Seriously how do you do the former. It seems damn near impossible to balance work, personal development for my career in the future, social life and health while still getting recommended amounts of sleep?
First step is to track your sleep with an Oura or Fitbit or other device. These devices are not going to be as accurate as an EEG used in a sleep study, and they are good enough, even if they usually cannot tell the difference between fiddling with your phone in bed and light sleep. Maybe you can survive on less sleep. But the first step is to figure out your baseline.
A commitment to healthy eating, an exercise plan and a complete and ruthless approach to only having relationships that have an objective net benefit to psychological wellbeing
From a spending money perspective, I don't hesitate to spend on food. Whether it's eating out at nice places or buying high quality food products - I won't really think about it.
From a mostly time perspective, going to the gym and staying fit.
A good investment is goal driven. Vague (Human capital) goals are no good. In lieu of specific goals or outcomes I assume you are talking about life in general.
1. Health: a)Physical- stay fit by exercising daily,eat healthy(this is a broad topic), lead a active life even if through hobbies. B) mental - meditate and become self aware. Understand what activity and people contribute to positive state and what to negative states. Practice gratitude and honesty with yourself and others.
2) relationships: do hobbies with friends and family. Build bonds by seeking out experiences.
If you`re talking about money: I`m investing in my health (food, yoga and so on) and appearance. Sometimes family.
But if we`re speaking about not material stuff: self-development (different courses or reading something like this: https://ivypanda.com/essays/were-the-founding-fathers-blatan... and so on) and family.
For me this year the best improvements have come from time - these have the highest returns monetary wise too as most are free.
- Meditating (Headspace or Waking Up App - try the 30 day trials)
- Heavily exercising 3-4 times a week ($15/week gym)
- $8 Gratitude Journal app
- Eating clean and cooking (cheaper than eating out)
In the last 10 years (I'm nearly 30) I've invested a lot in coaching, training, conferences and books - nothing has really helped even close to as much as the above. At the end of the day my increases in salary have been mainly from keeping a critical mind, not further training. A great daily practice also makes every book I read much more meaningful.
I would recommend, by order of priority
- sleep enough and drink enough
- eat well and perform 30 minutes exercise a day
- invest in relation with your loved ones (parents, children, significant others). If you are in the phase in your life where you do not live with your family (young adult), have a few valued friends.
If you have all this, whatever happens at work will not kill you, and this is a good thing.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 41.4 ms ] threadI want to invest in myself, but the uncertainty of future employment and the unknown quality of paid study resources limit my choices.
From a mostly time perspective, going to the gym and staying fit.
1. Health: a)Physical- stay fit by exercising daily,eat healthy(this is a broad topic), lead a active life even if through hobbies. B) mental - meditate and become self aware. Understand what activity and people contribute to positive state and what to negative states. Practice gratitude and honesty with yourself and others.
2) relationships: do hobbies with friends and family. Build bonds by seeking out experiences.
I also suggested building good, strong relationships.
Build good, strong relationships.
As geeks we dont tend to value human relationships.
However, good, strong relationships will pay out dividends and change your life for the better.
They will encourage you to improve yourself, improve your health, improve your knowledge.
On the other hand it's also important to realize bad actors and act accordingly.
Check out my latest ASK HN thread for an idea on handling bad actors.
- Meditating (Headspace or Waking Up App - try the 30 day trials)
- Heavily exercising 3-4 times a week ($15/week gym)
- $8 Gratitude Journal app
- Eating clean and cooking (cheaper than eating out)
In the last 10 years (I'm nearly 30) I've invested a lot in coaching, training, conferences and books - nothing has really helped even close to as much as the above. At the end of the day my increases in salary have been mainly from keeping a critical mind, not further training. A great daily practice also makes every book I read much more meaningful.
If you have all this, whatever happens at work will not kill you, and this is a good thing.