Tips for Spending Time

November 1st, 2023 (over 1 year ago) • 3 minutes

Meet with new people

Meeting new people is a great way to learn new things and get new ideas. Different people have different thoughts of what matters in life and why those keep them up and going everyday.

I learn a ton of crucial advice this way and I am grateful for that.

A new thing that I had been trying out is scheduling 1:1 chats with random colleague throughout the organization weekly.

Do interesting work that matters

Realizing that life is short and doing something that matters is important.

Try your best to make use of time and experience to contribute to something that will be beneficial to the society or environment. Even if it's something small, it's better than none.

Write and share what you learn

Writing is such an essential skill and it's a great way to embody what you learn. Other people may also benefit from this knowledge sharing as we leave it on the internet summarized and thought out.

Better work life balance

Work during 9 - 5 is important but it's also important to appreciate the 5 - 9 we have. These days, I try to limit myself to strict working hours and keep life outside to join things I am interested in.

For example, concerts, events, dinner with friends etc.

Meetings in the morning, coding in the afternoon

Meetings are such productivity killers and most of the time, they are not even necessary. I try to limit meetings to the morning and keep the afternoon for serious coding / collaboration work.

However this is not always possible since people usually arrive work around 10am and lunch is around 12 - 1pm hence the maximum number of meeting that could be scheduled is 2. Although, on the bright side, this limits the amount of meetings you should have in a day.

Dinner for social and not dogfooding

These days, we don't really appreciate dinner as how it should be. We take advantage of self-indulgence and usually eat in front of our laptop (pointing at me) or tv screen.

I think dinners are a great way of slowing down and just enjoying time spent with others (friends or family).

Another thing I noticed is that I eat food like a dog, usually goubbling them up within 5 - 10 minutes.

Something I want to change is to slow down, remove all distractions and just enjoy the food for its taste and the environment.

Food is supposed to be enjoyed and not just a way to fill your stomach.

Starting the day active

Andrew Huberman's morning routine is surprisingly effective. I have been doing this for a while and having a particular routine you go through like a robot everyday keeps your day consistent and productive.