Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#1

Post by xtat » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:25 AM UTC

I am Co-Founder/CTO at vid.io in San Francisco, and I'm iterating the most ideal work environment for all parties. If you have any favourite links related to this, I'd love to see them!

1. Under what circumstances do you get the most work done? What time of day?

2. How do you feel about having predefined hours every workday?

3. Stuff breaks, wild opportunities arise, people freak out. Interruptions are an unfortunate reality. How do you manage them, and how do you wish people would work with you on this?

4. I think there may be some business side->tech side correlation to these answers, so... Do you identify more with being a hardcore hacker or a business guru? Myers-briggs type?

5. How often do you realtime chat, voice chat, and in what way does this affect your output? Related to that, do you ask more questions than you answer?

6. Do you get more done around people or away from them?

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#2

Post by xtat » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:30 AM UTC

My answers:

1. After hours, when no interruptions are happening.

2. Not crazy about the idea

3. I encourage asynchronicity as much as possible for all but major emergencies. I try to plan my work outside of potential emergencies.

4. Hacker

5. Lately very often, but I feel more effective in isolation.

6. Typically away from them, but also with them --something like a meeting a week seems really productive.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#3

Post by dylanhassinger » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:33 AM UTC

1. Late Afternoon, Late night, Early early morning

2. nearly impossible to achieve

3. Realtime chat. Whiteboard that shows what I'm currently working on, what's on deck.

4. hacker

5. Checking in to a chat room every hour or so is great

6. Around people that are busy focusing on their own thing, but not bothering me

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#4

Post by rasa » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:49 AM UTC

1. When left to my own devices. Between 10am-2pm. After 7pm. Late night. 2. On the fence. Helpful when you need to work with others--if you each have predefined work hours every day it's easier to know when they're available. I don't like them though. 3. I don't, because I'm pretty fast and loose with organization so I'm not a good example. ;) I take care of whatever the interruption is and turn back to what I was doing. I wish others would do the same instead of whining about OH GOD WHAT NOWWWW. 4. I am neither hacker nor businessy guru type, I am usually in a support role. INFP 5. In an 8hr workday I would be in IRC the whole time, answering more questions than asking. Voice chat was infrequent, maybe 1 call a day if that. Output wa affected more by voice chat/face to face chat. 6. I get more done around people who are also getting things done.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#5

Post by biscarch » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:49 AM UTC

1) 2am. Followed by occasions at Starbucks-type places with a sufficient, but not overwhelming background noise and headphones with music.

2) Awful. I like to sleep when I need to sleep, which is not the same time every night, so why would I get up for work at the same time every day?

3) Written, non-realtime communication when possible. This gives me the opportunity to figure out the answer to more complex problems, and the time to actually fix simpler ones.

4) Hacker as a mindset. There are equally complex business and code challenges.

5) IRC when I remember to sign in. Google Talk whenever my browser is open. It's all latent communication through a real-time source. (ie: if I ask/answer a question, I don't expect an immediate response, but when it gets responded to we can have a short discussion about it) I usually ignore chat when I'm "in the zone" because that's very tunnel-vision-y for me. Sometimes feedback through chat is essential to moving something forward.

6) Away, but only when there's a space I can go if I need to talk to someone. I make a choice to be in "world-mode" or "zone-mode"

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#6

Post by Darth_Angelus » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:51 AM UTC

1. At night, usually when I can work undisturbed. 2. While I do structure my day somewhat, I keep my work times flexible for when the inspiration strikes most. 3. I try to make the best of situations like that. They often lead to coming up with new ideas to make thing work. 4. I'm definitely not a business/executive type. 5. Text chat for fun everyday, voice chat usually several times a week. Voice for work, not on a regular basis. Sometimes the need arises though. 6. Usually away from people, unless they are involved in the actual production process.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#7

Post by girlvinyl » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 2:56 AM UTC

Hi Todd! 1. I like morning and afternoon. I do a lot better when it's sunny outside.

2. I don't have a problem with it. In fact, I prefer it.

3. I wish people would explain exactly what they want. What is the goal here? I also don't work well when others assume I know everything they know. Breaking down the preferred end result and then explaining why they haven't arrived there is most helpful. Follow that up with specifically what I can do to help them reach their goal and things usually end up successful.

