Top all-time · #2681
Oliver Burkeman
Personal blog · oliverburkeman.com/postsphilosophyproductivity
Oliver Burkeman's personal blog at oliverburkeman.com covers philosophy and productivity. Since 2012, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 38 times, most often “Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Oliver Burkeman's posts on procrastination, productivity and getting started, and his book Four Thousand Weeks, as practical, comforting reading on time and attention.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-02-17
- /books3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-06-10
- List one task, do it, cross it out2 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2022-12-15
- Just do the thing2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-09-17
- What if you're on top of things?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-06-28
- No Big Deal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-05-11
- The one-sentence solution to overcome procrastination2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-06-22
- The Imperfectionist: Too many needles2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-07-04
- How to make writing less hard2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-04-26
- There's no such thing as a fresh start2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-03-04
What Hacker News says?
"Don't wait until you feel like doing something" That's the one sentence solution described by Oliver Burkeman that has remained in my Pinboard. http://www.oliverburkeman.com/blog/posts/the-one-sentence-so... This article describes procrastination as two demons you need to conquer: the first is doing the actual task, while the second is to get into a certain state of mind or mood that makes you want to do the task.…
Comment linking /blog/posts/the-one-sentence-solution-to-almost-all-procrastination-no-really
on “Procrastination is Not Laziness”Submitted The three-or-four-hours rule for getting creative work done as a story · 3 points
HN discussionNot to dismiss what you're saying, but in this case the 'client button' is for tricking the annoying client into thinking you're making a change when you've really done nothing. This is kind of the same idea as throwing in a duck[1] or hairy arms[2]: 1: http://blog.codinghorror.com/new-programming-jargon/ 2: http://www.oliverburkeman.com/blog/posts/the-theory-of-the-h...
Comment linking /blog/posts/the-theory-of-the-hairy-arm-the-tactical-benefits-of-making-deliberate-mistakes
on “Placebo Button”Submitted What if you're on top of things? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt’s actually comforting to non-believers in a way that religion is to believers. Except it has the benefit of being obviously true. https://www.oliverburkeman.com/nobigdeal
Comment linking /nobigdeal
on “100k Stars”Submitted List one task, do it, cross it out as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI liked Oliver Burkeman on this with his “too many needles” idea [0]. Personally, I hoard a bunch of stuff using Omnivore and then on a semi regular basis I go through that and just throw away 90% of it. I find this two stage process useful: stage 1 is gathering All The Things, stage 2 is after a while sifting and keeping only the stuff I’m really interested in. Ultimately though, I try nowadays to apply a Buddhist…
Comment linking /river
on “Letting go of the idea of keeping up”Submitted How to make writing less hard as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSurprised that I haven't seen Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks[0] mentioned. It's kind of a lot but I found it helpful. I'm personally still working on this problem, and just in the last week found this[1] SLYT video. It was helpful. [0]: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books [1]: https://youtu.be/-AdXIC44b7Q?si=J5CGx5YJBTqMFSV7
Comment linking /books
on “Ask HN: How do I balance all my 200 interests in life?”Submitted List one task, do it, cross it out as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI mean you won't find the ultimate answer, but I found the writings of Oliver Burkeman on these kinds of topics interesting. He's a bit of an anti-productivity guru (aka recognizing that these are important issues, but being highly critical about the usual "read my book and everything will be fine" type of people). See e.g. things like this: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/onething https://ckarchive.com/b/xmuph6hrzxw…
Comment linking /onething
on “Ask HN: How to do that you need to do but not motivated at all?”Submitted You don't need to fight time as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is great. For me, visually representing this data always has more impact. If you’ve not read it, I recommend Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books And I just listened to this episode of Hidden Brain the other day which has a similar theme. https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/the-best-years-of-your-life/
Comment linking /books
on “Show HN: Day by Day – every day of my life”Submitted Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe great news is you are still very young, you can fumble around for another two years trying to pick yourself up and will still only be thirty. More practically, it’s simple, just not easy, take one step at a time and then have patience, as long as you are making progress you just need to keep going. Worth reading: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/freshstart https://ckarchive.com/b/xmuph6hrzxwrd
Comment linking /freshstart
on “Ask HN: How did you rebuild yourself after having hit rock bottom?”Submitted Three Pages a Day as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI've wasted too much time on planning everything and not actually getting started. It's unrealistic to expect everything to change at once. I'd suggest start with one thing you want to improve (diet, physical exercise, writing practice, etc.) and work on that for a while--ideally 30 days. Unless we get really lucky (or unlucky) things don't turn around completely. You make small changes while trying to find good in…
Comment linking /posts
on “Ask HN: Is it possible to make turn around your life by proper planning?”Submitted The Imperfectionist: Too many needles as a story · 2 points
HN discussion>> If I fix the things that aren’t OK, all will be well. If I improve myself enough, if I only work hard enough, I can finally eliminate my suffering. >I hate to inform you, but this doesn’t work. I’m also thrilled to inform you that this doesn’t work. You can stop picking up a lot of boulders. Really reminds me of Oliver Burkeman. Take https://www.oliverburkeman.com/never for a start: I might be stuck with certain…
Comment linking /never
on “The Self-Help Trap: What 20 Years of "Optimizing" Has Taught Me”Submitted Impostor syndrome? It might be a sign you're getting better at your work as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> I wish I could follow through with projects I’m not getting paid for ;) This was a problem for me as well, but this post by Oliver Burkeman helped me take action and launch The Metronome : https://www.oliverburkeman.com/justdo We can't act on every single idea we have, but it's better to bring at least one into the world than have several world-changing ones gather dust in a notebook.
Comment linking /justdo
on “The “Do Something About It” Club”Submitted The one-sentence solution to overcome procrastination as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> My hunch is that this club won’t work because it fundamentally is just another distraction from the goal here: which is to actually do something. Just do it. Hi, as I wrote in the comment above: I was in a hurry when I posted this so didn't notice that the obvious point was missing--that we meet to find solutions and implement them. I've added the edit. And, yes, the solution is to actually do it--which I realised…
Comment linking /justdo
on “The “Do Something About It” Club”Submitted No Big Deal as a story · 1 points
HN discussionI noticed the phrase "accelerating world" on https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books . Nice wording. A lot of people feel it.
Comment linking /books
on “List one task, do it, cross it out”Submitted How to make writing less hard as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted There's no such thing as a fresh start as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Just do the thing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Truth about Distraction as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted What if you get things done? (The Imperfectionist) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
