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Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

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Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#61

Post by snowpanda »

throw832649 wrote: post #10

Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning a new language or framework. This has been the case for my entire working life. I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel. Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD, since I…

> Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD

I would highly recommend doing this, I have ADHD and knowing I wasn't crazy, and that it has a name, has helped me a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#63

Post by mikekchar »

I have a follow up question: For the time that you spend "not working" would you prefer to "work"?

For me the answer is "absolutely!!!". Reading through some of the responses, it really seems that people are mixed. Either their "non-working" time is spent with side projects/training or they have become demotivated by problems with the work flow on their team.

For me the latter is by far the biggest problem. I was just thinking the other day that, as programmers, we need a kind of statement that indicates what we expect from the organisations we are in.

To be honest, I really want to work instead of write stuff on HN, so I'll leave this as an exercise to the interested. As an example, I think it is reasonable to expect to be able to spend whole days writing code (which means that someone else has to go to the meetings, and someone else has to clarify requirements, and someone else has to prioritise). There should be some clear resolution of differences of opinion (whether that be in technical direction, or whatever) -- a programmer shouldn't have to spend time arguing. A programmer should expect to have spaces both for interacting with groups of people and for quiet contemplation. I sure there are other (and better) ideas, but that's what I have off the cuff.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#64

Post by lazythrowawayd »

robind2 wrote: post #53
lazythrowawayd wrote: post #26

I probably spend half my time not working. I'm burnt out though. After a few years at my current position, I just don't care. Why is this? I've had a few promising projects languish because my manager is slow or hesitant to allocate resources. That's a bit demoralizing. When I'm on a path to production for a functioning system I get caught up in the devops meeting vortex. That's a waste of time and it takes several w…

Work for a startup, preferably one that is already somewhat profitable. I have worked for this type company my whole career and this "devops vortex" you speak of is a foreign concept. I run a small IT dept and we have one 30 min staff per week plus a one-on-one for each dev. And they code and solve other problems all day, and of course surf the web or socialize to break up the day too.

I'm already in talks with two well known pre-IPO startups (Edit: I've talked with many in my professional network and they describe similar meeting loads (~1 hr/week) as you do. I'd estimate I spend on average 3 hr/week in meetings. And most of these meetings don't result in action items. They're essentially pointless.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#66

Post by lazythrowawayd »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #27
throw832649 wrote: post #10

Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning a new language or framework. This has been the case for my entire working life. I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel. Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD, since I…

> I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) Perhaps all the other people are also as unproductive as you? ;)

Or they're "productive" in a different way. There's one developer on our team who spends large portions of his day creating diagrams, documents and largely unneeded JIRA tickets. It's busy work, but since he has nothing else to do, he just creates document exhaust.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#67

Post by tutufan »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #33

It is an interesting question which, in my opinion, hinges entirely on a fairly puritanical notion of 'work.' One of my 'problems' is that I can't "not work" in the sense of a laborer who is no longer building widgets. As a person who is asked to solve complex problems with a high degree of dimensionality inside of an arbitrarily constrained solution space, much of the 'work' I do consists of turning the problem over…

Interesting. So despite the apparent success, your manager put on paper that you were "goofing off and not working"? Did he mention that verbally one or two times beforehand? How did you react?

Once things hit paper, I generally start interviewing. Not sure whether that was right. But looking back over my career, I usually should have left earlier rather than later in those cases.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#68

Post by dntrkv »

throw832649 wrote: post #10

Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning a new language or framework. This has been the case for my entire working life. I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel. Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD, since I…

I had this same issue until I stopped visiting Reddit completely (even in my off work hours) and gave up my addiction to news. It's amazing the difference it has made in my productivity.

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#69

Post by decasia »

rl3 wrote: post #47
austenallred wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be honest; I don't think using HN is anything close to what I would consider "working." At best it's marginally optimized random browsing.

While it isn't work, reading technical articles regularly on HN can be very beneficial. In fact, the first thing I tell aspiring developers is to start reading HN on a regular basis if they already aren't. It confers a sort of broad awareness of various stacks and ecosystems over time that's hard to obtain otherwise.

Yeah, learning the culture of your profession -- with a broad awareness of different ecosystems and things -- isn't "immediately productive," but it's a simple form of professional development. (And in my opinion, enlightened employers understand that decent professional development is a really important part of the work process.)

Re: Ask HN: How much of your time at work do you spend not working?

#70

Post by nubbins »

hardworkerthrow wrote: post #36

Over the first 15+ years of my career as an engineer and engineering manager, I've repeatedly surveyed colleagues and friends in engineering roles about this question. I've asked it of people I consider low-performing, all the way to folks I'd consider 10x developers. I have never met a single software developer who, when pressed to give an honest assessment and when "working" is defined along the lines of "actively…

Thats interesting because 4 hours is exactly the limit I've seen cited by researchers as the max for highly focused work but even that much is a kind of skill that has to be developed, so a beginner might have much less concentration.
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