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Ask HN: How to Prioritize

10 points by throwaway_yc ↗ HN
I have seen numerous Software Engineers, Web Developers and, tech people working on various domains in different renowned companies, who are literally active in everywhere! For example, they are extremely good at their fields of work. They are equally active on Social Media such as Twitter or, Facebook etc. Also, maintain blogs with quality contents. Most of them posts valuable answers to Stack overflow, Quora etc. They also Attend conferences/ meetup with slides full of gems and, not to mention about their high quality presentations(indicates their dedication in preparation). And, actively posts update about recent series/movies/musics they watched or, books they have finished reading! I might have missed some other things they do but, I just wonder how do they manage their time to such extend! How do they do it?

8 comments

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glenmorangie_14
I really enjoyed the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. It talks a lot about his productivity system "GTD" and his rules on prioritizing. It contains a lot of fluff, so I'd recommend buying a hard copy (or going to a library) so you can skim it more easily.
kleer001
Gizmos and methods aside I can assure you they all have one thing in common, high trait conscientiousness :

https://www.verywellmind.com/how-conscientiousness-affects-y...

https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/cons...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/conscientiousness

https://www.beyondinsurance.com/blog/conscientiousness-key-p...

This is a highly stable over time personality trait. They may not be 100% born with it, but it takes a lot of time and energy to change it, and there's a natural flow to it over time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_changes#Change_in_...

If you're not where you want to be in terms of conscientiousness, there's good news, you can change it. But you'll need sufficient motivation. Only relying on techniques isn't going to solve it long term.

Finally, though, please don't compare yourself to others. That way lies madness. Instead compare yourself to your previous self.

aristofun
What’s so special about doing a really good job

and be excited about it enough to attend meetups, prepare keynotes, speak about it in social media, read books about it, help colleagues...

at the same time?

Why do you need some magic prioritization skill for that?

andrefuchs
You should not compare yourself to them. They may have assistants, are on the verge of burnout from sleep deprivation, drug abuse and overworking.
marto1
Here's what I do:

Start by calculating your own bandwidth(a.k.a. the amount of stuff you can do) over a day, a week, a month. It's not as easy as it sounds and many people have no idea how much can they actually do. Push yourself for fixed amounts of time and measure how much you can output for various tasks you're interested in.

If you're anything like me you'll feel very underwhelmed. "How the hell did I do so little? I thought I can do more." or something along these lines. This is good, means you've found your (current) limits.

You can use that to do estimations. When you want to go into something that will take way too much time (and you should know that somewhat beforehand) either cut it off or start thinking about how you can outsource.

Keep in mind you can improve on any of these, but having a back-of-the-napkin guide always helps me with priorities.

jppope 

  1) Don't watch TV, streaming, youtube, etc
  2) Be healthy. Make sure to eat well, exercise, etc (to keep your energy levels up)
  3) Don't burn small amounts of time (you can get a lot done in 15 min)
  4) Avoid unintentional social media (...I should take my own advice)
  5) Work on things that are fun, strive for focus/ "being in the zone"
  6) Stop caring what other people are doing and how much of it they are doing.
lastly, I'd recommend that you don't worry about prioritization that much... just worry about being focused on the things that you really care about. The more you care about it the less things will get in your way.

Also check out Jack Conte on "Work to Publish": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r5VIlMhftM