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I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

melmagazine.com

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Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#141

Post by adjkant »

glennpratt wrote: post #136
mratzloff wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not sustainable. Your brain needs downtime, just like you can't run everywhere you go.

This is not black and white, many of us procrastinate in ways that are not always a healthy break and finding ways to curb some of that is not bad.

I don't think this approach necessarily helps with that distinction of good breaks and bad procrastination. I think it would be interesting to distinguish those, but I would look for another method if that were my goal. That also isn't to disregard the interest of the experiment above, just to say it doesn't help here.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#143

Post by hliyan »

StaticRedux wrote: post #29

Now do that for a month. Or even a week. You may be more productive bc you don't want to be seen as slacking off with someone watching, but maintaining that kind of pace is untenable. Did you ever get stuck and check your email or Facebook just to give your brain a little break? Did you ever sit, unsure of your next move? Or did you do the first thing you thought of, even if it was wrong, so you didn't look like you…

I don't believe this is the case at all. When I was in university, everyone I know (including myself) organized into study groups precisely to combat procrastination, and not for any intellectual benefits. It worked. At the end of a day of solo studying, you would feel horrible and ashamed because you got so little done. But at the end of a group study session, you actually feel fulfilled.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#144

Post by deepGem »

mordymoop wrote: post #134
StaticRedux wrote: post #29

Now do that for a month. Or even a week. You may be more productive bc you don't want to be seen as slacking off with someone watching, but maintaining that kind of pace is untenable. Did you ever get stuck and check your email or Facebook just to give your brain a little break? Did you ever sit, unsure of your next move? Or did you do the first thing you thought of, even if it was wrong, so you didn't look like you…

Maybe. On the other hand, the human animal has a powerful capacity to decide that whatever it’s doing is the good and right and normal thing to be doing. After a month you’re just as likely to be completely acclimated as you are to be suicidal. There’s also the element that when a stranger (or a subordinate) is watching you don’t just act busy — you act like you enjoy your job, you show off a bit. This is the kind of…

I find that pair programming has the best of these benefits at the same time reducing the probability of feeling suicidal etc. Personal experential bias of course.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#145

Post by em-bee »

StaticRedux wrote: post #29

Now do that for a month. Or even a week. You may be more productive bc you don't want to be seen as slacking off with someone watching, but maintaining that kind of pace is untenable. Did you ever get stuck and check your email or Facebook just to give your brain a little break? Did you ever sit, unsure of your next move? Or did you do the first thing you thought of, even if it was wrong, so you didn't look like you…

this is not much different from pair programming. even pairing with a junior developer where i do most of the work myself makes me more productive.

pair-programming is also exhausting. after an 8-hour work day i am beat. however i can't think of any better way to work, and it it is practiced in several companies successfully.

if people would want to quit after a week or kill themselves after a month of pair programming we would see a lot of backslash against it.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#146

Post by SN76477 »

I had a remote team for years. Opposite schedules etc didn’t allow for a lot of FaceTime.

I used some desktop recording software and recorded myself daily with instructions on how to execute various tasks.

Through out this process I would be talking and narrating the task explaining this or that while doing the work.

Sometimes I would end up finishing the task and just delete the video, I would be really focused and prefixes when making the videos it always felt a bit weird.

Thinking back there were even a few times I would record myself just in efforts to get something specific done.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#147

Post by ui-explorer12 »

em-bee wrote: post #145
StaticRedux wrote: post #29

Now do that for a month. Or even a week. You may be more productive bc you don't want to be seen as slacking off with someone watching, but maintaining that kind of pace is untenable. Did you ever get stuck and check your email or Facebook just to give your brain a little break? Did you ever sit, unsure of your next move? Or did you do the first thing you thought of, even if it was wrong, so you didn't look like you…

this is not much different from pair programming. even pairing with a junior developer where i do most of the work myself makes me more productive. pair-programming is also exhausting. after an 8-hour work day i am beat. however i can't think of any better way to work, and it it is practiced in several companies successfully. if people would want to quit after a week or kill themselves after a month of pair programmi…

>> if people would want to quit after a week or kill themselves after a month of pair programming we would see a lot of backslash against it.

That's been my experience. Even at the few places I've been were some do pair programming it's a very rare occurrence. Occasionally upper management will stump for it, likely because they (a) don't actually program all day and (b) see it as some sort of kale-like super habit. None of my IC have ever pushed hard for regular sessions.

Re: I let a stranger watch me work for a day and I've never been more productive

#150

Post by leoc »

arminiusreturns wrote: post #82

I hate this trend in management so much. I'm a combat vet with ptsd, and I've noticed companies more and more trying to do stupid open office layouts to save money and achieve this same result, but there are those of us it majorly negatively impacts our productivity in the medium to long term. Add on top that now instead of being able to think about a problem deeply, I get interrupted every 3 minutes by some adhoc qu…

Open-plan workspace isn't at all the same as pairing or close mutual supervision though.
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