8 ms·

Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls

288 points by psykotic 14y ago

mtrimpe 14y ago
I just want to say in case nobody else comments here, that this is an awesome blog post. It was very valuable to me.
mrpickles 14y ago
Holy shit. My brain just exploded from reading this. This is the advice that I wish someone sat down and gave me when I first started my career.
- whage 14y ago
  I honestly hope i can keep this advice in mind for the rest of my life
  - omilu 14y ago
    pinboard it
eksith 14y ago
This could alternatively be titled the Thinks-they're-Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls. The "smarter, not harder" mantra being misapplied can be a classic case of a lack of intelligence (which is bad) and a lack of foresight (which is worse). And no, you don't need a super intelligence to have foresight; just some experience and a willingness to listen to people who are smarter than you without your pride getting in the way. If I knew what I know now when I was 18-19, I would have slapped myself upside the head and say, "You idiot! You know nothing! Stop pretending that you do and you'll actually get something done!"
seivan 14y ago
Eye opener, really.
sukuriant 14y ago
So, my big question is: "Where does 100% completing everything you start doing during a day fit in with two other well-repeated arguments?" in particular, * 40 hours a week is the max sustainable work week length * To help get started work the next day so you're not wasting time as the day starts and so your subconscious can work on it, start your last task of the day and get through working on a good part of it; and then stop before finishing it.
- psweber 14y ago
  Seems like the goal for addressing the first point is to get better at planning and estimating. Learn what you are capable of and then get better. The second point is based on that Hemingway quote right? “The best way [to write] is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day…you will never be stuck.” I've tried it a few times. I didn't notice much improvement. Maybe it makes most sense when you are working on a problem that excedes your comfort zone.
  - andrewflnr 14y ago
    I'm sure it's been rediscovered by lots of people who hadn't heard it from Hemingway. Notice he didn't say (IIRC) "finish everything you start" but rather "finish everything you decide to finish". If you, for example, finish all the features you wanted to, and then leave a failing test case for the next day, that is consistent with the feature article's thesis as I understand it.
- dpatru 14y ago
  I think long-term productivity seems to come mostly from consistent, intense effort. I've read that a lot of writers only write for about three hours a day. The key is that they do this every day and it adds up. If you just put in a few hours a day of intense work, over time, you will accomplish a lot and be ahead of most people. For example, John Grisham started writing books by writing just one page every day. The best producers, however, seem to combine intense work with lots of time. Isaac Asimov worked many hours a day and published 1700 words per day on average. (http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-learned-from-isaac-asimov/ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-lear...) To acheive consistency, you can't sabotage tomorrow's work by working late today. So 100% completion of today's work should be a goal in the context of the understanding that today's work has a definite ending time that is necessary to enable a successful tomorrow. Here's an article on deliberate practice: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/D... Here are two articles that give some insight into how writers work: http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-their-daily-writing-routines http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-thei..., http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-and-their-inspiring-daily-rituals/ http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-a...
polemic 14y ago
> "Accept that "the grind" is part of the job" Of all the pieces that struck home for me, this. Especially doing what I'd call my 'dream job', it's 'the grind' that I most struggle with, even if it's ultimately what ends up being the most valuable output. I'd add a line to the effect of: the grind is easier to handle when you keep focused on the outcome of what you're trying to achieve (cool new feature, happier customers, company success). It's easy, as a programmer, to lose sight of the big picture when you're at the never-ending 80% phase of a big development effort.
- pjungwir 14y ago
  As a friend's dad says, "That's why they call it work."
  - alex_doom 14y ago
    Also, "There's a reason they don't call work, fun."
    - TeMPOraL 14y ago
      On the other hand, problems are to be solved, not suffered through.
  - mjcohen 14y ago
    Another old saying: "If growing up were fun, I would have done it a long time ago."
- derefr 14y ago
  Schleps exist, but only some of them are necessary (the ones composing the "problem domain.") Others (usually "infrastructure" problems) are just Gordian knots you can slash apart with the right mindset--usually because someone else has already helpfully solved the same problem during a schlep of their own, and released the result as a library, product, or service you can just slot in (e.g. Stripe.)
- tehwalrus 14y ago
shurcooL 14y ago
I really wish I were surrounded (or perceived myself to be surrounded) by more productive people. Seeing someone better than yourself can be a great motivator. But when most people you see set low standards for themselves (relatively speaking), it's easy to slip and forget to work hard. Every minute is precious if you have a goal to reach.
- inerte 14y ago
  And why are you not surrounded by more productive people?
  - shurcooL 14y ago
