the time for the hard tasks unless they work something like 12 hour days?
      - pazimzadeh 1y ago
        it sounds like they have time to go on a 100+ km bike ride throughout during the day, which isn't work. just going off of what they wrote.. seems like they enjoy what they do and/or enjoy what they do, which is critical for non-morning people
  - rolisz 1y ago
    Brain don't work (comment written at 8AM my time). I'm not a morning person either. Coffee doesn't really help. For me it not 4-6 hours, but 2 is common.
- auggierose 1y ago
  That doesn't sound like you are a non-morning person, but that you have a very inefficient start of the day. Good news: you might be able to add as much as 20 hours of productivity to your week!
  - j_bum 1y ago
    I’d love to hear how to start today efficiently. Please do share! Sincerely, A true night owl.
    - auggierose 1y ago
      Go to bed not later than 11pm. Wake up not later than 6am. Try to avoid HN after waking up and get straight to work. If you are productive as a night owl, you will be even more productive this way.
      - satvikpendem 1y ago
        The problem is the falling asleep part for many night owls, insomnia is the issue.
        smartbit 1y ago
        Have you tried sports? Someone mentioned bicycling 100km which imho is quite exhausting and gives me a good night of sleep.
        pvtmert 1y ago
        I do cycling, currently based in Luxembourg. I cycle (for fun & sports) about 10.000 (ten-thousand) kilometers per year. I also like 100+km rides, although I do that weekly mostly between mid-April to mid-September period... I can easily sleep 10 hours, start at any time. It's not a problem of falling asleep, it's a problem of waking up :)
        auggierose 1y ago
- bayindirh 1y ago
  I'm not a "very" morning person. I generally wake around 7am in the morning, and start my wind-down at 11:00 pm. I generally plan my next morning and half day before I go to bed. This allows me to create a routine with some flexibility for the morning. While I can, and like to work, at nights, I do it less and less. Increasing the efficiency of my work routine is a more rewarding process for me. Also, I'm more conscious about my biorhythm now, so I want to give my bods enough time to detox itself, esp around 1-3pm, when your brain "takes the chemical trash out".
TeMPOraL 1y ago
> Interestingly, sleep doesn't erase my emotions, but pause them. I just continue from where I left. That is interesting for me. It's something I wish was the case for me, because I've been struggling with this a lot. I started referring to it as "lack of emotional continuity" or "emotional cache flush". It's like a context switch, but on emotional layer. I basically can't seem to hold on to my emotional state for extended duration, and in particular it gets reset at the day boundary (i.e. when I sleep). This affects both positive and negative emotional states. Practical consequence of that is that I prefer "sprints" to "marathons" when dealing with tough problems, whether intellectual or emotional - it can take up to an hour for me to "work myself up" the right way to focus on a hard task, or to talk about some difficult personal topics, so I need to make the best of it. I really, really wish there was a way to do the emotional equivalent of the "write down plans and thoughts at the end of day, read them again in the morning" trick.
- bayindirh 1y ago
  Curious. That's the complete opposite of me. My sleep is akin to MacBook's Power Nap. Everything stays put except some small background processes. My version also has good and bad sides (esp. dealing with hard events in life). I understand how your emotions/body work and how upsetting the current "configuration" is, but maybe it's the way because your body is trying to process or overcome something in the grand scale. Did you try meditation, esp. not the canned ones from the apps, but a proper practice with a proper instructor and mentor? A good practice generally help you to understand what makes you tick, or live a more balanced inner life, which may help you reducing in this "work up" time, or change the things which you doesn't like about yourself.

ambicapter 1y ago

A good night of sleep induces its own feeling of well-being, excitement, awesomeness. I swear, I have terrible sleep and when I get an 85+ sleep score I'm a different person.

TeMPOraL 1y ago
I have 3 small kids. Sleep is an achievement itself. I only get to experience at most two of "good", "night" and "sleep" :). (Back before that, in some previous night, my body would still take 8-10 hours of sleep if I let it, and the more I did, the more tired I felt throughout the entire day.)

chasil 1y ago

I will first offer you a cliche from a movie that I saw in my pre-adolescence in the '70s from a much older era, the title of which I do not recall: The palest ink is better than the best memory. How I obey this rule at the end of the day is to continue my code in the necessary points, interspersed with "blahs" if I am feeling verbose (and necessary means that nothing critical is left out, and nothing irrelevant is included in reminding tomorrow). How I disobey this rule is to verbally say (out loud) the idea that comes to mind in odd moments, as they are prone, followed by "note this" (at which point everyone around you admires your incomprehensible spontaneous demeanor). This imposes a tag on the inspirational memory of perspective and involvement, and I find that I retain it until no longer needed. This works for me.

geomcentral 1y ago

> that said "feeling of incompleteness" will distract me for the rest of the evening I find that it can even ruin an evening. I'll find myself trying to solve a problem in my head rather than being present with my family. The only thing that works for me is waiting for clean breaks that happen mid-late afternoon. As soon as I reach a happy stopping point, I must stop and switch to shallow work for the rest of the afternoon. Then it's easy to leave my computer at the end of the day. It's hard but after years of struggling with this, I found a sustainable way to balance work and life. I also track my consistency with doing this so that I notice myself slipping back and correct it before it becomes a problem.