Episode: 3901
Title: HPR3901: Time Managment
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3901/hpr3901.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 07:43:34

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3901 from Monday the 17th of July 2023.
Today's show is entitled Time Management.
It is hosted by Operator and is about 21 minutes long.
It carries an explicit flag.
The summary is Time Management.
Hello everyone, welcome to the episode of Hacker Public Radio with your host, Operator.
I'm going to do this one off the cuff and in my car, so hopefully I won't melt before
I run a very conditioning.
Anyways, this is going to be over how I manage my time with and kind of communications
here lately with ADHD.
So if you have problems with time management or communicating effectively, executive
function, impulse control, whatever, task-quitching, this is how I am currently dealing with
some of that.
First thing I'll say is the impulse control stuff I've learned to say give me five minutes,
especially with my wife.
So if we're doing something, or if I'm in the middle of something, or if I'm trying
to finish something up, someone asks me, especially my wife or something, I'll say just give
me a second, give me five minutes, give me ten minutes, sometimes I need longer than
five minutes, but usually five minutes is plenty of time.
Now people don't want to hear that when they're hanging on the roof or in the middle of
some kind of crisis or some of my crisis, but it's something you can start out with instead
of just no or an illustrating response.
So that seems to work most of the time.
And then kind of the second piece is time management, which is extremely difficult for me.
I can't remember anything unless it's a calendar item or an alarm on top of that.
So way I have it set up right now is I have a family calendar and that family calendar
has up to three, maybe four calendars on it that show the availability, so it'll say busy.
And the way I have it set up is that my wife has her own calendar that she adds to.
And then I have my own calendar that is basically my calendar is the family calendar actually.
And Kathy's calendar is I think her calendar, it's more or less, and she uses it whatever,
but I've given her access to my calendar and that's kind of become the family shared
calendar along with Kathy's calendar is kind of a family calendar too.
So I share her availability and my availability and then the Scouts events and stuff.
So between those three calendars, I can share the availability in the URL to because you
can have multiple calendars in one calendar view.
And it's a bit complicated and if I remember, I'll put in show notes.
But you can share as many calendars as you want in one single month view.
So that's one way to, you know, easily show friends and family, hey, here's my availability
right now.
It doesn't include my work stuff, obviously.
So that's all I handle that.
The family stuff, people can see availability, we can usually work it out, we can put.
She doesn't like to do it and she's been a lot better lately, my wife.
I'll tell her, hey, you don't have to set up the event, but just let me know, put a TBT
like to be determined.
So if it said to be determined, I know to ask her and follow up with her or I need to
fill in more information like when the event is or what the location is or the address
or whatever and I'll pick up the rest.
So really all she has to do is make sure that I know I need to follow up on something,
put it in the general area of what it is and just put to be determined in front of it.
So I know, ooh, what is this thing I need to elaborate on, get more information instead
of her having to figure out the calendar event and it's maybe a repeating event and it's
like Monday through Wednesday, but it's till December 24th and she has, you know, comfortable,
she's not quite comfortable doing that and she doesn't need that, right?
So I'll do that, we'll work through that and we're still kind of working through that,
but she's helped out and made a big difference.
That's how I handle most of my family stuff.
My availability is flexible for work, but what I tend to do is I have, we use Microsoft
at work and Microsoft has a free thing for 360 is called bookings and you can have a public
bookings calendar that just shows your availability and all it does is have, you can set 30 minutes,
one hour or two hours, whatever and then they can put in their email and they can add
additional notes I have as required.
So basically any vendor, any person that sends me a thing or if I have a message with
them, then I can just send in that link and I can send it internally.
It doesn't matter who it is and they can easily book a meeting with me.
So if they do it internally, I see all their information, whatever and it automatically
results at it, all that for me, it's not just random, I don't think.
And if I do it externally, then they get the email address and I have some idea of who
set the invite and if they leave the right email, I can work with them to try to figure
out what's going on.
I actually have my email set to junk filter high.
So that way I don't get phishing emails, I don't get any external emails, I only get
internal emails.
I'm on the security team.
So if I'm working with a vendor and a vendor says they're going to send me from information
or I'm looking for some information or I'm looking for some usually token authentication
or something like that, what I'll do is I'll sell them, hey, let me know you're going
to send me something because if you're sending on behalf of someone else or through some
third party service, I need to look out for that email because they'll say, oh, I'll set
you up in account.
I'll send you a password.
No, they're not sending you anything.
They're enrolling you in some kind of SaaS service and you have to be cognizant of that
and I'll still check the junk mail every once in a while.
But generally speaking, I've missed things before where vendors just arbitrarily send
me stuff and then, you know, I can't, I can't, I have to make sure that I'm aware of
that.
So that's how I handle that.
I have basically eight alarms per day, more or less.
I have a personal alarm, I have a work alarm that basically one fires.
So in Android, you can set a alarm and you can set it repeating, but you, I set the personal
and work alarm to not repeat.
So essentially, whatever meeting I have next the day before, I put it in the queue and
usually that works.
Sometimes if I have back to back meetings and I'm not paying attention, I might be on
a call a little bit longer.