    I don't know, perhaps I'm doing something wrong, or it hasn't happened yet but will happen soon. The latter is less likely because I'm 26 yo already.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - obstacle1 14y ago
      You are 26 years old. You have, what, 30, 35 years of working life ahead of you? Sure, resign to mediocrity for literally 5/6ths of your career, if you want. But there's plenty of room and time for you to develop how you want. Age is not your main obstacle.
  - rjzzleep 14y ago
    because i just started to work for the government.
    - singold 14y ago
      Same here. A bit depressing really... Because of salary it is a dificult position to leave for me, but I'm working on that developing my own startup :)
  - 14y ago
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
cyanoacry 14y ago
Last summer, I finished a 3-month internship in Japan, and it was the most productive 3 months of my life. I'm currently a college student, so my work ethic is a little poor. Procrastination and "seeming busy" is standard fare for my day. It's far too easy for me to get distracted by checking Facebook, Twitter, or even tangential data sheets. Yet, despite my bad habits, the environment at my job forced me to get down and churn through code. Some of my officemates could fit the salaryman stereotype[1], but all of them posessed a capability for relentless focus. I initially tried to settle in by "shooting the breeze" and making smalltalk, but they seemed to prefer communicating through their work: some code, but more importantly, well-done demos. In the span of those 3 months, while I always brought headphones with me, I never ended up using them: the silence of the office carried a note of tension, the sound of concentration. Listening to this proved to make me more productive than I'd normally be, if I were listening to (even quiet) music. I came in expecting to be maybe 20% efficient, as the OP mentions: a few minutes here, a half hour there. At the end, it was nearer to 75-80%: instead of procrastinating, I set goals for myself to get things done, because that was really the best way to get through to my neighbors. While I don't think that this sort of pressure cooker environment is well-suited for all people, I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. I'm not sure I would've survived for a 6 months or a year, but it very quickly eliminated my excuses. If everyone around you is working their best, it's hard not to get dragged along. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman
- ky3 14y ago
  I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. So the key takeaway is the positive peer influence, not so much Japan and its whatever-ness. There's a certain dream about playing hard, working hard, and getting swept along with it. Smalltalk included.
  - cyanoacry 14y ago
    This is definitely true, but I've been hard-pressed to find a similar environment in the States, even in labs and hackathons. There's an almost oppressive social pressure to getting the job done in Japan, because you _must_ work as hard as your boss, who is working as hard as their boss, etc. A lot of people fight back against the sort of no-frills culture I saw (Google perks, work-at-home attitudes, etc.), so it surprised me that it was so efficient. A part of me expected cubicles and quiet work environments to force an Office Space result.
halcyondaze 14y ago
One thing I really like for productivity is getting deep into the mindset of anyone that excels. I skateboard for exercise and one of my favorite skaters is Andrew Reynolds. His mentality when skating is second to none. He'll land an absolutely insane trick (at age 33), and then do it over..and over..and over again until it is absolutely perfect. Toe touches the ground slightly? Do over. Arms were kind of weird? Do over. Hammering it into the ground until it's a thing of beauty. This is what I take into my approach to productivity. Being effective is difficult, especially if the task you're doing is difficult. You have to just hammer away at it and iteratively get 1% better every time you take a swing. In productivity, it's constantly holding yourself to a higher standard than you previously did. Great, pomodoro technique is working for you and you can go 4x25 blocks? Trend towards the positive always, and you'll eventually end up far, far ahead of other's around you...even other "productive" people.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
rluhar 14y ago
The OP talks about the trap of the small task, where he put off doing something that should have been menial for so long, that when something small went wrong, it's effect was disproportionate. There is also the danger of focusing only on the small tasks, and take much pride in ticking off a huge to-do list. Perhaps it could be better to step back and think of a more efficient way that would reduce the amount of work required. It may not feel like it, but you are being more productive. This is a great post, and I (like many others here) wish I had considered this when I first started off. I think improving personal productivity is a force multiplier. If you are more productive, you can help your team members to be more productive. You could roll your sleeves up and tackle the "grinding" task that is stopping everybody else from progressing.
jcroll 14y ago
micromanaging your productivity sure seems like a good way to increase your productivity :\
paulnechifor 14y ago
Really offtopic: This[1] is why you don't use   to fake double spacing. It should be done in CSS or by using one of the longer space characters[2]. [1] http://i.imgur.com/22vFOLO.png http://i.imgur.com/22vFOLO.png [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_character#Spaces_in_Unicode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_character#Spaces_in_Unico...
tjoff 14y ago
