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> developers who carve out significant time for deep work enjoy a 50% productivity boost. Makes sense from personal experience. At my company we have 1 no-meet

> developers who carve out significant time for deep work enjoy a 50% productivity boost. Makes sense from personal experience. At my company we have 1 no-meeting day a week (Thursday). Especially since I've gotten into management I've found Thursday to be my favorite day and I probably get ~70% of the actual code work I do in a given week done on that day. If you don't have something like this, I really recommend it!

theonething 3y ago
I recommend scaling that to no meetings on most days.
Aurornis 3y ago
Matches my experience, too. Unfortunately, some companies approach culture and DevEx as an additive system where they keep piling more meetings, more engagement, more activities, and more process on top of everyone’s responsibilities. When a company approaches DevEx and culture by subtracting things that aren’t working it’s like a breath of fresh air.
rqtwteye 3y ago
I often think the once-a-week-no-meeting-days should be reversed to once-a-week-meeting-days. Put all status, retrospective, planning and other recurring meetings into this one day so people can actually work the rest of the week. During Covid my company had a 32 hour week for a year and we lost zero productivity because the first thing that was eliminated were the meetings that just fill time but achieve nothing.
- phreack 3y ago
  Regular meetings and calls can't go over twice a week period. For me, it's one of the biggest reasons for unproductivity. I've worked on a lot of projects and the amount of meetings was directly correlated to how much everything was delayed. In all cases, the people who pushed the most for meetings were the ones who contributed the least, and in fact had a negative impact. Nowadays it's a nonnegotiable rule from the start in our agency when taking on new clients.
maccard 3y ago
One of the things to be aware of is that two meeting free days won't double that output. You still do a lot of valuable "stuff" in that meeting time. But, a reliable period of uninterrupted focus time is rocket fuel for an IC. I get mornings for free (I live in the UK and work mostly with the US), and it's insane how efficient I am for it.

theonething 3y ago

I recommend scaling that to no meetings on most days.

Aurornis 3y ago

Matches my experience, too. Unfortunately, some companies approach culture and DevEx as an additive system where they keep piling more meetings, more engagement, more activities, and more process on top of everyone’s responsibilities. When a company approaches DevEx and culture by subtracting things that aren’t working it’s like a breath of fresh air.

rqtwteye 3y ago

I often think the once-a-week-no-meeting-days should be reversed to once-a-week-meeting-days. Put all status, retrospective, planning and other recurring meetings into this one day so people can actually work the rest of the week. During Covid my company had a 32 hour week for a year and we lost zero productivity because the first thing that was eliminated were the meetings that just fill time but achieve nothing.

phreack 3y ago
Regular meetings and calls can't go over twice a week period. For me, it's one of the biggest reasons for unproductivity. I've worked on a lot of projects and the amount of meetings was directly correlated to how much everything was delayed. In all cases, the people who pushed the most for meetings were the ones who contributed the least, and in fact had a negative impact. Nowadays it's a nonnegotiable rule from the start in our agency when taking on new clients.

maccard 3y ago

One of the things to be aware of is that two meeting free days won't double that output. You still do a lot of valuable "stuff" in that meeting time. But, a reliable period of uninterrupted focus time is rocket fuel for an IC. I get mornings for free (I live in the UK and work mostly with the US), and it's insane how efficient I am for it.