...and then there are tools used in organisations (like ours) which track how many hours you been on PC (ON PC time) vs Off PC time (So called "Productivity tracking"). More the ON PC time means you are "highly productive". This metric is also usually taken-up during appraisal discussions and questions are put on one's productivity.
Productivity Is About Attention Management
111–120 of 192 posts
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you ever find that Pomodoro doesn't leave enough uninterrupted time on your task? When you're knee deep do you ever just skip your breaks?
I generally find pomodoro’s 25-minute work intervals too short for software development, I prefer the 52/17 method.
Yeah, everyone is different. I tried experimenting with 20-30-40 minute intervals and decided 25 is the optimal for me. But it really has to be distraction free. I use brain.fm or instrumental music (no lyrics) or I just keep my headphones on so nobody bothers me.
It doesn't sound very challenging, but after five pomodoros I truly can feel it, after eight - I am mentally exhausted. Ten pomodoros mean I either cheated or something else.
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#113As a person with diagnosed adult ADD, this is one thing I cannot do — manage attention. Medication and meditation help a little, but I probably will never reach the productive capabilities of a regular person. Sigh.
I'm in the same boat; diagnosed with ADHD-PI (UK, so we don't use the term 'ADD') as an adult. I've improved vastly thanks to medication and good routines but it remains a constant effort, and improvement is a continual process. The book Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell Barkley helped me significantly.
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
> - Remember the last time you felt glad to be alive? Was it related to being productive? Actually, yes. Is that weird? I can't be the only one here who loves their job.
I can't even imagine having that kind of feeling related to my job. Especially not if it's about coding. At least not if it's about typical B2B or B2C software. What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?
I run a company called TalkJS (https://talkjs.com). We're a toolbox that lets our customers build a proper chat feature in hours instead of months.
This means lots of API design and I love to do API design. I get a deep sense of flow and purpose when dreaming up a tool (an SDK, a library, a language, a set functions or data types; whatever) that lets other programmers do a wide variety of things.
Admittedly the other half of my job is business & marketing related. I like it too, especially since "sales" in our case mostly means talking to other programmers, and so does "management". But not as deeply as the code work.
It also helps that since we're a remote-first company I can choose from where I work and I stop when I notice I'm too stuck or "my brain is full". We don't really do the typical startup-burnout-marathon.
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
What makes it even more complicated is that in a big org, knowing which tasks are important changes over time and with managers and manager's managers. Surviving and thriving over time requires constant reevaluation.
"What makes it even more complicated is that in a big org, knowing which tasks are important changes over time and with managers and manager's managers." No, they don't. There is only one task in your job, to make your boss happy. Strangely, this is rarely achieved by good job performance but often by social skills or idiotic metrics. "How to manage your boss" is worth a read.
Small suggestion: don't use the term 'boss'.
I have a manager, but I don't have a boss.
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#116My favorite anti-productivity introspections: - Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy? - There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be? - Remember the last time you felt glad…
I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels more artificial to me.
I often feel very happy after catching a perfect surfing wave, or after flowing an effortless line down a mountain biking trail.
In either case, nothing was produced, and often no one witnessed it.¹
1: https://memegenerator.net/instance/63056532/courage-wolf-cli...
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't even imagine having that kind of feeling related to my job. Especially not if it's about coding. At least not if it's about typical B2B or B2C software. What do you do for a living if you don't mind me asking?
Not OP, but being a researcher in CS is a job that gives me that feeling (not always of course, but often enough)
I am the OP and I am a fellow researcher. I also love my job (most of the time).
One of the reasons I love it so much is that it affords me freedom to think deeply about things that I care about without being in a straight jacket of constant schedules, meetings, two-week sprints or whatever else is prescribed this week by the High Priests of Productivity.
Greatest "productivity" hack for me: having a door that I can close.
My point is that "productivity" is a shallow value, and that turning yourself into a robot will not make you or the world any better.
Speaking of academia, the "cult of productivity" and obsession with status is damaging science. It's not me who says that, it's Nobel Prize winners. For example:
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2013/12/16/...
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#118My favorite anti-productivity introspections: - Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy? - There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be? - Remember the last time you felt glad…
I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels more artificial to me.
Sex drugs and exercise all rely upon natural or endogenous biochemistry. They may feel artificial but theoretically anyone could feel that way quite quickly, since it is inherently latent in our biology to experience those phenomena.
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#119My favorite anti-productivity introspections: - Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy? - There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be? - Remember the last time you felt glad…
I can feel intensely alive and happy after having produced something, be it a nice piece of code, a short story that people might want to read or a meal that my friends enjoy. There are other surefire ways I can trigger happiness in myself (sex, drugs, exercise, to name some) but the resulting "high" feels more artificial to me.
I also get a lot of joy from all of the things you describe.
The fact that the pleasure you get from sex or exercise feels artificial in comparison to writing a piece of code might be something worth thinking about. Is this really how you feel, or is it how you were programmed to feel?
Re: Productivity Is About Attention Management
#120My favorite anti-productivity introspections: - Remember that you are going to die. Time flies, have you noticed? Is that status symbol that you are pursuing really that important? Is it ever going to make you happy? - There is more wisdom in one of your cells than in all self-help and management books combined. Maybe you can't focus for a good reason? What could that reason be? - Remember the last time you felt glad…
I think it is a lot about values, see: https://markmanson.net/personal-values
"For the last few years, I’ve had an idea for a satirical self-help article called, “The Productivity Secrets of Adolf Hitler.” The article would feature all the popular self-help tropes—goals, visualizations, morning routines—except expressed through the exploits of Hitler."
Being productive for the sake of productivity is a fetish here, but not necessarily something fulfilling.
Personally, I do feel the happiest when I am productive. But in my case, the easy part is to focus on things I consider worthwhile, the hard one - being productive. YMMV.