Remember there is often a difference between working hard and working smart. I would try to focus less on the amount of hours put in and instead just focus on what value you're adding to your project.
Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
51–60 of 66 posts
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I only agree with you if you so the same work for those 50 hours. If you work for 80, but this is split between marketing, coding, networking and strategy then its not the same thing. When I'm feeling the pressure, I just switch to another role.
Yes, but networking and marketing is not even close to as taxing as coding or solving mathematical problems. This is so much the case, that I generally discount business dinners as not work .
That depends on your proclivities and the natural bent of your personality. Networking and marketing may not be as intellectually taxing as coding, but they can be physically and emotionally taxing when done in person for significant amounts of time. Of course, if you regard business dinners and networking as enjoyable, they won't seem as taxing!
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#53It'd be interesting to cross-reference this with number of posts and hours spent opining about every goddamn thing on HN. Just sayin'.
That would be a great little data mining project!
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#54"How many hours do you work a week?"
Weird question. "How many non-sleeping hours a week do you not work?" would be more like it.
After all, if you're having a blast, does it really count as work?
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#55I just pulled up the last year's worth of consulting invoices and yes, it looks like I managed to bill an entire 40 hours once in the last 52 weeks. I have a personal policy of only billing for the time I'm creating value. So if I boot up, fire up the IDE, sip my coffee, pull up a bug report, then proceed to browse f'ng Hacker News for 2 hours, I don't charge my time. Similarly, if I notice by lunchtime that I'm just…
I also started billing this way earlier this year and it has helped me focus. Now if I get distracted while I work I feel like I am wasting time, and know I am not going to be rewarded for it.
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#56I just pulled up the last year's worth of consulting invoices and yes, it looks like I managed to bill an entire 40 hours once in the last 52 weeks. I have a personal policy of only billing for the time I'm creating value. So if I boot up, fire up the IDE, sip my coffee, pull up a bug report, then proceed to browse f'ng Hacker News for 2 hours, I don't charge my time. Similarly, if I notice by lunchtime that I'm just…
So, true. I too do the same.
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#57Most days* : 5:00am - 10:00am * OS development * puzzles * articles * work on personal projects 10:00am - 6:00pm * coding for my day job 13hr/day * 5 days/week = 65hrs + anything I can sneak in on weekends I aggressively work on work/life balance and take frequent breaks (a great habit leftover from my days as a smoker), so I don't spend much time staring at the screen -- I use this time fairly efficiently. * I'm get…
What time do you go to bed?
Do you ever drink, go out, etc?
I'm asking because I'm a morning person, but I doubt I would enjoy 'getting to it' at 5am everyday. Although there is allure to that amount of focused 'personal time'. Doing all that after day job would not appeal to me as much.
This thread has taught me more about how different lifestyles are than anything. I think the actual hourly rate of many people in IT roles might be in a tight band (until you've 'made it'). This would mean the biggest differentiator would be # of hours one puts in, with more hours typically being rewarded, either through higher salary or side job payments (tax benefit?).
I put in an average of 50 hours per week first half of the year and earned enough to make an average rate of $45 per hour.
Do you all consider it part of your job to listen to what's happening in the tech world, learn about personal productivity, etc? If these times were taken out and only time producing tangible output were measured, my average rate would go up, maybe to $70 per hour.
There's also cost of living. I'm not in the bay area, but in another pretty fun and techy place. According to bankrate I would have to make 2.2x to have the same quality of life in The Bay.
My free time is not (currently) consumed with projects. It's consumed by my GF, running, going out, casual reading, a couple TV shows. All this I think is a worthwhile tradeoff. And I need to be away from computer screens after a while!
It would be very interesting to gather people's net pay, hours worked for that pay, and MBTI (ENTJ here), to see what types cluster around what effective hourly rates, what types cluster in terms of total hours, etc.
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#58I just pulled up the last year's worth of consulting invoices and yes, it looks like I managed to bill an entire 40 hours once in the last 52 weeks. I have a personal policy of only billing for the time I'm creating value. So if I boot up, fire up the IDE, sip my coffee, pull up a bug report, then proceed to browse f'ng Hacker News for 2 hours, I don't charge my time. Similarly, if I notice by lunchtime that I'm just…
I do the same, good man.
back at d-cibel industries, i only worked something like 10 hours a week.
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#59When you are working on your own startup, you don't see it as work. It's easy to "work" many hours, but it's enjoyable to a great extent.
Or even your own projects. I have day job, I'm finding a few hours every day to write open-source, and I'm finding a couple of days of extra time a week to work on my startup. Hard work? Yes... But I only see the day job as actual work, and that's only when I'm not working on something interesting. Programming is awesome, especially in Perl :D
I used to perl but now I python :)
Re: Poll: How many hours do you work a week?
#60Most days* : 5:00am - 10:00am * OS development * puzzles * articles * work on personal projects 10:00am - 6:00pm * coding for my day job 13hr/day * 5 days/week = 65hrs + anything I can sneak in on weekends I aggressively work on work/life balance and take frequent breaks (a great habit leftover from my days as a smoker), so I don't spend much time staring at the screen -- I use this time fairly efficiently. * I'm get…
What time do you go to bed? Do you ever drink, go out, etc? I'm asking because I'm a morning person, but I doubt I would enjoy 'getting to it' at 5am everyday. Although there is allure to that amount of focused 'personal time'. Doing all that after day job would not appeal to me as much. This thread has taught me more about how different lifestyles are than anything. I think the actual hourly rate of many people in I…
> What time do you go to bed?
10pm, usually, and asleep before 10:30 (I've been using the K&R C book + melatonin as a sleep aid recently). 6.5 - 7 hours of sleep seems to be enough for me at the moment.
> Do you ever drink, go out, etc?
Yes, at least once a week I'll see friends and twice a week I'll go out with my wife. If I'm not careful, I can get off schedule, and it often takes quite some time to get back (as in weeks). Those periods when I'm off schedule precipitate bursts of intense productivity (maybe I'm more rested; maybe I'm more motivated).
> I'm asking because I'm a morning person, but I doubt I would enjoy 'getting to it' at 5am everyday.
You nailed it with 'personal time' and a disinclination to work after work hours. I have a few hours of personal time before my wife wakes up where I get to enjoy an activity (coding) that I can't share with her. Any time I spend coding after work hours is time I can't spend with my wife and friends. That time is necessary for me as a human being, and for my work: socializing is good for my brain (promotion of neuronal plasticity and neurogenesis), and breaks are important (recharging and subconscious synthesis + assimilation).
> Do you all consider it part of your job to listen to what's happening in the tech world, learn about personal productivity, etc? If these times were taken out and only time producing tangible output were measured, my average rate would go up, maybe to $70 per hour.
I'm now salaried, and I've stopped thinking in terms of $/hr, and that helps work/life balance, productivity, and attitude.
It's not necessary to learn what other coders are doing, unless I want to be good. Isolation is a straight path to mediocrity.
> It's consumed by my GF, running, going out, casual reading, a couple TV shows. All this I think is a worthwhile tradeoff.
I wouldn't even consider it a tradeoff. Eating isn't a tradeoff to work time -- it's necessary for function. Rest and socializing, too.