Money plays a big role in these. It's clear from each point, especially start your day with something fun. That is an incredibly hard thing to do for a lot of Americans, especially those who are poor. When you wake up poor for years and years on end, the ability to just "will yourself" into doing something "fun" in the morning to start your day, when all your mind can do is wonder if you'll have enough money for food later, or who will make fun of you on your commute, or any number of stresses, is nearly impossible.

Money plays a huge role in a person's ability to find a peace and calm moment in their day. And it doesn't help when some rich jerk walks in and says "what's the problem, too hard to wake up feeling happy and able to do something fun? ha, never had that problem! good day!". Ick.

Money plays a huge role in all of this. Yes, writing down your goals is basically free. Taking breaks isn't. Taking breaks can often include a risk of someone yelling at you, or you missing an important phone call that would have been really useful to get, etc.

Money is really important. Yeah, you don't need $5B to do this, but the point is that the advice is tone-deaf considering it comes from someone who does not have the common worries or problems of the common person.

Edit: The article is extra tone-deaf because it indeed does suggest you "jet off in your private plane for a quick refreshing week on your private island" like you quipped. The pictures he included in the article make it clear what his idea of a break is.

Exceedingly few people are in a position where they can't do any of these. I've lived on little money, and wondered how to make it stretch to get enough food, and none of these were "nearly impossible". It changes some of what you can do to meet them, it does not make it nearly impossible.

It may be psychologically hard. If you're tired and worn out, yes, you'll find it hard to buy that you should make space to rest or exercise or have fun, but that's exactly when you need it the most, and when it will benefit you the most.

Not taking breaks and setting aside time like this is more costly than taking them. Yes, it may be logistically hard to do it in ways that prevent a boss from yelling at you - I've had times when I resorted to going to the toilets to get a few minutes breathing space. But if it isn't possible? That's a strong signal you need to find something else (and yes, I know it is hard for many, but it is rarely impossible).

A lot of these are traps in that it's very easy to get into a cycle where you think you don't have time. But if you think you don't have time for exercise, for example, you'll soon find yourself with even less time as your energy levels drop and your performance tanks.

> Exceedingly few people are in a position where they can't do any of these.

That's not really what I said, though. I said that having money plays a big role in someone's ability to simply do these 5 things. It matters - having money or not makes a difference. I was responding to, "I fail to see where money comes into it" by explaining how, for hundreds of millions of people in the USA who are not well-off, money does come into it. It it out-of-touch with America and the world to say it doesn't.

> It may be psychologically hard.

It may also be physically hard. You are discounting the struggles of so many Americans by dismissing that these things can be hard for people. They are good advice, but it does't make it easy, especially "easy to do when you have no money".

> Not taking breaks and setting aside time like this is more costly than taking them.

Absolutely agreed. It is a privilege of the rich to optimize for the long term and to ignore short-term problems. Not taking breaks isn't something a lot of people do by choice - they are forced into it by circumstance and have a hard time getting out of it.

I'm not discounting that it may be hard, but I still think you're overplaying what kind of difference it makes to your ability to do these types of things. I'm sure there are some people somewhere that works every waking moment, but I've yet to meet any. Including people with very little money and who work ridiculous hours.

What I have seen are lots of people who argue they have no time because they are tired and prioritize choices that are mentally easier and get stuck in a vicious circle that way. It may sounds like this advice is not meant for them, but I'd argue the opposite: It's exactly when you're in those kind of circumstances you need to learn to make time for these things. Learning how to make time to rest and reflect is one of the most essential skills you can learn if you want to find ways of improving your life.

And that applies just as much to poor people as to people with lots of money but stressful jobs - very few people think they have plenty of spare time.

If this was easy it'd be pointless advice - we'd all be doing it.

> Absolutely agreed. It is a privilege of the rich to optimize for the long term and to ignore short-term problems. Not taking breaks isn't something a lot of people do by choice - they are forced into it by circumstance and have a hard time getting out of it.

I disagree. There will always be corner cases, but I've been in plenty of situations where it was tempting to think I don't have time for breaks. But the moment you start thinking you don't have time for breaks it's doubly important to take them, because it implies you're too caught up in what you're doing to realize how you're affecting your own productivity. You'll do a shitty job not just in the long term but in the short term too.

A lot of people think they are forced into not taking breaks, but my experience is that most people who think they can't, very much can. You'll find even highly paid people in senior jobs insist they can't take breaks, and then spend hours acting like zombies instead, rather than take a break and keep their productivity up. Yes, there are the odd corner case with bad bosses that'll count every second you're not doing your job, but there are most certainly not hundreds of millions of people in those kind of circumstances in the US.

> That's not really what I said, though. I said that having money plays a big role in someone's ability to simply do these 5 things. It matters - having money or not makes a difference.

This applies to a huge proportion of the advice one might find on Hacker News.

Can't understand why you're downvoted, you have a refreshing perspective on this.