This is good. Especially this:<p>> A review of your “ideal you,” your ideal future, your major goals and desires in life.<p>One 'problem' with many task management methods is that when you slip (which most of us do) there's an aversion to opening up your Wunderlist/Excel/moleskin months later and seeing how far your current self is behind your aspirational self.<p>Task managers are good at atomizing goals into objectives but overlook motivations and outcomes. They lack a <i>'remind me again what's in it for future-me?'</i> feature.<p>I'm currently attempting to code such a feature into my app. By way of example, take learning French as a goal:<p>* Tasks: the usual list of todos. Go to evening classes; Watch 5 hours of TV5Monde each week. etc.<p>* Resources: links to Youtube videos, uploaded language podcasts, communities on the web.<p>* Inspiration: images of French cities you want to visit, scenes from a favorite French film, quotes, a mini journal-entry about that French girl or guy you met that one time. Snippets of things the French-speaking-you will appreciate.<p>* Insights: how much time you're dedicating to the goal, hours already spent and estimated completion date based on your current rate of productivity.<p>So your task manager serves not only as a checklist but also as a control-room (or if you like, moodboard) for that goal. Tasks, tools, motivation and a feedback loop all in one place.
I'm trying a new approach for 2017: personal goals, made public [1].<p>A public GitHub repo where my goals are recorded as issues and accomplishments are closed tickets. I've created milestones for each year (e.g. 2016, 2017) to track my progress. I've backdated some of my 2016 acheivements to get a feel for how it will work.<p>I hope that writing down my aspirations for the year ahead will help me fulfil them.<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/slashdotdash/personal-goals" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/slashdotdash/personal-goals</a>
Sorry for the potato server everyone. Will fix asap.<p>Alternate download link:
<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2PaeRjVqAN7MngxTXFPQkpLVjg" rel="nofollow">https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2PaeRjVqAN7MngxTXFPQkpLVj...</a>
I don't follow any specific goals or planning but I have come to realise the value of their intended purpose. I think many people — as did I — see these lists as overburdening. But, the more I have worked towards creating or accomplishing something the more I have realised how many things are under realm of attainment with a little push. These small accomplishments make you more confident and happier.<p>Earlier, I lacked focus to read a book without fiddling around my phone and managing only a few pages in a spurt. Few months back, I pushed myself to concentrate and try to finish even if my mind pushed me towards just checking HN / Reddit. I managed to finish four in a month which is not a bad considering that earlier figure was one. I didn't lose any hours of my happier life but spent some in being more knowledgable.
Slow as molasses here, so archive.org link:<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161221130952/https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20161221130952/https://alexverme...</a><p>Also, perhaps a (2012) in the title?<p>Edit: my bad, there's a 2016 update:<p><a href="https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours-v2-update-announce/" rel="nofollow">https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours-v2-update-announce/</a>
I think I'm just going to enjoy it and do my best not to count the number of hours in it. I imagine I'll probably get some stuff done though.
I remember a classic breakdown of 7 areas of life which has in a few places when reading about goals etc: Career, Family, Financial, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual. These aren't terrible decent, but I think Alex's breakdown is much better for sparking useful thought:<p>• Values & Purpose
• Contribution & Impact
• Location & Tangibles
• Money & Finances
• Career & Work
• Health & Fitness
• Education & Skill Development
• Social Life & Relationships
• Emotions & Well-Being
• Character & Integrity
• Productivity & Organization
• Adventure & Creativity<p>I actually liked these so much that I integrated them right into the yearly review section of the productivity app I run, Complice (<a href="https://complice.co/" rel="nofollow">https://complice.co/</a>). The app is subscription-based, but you can use the yearly review without paying :)<p>To get to the yearly review, make an account then go to <a href="https://complice.co/YOUR_USERNAME_GOES_HERE/reviews/2016/yearly" rel="nofollow">https://complice.co/YOUR_USERNAME_GOES_HERE/reviews/2016/yea...</a>
Is it really necessary to manage your life like a software project at a big co. Would it be possible to come up with something less intimidating and practical like<p>'do 10 pomodoros/day for 1 month'.
This hyperproductivity might only be advisable in small doses and only when one is young (under 30 if not under 25) Then it has a small chance of leading to some "greater" utilitarian good (ie you become next Elon Musk)<p>As I get older I realize how little time I have left. There are myriad of things I will never get to do no matter how hyper organized I get.<p>The worst realization is that there is no real time to master something new when you are older past the age of 40. You can fake it by setting lower goalposts but that feels deeply unsatisfactory.<p>Only solution is to enjoy the present (family, friends, my existing skills, a good book, a game, etc) as there is no real success in the end (the pieces all go in the same box).
Direct pdf link:<p><a href="https://alexvermeer.com/wp-content/uploads/8760-hours-v2.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://alexvermeer.com/wp-content/uploads/8760-hours-v2.pdf</a>
I wish I produced content which made my website die, but I also would never want that to happen to me. I can't understand why everyone doesn't just run an S3 static website for most of these personal websites/blogs.<p>And then I remember almost every tool/plugin/theme/etc. is for wordpress and I think "Oh man, must be nice..."<p>Always a tradeoff.
And an article about why it's all bullshit. Posted the same day. How ironic.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235654" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13235654</a>
Especially during the festive season one should remember that productivity is not everything. The Guardian has a good write-up:<p>Why time management is ruining our lives<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/why-time-management-is-ruining-our-lives" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/22/why-time-...</a>