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Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

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Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#31

If you're enjoying it well enough this is typically not a concern. I do take breaks when the program is building though. Or when I'm not feeling it. Please don't try to replace your feelings by ridiculously rigid schemes.

Same here: using timing for things like breaks is stressful and adds constraints, when the idea of a break is actually to get away from those

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#32

If you're enjoying it well enough this is typically not a concern. I do take breaks when the program is building though. Or when I'm not feeling it. Please don't try to replace your feelings by ridiculously rigid schemes.

Same here: using timing for things like breaks is stressful and adds constraints, when the idea of a break is actually to get away from those

right. the time tracking needs to be automatic in some form. a small tool that tracks your working time (plenty of those to choose from, and maybe there is even one that tracks your pause time too) and then a break activity that is easy to measure.

the important part is to set things up in a way so i don't have to think about it.

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#33

tldr: work 18 hours, sleep 6 hours

you got the math wrong. that's a quarter break

it's 12 hours of work and 8 hours of sleep.

and suddenly it all makes sense. while your mind takes a break from work, your body isn't, and that's why it needs those 8 hours of sleep.

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#34
i like the idea of breaktime accumulating based on the time worked. it makes sense. it also means that after an 8 hour work day i deserve to sit down in the evening and relax for an hour or two without feeling guilty.

however i disagree that an interruption at the door, or going out for errands counts as break time. it depends on what exactly happens, but dealing with an interruption, or driving a car, paying attention to catch a bus or train, are not relaxing. personally i try to combine errands with going for a walk, so that partly counts as a break. but dealing with other people can be stressful (especially for introverts) so that's not a valid break.

for a break you need an activity that you enjoy and that allows you to relax.

when i am dealing with people a lot, then hacking on a side project for fun becomes my break.

when i work alone on the computer, socializing with others can be my break.

but after a day of working and socializing i need some alone time to unwind.

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#35
post #22
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just work on them anyway, save the code, and follow the ticket. Once it's in the sprint, copy+paste and commit.

That is one approach that I try to take sometimes. The real problem is more that having to report every morning on work I've done that is in the sprint puts a real damper on my ability to focus on the other stuff. And if effort spent overcoming that isn't even appreciated, why bother? It's just kind of demoralizing, especially after having spent a decade working at a job where I was able to get things done. Live and…

> I guess if you have a tendency to automate yourself out of a job, it's inevitable that you'll end up somewhere so dysfunctional that it's impossible to do so.

think of a handyman that works so efficiently that he effectively has no margin.

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#36
post #33

tldr: work 18 hours, sleep 6 hours

you got the math wrong. that's a quarter break it's 12 hours of work and 8 hours of sleep. and suddenly it all makes sense. while your mind takes a break from work, your body isn't, and that's why it needs those 8 hours of sleep.

actually, it's 16 work and 8 sleep

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#37

When most of the work is to figure out what the other party wants and what can I take, productivity and motivation practically go down to zero. I need to get into some lower level programming job or a tool programming job.

Welcome to the software development world!

Software developing is so much more than web programming, oh boy!

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#39

The way I prefer is slightly different: I work for as long as I like, then I break for as long as I like.

I found that I'm a lot happier doing things "according to need" instead of forcing my human body to follow machine patterns.

However forcing myself to take a break every hour helped a lot with chores, and with eating and hydrating properly.

Re: Third Time: a better way to work (2022)

#40
post #19

When most of the work is to figure out what the other party wants and what can I take, productivity and motivation practically go down to zero. I need to get into some lower level programming job or a tool programming job.

Same. I wish I got to actually write code. I spend a lot of time at my job knowing that there are programming tasks to be done, but they're not in the sprint, and scrum master will scold me if I work on them, so instead I sit on my hands waiting for the middleware team to do some task or other that would be totally unnecessary if they had followed my advice in the first place.

>scrum master will scold me if I work on them, so instead I sit on my hands

Do the programming tasks anyway. I have found that being productive will not get you fired, even if it makes a power-junkie mad that you're not on their leash.

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