Nice try, but I'm not falling for that one. (although I'll keep this tab open (among hundreds of others) so that I can get to it "later"...)
gingerlime 14y ago
Great post. I would generally consider myself reasonably hard working, and not a huge procrastinator. However, there's one trap I always find hard not to fall into. I remember many occasions when I finish a task earlier than expected, and then always struggle whether I should stretch it and pretend it took me longer, so I can still do it faster than expected, but not disproportionally so. The somewhat flawed logic is that if I do things too fast, I'll just get more work assigned, and expectations will rise, which will make it progressively harder for me to achieve. I'm not entirely sure where the flaw lies exactly, but the most impressive people I worked with always seemed to be those who finished things quickly, and somehow it didn't bite them back. Others would just learn to trust their assessments, or if they are stuck would know it's not for lack of focus or trying, but that it's a genuinely tough problem.
- davidlumley 14y ago
  > The somewhat flawed logic is that if I do things too fast, I'll just get more work assigned, and expectations will rise, which will make it progressively harder for me to achieve. For what it's worth, I'm in this situation at the moment. Was working on a project where I found it simple to finish things quickly. Am now on a project where things are considerably more complex but it's expected I finish them at the speed I was previously. Not sure how to crawl out of this hole, other than to continually get faster at everything.
  - gingerlime 14y ago
    this reminds me of a joke I've heard (poorly translated): "How do you win a 100m swimming race? You start at your absolute top speed, and slowly slowly increase the pace"
    - TeMPOraL 14y ago
      And there's also this saying: "the better you get, the better you'd better get."
  - mtrimpe 14y ago
    Keep in mind that it's actually your desire to meet their expectations that's at play here. You can also go back and tell them that your previous speed is probably an outlier, but you don't/didn't do that because you want to maintain this high level of expectations. I'm not sure I'd even advice against it, since that mechanism is what kept me improving until 30, but at one point it'll also pull you beyond what your physical limits ... and that, my kids, is how I me^H^Hgot a burnout ;)
b1daly 14y ago
As I've gotten older, I'm struggling with my productivity because I get more tired from being in that intense "grind" mode. If I am real focused for several days,I hit a wall and then I'll need more time to recover. Forcing it doesn't seem to help as fatigue gets worse. A big part of it is the physical feeling of working at the computer, it starts to hurt after a few intense days, which adds stress. It's been making me mad as i would like to get more done, but I have to rest. I never know how to apply advice like that of the original poster. It seems to be, to excel be smart and work diligently. How is this helpful to anyone?
- kps 14y ago
  First, fix what is making your body hurt. Presumably the problems are with your back or hands or both (and if not both, the other will come along soon enough). For your back, the solution is pretty well documented: chair that fits you, displays at eye level, keyboard at elbow level. For your hands, the solutions may be more personal, but likely involve (a) keeping your wrists straight and (b) kinesthetic feedback on your fingers.
pcestrada 14y ago
This reminds me of a quote from Richard Hamming's talk "You and your research" ``Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest.'' Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest. I don't want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html
- Lost_BiomedE 14y ago
  My favorite part of that talk is where he highlights the value of creating to solve a class of problems vs. a unique instance. Build in a way that others can build off of your work. Recently, I built an automated Skinner box that has the ability to run most of the protocols of classical behavioral research. It allows the mouse to be head fixed, enabling brain readings while the experiment is running^. We could have built just what we needed, but instead, we are going to open source this general solution in a methods paper soon. I am unsure if this would have happened if I had not read Hamming's talk. ^The hope is that this will reduce the amount of this type of research done with monkeys, enable reductions of costs/time, and enhancing the ability to learn more due to the huge genetic catalogs for mice.
tehwalrus 14y ago
I'm a PhD student, so apart from once-a-week conversations with my supervisor, I'm on my own when it comes to picking what to do today. For the objective metric of productivity, I've found Rescue Time [1] very helpful. It is literally a little virus that sits there watching everything you do (including what websites you visit, what programs have focus, and so on,) and uploading it all to the cloud. Then, the kicker; a weekly email saying what fraction of your time was spent productively, and the total hours spent on productive stuff (you can configure what's productive pretty finely.) you can view all the graphs and charts you want, but ultimately I find total hours logged, and % productive, to be the only two numbers I need. (it also sets you goals; N productive hours a day, less than M distracting hours per day, and so on, and reports your success or failure in the email too.) [1] https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/
- delian66 14y ago
  You are right - RescueTime is very helpful indeed for overcoming some kinds of procrastination. >>It is literally a little virus Just a little nitpicking ... it is not a "virus", neither literally nor figuratively - it does not replicate nor infects anything. You can call it a "trojan" at worst, but certainly NOT a virus.

