The Nature of Time II- Week

In my last post, we took a look at how we spend our time on a daily basis. Let’s continue the regression, and consider how we spend our time on a weekly basis.

The clock punching, factory working, 40 hour work week was ingrained in my mind as the NORMAL WAY OF LIFE (bold, caps, underlined).

But I didn’t find (nor would I want) life to be that simple, cut and dry. For instance, my college schedule (because life doesn’t begin until college, right? for any given week might look a bit like the following:

A reasonable cacophony of fun, no? Naps in the afternoon, all nighters, partying til dawn… that was the life…

Or was it? 4 short years later, turned loose on the world, I was forced to find gainful employment.

While my voyage into the financial world wasn’t quite this bad, I have a dozen people lined up to tell you this is reality folks. The 100 hour workweek, this is what it looks like. An endless army of tasks marching into your inbox, demanding your attention. And you had better be detail oriented… or else! Sunday night off, if you’re lucky. It’s not a joke.

After a year, I began pondering different ways of life. Perhaps return to coding, and the natural state my body always seems to push me towards.

<tangent> Being in the zone when coding is a state of flow unlike any other that I’ve ever experienced. Blink once, and all of a sudden the sun is rising, a monolith of newly minted code stands before me, and my dear forgotten body complains from having been forgotten for the past 12 hours. AND, it’s Saturday morning and I forgot all about that party I was supposed to go to! Sorry WhatsHerName, maybe next time…</tangent> Contract coding on my own terms- getting work done when and where I knew I worked best, and having the rest of the time to spend as I saw fit. But after having moved to California, all I really wanted to do was start my own company…

And look at that, the old adage it’s true, you get to *choose* which 80 hours a week you want to work! Large blocks of time spent on the product, lightly seasoned with a handful of naps, meetings, and free time. Best served room temperature. No other vocation seemed like it would harness my passion quite so well, so I poked my head up, took a look around to check feasibility, and (unfortunately) noticed the market was starting to look a little frothy…

So I settled (if such an awesome life can be considered “settling”) for life in a startup: not too structured, but also not completely freeform.

It’s a rare night that I get away with all free time once I leave the office, but that’s a story for another day (next post). Freedom to come in late some days, work at night because I want to, go home early other days when I’m not quite feeling the fire- the startup life is exactly what I was looking for. Passionate at work, passionate at play, life seems to feed on itself, whether I call what I’m doing work or play. The line between the two has started to blur… what exactly does it mean to be doing “other things”, or “working”? Next up, The Nature of Time III- Think Grey!

ps as a bonus exercise, what about considering how you spend your time on a monthly basis? It’s probably not this simple…

Vacations start playing a roll at this level. And how are you going to spend your weekends?

What about yearly? Now we’re looking at switching jobs, taking a sabbatical, going back to school… Any number of things is possible

Quotes to Live By

Here is the list of quotes I try to read every morning when I wake up, and live throughout the day.

Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the one who thinks he can. – Bruce Lee

Strength, intelligence, charisma; these are but a few of the traits that help a person go quite far in this world. But they all fade in the face of some challenge or another. Those with strength may lose their resolve in the face of a persistent adversary. Those with intelligence must occasionally bow to the rare devilishly tricky puzzle. Those with charisma may encounter deaf ears and cognitive dissonance. Is there one ring to rule them all? Clean, simple, sheer force of will. The one currency in this world that will retain value no matter how much inflation and debt crush international financial markets. Believe in yourself, try hard, and be ready to pick yourself back up. Because… why not!?

The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or as a curse, while a warrior takes everything as a challenge. – Don Juan

There are two types of events in this world. Those you can influence, and those you cannot. Psychologists like to call the first your “sphere of influence.” There’s not much pondering to be done here. Events are in your control. Start influencing. Carpe diem.

The wise man asks himself for the reason of his mistakes. The fool asks others. -Chinese proverb

You may associate with the smartest, strongest, richest people in the world. But ask yourself this- why are they your friends/colleagues/investors/employees? Because you are unique, you think different, and you bring something to the table something that other people don’t have. You are the only one who can truly and honestly evaluate your performance. Peer into your soul early and often. Work to get a better understanding of who you are, and why you do the things you do, and you will surely be well prepared for anything life can dump on your head. You have nothing to fear from peering into your soul if you like who you are. And if you don’t like who you are, even a tiny little piece, what to stop you from crafting a new “you”?

