HACKER Q&A
📣 throwaway_43793

How do you find time for everything in life?


I’m married. I don’t have kids. I sleep on average 7 hours. I visit the office no more than 2 times a week (so don’t spend a lot of time on commute). I don’t overwork. I barely meet with friends. I don’t play video games. I don’t watch Netflix or TV in general (apart from 1 movie every one-two weeks). I eat simple food that takes no more than 20 min to prepare. I don’t shop for groceries, but order them with delivery. I outsource big house chores to robots (washer, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner).

And yet, I barely find time to work on my side projects, or engage in interesting discussions online, or learn new things.

So I’m either terrible with time management or I spend my free time on useless things. Or both.

Dear HN, how do you find time for side projects, engaging in online discussions, learning new things?


  👤 catchnear4321 Accepted Answer ✓
You had time to think up that question and write it out. Was that not very much time? Did it not get interrupted?

I’m a stranger on the internet, so take it or leave it, but since you asked, here’s a hot take:

You aren’t being honest with yourself about how you spend your time. Reread your own question. 17 waking hours. Did you account for them all in your post? You listed a lot of things you don’t waste time on. A lot.

So what are you spending your time on?

What are you leaving out?

Try writing it down. Yeah, that’s stupid. But either you need some insight into how you’re spending your time, or the exercise will get you thinking about something you haven’t been.

That’s all just nonsense from a stranger though, so if it doesn’t resonate with you, maybe it missed the mark.


👤 plaguepilled
Scheduling is your friend on so many levels. Set a schedule and include your leisure activities.

What happens if you get busied up with chores and life and can't do your leisure activity? Write it down. Now you know where your time is going, and can schedule THAT too.

Also, a tip: make the chores your significant other dislikes your top priority. Oft appreciated and will mean you both reap the benefits instead of just you.


👤 quickthrower2
I don’t get it too! There are people who seem to do all the things: multiple major holidays per year, fitness, kids, high work output, up to speed with everything on all streaming services, looks like a duck smoothly going over water. Good for them.

I get basics done. I do make time for gym twice a week 50 mins and side project 10 or more min per day. I watch to zone out, usually some fictional cop shows with limited number of characters. Happy with those really.


👤 barrysteve
You can cut time up into infinitesimal moments and try to fit all the work you can into each hour and minute on the clock face... but I find it doesn't work too well for me.

Time ebbs and flows like a river, better in my case to write down future appointments and tasks. Then throw your heart into the work you want to do in the current moment and mean-time.

It's possible to come to appreciate how much you do, that goes unrecorded and unresolved in the back of your heart, making you think you've done much less than you have... writing down what you have done, helps a lot to clear up mental space to perceive the next step clearly.


👤 danielmakestech
I feel like I've gotten pretty good at juggling multiple things over time. Back when I was in uni, I was studying psychology while working as a junior developer, learning new programming languages, and working on non-profit side projects. And now that I've started my "real" career, I'm balancing work, non-profits, dating, hitting the gym, and hanging out with friends.

Here are some lessons and things that have helped me along the way:

(1) Taking care of energy levels and mood is top priority. I think being productive is more about these things than making more time. Can be done via: regular physical activity, sleep quality, journaling, supplements, supportive group of friends.

(2) Knowing WHY you want to do these things is super crucial (+ making sure that it’s actually aligned with your values and goals and vision for the future)

(3) Not having unrealistic expectations for myself - I've learned the hard way that this is a surefire way to burn out.

(4) Knowing my best hours of the day and using that "premium" time on what's most important. For me, that's from 8-12 in the morning, right after my walk and coffee.

(5) Being in front of a computer for a long time can be languorous so if your extra activities also involve cognitive work in front of a screen the solution is to mix in something different like a walk or even a shower, etc.

(6) Making it fun - I'm a bit of a nerd for pens and paper, so I take my notes by hand even though it's slower and harder to move information around. But I just love how it feels to write on real paper, so learning is more fun that way.

(7) Combining things - like listening to podcasts while on the treadmill or doing projects with friends.

(8) Having a partner that shares your goals/way of living/hobbies/interests is a killer life hack for doing more things. For example, trying to flirt in German with the 400 words you know is so much more fun than just doing flashcards.

(9) Outsourcing whatever I can.

(10) Remembering that I don't have to do everything - doing one more thing than I've been doing before is good enough.

Hope that helps!


👤 throwawaysalome
As another poster notes, it's remarkable how much time I spend on YouTube. As a child of the 80s I remember it was tough keeping my tv watching below two hours per day. And that was content of limited quantity I had no say over.

👤 MisterKent
What do you do between 7-12am every evening? What do you do with your weekends?

98/100 it's a motivation problem, not a time problem until you have kids etc. Doesn't sound like you do anything?


👤 gorjusborg
> How do you find time for everything in life?

I don't. I have to prioritize what is most important, and let the other stuff drop.

Such is life.


👤 aristofun
> So I’m either terrible with time management

Nope.

Most probably you’re either don’t really want what you say and think you want. Or something else is sucking up your mental or physical energy.


👤 nathants
get off yt/tt/tw/ig/etc. not kind of off, not less. hard off.

make non-critical communications poll not push. poll less frequently.

replace the parts of your day that make you sad with something else. experiment.

if you are financially secure(ish), do all this aggressively.


