151–160 of 163 posts
I've been an employee for like 20% of my career and a the rest I've been a freelancer. I never worked more than 4 hours (of real work a day). There's the occasional super productive day where I have done over 8 hours of productive work, but that's the exception, not the rule. I usually work around 3-4 hours of productive work daily. Heck I'd even say 20%-30% of that time is not even productive (meetings, emails and n…
I sit in a cubicle and I update bank software. I'd say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.
I've been an employee for like 20% of my career and a the rest I've been a freelancer. I never worked more than 4 hours (of real work a day). There's the occasional super productive day where I have done over 8 hours of productive work, but that's the exception, not the rule. I usually work around 3-4 hours of productive work daily. Heck I'd even say 20%-30% of that time is not even productive (meetings, emails and n…
I just completed a course on Coursera (Learning How to Learn - https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/). One of things mentioned is that our brain has a focused and diffused mode and both are needed for us to learn.
So, I guess, something similar happens when we are working. You need both focus time but also a down time to achieve things. Of course, too much procrastination is also not a good thing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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've never seen someone describe my education so accurately, down to: > went home to program and build side projects and was singularly focused on becoming a programmer in the game industry
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…
This is actually an amazing insight. This tells you exactly what the root of your procrastination is. It's not laziness, because I'm sure you can apply plenty of effort in tasks where this fear isn't present. Maybe drill down a bit further on what the source of this fear might be. Were boring tasks used as punishment in your childhood?
People with eating disorders are often afraid of boring food without realizing it. The thought of a diet is scary because they'll be missing out on their favourite foods. After adopting a bland diet for a few weeks, most find their fear dissipates, and bland food can become enjoyable. Maybe try the same strategy with boring tasks? Essentially exposure therapy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry is this is rude but how do you make a living only working 3 hours a day? Are you products already established?
No it isn't rude at all. Yes, some sites are already established but I also launch at least one new site every month to add to my income. 3 hours is a lot of work if done without distraction. I think the key is to make your work more mechanical and less creative . I have a system that I have perfected over the years which helps me do this[1]. It's like a stupid step by step list where each item links to a document wh…
When a deadline is coming up, I take a 10 minute "organization break" and list the actual, concrete steps that need to be mechanically performed in order to complete the task. I think the problem is that my mind tends to get hung up on abstract task descriptions and I start overanalyzing. For instance, "Design welcome page" will turn into a wasted day of messing around with colors, fonts, and layout positioning. On the other hand, "Add X, Y, Z to prototype welcome page" is a much more concrete task and it defines completion so that I can move on to the next task on the list.
(Btw, you could turn your nested-robotic-link-list into a quick webapp that I bet would get a decent number of users.)
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…
pro tip: I was trying to find a natural solution, which for me is DMAE combined with fish-oil. It has basically the same effect for me in terms of productivity without the nasty side effects + you can buy it in every vitamin store. It is funny how I can almost immediately (within few days) notice when I stop taking these.
The reality is that 100% of my time, if meetings are included, is productive (excluding minimal breaks).
I feel sorry for the people trying to run businesses with all of these employees not working.
I'm a QA engineer. The most experienced QA engineer on a 3-person team (the other two have either more experience with testing but less with development, or vice-versa). I have waaaaay too much to do to get away with not working.
I do empathise with those for whom maintaining a high level of productivity is impossible because of how demanding their work is. I'm fortunate that I have so many different tasks to perform that if I don't have the energy to concentrate on something demanding, I can switch to something fairly basic.
I'm also fortunate in that, for me, problem solving activities are almost always energising. So if I feel like I'm getting burnt out I can dive into one of the tricky but non-urgent problems I hadn't got around to yet.
However, most days, probably 4.5 out of 5 on average, I am super productive, taking very few breaks aside from lunch.
In a typical day I probably get 5-6 hours of solid work done. But there is a downside too.
In order to achieve this, I sometimes skip meetings and ignore requests from other people.
I am considered a high performer and seem to be an anomaly to most people.