Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I got to 200 productive hours a month

qotoqot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 296 posts

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#251

Post by aj_g »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #230
welly wrote: post #45

Who works 200 hours a month? That's either five 10 hour days a week or roughly seven 7 hour days a week. My time off work is far, far too important to me to be working either of those options. It seems I value working less than other people. I'm fine with that.

To be completely honest I work 2 - 100 hour weeks per month. It is tough, but I work much better in bursts. I then basically take a 2 week vacation, but nobody knows about it except me. I schedule good chunks of Git Commits to push during my off weeks. In the off time, I still respond to email, and occasionally take meetings. Which might take an hour per day. But I don't do anything productive. I play a lot of Ninten…

I've always joked about doing this, but I'm surprised to hear this actually works for you. How long have you been doing this? How far do you go for your vacations? What kind of team do you work on?

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#252

Post by falcolas »

brookside wrote: post #243
falcolas wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The currently understood source of ADHD is a mis-wiring of the brain. Currently we don't know of a better way than meds to alleviate such a condition. CBT helps to a degree, CBT + meds works much better for more severe cases.

> The currently understood source of ADHD is a mis-wiring of the brain. Is that actually understood, though? We had the heavily promoted social consensus for a long while that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, which is now seen as a somewhat disproven theory that never had much evidence.

Very little about the brain is really well understood. That said, this is about the best we have so far.

From a video I linked elsewhere in this discussion:

Gallo, E. F., & Posner, J. (2016). Moving towards causality in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: overview of neural and genetic mechanisms. Lancet Psychiatry, 3(1), 555-567. Konrad, K., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2010).

Is the ADHD brain wired differenctly? A review on structural and functional connectivity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Human Brain Mapping, 31(1), 904-916.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5tLi1bYilA

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#253

Post by OJFord »

amigoingtodie wrote: post #68
michaelmior wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer not to pay my bills automatically because it doesn't take much time and lets me make sure they are correct.

Plus, you can more easily switch banks. Provision and migrate accounts with Ansible?

Manually pay bills every month, or whatever period, so that it's easier to switch account? Even if you're switching every year that doesn't sound like a good deal.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#254

Post by OJFord »

eeZah7Ux wrote: post #81
beagle3 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Leaving a phone at home and taking a notebook or book with you while sitting outside is not like "stop staying awake". It will, in fact, get you off the Internet and is unlikely to result in withdrawal symptoms for most people. Unlike "stop staying awake" which is not actionable. A book might not be a good suggestion for everyone, and finding the right "off internet thinking environment" is not easy for s…

> Unlike "stop staying awake" which is not actionable. That's the problem: you think "stop staying awake" is not actionable, while "leave your phone at home" is actionable for a person with ADHD. Again, this is not different than saying "just be happy" to a depressed person. To that person, in that moment, "stop wasting time on the internet" is not actionable just as much, otherwise it would not be a problem in the f…

> you think "stop staying awake" is not actionable, while "leave your phone at home" is actionable for a person with ADHD.

I'm not an insomniac; nor do I have ADHD, as far I know.

I assure you that I cannot action an instruction to 'stop staying awake'. I certainly can 'leave [my] phone at home', and frequently do.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#255

Post by specializeded »

tigershark wrote: post #235
lazyjones wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds to me like you had some issues with distractions during the day, amplified by working at home. Other people (like me) prefer to work late at night for the same reason, it also allows for a more social lifestyle (i.e. going out occasionally) than having to be in bed early.

I'm sorry but I'm missing how can you have a more social lifestyle if you are working while the others are going out..

Not having to ”be in bed early” makes ”going out occasionally” easier!

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#256

Post by freshhawk »

ashark wrote: post #198
freshhawk wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfectly reasonable stance to take. Of course that assumes you do not ever vote, because you are not an informed citizen and voting would be both ethically and morally wrong.

It's easy enough in our lesser-of-two-evils system in the US to spend an hour (or less) before an election and nail down pretty well which is the lesser for each race on the ballot. Day-to-day following the news 100% not required unless you just like doing that, or have the means and/or will to contribute substantially outside of voting. This assumes a general awareness and understanding of political, economic, and s…

Sure, american federal elections are simple enough for this to not apply in that case.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#257

Post by BatFastard »

33W wrote: post #242
BatFastard wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there should ALWAYS be more work. If there is not more work, then as soon as work runs out the team is idle. So you have to plan ahead.

I think that there should always be more work, but there should not always be more critical work. This minimizes idleness while allowing non-critical tasks to be pushed aside when handling emergencies. For example, my team has a backlog of work to be done. There are certain things that cannot slip. There are plenty of things that could be pushed out to handle a production outage, or a shiny object, etc.

Indeed, critical dead after critical deadline is a good way to burn out. One a year is critical in a well planning system if that.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#258

Post by BatFastard »

milesvp wrote: post #239
BatFastard wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, there should ALWAYS be more work. If there is not more work, then as soon as work runs out the team is idle. So you have to plan ahead.

This seems like an assertion that may need to be challenged. I'm not convinced a team with no downtime is working at maximum output, let alone maximum efficiency. My experience is that teams that are constantly busy are rarely working on the most important thing, either for the short term or for the long term.

Isn't that poor planning? I never want a team "busy", I want everyone to see where we are going and why.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#259

Post by shoover »

ismail wrote: post #227
shoover wrote: post #121

I read this as a single article distillation of the principles in Deep Work by Cal Newport, very well done. It's been a while since I read Pragmatic Thinking and Learning by Andy Hunt, but the article feels familiar with that, as well (I recall a helpful section on meditation). The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry is another great resource. Newport's sources showed that most people are capable of about four hours of…

Great post. What I am struggling with is the following: These processes of deep work seem to be much easier to implement if you are doing remote work, coding, reasearch and more solitary work. Anyone successfully implement this in a business with staff? What are your strategies?

Interesting question. I work three hours ahead of most people in my company, so I take the offline time I can get in the morning and make myself available the rest of the day. Something like that may work for a morning person in an office, but without a time zone limitation blessing an early exit every day, that may not be culturally feasible without just working more.

In the book Newport runs down more strategies than regular daily blocks, everything from offsite retreats to people who can go deep on command whenever they get a small window. He described one professor who would use different modes based on his academic calendar, I think roughly by week or month granularity. During teaching times he was 100% available to students and staff, but during writing times his door was shut and everyone knew not to go in. The book is definitely worth a read if you're interested in more strategies.

Re: How I got to 200 productive hours a month

#260

Post by ge96 »

kobeya wrote: post #181
ge96 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was trying to get tested/diagnosed ran out of insurance before getting out of school. I don't know, they say (who?) if the stimulant "Adderall" makes you feel "pumped" or "happy/excited" then you probably don't have ADD/ADHD No doubt though, being able to sit down and work 12 hours straight without eating, absorb a crazy amount of information... crazy. But then the come down/depression afterwards. Also the effects…

This is mostly correct, although it is a matter of dosage. People can exhibit symptoms that to the average person seem the same either because of a deficiency or an excess of the pathways amphetamine (the active ingredient of Adderral) controls. In the case of someone recreationally taking stimulants, whether Adderall or methamphetamine/speed, they’re putting the control centers of the brain in overdrive which makes…

Yeah without a prescription hard to sustain namely the tolerance problem in my experience eg. need more and more not saying indefinitely but say 1 20mg xr for a day versus eventually 3 of them in a day
Post reply on HN