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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?

#91

Post by truebosko »

In all honesty, I try to stay full throttle at work.

Important breaks I do take: Coffee walk (unfortunately on some busy days I simply can't make it out), Quick chats with the team, and Pomodoro-timed walks to stretch/ease the mind.

I usually eat lunch at my desk, which annoys me, because I always want to socialize and be better at that. I don't find it easy to do this since the days are so busy.

I'm a product manager, so I spend much of my days in meetings that are a mix of working sessions, scoping exercises, communications with external clients, and team-focused meetings.

On the days I don't have any meetings (they do exist), I zone out and get some work done. Lately I've been focusing on the DevOps for our team.

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

#92

Post by 9erdelta »

wingworks wrote: post #78
1_player wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Letting the subconscious work through a hard problem while doing something else is a truly underrated trick. Taking a shower or going for a walk also works wonderfully.

I used to take hour long lunch breaks, which I'd spend about 35mins walking to get food and finding a nice spot to sit outside, most days I done this I would come back into the office refreshed and often fix the issue I was working on shortly after coming back. But the hour-long break was always founded upon, which is why I ended up leaving. (it was also the only break I took each day, but the culture in the team I w…

30 minute breaks? Sounds unbearable! Plus knowing that you're being judged creates a pressure that doesn't help solve problems.

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

#93

Post by nevster »

dntrkv wrote: post #68
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…

I had this same issue until I stopped visiting Reddit completely (even in my off work hours) and gave up my addiction to news. It's amazing the difference it has made in my productivity.

But not HN?

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

#94

Post by jrs235 »

decasia wrote: post #69
rl3 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it isn't work, reading technical articles regularly on HN can be very beneficial. In fact, the first thing I tell aspiring developers is to start reading HN on a regular basis if they already aren't. It confers a sort of broad awareness of various stacks and ecosystems over time that's hard to obtain otherwise.

Yeah, learning the culture of your profession -- with a broad awareness of different ecosystems and things -- isn't "immediately productive," but it's a simple form of professional development. (And in my opinion, enlightened employers understand that decent professional development is a really important part of the work process.)

It falls into the important but not urgent quadrant of Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix.

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

#95

Post by ivm »

Working from home. Last month I tracked 270h on my Mac workstation: 190 hours (70%) were productive, 24h (9%) neutral tools, and 56h (21%) distracting (mostly chats with friends).

I also spend 1-2 hours a day on my "leisure laptop" (for example reading HN from there but also some useful RSS feeds). So it feels like 65% would be a correct productivity score.

Tracked with https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/ of course, most of the productive time was spent on its development and marketing. :]

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

#96

Post by jrs235 »

mikekchar wrote: post #63

I have a follow up question: For the time that you spend "not working" would you prefer to "work"? For me the answer is "absolutely!!!". Reading through some of the responses, it really seems that people are mixed. Either their "non-working" time is spent with side projects/training or they have become demotivated by problems with the work flow on their team. For me the latter is by far the biggest problem. I was jus…

I got sick of feeling like I am wasting my life away at work not working, so I submitted my resignation. Time to get on doing my own things so I don't feel I'm wasting my little yet precious time alive. After a few meetings, I am not quitting yet. I have been re-classed from salary to hourly and I will be able to have fewer and more flexible "hours" so that I can get out and do my own thing and side projects (which require business hour meetings/calls/etc).

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

#97

Post by smartfin »

ivm wrote: post #95

Working from home. Last month I tracked 270h on my Mac workstation: 190 hours (70%) were productive, 24h (9%) neutral tools, and 56h (21%) distracting (mostly chats with friends). I also spend 1-2 hours a day on my "leisure laptop" (for example reading HN from there but also some useful RSS feeds). So it feels like 65% would be a correct productivity score. Tracked with https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/ of course, most of…

Also use that app. But because of single machine for job and everything else my stats is around 45-50% productive, another ~10% neutral.

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

#98

Post by nunez »

These days less than 10%. I take lunch and a coffee break or two though.

I used to read reddit and hn to saturation on many days before getting into consulting; these days, i hardly read anything until before or after my core hours, not because i can't but because there is more interesting work to do

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

#99

Post by steveax »

neal_jones wrote: post #32

I have recently gone freelance/self-employed and I have quickly missed the reality of being able to not have to question if I'm actually getting work done every minute of the day. The truth is, I can't do brain-intensive work for more than maybe 5 or 6 hours.

I worked for myself for about a decade (web dev) and always considered getting 6 billable hours in a good day.

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

#100

Post by dilemma »

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?

It's more likely a problem with your environment (job) than yourself. Work isn't fun.
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