An Asynchronous Life for the Happy Hacker

I used to use notepad + a little bit of discipline to organize the non-hacking things in my life. Now, i have the EpicWin app; its... EPIC.

poll() loop
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view), EpicWin doesn't interrupt my day. This can be a problem when the flow has set in and morning turns to night; my love comes home to find out that well... I didn't do anything for her and now I have to deal with wife-aggro-damage-control. Using the alarm clock, I set three interrupts for 9:30am, 1:30pm, and 8:00pm. I use these interrupts to go get things done related to my life.

This really helps in finding balance between the awesome work I do and dealing with the mundane aspects of life. So, I thought I would share my quest list with the world.

Every Day Tasks

• 75 pushups (+200 str)
• 100 bicep curls (+150 stamina)
• 100 crunches (+150 stamina)
• Drink 32 ounces water [9am] (+100 spirit)
• Drink 32 ounces water [2pm] (+100 spirit)
• Take Afternoon Calcium +D [2pm] (+100 spirit)
• Drink 32 ounces water [10pm] (+100 spirit)
• Deal with Dishes (+200 stamina)
• Take Evening ZMA [11pm] (+100 spirit)
• Read Twitter [9am] (+50 social)
• Read Twitter [2pm] (+50 social)
• Read Twitter [10pm] (+50 social)

Every Sunday

• Cook Level 3 Dinner (+300 social)
• Read Current Book (+300 int)

Every Monday

• Get groceries at HyVee (+100 stamina)
• Cook Level 1 Dinner (+150 social)

Every Tuesday

• Walk 6-12 miles (+300 stamina)

Every Wednesday

• Get groceries at Whole Foods (+100 stamina)
• Cook Level 2 Dinner (+100 social)
• Watch The Colony (+100 social)
• Go Drink'in at Buffalo Wild Wings with friends (+100 social)
  

Every Thursday

• Prepare Level 0 Dinner (+100 social)
  
• Walk 5 miles (+300 stamina)
• Catch up on HN and comment as appropriately (+100 int)

Every Friday

• Cook Level 2 Dinner (+100 social)
  
• Take out Trash (+100 str)
• Write blog post (+300 int)
• Play Settlers of Catan/Mario Kart with friends (+300 social)

Every Saturday

• Solve one PhD problem (+300 int)
• Walk 3-6 miles (+300 stamina)
  
• Publish and post edited blog post (+300 int)
• Grind on Bills and Validate Financial Integrity (+200 int)
• Hang out with Family 2.0 (+200 social)
• Clean Kitchen (+100 stamina)
• Fill vitamins for next week (+150 spirit)
  

aside) 3 segment work day
I'm one of those people that can hack all day. Sit in front of a computer and enter the flow. This is great for research, hacking, making things work, and getting things done. Problematically, I have to interact with the world beyond my the limits of my skull, and my mind is supported by a problematic human body that is frail and needs to get out into the light. Ergo, I have to control the flow before it destroys me.

While I wish I could hack all day and all night, I limit myself to a maximum of 12 hours a day for work/hacking. While 12 hours is way more than needed, I break it up into 3 segments. I think anywhere between 2-4 hours is enough to get any serious task done (or series of tasks within one context). Once the flow ends, I switch to a different context. I call this the "Hardy Hack" since GH. Hardy wrote in his apology that 4 hours is the limit of time to get any serious math done; I extend this with the caveat that 4 hours is the time limit per context. If you finish the task in less than 4 hours, then goof off and have fun. The hard part is finding the discipline to make sure you are honest in how you plan your day out.

Tips for Asynchronous Behavior

• Learn to think critically while exercising.
• Channel all interruptions (i.e. cell phone or email) to occur during mundane tasks.
• Have you significant other go through your twitter while you do the dishes.
• Learn to negotiate with the your significant other to shard tasks.
• Group as many mundane tasks together and get them done with (i.e. use proper cpu scheduling)