When I work in Windows, I don't get as much done as when I'm in MacOS X.
It's not because MacOS is inherently better than Windows productivity-wise. It's because
my calendar and time-boxing mechanism resides on MacOS. So when I've got an entire day of
work to do in Windows, I don't have anything telling me "it's time to switch tasks."
Why is that a problem? That's the focus of this week's chapter in
MJWTI. (Last week, I took a mini-vacation / early bachelor party to go fishing at Lake Calcasieu in Southwest Louisiana, so I didn't get around to posting then in the
Save Your Job series.)
The "Eight-Hour Burn" is another of the chapters in Chad's book that really stuck with me after I first read it.
The premise is that instead of working overtime, you should limit each day's work to an 8 hour period of intense activity. In doing so, you'll get more done than you otherwise would. Our
brains don't function at as high a level as possible when we're tired. And when we're working
on our fifth 60-hour week, we're probably tired.
We may love to brag about how productive we are with our all-nighters [paraphrasing Chad], but the reality is we can't be effective working too many hours over a long period of time.
And it's more than just our brains being tired that should prevent us from working too long. It's the fact that when we
know we've got so much extra time to do something, we end up goofing off anyway:
Think about day 4 of the last 70-hour week you worked. No doubt, you were putting in a valiant effort. But, by day 4, you start to get lax with your time. It's 10:30 AM, and I know I'm going to be here for hours after everyone else goes home. I think I'll check out the latest technology news for a while. When you have too much time to work, your work time reduces significantly in value. If you have 70 hours available, each hour is less precious to you than when you have 40 hours available.
That's why I'm in trouble when I work in Windows all day. I do work 12-16 hours most days between job, school, and personal activity (like this blog). I get burnt out every few weeks and have to take a couple of days off, but when I'm in MacOS X, at least my working days are
very productive: I've got each task time-boxed and any time I spend reading blogs or news or just getting lost on the web is always scheduled.
When I'm in Windows with nothing to remind me but myself, I drift off quite a bit more easily. After all, it's only 6:30 in the morning. I've still got eight hours to get everything done (I'm leaving early to go check the progress on the house I'm having built).
The good news is that I've got an item on my longer-term to-do list to remedy the situation. Hopefully after reading this chapter again, I'll be more motivated to get it done. The bad
news is, since it means working in Windows all day to get it done, I'll probably be off
doing my best to read all of Wikipedia instead.
Anyway, how much do you work? Do you have any tricks for staying fresh and motivated?
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Nice post! Here's a tip. If you absolutely must work extra hours to meet a deadline. Instead of working until the early hours. Go to bed early, set your alarm clock for the crack of dawn and get some extra work done. You'll feel much better for it.
Posted by Patrick Wall
on Mar 28, 2008 at 06:54 AM UTC - 5 hrs
Hi Sam, How do you implement time boxing on your Mac?
Posted by
Peter Bell
on Mar 28, 2008 at 08:22 AM UTC - 5 hrs
@Patrick: Absolutely good tip. I do that - it's much easier for me to wake up at 4:30 and get work done than it is to be working late. Plus, if I finish early, I can be out early. Doing it the other way around, I'm still out at a "normal" time.
@Peter: I don't do it to track client work hours (my assumption is that's what you're looking for?). I just plan my day the night before and stick to that schedule in iCal (with the pop-up reminders, of course).
So, on every day of the week from 5:30-6:30 AM, I have a recurring event to respond to email and read blogs / news / whatever. On MWF, I've got some time scheduled to blog myself that's right after the read/respond. On TTh, I've got my classes recurring.
The rest of the time is what I schedule the night before. I've got some homework due in 2 weeks, I might set aside 3 hours tomorrow to work on it, and if I need more, then I'll schedule it the next day, etc. Project work works the same way.
If I finish early, I'll just take a longer break or start on something that's on the list for later (or maybe take some time for a "for-fun" project).
I just keep track of work hours by looking at what time I start and what time I actually finish, calculate it into 10ths of an hour, and write it down.
Works well for me. It might be nice to have a billing system set up too, but I haven't needed it thus far.
Posted by
Sammy Larbi
on Mar 28, 2008 at 09:53 AM UTC - 5 hrs
I'm sure you were looking for a quick answer, but who wants to write that when I could write a book. Geez. =)
Posted by
Sammy Larbi
on Mar 28, 2008 at 09:59 AM UTC - 5 hrs
i have a can't-fail trick for making sure i don't work too many hours: 2 daughters!
get yourself a 2-month old baby and you'll quit working 12 hour days
i cannot for the life of me understand how any one can do really, really good work for more than maybe 40 hours a week. and that might even be stretching it.
i think peopleware did a great job of addressing the overtime issue. i wish more managers would read it and understand its import.
Great topic, Sam.
Posted by
marc esher
on Mar 28, 2008 at 11:36 AM UTC - 5 hrs
@marc - I consider reading and writing and communicating part of "work" so that's at least an hour a day.
I'll stop working so much this summer when I'm finally out of school. But then I'll have family obligations and whatnot, so I'll be replacing it with that. =)
I'd like to convert a couple of those extra hours a day to work on personal projects I've had on the backburner for some time though.
I don't have too much trouble coping with working so much now - as I said, I do have to take a couple of days break every so often - but on the whole, it's not too hard because I'm switching projects within the day (a couple of different ones at work, plus any school work I've got to be doing).
Having different contexts and things to focus on makes it a lot easier than working n the same project. Certainly I haven't done much quality when forced to work on the same boring project hour after hour, day after day.
And I certainly believe you about the kids!
Peopleware is one of the books on the software developer's must-read list that I haven't got to yet. Thanks for reminding me about it. Bill (from mxunit) also introduced me to xUnit Patterns that I've put on my to-read list recently.
Posted by
Sammy Larbi
on Mar 28, 2008 at 05:13 PM UTC - 5 hrs
