[buzzcut]

Start spending some time reading Cal Newport's blog. You still have the problem of deciding which things are important to you, but just immersing yourself in how he approaches focus and deep habits, about how he prioritizes his work, will send you in the right direction.

If you time block your available time as he does, you're forced to make choices--there is only so much time available, obviously--and the discipline starts to emerge by that simple process.

Start here, but spend an afternoon going through his articles when you have a free chunk of time. If it resonates with you, and you adopt some of these strategies your focus and productivity will both improve.

http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-import...

[thinkling]

I use the iOS app Kan-Do to budget my time to different projects/activities and work on them pomodoro-style (i.e. in timed chunks). Lets me set goals of time spent for the week and track where I've spent my time and how much.

(You don't have to do everything in 30 min chunks as you go, you can also manually record other blocks of time spent.)

[GoldenMonkey]

Using pomodoros as well. Vitamin-R on the mac, to start the pomodoro. Have used the pomodoro method in the past, but just this year took it seriously. Using it everyday and for all tasks. It has helped me focus on the high-value tasks and especially the tasks I want to procrastinate on.

[andreash]

how long have you been using it? what are the pros/cons?

[thinkling]

I've used it on and off since it was in beta, almost a year. (I should have added a disclaimer that the developer is a friend.)

It's good if you want to set goals for N pomodoros on task area A, M pomos on project B, etc. and then work predominantly in pomo-mode and track your progress on your goals. If you don't use the timer mode, hand-entering time spent probably will get tedious quickly. It's designed to help particularly with time-boxing (i.e. when you're budgeting out a limited amount of time across projects), though I don't use it that way.

I think it's pleasant to use in day-to-day use, decent UI.

Cons: I find that I have a hard time doing my planning (time allocation) on a mobile device screen. I want to do it on a big screen where I can see everything, or on paper. I'm not good at regularly triaging the list and adjusting it, so the goals tend to grow stale and I start ignoring them a bit.

[ChuckMcM]

Agreed. The key for me is the blocking structure. On the calendar, the next hour, X. Nothing else unless you finish it. Oddly the trigger for me was World of Warcraft where you could hop online to spend "5 minutes checking auctions" and end up 3 hours later wondering what the hell?

[busterarm]

just replying to this to bookmark for myself to read later. sry

[maxerickson]

Your upvoted stories are available under "Saved Stories" here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=busterarm

(Users can only see their own Saved Stories page)

[porker]

It'd be great if HN added a way to view comments I've upvoted.

[dang]

We thought that was a good idea so we did it. You should now see "saved comments" in your profile. Thanks for the suggestion!

We also changed it so "saved stories" and "saved comments" don't include your own submissions, given that those already have their own pages.

[porker]

Thanks, that's brilliant!

[busterarm]

Thanks! Just noticed the change. This is awesome.

[eitland]

Hacker News is not a bookmarking service, here are some I know of:

  * https://delicious.com/ - Discover, share, and organize the hottest links online
  * http://pinboard.in/ - Pinboard: social bookmarking for introverts
  * http://www.xmarks.com/ - Xmarks | Bookmark Sync and Search

edit: links and descriptions

edit2: Anyone care to explain the downvotes?

[crististm]

I would have down-voted you for casting your way of thinking on me while being a smart-ass. It is not your call to say what is the "appropriate" way for _others_ for editing cat pictures or managing bookmarks.

Your second edit shows that you care enough to raise your level so here you go.

[busterarm]

Yeah and I can delete my post later when I get to a place where I can do that, but thanks.

[zo1]

If you're on a mobile device, do what I do: "share" or "send" the url to your email app and then mail it to yourself. It goes directly to my inbox, and I don't mark it as "read" until I've "actioned" it.

[Styn]

I use this approach as well, but I also have a filter in my mailbox that sends those mails to a folder 'notes to self', to avoid excessive notifications and inbox clutter.

[zo1]

Good idea, thanks! Will definitely implement it as well on my side.