288 points by psykotic 14y ago

I just want to say in case nobody else comments here, that this is an awesome blog post. It was very valuable to me.

Holy shit. My brain just exploded from reading this. This is the advice that I wish someone sat down and gave me when I first started my career.

whage 14y ago
I honestly hope i can keep this advice in mind for the rest of my life
- omilu 14y ago
  pinboard it

eksith 14y ago

This could alternatively be titled the Thinks-they're-Smart Guy Productivity Pitfalls. The "smarter, not harder" mantra being misapplied can be a classic case of a lack of intelligence (which is bad) and a lack of foresight (which is worse). And no, you don't need a super intelligence to have foresight; just some experience and a willingness to listen to people who are smarter than you without your pride getting in the way. If I knew what I know now when I was 18-19, I would have slapped myself upside the head and say, "You idiot! You know nothing! Stop pretending that you do and you'll actually get something done!"

seivan 14y ago

Eye opener, really.

sukuriant 14y ago

So, my big question is: "Where does 100% completing everything you start doing during a day fit in with two other well-repeated arguments?" in particular, * 40 hours a week is the max sustainable work week length * To help get started work the next day so you're not wasting time as the day starts and so your subconscious can work on it, start your last task of the day and get through working on a good part of it; and then stop before finishing it.

psweber 14y ago
Seems like the goal for addressing the first point is to get better at planning and estimating. Learn what you are capable of and then get better. The second point is based on that Hemingway quote right? “The best way [to write] is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day…you will never be stuck.” I've tried it a few times. I didn't notice much improvement. Maybe it makes most sense when you are working on a problem that excedes your comfort zone.
- andrewflnr 14y ago
  I'm sure it's been rediscovered by lots of people who hadn't heard it from Hemingway. Notice he didn't say (IIRC) "finish everything you start" but rather "finish everything you decide to finish". If you, for example, finish all the features you wanted to, and then leave a failing test case for the next day, that is consistent with the feature article's thesis as I understand it.
dpatru 14y ago
I think long-term productivity seems to come mostly from consistent, intense effort. I've read that a lot of writers only write for about three hours a day. The key is that they do this every day and it adds up. If you just put in a few hours a day of intense work, over time, you will accomplish a lot and be ahead of most people. For example, John Grisham started writing books by writing just one page every day. The best producers, however, seem to combine intense work with lots of time. Isaac Asimov worked many hours a day and published 1700 words per day on average. (http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-learned-from-isaac-asimov/ http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/11/5-unusual-things-i-lear...) To acheive consistency, you can't sabotage tomorrow's work by working late today. So 100% completion of today's work should be a goal in the context of the understanding that today's work has a definite ending time that is necessary to enable a successful tomorrow. Here's an article on deliberate practice: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/D... Here are two articles that give some insight into how writers work: http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-their-daily-writing-routines http://io9.com/5106135/science-fiction-novelists-reveal-thei..., http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-and-their-inspiring-daily-rituals/ http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/11/25-famous-thinkers-a...