And hopefully if I'm on the computer, I'll actually see that pop up where I'll see the
pop up on the phone.
But usually if stuff runs together or I get off a long call and I'll go eat lunch and
forget that I've, you know, I've scheduled a meeting or not actually set the alarm back.
So sometimes I miss some meetings because I have to reset my personal, my work alarm
because I only have one at a time.
I will miss meetings if I do not have alarm for them.
No matter how many times I get notifications.
Same thing for any kind of time-based event, depending on how big it is.
There is an app for Android at least called Time to Leave.
And it used to be part of Google and it's not anymore.
But Time to Leave will tell you when to leave essentially.
So as long as it's running, you'll get a pop-up notification that says, oh, Time to
Leave, you have, you can configure it for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, however much the
time you need.
And based on the traffic patterns and Google, it'll tell you, hey, you need to leave
by 4.30 to get there by 5 o'clock, right?
And it will buffer the time in there and you can set the buffer, however much you want.
I set all my events for when I'm actually physically supposed to be there, not when
I'm supposed to get ready.
So that way I have consistency across the board.
So sometimes I've said, oh, you know, this event is at 4 o'clock, but really I'm going
to be helping out and I need to be there an hour early.
So I'm going to set it at 3 o'clock.
So then when the event comes along, I'm like, ooh, I set that 3 o'clock for when I actually
need to be there or did I set it for the event when the actual time starts and I subtract
another hour.
So is it really 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock?
I don't know.
But just in case they say no matter what the event is, I do it when everyone else is supposed
to be there.
And then I calculate the time needed for me to at hellbound or if I'm coordinating, helping
coordinate the event or whatever the party is, I know that I need to subtract a time no
matter what.
It's when everybody else is supposed to be at the event.
So that helps with any confusion as to did I subtract a time I'm supposed to or am I
supposed to be there for or I'm supposed to be there 3, I don't know.
So that will help with the calendar stuff.
Same thing for personal, I'll set up my personal alarms.
I have one for just like doing the cat poop and the way my alarms work is until the task
is complete, I will not, I will hit this news button.
If I don't do that, then I will miss it.
And it defaults like 5 minutes for Android and then after like 5 news is or 3 news is
it goes to like 20 minutes or something and then eventually I think after like an hour
and a half it turns off and it won't let you keep snoozing it or something like that.
But usually by within an hour hopefully I've been able to get finished with that task
or whatever it is so that I can switch to the test that's on the alarm.
Like I never hit the silence or the dismiss until it's actually done.
So I'll be going downstairs to do the thing or I'll be going upstairs to do the thing
or whatever the task is I'll be you know I'll go in the kitchen to do the thing and it
ever happens and then I'm like I miss the thing because I never I went down to the kitchen
but I got distracted by something else or someone else had an injection and I lost
track of what I was supposed to be doing and then now I've forgotten.
I don't I snooze the alarm until it's done so even if I'm like in the middle of you know
cleaning out the cat litter and the alarm goes off I will still sometimes hit the snooze button
because you never know I might be distracted and might get pulled off the task and then have
you know have the cat litter have done or whatever the task is for my medications I about to go
into the cougar here I use cougar for everything my health insurance is not great and they want
you to use CVS whatever but it doesn't necessarily matter because I use good RX and I had a rant
about drugs and having to deal with prescriptions and and all that stuff so I'm having the ADHD
meds that's annoying the way I set that up is I have a repeating event for whatever the thing is
so pick up the prescription I set the date on that in the actual title so for example
519 is when I'm I'm available I can go get more prescriptions from my doctors on 519 so I put
RX you know pick up 519 and if 519 comes and I'm not able to do that task I have it automatically
repeat every day forever so that way if I miss it Tuesday or whenever the day now 19th is it's
going to be alarm the 20th and the 21st and when it and now it's been a week and a day and I'm just
now doing the task that I was supposed to do last week which was like you know the 18th or something
so that repeating every day the same task that I haven't completed is more the same of the
and the likes of this news button you know I'm essentially repeating that task or repeating that
event and telling it to finish forever and then when I fill the prescription and when I pick up
the prescriptions I put I just change the title of the date and then I move that item to the next
month instead of having to recreate it and get it all worked out I'll move that item to you know
whenever it's it's ready to be completed again and I just keep moving and I keep changing the title
so that way I always know oh I was supposed to go get more prescriptions on the 19th and now it's
the 21st and you know I'm in the whole three days or whatever but I'm getting that repeating
notification every day and I'm like oh you know it's been a week I'm behind you know I'm getting
low I need to make sure that I do this task today same thing for the refills you know same thing
shenanigans for the refills you know I'm supposed to do it Monday I didn't do it supposed to do
Tuesday didn't do it Wednesday I completely forgot but now that I have that moving that repeating
notification with the date I have an idea of okay when is it actually happening when did I pick it
up so if you fill the prescription you know it doesn't actually start to you pick it up so then I
have to reset that date so you know I'm supposed to do it on the 19th but I don't actually do it to
the 21st and then that that changes the reset date right so I keep moving that date and that
title as it changes so that I always know when I can actually complete that task and and get it
get it done so that's how I handle meds communication I've been using chat PT chat GPT with
non-sensitive you know stuff for work I have never had that consistency with writing and assistance