By trying often, the monkey learns to jump from the tree. – Cambodian proverb

We all know the sports fan who is capable of offering timeless wisdom of the ages… from the comfort of their recliner. Or the armchair entrepreneur. Or the consultant who “analyzes” an opportunity away. Get out there and do! How else can one expect to learn?

You may sense a theme here. Something along the lines of “attacking life” might be an accurate depiction. What lead to this thought pattern? Life’s short. There are so many amazing, interesting, fun things to do, that to NOT be excited every morning I jump out of bed would just be a tragic loss.

So instead, I read these quotes, throw on my armor, grab my sword, and venture out into the world to see what adventures await

Viral Videos I

I work at VideoEgg, an outstanding online video company. Naturally, I am blessed with the opportunity to see a lot of amazing(ly stupid) content. So I’d love to share some with you, the lucky reader

Most popular videos on the web

This baby has the best laugh I’ve ever heard! He’s having SUCH a good time! Cutest. Ever.

Fluid dancing never looked so good… Wow.

Inhuman strength and balance applied to break dance.

Some others you might like…

Some car crashes from a crazy intersection in Russia.

Car crashes from a tunnel in Russia (I like the song!)

Organized chaos never looked so good. I’m a particular fan of the fearless pedestrians that just choose a line, and go for it.

I heart adrenaline. But ski kiting down Mt. Eiger (one of the deadliest mountains in Europe for mountain climbers) is one of the very few things I would *not* try… A more complete documentary.

Joe Eigo is on the Jackie Chan stuntman team. I don’t know what that means, but he kicks serious butt.

Break dancing is such an incredible sport.

Hope you’ve found that to be a great waste of time. Welcome to the internet video revolution!

The Nature of Time I

Have you ever taken a step back from your life, and really taken stock of how you spend your time every day? Without going too far out on a limb, I’d be willing to guess it looks a little something like this:

But wait a second. What about that coder down the street, who somehow manages to have his light on all night, every night?

I apologize. That coder isn’t hardcore enough

Or perhaps the contractor who embraces the flexibility of their schedule as much as possible?

Certainly there are many more schedules.

All of these folks spent the same amount of time on the same basic tasks (work, sleep, and other stuff), they just happened to distribute their time differently. Can you imagine spending a day in each of these distributions? Which one seems most natural to you? Which make you cringe in your chair? Personally, the idea of having my workday broken up into 30 minute chunks sends shivers up my spine. I like to reach a state of flow with my work, but that’s a conversation for another day. Take a moment to reflect on how you would ideally distribute your activites throughout the day…

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Of course there’s no right answer. Different people gravitate towards different natural states. And of course, the above is a mere sampling of different possible ways to hack up your day. Consider folks not constrained by having to spend 1/3 of their time working, sleeping, and recreating:

The student who lives and dies by the motto “if you wait until the last minute, it only takes one minute.”

Don’t forget the rare soul who has successfully embraced a polyphasic sleep schedule.

Maybe the hardcore coder above STILL wasn’t hardcore enough for you.

You get the idea

In a moment, we’re going to layer a great deal of complexity on top of this relatively simplistic model. But let’s take a second to pause and reflect. Most people fall into the first bucket, with a standard 9-5 job, a standard sleep schedule from 12-8, and a quiver of evening activities to fill in the hole. How do people choose when to do different activities?

Draconian enforcement of working hours aside, I suspect a lot of the reason has to do with people aligning their schedules to others. After all, humans are social creatures. So for most people, matching one’s time distribution to other folks (work or play) is darn important. Perhaps more important than one’s natural sleep cycle. Perhaps synching one’s schedule with the rest of humanity leads to incredibly inefficient uses of time. Anyone who’s ever sat in rush hour (you know who you are) knows what I’m talking about. Not to mention baseball game traffic… eeesh.

Ultimately, the question I’d like to explore: How can I spend my time efficiently, doing the things I want to do?

Where we’re headed: Spending time to increase efficiency of doing other things… Considering the week as one long block of time… The utility of spending time on different activities… The utility of spending time on different activities, at different times… Introvert/extrovert tendencies, and impact on perception of time… Perception of time based on the flexibility of your schedule…