👤 textninja
Try cocaine! Just kidding, but in all seriousness it sounds like you’re lacking energy and focus, not time or motivation.

There are numerous strategies you can use to increase those. Some include exercise (you’ll be trading time for long term health, energy, and discipline, but it is practically always worth it), meditation (this will help you build that focus muscle and also learn to let go of unhelpful or unrealistic expectations), and various energy management techniques like bifurcating your day into daily maintenance activities (chores, work, food) and contiguous time you set aside just for yourself.


👤 badpun
Decrease working hours. Unless you have unusually high energy levels, full-time work is the grip of death.

👤 jareds
I've accepted I don't have time to do everything I want. IN spite of that I feel like a lot of time is just disappearing. I've started tracking time over the passed couple of weeks using timery on ios and looking at my screen time usage on my phone. Turns out I spend a lot more time on Youtube and podcasts then I thought. Work is not more then 40 hours either. I haven't done anything about this data yet but at least I know what's happening.

👤 textninja
The simple answer is that you don’t find time for everything, and you never will.

Schedule each day in a calendar and put as much effort into planning not to do things as you do into planning to do things. Accept that there’s a season for everything, and not only can you not do it all at once, you can’t do it all, period. And that’s okay. Real achievement comes from sacrifice, not the eager experience hoarding of a dilettante.


👤 graderjs
I use Getting Things Done (or my own lazy and imperfect interpretation so far! :p ;) xx ;p) which is really really good. But also I use a lot of iOS/MacOS Reminders app, scheduled emails and so on to take stuff off my mind and make it come back when I need it.

You didn't mention how much time you spend working per week? It sounds as if it could be a boundary thing: maybe you allow your work time to "creep into" your other things / the rest of your life: "just one more thing"

I certainly find I procrastinate hard / scary tasks, by doing things which I don't really like but which are less scary / hard. Maybe try some reading on procrastination, the psychology of it. I find meditation gives me "more time" as well, in that my bandwidth is lager, my mind is clearer, and it's equivalent to, after a session, coming back "refreshed and ready to go". I'm more productive with the time I have, and I have more time. Meditation has really high ROI for time.

I also chunk things into tiny tasks. And if I'm avoiding something, it's often because I haven't chunked it into the smallest "next achievable step" yet.

Best of luck to you!


👤 nunez
I aggressively use my calendar for everything. Every day is planned. This helps me see when i do or don't have free time, and, importantly, gives me no excuse to say "I didn't have the time!"

👤 v3ss0n
Things had changed after I found out that I should stop chasing for happiness and start Doing. I changed my attitude towards work.things that helped me:

Instead of thinking mundane things I have to do this, do that to I GET to do this.

Able to things without getting motivated like going to gym.

Cutting myself from distractible things.

What important to have is not motivation but self discipline.


👤 jxidjhdhdhdhfhf
Might be more useful to say how you do spend your time. Keep track for a couple weeks. Are you spending a lot of time on your phone? Download a tracker app to see how much time you spend on various apps or websites.

👤 nostromo123
There is no "spare time", there is only "time".

You're either wanking away the time with indecision over what to do (I speak from experience, used to do that before my son was born :P), or you're not that interested in whatever you think you want to do.

I used to have trouble motivating myself to stick with a hobby (that I was really generally very fond of) and do it consistently over months. Now, I get maybe 30 min a day (bonus luxury when it's in one batch...), and I don't have to motivate myself - I just do, because my brain is burning for action ;)

Edit: or are you falling in the rabbit hole of "just 5 minutes on tiktok/yt/etc...oh my, it's 2h later"?


👤 Moldoteck
Well, now tell us how much time you spend on YT, Shorts, Reels, TikTok and twitter combined If it's more than 2h, u should either block them or restrict the time

👤 hnthrowaway0315
Married and have a kid. Basically 1-2 hours per day.

👤 readonthegoapp
i've often left jobs, so i've taken lots of unpaid sabbaticals -- pre-retirements.

i don't know how it's really possible to live a full life otherwise, unless you're insane, doing coke, or used to burning out over and over again.

my project https://nomeetingsfriday.com/ is a small step towards a 4-day work week, which in theory helps free up some time for people, but also helps to continue to shift us away from capitalism and markets and workism towards socialism and humans and relationships.


👤 PaulHoule
What do you do?

👤 esel2k
Married and two kids. And I very often don’t find time.

One learning I had over the years is: A) See where and when you actually spend time or loose time. Just listing YT, Netflix and co is too easiy. Beeing busy surfing, pondering about career changes etc is busywork and uses time/mental energy. B) Don’t push things just to the evening and to the next morning: It won’t happen. Block time either in calendar or somewhere to get it done.

I don’t say it is easy. For me I decided to do a few learning (new language and some personal development with a coach): So I block time as I meet my coach during the week and do some reflection/exercises.

My advice and TLDR: Block time in calendar & take a coach/motivator if you can’t get started.


👤 colleencam59
Like, Team Skull was interesting! I really liked them, they worked really well as a red herring to distract players from Aether. Then there was Team Yell, who I guess was a little funny? Not endearing enough to be worth a lack of a genuine villain. And I haven't finished SV yet, but Team Star is looking like they're the same route. I just want a bad guy again! https://pokemoninfinitefusioncalculator.com/pokemon-infinite...