Stats for nerds
3recommend
10mentions
6people
2019–2024years
70% recommend30% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I’ll give a few.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (and the great TA I had teaching the course) got me to change my major to English as a college freshman. I was just hit with a thought like, “I’ve never read anything like this and I’ve never heard a teacher want to talk about books this deeply.”
Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell showed a voice that I’d never heard before — knowledgeable about history, indie rock, cult movies, rural living, and very funny. It was like, “This is exactly who I want to be.”
Then I spent my whole life thinking I was a disorganized person and through the power of a really good memory I was able to hold things together at work. Then I read Mindset by Carol Dweck and Everything In Its Place by Dan Charnas that convinced me that a) I was holding myself back by thinking I was a disorganized person and that b) I could become an organized person. Maybe the best professional decision I’ve ever made because it turns out that being organized is really really useful.
- Mise en place is a pretty cool technique. There's a good book in place for those outside the industry, Everything In Its Place, by Dan Charnas.
Basically you make cleaning a habit and minimize movement. If you were chopping onions, you'd use multiple containers, one for input, one for output. Placement would be so that your hand doesn't have to cross in an inefficient manner.
In software, it's probably things like keyboard shortcuts, and using some tools to store knowledge as opposed to keeping it all in your head. But keep the process clear and clean.
The first thing to do is figuring out the first thing to do and not just doing it - actually do spike docs before (or while) diving in.
Prepare things before you use them - have your onions chopped and ready to toss in when the order comes. Clean up when you're done (close your tabs).
Communicate clearly. Don't wait for the other person to ask questions, give them the info they need to move in one go. Acknowledge when you receive a communication, as soon as possible (especially work remote).
- I'd highly recommend reading Everything in Its Place by Dan Charnas - he examines the methods and strategies employed by top chefs to produce high-quality dishes efficiently under time constraints and applies the teachings to aid the modern knowledge worker
- There's a book, Everything In Its Place, Dan Charnas, which does a good analysis of the analogies of cooking and productivity in the office.
Basically it recommends doing the "process" tasks first, the ones that the rest rely on. In this case, it would be grilling burgers. In the office, it might be something like assigning tasks or approving PRs.
Charnas recommends that planning starts by "first things first" as opposed to say, the Tim Ferriss, Brian Tracy, or Eisenhower methodology of most important things first. And often the first thing is to figure out which things come first.
And yeah, the book also recommends finishing where possible. A dish 90% done might as well be 0% done, but it occupies mental space while it's not done.
- I read Everything in Its Place about 6 months ago and it convinced me to become an organized person:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y2PFG5Q
Now I start my remote day with a very structured 30-minute planning session where I review my “inputs”: Slack, Asana, email, and anything left over from yesterday (the key is that I NEVER reply during this process, I just write them all down and quit the programs/close the windows as I finish my review). Then I make sure my desk and computer desktop are clean and ready to work.
Next, I look at my calendar and create times during the day for process work (shorter periods of time for emails, quicker tasks, things that unblock others) and immersive work (where I don’t want to be disturbed and focus).
Finally I list my to-dos for the day, taking into account my inputs, my calendar, and the things I want to accomplish.
Then I start working through my list. As new stuff comes in during the day, I don’t work on it, I write it down in its own list. If it’s urgent and important, I will choose to work on it. If not, it can get prioritized for the future during tomorrow’s planning session.
- There's a more recent version of the same book, Everything in Its Place: https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Its-Place-Mise-En-Place-Or...
I actually wrote a comment recommending the same book, but might as well tuck it here.
Mise-en-place is well designed but much of it doesn't translate well to knowledge work, which is why these books aren't more popular. It's still a great addition to your toolkit and sometimes when I'm overwhelmed, I remind myself to keep things clean and just finish stuff.