polemic 14y ago

> "Accept that "the grind" is part of the job" Of all the pieces that struck home for me, this. Especially doing what I'd call my 'dream job', it's 'the grind' that I most struggle with, even if it's ultimately what ends up being the most valuable output. I'd add a line to the effect of: the grind is easier to handle when you keep focused on the outcome of what you're trying to achieve (cool new feature, happier customers, company success). It's easy, as a programmer, to lose sight of the big picture when you're at the never-ending 80% phase of a big development effort.

pjungwir 14y ago
As a friend's dad says, "That's why they call it work."
- alex_doom 14y ago
  Also, "There's a reason they don't call work, fun."
  - TeMPOraL 14y ago
    On the other hand, problems are to be solved, not suffered through.
- mjcohen 14y ago
  Another old saying: "If growing up were fun, I would have done it a long time ago."
derefr 14y ago
Schleps exist, but only some of them are necessary (the ones composing the "problem domain.") Others (usually "infrastructure" problems) are just Gordian knots you can slash apart with the right mindset--usually because someone else has already helpfully solved the same problem during a schlep of their own, and released the result as a library, product, or service you can just slot in (e.g. Stripe.)
tehwalrus 14y ago

shurcooL 14y ago

I really wish I were surrounded (or perceived myself to be surrounded) by more productive people. Seeing someone better than yourself can be a great motivator. But when most people you see set low standards for themselves (relatively speaking), it's easy to slip and forget to work hard. Every minute is precious if you have a goal to reach.

inerte 14y ago
And why are you not surrounded by more productive people?
- shurcooL 14y ago
  I don't know, perhaps I'm doing something wrong, or it hasn't happened yet but will happen soon. The latter is less likely because I'm 26 yo already.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - obstacle1 14y ago
    You are 26 years old. You have, what, 30, 35 years of working life ahead of you? Sure, resign to mediocrity for literally 5/6ths of your career, if you want. But there's plenty of room and time for you to develop how you want. Age is not your main obstacle.
- rjzzleep 14y ago
  because i just started to work for the government.
  - singold 14y ago
    Same here. A bit depressing really... Because of salary it is a dificult position to leave for me, but I'm working on that developing my own startup :)
- 14y ago

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

cyanoacry 14y ago

Last summer, I finished a 3-month internship in Japan, and it was the most productive 3 months of my life. I'm currently a college student, so my work ethic is a little poor. Procrastination and "seeming busy" is standard fare for my day. It's far too easy for me to get distracted by checking Facebook, Twitter, or even tangential data sheets. Yet, despite my bad habits, the environment at my job forced me to get down and churn through code. Some of my officemates could fit the salaryman stereotype[1], but all of them posessed a capability for relentless focus. I initially tried to settle in by "shooting the breeze" and making smalltalk, but they seemed to prefer communicating through their work: some code, but more importantly, well-done demos. In the span of those 3 months, while I always brought headphones with me, I never ended up using them: the silence of the office carried a note of tension, the sound of concentration. Listening to this proved to make me more productive than I'd normally be, if I were listening to (even quiet) music. I came in expecting to be maybe 20% efficient, as the OP mentions: a few minutes here, a half hour there. At the end, it was nearer to 75-80%: instead of procrastinating, I set goals for myself to get things done, because that was really the best way to get through to my neighbors. While I don't think that this sort of pressure cooker environment is well-suited for all people, I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. I'm not sure I would've survived for a 6 months or a year, but it very quickly eliminated my excuses. If everyone around you is working their best, it's hard not to get dragged along. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman

