4 ms·
Ask HN: Tools and resources for making a calm company or calm workplace?
Hi!
I've been a workaholic these past few years and struggled with health and mental issues because of it. I used to work long hours and sometimes even work for 80+ hours a week. I sometimes even experience guilt when I'm out doing other things when I could have used the time to work instead.
Since last year, I've been slowly fixing my work habit (being a workaholic) and now try to only work less than or equal to 40 hours per week.
Books like "Rework" and "It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy At Work" and following Jason Fried and DHH on Twitter really helped changed my perspective about work.
I'm planning to curate a list of tools and resources for making a calm company or a calm workplace. So my question is, what are the tools and resources that you know that would help in making a calm company or a calm workplace?
Currently, this is what's on my list:
- "Rework" book: https://basecamp.com/books/rework
- "It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy At Work" book:
https://basecamp.com/books/calm
- "Remote" book: https://basecamp.com/books/remote
- "Getting Real" book: https://basecamp.com/books/getting-real
- Work Can Wait feature of Basecamp: https://basecamp.com/features/work-can-wait
- Shape Up: https://basecamp.com/shapeup
- cco 7y agoWalls between employees, traditionally called offices.
- carrygan 7y agoSorry, what do you mean? Is it a title of a book or something?
- hcarvalhoalves 7y agoI believe he's making a critic on open-office trend.
- winkelwagen 7y agohttps://hurryslowly.co/ https://hurryslowly.co/ it’s a podcasts, think there are definitely some interviews with people that might give you new resources.
- rapnie 7y agoThis resource (while mainly targeted at improving insane Chinese work schedules) is about work-life balance: https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU/blob/master/README.md
- carrygan 7y agoThank you! I'll check it out later.
- cntainer 7y agoPeopleware: Productive Projects and Teams https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware Happy and healthy teams result in productive teams, who would have thought :) Some of my best work was done during 40 hours weeks or less. Whenever I break that rule the end result suffers because I lose creativity and focus. It's ok to do the occasional extra time when you're really engrossed in what you're doing, but overwork has long-term negative effects.
- carrygan 7y agoThanks! I'll check that out. Couldn't agree more on the things you said. When I started only working for 40 hours or less per week, the quality of my work improved. I guess it's because I learned how to use my time better since I know that I will only work for 40 hours or less. And most importantly, I'm happier and healthier now and I get to spend more time with family and friends :)
- nefitty 7y agoMy life feels nicer with plants around. I would love having plants at my workplace. The second best thing is views of greenery outside. The last resort is pictures, posters, desktop wallpapers of green places. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2018/02/10/think-you-dont-need-houseplants-science-says-different/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2018/02/10/think-you...
- carrygan 7y agoThanks! Interesting. Do you work in a company's office? Or do you work remotely? I'm also curious on how many plants do you have in your workplace?
- nefitty 7y agoAt my previous office we had a huge window view to a really green area. It was great. We didn't have any real plants inside, though. That might be a maintenance thing, i.e. we'd have to figure out who would take care of them and it might be out of the scope of the janitorial staff. At home I'll randomly but little $5 plants for me and my wife. They add a little more life to house.
- gtirloni 7y agohttps://twist.com/ https://twist.com/
- carrygan 7y agoThanks! This looks like a really great tool. Would most likely be a great fit for us since we're a distributed team and our working hours are different from each other. I'll give it a try soon.
- carrygan 7y agoThanks to all the responses so far! I forgot to mention on the post that I also went through relationship issues because of workaholism. Previously, I'm proud that I'm a workaholic and wear it as a badge of honor. I'm glad that my perspective about workaholism has changed now. I know that a lot of people are having issues too because of workaholism so I wanted to curate a list of tools and resources for making a calm company or calm workplace and hopefully it will help people achieve a better work-life balance and will help companies improve the work environment of their employees. Hopefully, it will also help spread awareness and prevent people from having to learn the negative effects of workaholism the hard way like others and I did.
- AndreFvchs 7y agoCognitive behavioral therapy is a really great way to get out of bad habits like working long hours. A calm workspace is awesome but won't fix psychological issues.
- sjg007 7y agoYou need to say "no!" and get managers to say "no!" as well. Setting limits and boundaries etc...
- AndreFvchs 7y agoGet yourself a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. Inspiration: https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/ https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-head...