and I feel like after maybe a year or two or three the way I the more I see a chat GPT or whatever
AII use change that sentence structure I'm going to understand you know actually DLV use comments
and actually be able to have the context because with my brain I start conversations out in the middle
of the conversation and then people have to work overdrive to understand what I'm even talking about
and that's just a part of how my brain works and sometimes how I communicate so a lot of my writing
comes out in that same regard as I'll be too forward or too joking and I won't be professional
I'm not talking even internally you know that professionalism sometimes can can turn into comedy
because I'm trying to you know work with a sensitive subject or a difficult subject or a difficult
time that I've had with a different group and you know it's the even if you write an angry email
boom you can tell it's that GPT put that angry email in it and chat PT will will make it not
angry anymore more or less you'll have some toll in there but it won't be nearly as bad as
McCurdy speak so you know got rid of it got rid of it add context it will compress you know
I don't know how to do commas so I have I write I write kind of in the style of how I think it's
going to compress everything together so you know I'm more writing the prompt out how I know it's
going to compress things together so it's like I like you know I like turtles I like the beat
I like you know to walk on the beach and knowing that I'm writing it incorrectly I'll start to see
the idea is I'll start to see chat PT piece those together and I'll be like oh well that's how I do
commas oh well that's how I do add context in the front of something and this is how the flow
should be right okay oh I had this in the wrong position and like this has nothing to do with
what I'm trying to communicate but it's a rant or some kind of incidental piece of information
and I'll use that you know clear and concise context that I'd prevent somebody from getting
ran into in the co-oper parking lot here um so that's how I handle I'm a handling communication
and really kind of trying to help with my grammar other than that um you know the communication
with with your loved ones and you know reestablishing relationships with people you have avoided
that you are in your family that you that are willing to have conversations right um it's really
important right I'm 40 43 something like that um and you know as you get older your friends and
your relatives start to have friends and family and parents pass away and you start realizing
you know what maybe avoiding your parents or avoiding this particular relative or avoiding
you know um a family member is not the best way to handle it and you you can try to be reason
movement you can try to be cordial and you can you know talk about what what you're having a hard
time with and establish boundaries to start and once you've established those boundaries you can
try and repair or work on the relationship but you know it's avoiding people which is because
it's hard is is the easy thing to do and a lot of people you know we don't really have that
community anymore and as the different generations of children come out it's been more of that
where it's just easier to avoid people and that's not going to help in the long run and it makes
you a better person if you're able to work with people that you know are neurodiverse or they
have their problems and then nobody's perfect we're all just people and being able to communicate
effectively and say hey you know I feel like you're having a hard time with this thing um you know
get some cheering online therapy or uh legit therapy for a little while and kind of understand
you know where you struggle with communication and how you can communicate effectively with people
um is is one way to start but I'll go I'll get off of that rant and let y'all go
so hopefully they'll have my meds for me and I will be resetting the dates and all that stuff
but that's just how I've been trying to you know make myself better and work on communication
the time management and all that and if it's not on the calendar it does not happen so I'll let you
guys go and uh hopefully have some fun see some family and you know communicate communicate
it's all a communication okay so I got back in the car and realized I'd missed a couple things
started been 17 minutes will be quick the other way I do tasks is in a task list which is I use
Google keep I have a task for each PR I have a like a task list for house um general house stuff
and then I have a task list um for other things so anyways it's just a list a task list that I
use Google keep and I'll just add to it so for example if it's not anything that's pressing
and it needs to be done then I put it on a task list or if it's something I need to look at later
maybe download check out a movie or check out a new book or something like that um I'll put it
on there to on the task list and it's if it doesn't have criticality then I will put it on the list
because you know sometimes there might be a day or two until I actually look at my task list so
if it's not anything that needs to be addressed right away I'll use the Google keep and kind of
separate those out and sometimes the tasks get done sometimes they don't sometimes they sit on
there forever and and never get done so that's it's some of it but you know if it's a little thing
you know ooh remember to go buy this or pick this up I'll use Google keep um the other thing I
would say was I can't remember right now so another newer way I've been doing this is I've been
setting up the title as rx space and then whatever needs to wherever I need to go followed by the
date and then that repeats every day and I move that calendar event around so for example if it's
go to Kruger on 627 then I repeat that on 627 daily and if I ever miss it I know okay the title says
627 I was supposed to do that you know a week ago and I can change the date had you know 60 however many
the counts so add 60 to the date or 30 to the date of when I pick it up so when I pick it up I set the
date to win 30 days 60 days plus of whenever I picked it up that seems to be working but even then
I had to go back and wipe everything out and start clean and start over with a nice clean
titles because everything got weird and moved around and I changed their own name with their
own one and everything got all messed up so I had to go back and and figure it out so I tried
to do it that way but we'll see how that goes you have been listening to Hacker Public Radio
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