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Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#61

Post by zzaip »

randomsearch wrote: post #48

Work regular hours. The secret to productivity is routine, discipline, and sleep. That’s non-negotiable. So you’re going to have to set a base day. I like to work hard so in your situation I’d say a minimum day is 8-5 or 9-6. Then I’d build on that. First thing to do is to make sure you’re working well in those hours. Don’t try to compensate for procrastination by sitting there longer. On the vast majority of days I…

  The most important thing to learn is how to decide what to do. This is far more important than the number of hours, or your skill level. A great programmer writing the wrong code has zero productivity. This is the most important advice for getting things done: deciding what to do. Sam Altman said something along these lines recently, he’s bang on.
This is strong advice - I’m saving this to refer to later. Thank you. This whole post is great, and you were insightful to see the real question I was asking, and answer it. =)

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#62

Post by zzaip »

hobo_mark wrote: post #57

I wrote an app for my old pebble watch to display on the watchface how much I work. Some days are inevitably longer than others but by Friday evening I try to leave once I clocked 45 hours for the week. Any remaining brain power at the end of each day goes into side projects.

This is brilliant. Gonna see if there’s an equivalent for Apple Watch, and if not, write it myself.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#63

Post by mirimir »

I'm not sure what "butt-in-seat" means, unless you're working interactively in real time with a team, or doing customer support. Otherwise, what matters is billable time. That is, time when you're actively on-task, and not on HN or whatever. A reasonable practice is tracking 10-15 minute intervals.

Then limit that to a rolling average of 40 hours per week, or whatever you like, and can negotiate with your employer.

I've mostly worked as a consultant, so there's been no limit, other than however close to 24 hours per day that I can handle. And sometimes, with rush jobs from multiple clients, I've just about maxed. But in that case, I've discounted work time, especially for clients who weren't pushing as hard.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#64

Post by csel »

This is what works for me.

1. Start the day with a plan (15 to 30 min)

2. List things that, absolutely, need to be completed

3. List things that would be great if can be completed (bonus)

4. Have a set time when you are going to finish work. For me, 6pm. So when 3 or 4pm hits and I still have 1 or 2 things from my list #2 above, I get on it right away. That also helps me to stay on track whenever I am in meeting or unexpected phone call etc. Excuse myself or end the call quick so that I can get back on track.

It sounds very simple but it has helped me feel accomplished when I end my day at 6pm. Feeling accomplished for the day is very important for me. I usually hit the gym at 7pm and if I don't feel accomplished, I end up having a sucky gym time. A good gym time, run or outdoor activity, helps to set the tone for the rest of the night. If I am working on a side project, I usually start working again around 10am and stay up until 12 or 1am latest. Rinse repeat until Friday.

So MY short answer to "How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?" = When you feel "accomplished" for the day :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#65

Post by navchatterji »

Look up the concept of Flow Theory by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I run a relatively small Creative Agency called Lazy Eight, where we are experimenting with 60 hours a month(measurable execution), its been working well so far but will be interesting to see once we scale a bit more.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#66

Post by Bombthecat »

How I handle juniors and beginners:

It is ok to stay longer

It is ok to stay longer especially as a beginner. You are in a learning phase. But still need to do your stuff.

It is also ok to screw up or ask questions.

Never ever go every week over 50 hours. I have a junior right now which works longer because he sees us working long hours. I will tell him soon to suck it up and go home on time.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#67

Post by [deleted] »

cimmanom wrote: post #7

How strict is your employer about butt-in-seat schedule? If you have full flexibility, I’d suggest aiming to hit 40 hours on a weekly basis rather than 8 on a daily basis. That gives you the flexibility to work, say, 10 hours one day because you’re really on a roll, and to stop at 6 hours the next afternoon when you’re tired and distracted without feeling guilty. Don’t go over 40 hours on a regular basis. That’s a re…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#68

Post by mpolsz »

Terr_ wrote: post #32
cimmanom wrote: post #7

How strict is your employer about butt-in-seat schedule? If you have full flexibility, I’d suggest aiming to hit 40 hours on a weekly basis rather than 8 on a daily basis. That gives you the flexibility to work, say, 10 hours one day because you’re really on a roll, and to stop at 6 hours the next afternoon when you’re tired and distracted without feeling guilty. Don’t go over 40 hours on a regular basis. That’s a re…

From my own experience, burnout is primarily emotional . Time spent is a side-effect. It's not how many hours you work, it's how much of your experience involves despair, frustration, and resentment. That might either be towards your employer ("stupid schedules, I'm not valued"), towards yourself ("this should be easy but I'm failing"), or towards the universe for simply not being the way it "should" be.

I feel the same. From my own experience, I've done both 9h-10h of productive work for few weeks in challenging projects and 8h ass-in-seat in crappy and bad managed ones.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#69

Post by sigi45 »

I get paid for 40h so I do 40 hours.

At the beginning of my career I was probably less active but now I work better/fuller.

This article remindes me how I wanna be.

http://bookofhook.blogspot.de/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity...

So if I can't anymore for the day I take a break and continue later. Not sure when I had a time when it was just no longer possible but than I would just go home.

Also I don't read Reddit or hn when I work. Helps a lot to keep focus. And I try to work on something else for the company in break time like when a build is running.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide when you've done enough work for the day?

#70

Post by Vinnl »

This is really dependent on your employer's attitude. What worked for me, though, when working independently, is:

- Start the day by making a list of tasks you can do that day. You don't need to finish them all, but there should be no moment that you don't know quite what you could pick up. - Then work using the Pomodoro technique: alternate 25 minutes of work with a 5-minute break, and every fourth break is 15 minutes. In those 25-minute sessions, do not e.g. check Hacker News, and in the 5-minute sessions, do not work. - My day was done when I finished 12 "Pomodoro's", i.e. did six hours of productive work.

I was way more productive than I was when I had to go to the office, yet had more spare time. I guess that helps: if you can compare it to going into office, you feel less guilty for fewer hours butt-in-seat if you're getting more done.

Of course, things like meetings can complicate this.

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