[HN Gopher] How to Juggle Priorities (2023)
___________________________________________________________________
How to Juggle Priorities (2023)
Author : tarf
Score : 57 points
Date : 2024-04-23 07:37 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (ashleyjanssen.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ashleyjanssen.com)
| ConsiderCrying wrote:
| This isn't a bad metaphor altogether and I appreciate that the
| post advocates for one thing that all too many such ideas ignore:
| talking to people and asking them what matters to them. You can
| never know if your kid finds something truly important until you
| ask them and damaging your relationship with your family is never
| worth the marginal or even huge successes at work.
| hobs wrote:
| Honestly this is stupid, if you want to have integrity the answer
| is to have less balls in the air.
| ZephyrBlu wrote:
| Yeah this feel way overblown. Just do less. You probably don't
| need to try and juggle so many things.
| neolefty wrote:
| That would make sense if you knew how hard things were going
| to be and if you could predict external responsibilities.
|
| For example if I plan to meet a friend tomorrow, but tonight
| my child unexpectedly gets sick, I can call the friend and
| say, "Sorry my child got sick. How about next week?"
|
| That might happen multiple weeks in a row, but eventually
| (assuming a patient friend) we'll get together and renew our
| connection. On the other hand, if I played it safe, and said,
| "I'm too busy for friendships now that I'm a parent," we
| would both have less friend-time.
| namaria wrote:
| The metaphor is terrible, juggling balls of very different
| weights would already be nearly impossible. Trying to keep
| track of them so you know which ones you can drop is a much
| harder problem then just sticking to a number you can reliably
| juggle.
| markstos wrote:
| Juggler here. Juggling balls of very different weights works.
| Our brain and bodies are amazing.
|
| I watch a guy juggle a bowling ball, a machete and an apple.
| For a while I had my own Goodwill bowling ball for juggling.
| j45 wrote:
| Another analogy might be that there can only be so much on the
| stove at a given time.
| bluGill wrote:
| That is a bad idea. Some of those balls in the air are things
| you should be doing but can skip. Exercise is a perfect example
| - we all know that it is important for good health, but it is
| also something that if you skip a day here and there it is okay
| (just don't let one day skipped lead to a week). Similarly I
| practice my musical instruments, but I often skip that when
| something else comes up, but I have no interest in not having
| practice as a ball in the air even though I drop it more often
| than not.
|
| Life only rarely goes perfectly to plan. You will have to
| change plans at the last minute because of emergencies, but
| planning to do nothing just in case there is an emergency is a
| bad plan. Your boss will ask you to work late. Your kids will
| get sick. You will get invited to a last minute event. It is
| likely that you will be involved in two different activities
| that schedule an event at the same time. All of these are a
| sign of a fulfilling life, not of a problem.
| financltravsty wrote:
| Fulfilling for some. A system without slack is a brittle
| system.
|
| I really have nothing more to say but I manage to find slack,
| and when life throws me a new ball to juggle I can deal with
| it, and use the spare time, energy, and focus to deal with
| them properly -- rather than become winded, stressed, and
| pressed.
|
| I have always tried to find fulfillment with less, rather
| than more. The people I see zipping around from thing to
| thing have superficial and shallow experiences. Then they end
| up being superficial and shallow people. Chicken or egg?
|
| However, nothing is more irritating than having to personally
| deal with the "zippies," high on whatever stimulant
| (caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, etc.) so they can have the
| "energy" to "deal" with life's "responsibilities."
|
| There's something to be said about work ethic, being able to
| push yourself to your limits, and balance on the razor's edge
| -- there is something special in that. However, lacking any
| sort of overarching focus is a much more common and base
| state of being. "More must always be done!" Yet they haven't
| taken any time to step back and reflect if what they're doing
| is even worth anything -- even the ancient generals figured
| that out.
| bluGill wrote:
| What about how I described music practice isn't slack?
| financltravsty wrote:
| It's an inefficient allocation, in my view. I consider
| exercise (and a few other things) to be necessary to
| sustainably perform at a certain level.
|
| I don't see them as merely enriching things, but
| necessary things in order to maintain my spirit (body,
| mind, and soul). In the vein, they gain priority over
| everything else. If life comes to a point where I have to
| sacrifice the things that keep me going (say for instance
| sleep, food, sunlight, and social interaction; for you it
| might be family), then I must figure out how to get rid
| of the other "balls" ASAP with the least amount of cost.
| And once that's taken care of, were they really that
| important if they're so easily disposed of?
|
| If you lose your spirit, or let it wither by a thousand
| cuts a la burnout, what do you have left?
| taneq wrote:
| The first thing to come to peace with is that no matter which
| ball you choose to let fall, it's gonna piss off _someone_ and
| that someone is going to be very certain and very much in your
| face about the fact that from their point of view, you did the
| wrong thing. Get used to people telling you you 're wrong.
| sna1l wrote:
| I think one of the major things missing from this post is that if
| you are going to drop a ball, you should communicate you are
| dropping it to the relevant stakeholders / family / friends /
| etc. That generally lessens the blow of dropping it significantly
| in my experience.
| markstos wrote:
| Typically there are three throws per second. Communication
| latency to stakeholders is too low while juggling to achieve
| desired goal.
| bosie wrote:
| What does this even mean? Especially the first bit
| thfuran wrote:
| It means they're for some reason talking about juggling
| balls.
| hangsi wrote:
| 3 throws per second is the rate of action required to
| perform juggling literally. The implication is that
| communicating between the miss that causes the fall and the
| event of dropping the ball must happen in less than 1
| second. Translating back to the metaphor, communicating
| that the ball is being dropped before it hits the ground is
| a task as hard as the juggling itself.
| sdwr wrote:
| https://m.twitch.tv/clip/RefinedGracefulGrouseItsBoshyTim
| e-b...
| dasil003 wrote:
| Yeah but only in earth gravity. Depending on your remote work
| location things change substantially, though I'm not sure
| exactly how in your mixed metaphor.
| kevindamm wrote:
| Remote work is like juggling scarves -- especially if there
| are more than a few time zones in between. Things can stay
| in the air a bit longer which also can mean juggling more..
| and moving your hands twice as fast.
| rhombocombus wrote:
| And then also having the time to put those scarves in the
| laundry.
| bluGill wrote:
| Sometimes, but sometimes that communication is itself a plastic
| ball that you can drop without issue. Even if that person never
| speaks to you again, if you are not close it may not matter.
|
| What does matter is reputation though. If you have promised to
| do something than communication becomes a glass ball if you
| want to be "a man of your word". Have a good reputation is
| important, but exactly what good reputation means to everyone
| is different and that is okay.
| mitch7w wrote:
| I support this.
| riazrizvi wrote:
| I see there are two big ways people approach success in life,
| either supporting others or pioneering some thing. This seems
| like a good way to look at priorities if you take the support
| approach. For pioneering, you just don't know what is glass or
| plastic, that's what you're trying to figure out. I wouldn't
| stretch this metaphor to cover that situation.
| mitch7w wrote:
| Makes sense. Important to remember when working on like 6
| different projects at once.
| m3kw9 wrote:
| When scrolling a social media feed become one of these
| priorities, what you need is good sleep instead because when your
| will power is low, it really means you are not getting enough Zz.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2024-04-24 23:02 UTC)