4. I don't believe in MB. I prefer business-y things, but have pigeon-holed myself in the tech world. Ooops.

5. I am constantly on phone/IM with my team. I actually quite enjoy phone calls and feel this is likely an anomaly. Most people don't like it, but I see it as a way to communicate more effectively and avoid email.

6. Split! I actually love working from our offices because I am an 80% remote employee. Facetime, IRL with my co-workers is invaluable. I feel they're more forthcoming and much more willing to share ideas when it's just stopping by my desk. Phone calls, IMs and emails are purpose-driven, which removes a lot of off-the-cuff creativity and brainstorming. I like being available in person for people to just grab me and talk about what's on their mind.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#8

Post by pre_action » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 3:03 AM UTC

1) I get more work done at the office, away from home. Home is a distracting place. Whatever time of day I am in the office.

2) Annoying. My sleep schedule does not lend itself well to rules, man.

3) E-mail me for anything that isn't urgent. IM me for anything that is urgent but not important. Call me for anything that is urgent and important. Deviation from these rules will make it more difficult to reach me when it really is important and/or urgent.

4) I can bridge the gap between programming and businessing. I get more joy out of programming than businessing.

5) I do not chat using voice/video if I can avoid it. E-mail is better, there is a record to refer to when I forget the answer (in that respect, 6-month E-mail purging policies are counter-productive). I tend to ask more questions than I answer.

For teaching things, face-to-face seems to be better than e-mail. Most people seem to get more out of presentations (I, again, prefer text, but whatevz).

6) I don't think it matters. What matters is managing distractions: Alone, I can do anything (only one option being work). Too many people and it's hard to concentrate.

But some people actually work well using pair programming, I am not one of them.

My ideal work environment is a cubical with at least 20 sq ft of floor area, desk covering two adjacent sides, walls high enough to prevent stray movement from other cubicals. At least 2 conference rooms with doors and presentation equipment big enough to support the entire team. Temporary shared offices with doors, 40 sq ft, for use by anyone (for interviews or otherwise). One extra room with A/V equipment for video games (but I work at a video game company, so that's "research"). Galley kitchen would be a nice-to-have.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#9

Post by rfjason » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 3:34 AM UTC

1. I get the most work done during bipolar hypomania episodes. Cognitive functions, creativity, focus, and vision are all enhanced. In these episodes, I can replace entire teams. I have to compensate by going mostly into maintenance mode after the end of an episode, in order to prevent an extended depressive episode.

2. Pre-defined hours are useful to maintain work discipline.

3. I manage and prioritize distractions by utility and time sinks. I pre-manage situations by making sure that stuff is reliable or stupid-easy-to-fix so that people don't freak out. That makes it easy to engage opportunities when they arise.

4. A good tech thinks like a business guru and a good business guru thinks like a tech. It's all the same discipline.

5. Chat is disabled for all of my work. I typically disable e-mail unless I'm filing a status report or handing off an asynchronous task.

6. My productivity is scheduled according to whether I'm with people, or by myself. I handle extended tasks when I'm alone. When I'm with people, I handle the tasks that benefit more from real-time iteration. I prefer to work independently since real-time iteration almost always leads to a dumbing down of a final product.

Re: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

#10

Post by Azrael » Sun, Dec 09, 2012, 3:34 AM UTC

1. When I feel collaboration from my team. The time of day is irrelevant. With a good team, you should always feel "in the zone". Sometimes people begin to drift, if you're a good manager...you know when this starts to happen, and you pull them back together and refocus. Losing focus, and allowing that loss of focus to continue is a bad thing.

2. I don't. Double Cluepon is a startup, not everyone is paid. Sometimes you do work with some people when you can, but you balance it out so something is always getting done. Flexibility is always key, but again..you have to keep yourself focused.

3. We've had some drama in the past. We nip that shit in the bud. Drama, power basing, political bs...we show it the door. We don't need it, actively remove it. Better to remove one, than lose all.

4. As the Production Director and the CEO in a company that makes games, I balance it as best I can. I actually love all aspects, from art to the infrastructure and code. Really, when you're a chief, you have to be a generalist, not a specialist.

5. ALL. THE. TIME. We also hire people who are local. Telecommute is a buzzword in some respects; there is no substitute for face time.

6. It entirely depends on the job. We're in games, sometimes I design away from people, away from my computer. Other times, such as Game Design meetings, I work with others. It ultimately comes down to an amalgamation of what I said above: you do some stuff when you can, do fill in the other time with stuff that still needs doing.