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Take a break

robinrendle.com

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Re: Take a break

#111

Post by rewgs »

thenerdhead wrote: post #25

On top of taking regular breaks, I think we should also work slower. Burnout is a scary place to be in. While the news calls it “quiet quitting”, I think many people are simply burnt out from the last few years of world conditions and add on the rubber band effect of everything going back to “normal”. It’s just too much change in a short amount of time. I wrote a book about this topic when I was in a state of burnout…

"Quiet quitting" is dumbest fucking buzzword I've ever heard -- it's just "doing what you're hired to do," i.e. the exact opposite of quitting. Our society is entirely too obsessed with conjuring new and novel terms for things that don't need them.

Re: Take a break

#112

Post by eggsmediumrare »

slics wrote: post #52

As a developer and a parent with young kids, it is nearly laughable at the amount of stress one deals with everyday. Wake up at 5:30, get all things ready for kids, wake up kids, get their breakfast ready, check my (work phone - who decided work phones are a good idea). Take kids to school, get back to work, meetings and more meetings ( countless meetings are a waste of time but they still have them) Time for lunch,…

I have a solution for you: be less productive. Seriously. Ramp down slowly so no one noticed, but just stop caring how much you get done. It doesn't matter. Or at least it doesn't matter nearly as much as you or your kids.

Re: Take a break

#113

Post by NoraCodes »

One of my favorite way to force breaks is to use a Bullet Journal and put all of my activities in a single list. As long as it's not too huge, my brain is good at breaking stuff up, and when I context switch from, say, debugging to writing a presentation, or work to emptying the dishwasher, I often feel quite refreshed while still getting done what I need to do.

Re: Take a break

#114

Post by Tade0 »

rtlfe wrote: post #90
Tade0 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a father, and I don't see it as a case of positives and negatives, rather how much energy you're putting into it. There are many methods of minimizing the effort you're putting in and you can make it relatively easy, but like with everything it's a tradeoff. Food is one major point. You can introduce a baby to solids early on and practice the BLW method, or you could just spoon feed them with ready-to-eat baby p…

Absolutely this. You need to make sure they're clean, fed, safe (physically and emotionally), and are able to play (learn). Beyond that, choosing to parent on hard mode just gives you more stress for no benefit.

Looking back I see some benefit to doing extra - for example my toddler had no issue with weaning or adapting to daycare, which I heard is usually a problem.

We didn't implement independent sleeping and getting rid of the pacifier though(so far).

I believe that ultimately people usually try to do their best and there's no sense in beating yourself up about it or worse - someone else.

Re: Take a break

#115

Post by NoraCodes »

atemerev wrote: post #36

I wish I was productive, my life is nothing but a series of breaks. How you all are able to enjoy working? How are you so productive?

I relate a lot to this. I had a really hard time getting out of the college mindset and into the workplace mindset. Ultimately, for me, it meant finding a workplace that encouraged me to utilize my ADHD, rather than trying to control it; I can't say that that's what you need (since you may not have ADHD, obviously), but I do think finding a workplace that fits with the way your brain works is very helpful.

It also meant figuring out what I really want in life, and making sure I was working towards it! Nothing leads to burnout faster than feeling like you're going in the wrong direction.

Re: Take a break

#116

Post by annie_muss »

I would love to take a break, but every day missed is missed earnings. You have to realize how lucky you are to be in a position to take extended time away from work without suffering some kind of penalty.

Re: Take a break

#117

Post by chiefalchemist »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

> Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right?

Right. But I'd take it a step further and add...productive is not effective.

Re: Take a break

#118

Post by fitch321 »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #8

May I suggest a purely rational, evidence based take? The trap is your belief in a linear relationship between effort and outcome. Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? That's false. As you say so yourself, your memory goes to shit. It's not just a law of diminishing returns. For coders, past a certain point, exhaustion leads you to start undoing your work. You are into negative productivity. I…

> Working harder and longer produces more productivity, right? > That's false.

Indeed it is, but don't mix up productivity and product (how ever you measure it). Productivity is like speed. Product is like distance travelled. Of course a sprinter will go faster, a marathonian however will go further. Now let's try to take a purely business-oriented view on the matter. Product doesn't matter per se, only the income it can bring does, and it varies according to productivity. Just hire more people and make them work less ? Of course this never really happens as you will hit the Mythical Month-Man wall very fast.

Re: Take a break

#119

Post by brudgers »

goodpoint wrote: post #97
brudgers wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working productively all night is a skill. Just like avoiding meetings. Just like achieving flow state. The all-nighter that results from not-wanting to stop the creative process is not the all-nighter of the deadline death march. Deltas between effort and outcome aren't negative in the flow-state. The are positive and non-linear..that's what flow-state is. And the hard part is that grinding out metaphorical-all-nigh…

The parent is clearly talking about death marches, not enjoying flow state.

The comment frames itself as data.

Re: Take a break

#120

Post by luckylion »

atemerev wrote: post #36

I wish I was productive, my life is nothing but a series of breaks. How you all are able to enjoy working? How are you so productive?

Armodafinil. It allows me to get into a flow state more easily, concentrate for longer periods of time (and more deeply), do necessary things that aren't exciting without procrastinating, and finish things.
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