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Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

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Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#111

Post by superasn »

Speaking as a solopreneur, I work only 3 hours a day, more like 3 x 50 minutes laps with 15 min breaks in between.

Also each lap is dedicated to one activity, first is manufacturing where I work on my project (the actual coding part), second is traffic (this is the dreaded marketing/outreach part) and finally is the optimization part (seo, increasing conversion rates, improving design, etc).

I've seen that the diversity of this work prevents you from getting bored and also is very good for your sites because if you keep working on just coding your sites seldom make any money.

The 3 hours limit is because after that i can happily watch tv, spend time with my family or just work on my other hobbies besides computers guilt free.

P.s. When you try to do as much work as you can, i believe you still only get 3 hours of work done - yet you feel guilty of not doing enough which causes unhappiness.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#112

Post by dingaling »

dilemma wrote: post #40
tokenizerrr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do your coworkers feel about you only being a few hours at the office?

They probably make snide remarks because they don't understand that someone executing according to plan, consistently over several years and projects, working 5 hours per day, is more valuable than someone working 8 hours in a less organized manner and sometimes missing deadlines.

It sounds like you're only allocated to one project at a time, correct?

In many big corps it's common to be on four or five projects at any one time. Finishing one discrete piece of work is only a signal for the next project manager to appear at my desk and demand that I get working on his piece of work.

And I can see his perspective, he doesn't particularly care if i was super-productive that day on Project-A when he's managing Project-B and there are still hours left in the working day.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#113

Post by Imagenuity »

decasia wrote: post #17

Arguably, time spent reading HN is a legitimate part of becoming/remaining a good developer. Certainly, spending time socializing with coworkers is a required part of work, many places. Spending some amount of time unwinding at the office is arguably required for mental health and therefore a functional component of remaining a worker -- does that count as working? "Working" is an ambiguous category, it seems to me.…

I've learned a tremendous amount from reading HN. Sure, there's lots of posts that are time wasters, but so much good information for a developer is concentrated in one place makes it valuable and useful.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#114

Post by J-dawg »

barsonme wrote: post #31
throw832649 wrote: post #10

Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning a new language or framework. This has been the case for my entire working life. I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel. Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD, since I…

The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel . Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring . It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the l…

>"I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.)

This totally describes me. The line I quoted resonates because sometimes the idea of a boring task is actually frightening to me, in the way you described. Like I get a really sick feeling about it and will do almost anything to avoid it. On the other hand I feel like I have so much going on in my head, and so much I could produce if I could only channel it properly. The TV is most definitely always on. My lack of focus and procrastination has definitely held me back in my career.

One thing I'm wary of is medicalising what might just laziness. How do I know it's not a version of "special snowflake syndrome"? Is my own inattentiveness (and inability to get over it) really so much worse than what a "normal" person experiences?

To give a parallel, I heard a podcast where Ramit Sethi was talking about "introvert porn", where he's saying there is all this stuff online about how hard life is for introverts, how extroverts don't get it, basically making people feel good about being an introvert and telling them that it's an integral part of who they are rather than something they can change. And he's saying that this is a dangerous and self-defeating trap to get into because people don't realise that social skills can be learned. All these "introverts" are just falling back onto an excuse to avoid confronting the thing that's holding them back.

If I start blaming all my problems on ADHD am I just falling into a similar trap? After all, not everyone can be successful. Maybe I'm just not successful because I'm not that good at anything, not because of a medical condition.

Possibly relevant: I am in the UK where ADHD seems to be a lot less recognised than in the USA. People here are often critical of the idea of medicating ADHD in kids (which is relatively unusual here afaik). I don't know how a British GP would react to someone asking for an adult ADHD diagnosis - I imagine it wouldn't be taken very seriously.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#115

Post by veddox »

nubbins wrote: post #70
hardworkerthrow wrote: post #36

Over the first 15+ years of my career as an engineer and engineering manager, I've repeatedly surveyed colleagues and friends in engineering roles about this question. I've asked it of people I consider low-performing, all the way to folks I'd consider 10x developers. I have never met a single software developer who, when pressed to give an honest assessment and when "working" is defined along the lines of "actively…

Thats interesting because 4 hours is exactly the limit I've seen cited by researchers as the max for highly focused work but even that much is a kind of skill that has to be developed, so a beginner might have much less concentration.

Can you give a reference for that number? Sounds intriguing...

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#116

Post by gtirloni »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #105
gtirloni wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've a hard time communicating what I'm doing in that "research" phase. During standups, most people are reporting concrete tasks that got done and I feel a bit embarrassed to say I spent the whole day trying something out that's remotely related to the final product but was interesting for the ideas. It's stressful to have to report those things, I feel like I have to justify them, what's my train of thought, etc, a…

Intel was my first exposure to "management by objective" and "key results". And yes, there were weekly reviews of your progress. Every quarter, a set of objectives and under each objective key results, and then weekly you reported on how you were doing with respect to those. I think the key to your stress is either that you aren't clear in your head what you're trying to figure out, or your trying to figure out thing…

That's really very useful, thanks a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#117

Post by TeeJay942 »

Cyph0n wrote: post #77
barsonme wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel . Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring . It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the l…

I've had similar symptoms to those caused by ADHD for quite some time now, but I'm not sure if visiting a doctor will help me much. The symptoms I've experienced are inattentiveness, boredom, lethargy, and poor time management. My question is: if I do get diagnosed by a professional, what kind of improvement can I expect from ADHD medication?

>"The symptoms I've experienced are... and poor time management."

I built a morning and evening routine app (Routinist) to help professionals schedule habits/goals into their days. I did not have ADHD in mind when I built it, but around 1/3 of the positive feedback I get through emails / reviews has some form "I have ADHD and this helps me".

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#118

Post by douche »

If I have to go to the office: maybe 2 hours a day of actual productive work.

If I work from home: usually 4-6 hours of productive work.

Going to the office adds up to a ten-hour day, with the commute. Working from home is usually a 6-7 hour day, and I get to stay in my pajamas, take the dog for a walk, take a break to do some housework, and be in a comfortable environment.

I don't work from home enough anymore.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#119

Post by jackgolding »

tedajax wrote: post #43
barsonme wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel . Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring . It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the l…

Unrelated but I felt compelled to share a similar sentiment: > It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the lines of, "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) Oh man I can relate so much. So many conversations with teachers asking why I w…

I feel the same but only recognise this now that I'm out of education

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#120

Post by thenomad »

J-dawg wrote: post #114
barsonme wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel . Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring . It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the l…

>"I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) This totally describes me. The line I quoted resonates because sometimes the idea of a boring task is actually frightening to me, in the way you described. Like I get a really sick feeling about it and will do almost anything to avoid it. On the other hand I feel like I have so much going on in…

Judging from a friend's experience in the UK, the GP may well be more useful and take you more seriously than you might think.

Public attitudes to health are often not reflected in the NHS in a variety of ways.

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