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A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

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Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#91

Post by catiopatio »

yuuuuyu wrote: post #71
catiopatio wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With an hour for lunch, that’s only 2.5-3.5 hours of work a day. Even less factoring in the stand-up. What role were you able to be successful at while only putting in 2.5hrs of work a day? Posted as an edit, since YC is doing its inexplicable rate-limiting on replies to this thread: > Work != presence. In a role in which you don't have to sit in front of a computer, 3h presence could mean 8+ hours of work. … I typic…

Work != presence. In a role in which you don't have to sit in front of a computer, 3h presence could mean 8+ hours of work. I typically start working when I step into the shower in the morning. (I have a typical coder job.) Thinking about what to work on today, remembering the problem I left off yesterday (having parked downhill), etc. It's a great distraction-free environment. Some of the best ideas come there. No s…

I work from home, but I do not count my showers as working hours. That’s patently ludicrous, and frankly, 2.5-3.5 hours of “presence” a day is unbelievable. Someone putting in so few hours is shirking their work, period.

My work is in software verification, so it’s not as if I don’t need time to think, but I also put in the actual hours required every day to appreciably kick the can forward.

I’d be livid to be stuck working with (and waiting on) someone who considered their shower and commute as working hours.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#92

Post by OkayPhysicist »

catiopatio wrote: post #58
irrational wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm over 50. I work from home now, but when I did have to go into the office, I'd typically show up just before 10:30 standup and head out by 4. And I'd take an hour or two to workout in the one of the fitness facilities on campus in between. My bosses have always been happy with my work and output.

With an hour for lunch, that’s only 2.5-3.5 hours of work a day. Even less factoring in the stand-up. What role were you able to be successful at while only putting in 2.5hrs of work a day? Posted as an edit, since YC is doing its inexplicable rate-limiting on replies to this thread: > Work != presence. In a role in which you don't have to sit in front of a computer, 3h presence could mean 8+ hours of work. … I typic…

The whole concept of salaried roles is that you're being paid to achieve enough to keep your employer happy. If my boss feels like he's getting his money's worth based on my output, it really shouldn't be anybody's business whether I'm achieving that in 3 hours or 12 hours. In fact, if I can produce a satisfactory work output in 3 hours versus somebody else's 8, then I'm not shirking at all, I'm simply better at my job.

And as a knowledge worker, I'm being paid to solve problems, and have and structure the knowledge to solve problems in the future. If I'm solving problems for work in the shower, or on my way to lunch, or while making coffee in the morning, I'm literally being paid to do my job. As a software developer not responsible for operations, literally nothing in my job can't wait 30 minutes. Even if I was at my computer, actively coding, it would probably take around that long for me to get to an appropriate stopping point to respond to a message.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#93

Post by augment001 »

nonethewiser wrote: post #63
neura wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously think that the specific range of hours was not at all the point of the example. Would you disagree? If you're going to nit-pick, my kid starts school at 9am, so I can't start work before 9am. What about remote workers and the example of walking around the office? I'm pretty sure the example was specifically to note that cutting off their work hours was a successful tactic with respect to leaving them with…

I’m not not picking, I’m disagreeing with the idea that the relative end time is all that matters. I specifically did not blame the manager in my comment.

It’s really not clear what you’re saying other than that 6pm would be too late for you personally.

As I’ve explained - I picked that time as the latest people were allowed to work in the office. Before I adopted this, people were randomly staying much later.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#94

Post by generic92034 »

yuuuuyu wrote: post #23
generic92034 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand it can be helpful, in my experience, to stop right in the middle of a very hard problem, where you are still searching for a good solution. Come the next morning I often know at least a possible solution, without having worked on it consciously.

The risk with this is that you keep procrastinating away before getting going again. It's the anticipated pain of frustration that prevents you from starting. Not so much if your idle time generated a solution to the problem. But if it didn't, then you are in trouble.

Well, if it did work, and you have a good solution the next morning there will be no reason to procrastinate.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#96

Post by pimlottc »

augment001 wrote: post #73
yuuuuyu wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could backfire. Maybe they were in the middle of something hard that's difficult to pick up from. To use the metaphor, perhaps you would be forcing them to park uphill.

> Maybe they were in the middle of something hard that's difficult to pick up from. Certainly some of them said that, and I had to push for them to leave anyway. I also feel like that when I’m coding myself sometimes. But I think the of times when it’s actually true are vastly outnumbered by the times when it’s just an illusion, and it was obvious from the velocity and energy level that the policy worked.

> But I think the of times when it’s actually true are vastly outnumbered by the times when it’s just an illusion, and it was obvious from the velocity and energy level that the policy worked.

I agree, and relates closely to the YAGNI philosophy ("You Aren't Gonna Need It") [0]. It's easy to think, "I'm so close, it'll be easier just to do it now".

But what's so special about now? Are you really that much smarter right now than you will be tomorrow (or next week, month, year..)? More knowledgable? More prepared? Possibly... but it's more likely to be the opposite: in the future, you'll understand the problem better, you'll have more data to choose the best path forward, you'll realize there's another way to do it, or you'll simply have bigger fish to fry.

0: https://wiki.c2.com/?YouArentGonnaNeedIt

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#97

Post by stephc_int13 »

This trick is also known as the Hemmingway rule.

It is a way to fight anxiety by starting with something your brain is convinced it can get done easily. And then get the ball rolling thanks to the increased self-confidence.

The opposite is finishing your day on something painfully difficult and not solved.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#98

Post by scruple »

semireg wrote: post #89
augment001 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe they were in the middle of something hard that's difficult to pick up from. Certainly some of them said that, and I had to push for them to leave anyway. I also feel like that when I’m coding myself sometimes. But I think the of times when it’s actually true are vastly outnumbered by the times when it’s just an illusion, and it was obvious from the velocity and energy level that the policy worked.

I pick the kids up from daycare at 4:30. Every few days its 4:25, I’m in the middle of something and I’ll spend 60 seconds writing out simple English sentences or bullet-points of what I need to accomplish when I get back to my desk. This context switch allows me to disengage. Sometimes I’m tempted to try “one more thing” a “Hail Mary” but it almost always backfires into a future wrong-approach distraction.

I'm the same way. I have a hard stop every day at 4:45pm to pick up my kids. I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 4:40pm and I spend the next few minutes taking notes if/when I need to. I might also try to package my current state into a commit if/when it makes sense but I don't tend to stress about it.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#100

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

nicbou wrote: post #44

It's too effective. I end up sitting at my computer to watch a movie, and end up finishing work in the evening. I'm nerd sniping myself, and it's not healthy. Then in the morning the madness continues. I want to make room for other things in my life. I have to Cm+Q everything in the evening.

I think "failing test in a feature branch with a draft PR and a powered off machine" counts as "left broken". I won't even boot into the work OS if I'm not working.
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