ky3 14y ago
I think it speaks volumes to how positive peer pressure, in more ways than one, can force people to shape up. So the key takeaway is the positive peer influence, not so much Japan and its whatever-ness. There's a certain dream about playing hard, working hard, and getting swept along with it. Smalltalk included.
- cyanoacry 14y ago
  This is definitely true, but I've been hard-pressed to find a similar environment in the States, even in labs and hackathons. There's an almost oppressive social pressure to getting the job done in Japan, because you _must_ work as hard as your boss, who is working as hard as their boss, etc. A lot of people fight back against the sort of no-frills culture I saw (Google perks, work-at-home attitudes, etc.), so it surprised me that it was so efficient. A part of me expected cubicles and quiet work environments to force an Office Space result.

halcyondaze 14y ago

One thing I really like for productivity is getting deep into the mindset of anyone that excels. I skateboard for exercise and one of my favorite skaters is Andrew Reynolds. His mentality when skating is second to none. He'll land an absolutely insane trick (at age 33), and then do it over..and over..and over again until it is absolutely perfect. Toe touches the ground slightly? Do over. Arms were kind of weird? Do over. Hammering it into the ground until it's a thing of beauty. This is what I take into my approach to productivity. Being effective is difficult, especially if the task you're doing is difficult. You have to just hammer away at it and iteratively get 1% better every time you take a swing. In productivity, it's constantly holding yourself to a higher standard than you previously did. Great, pomodoro technique is working for you and you can go 4x25 blocks? Trend towards the positive always, and you'll eventually end up far, far ahead of other's around you...even other "productive" people.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

rluhar 14y ago

The OP talks about the trap of the small task, where he put off doing something that should have been menial for so long, that when something small went wrong, it's effect was disproportionate. There is also the danger of focusing only on the small tasks, and take much pride in ticking off a huge to-do list. Perhaps it could be better to step back and think of a more efficient way that would reduce the amount of work required. It may not feel like it, but you are being more productive. This is a great post, and I (like many others here) wish I had considered this when I first started off. I think improving personal productivity is a force multiplier. If you are more productive, you can help your team members to be more productive. You could roll your sleeves up and tackle the "grinding" task that is stopping everybody else from progressing.

jcroll 14y ago

micromanaging your productivity sure seems like a good way to increase your productivity :\

paulnechifor 14y ago

Really offtopic: This[1] is why you don't use   to fake double spacing. It should be done in CSS or by using one of the longer space characters[2]. [1] http://i.imgur.com/22vFOLO.png http://i.imgur.com/22vFOLO.png [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_character#Spaces_in_Unicode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_character#Spaces_in_Unico...

tjoff 14y ago

Nice try, but I'm not falling for that one. (although I'll keep this tab open (among hundreds of others) so that I can get to it "later"...)

gingerlime 14y ago

Great post. I would generally consider myself reasonably hard working, and not a huge procrastinator. However, there's one trap I always find hard not to fall into. I remember many occasions when I finish a task earlier than expected, and then always struggle whether I should stretch it and pretend it took me longer, so I can still do it faster than expected, but not disproportionally so. The somewhat flawed logic is that if I do things too fast, I'll just get more work assigned, and expectations will rise, which will make it progressively harder for me to achieve. I'm not entirely sure where the flaw lies exactly, but the most impressive people I worked with always seemed to be those who finished things quickly, and somehow it didn't bite them back. Others would just learn to trust their assessments, or if they are stuck would know it's not for lack of focus or trying, but that it's a genuinely tough problem.

davidlumley 14y ago
> The somewhat flawed logic is that if I do things too fast, I'll just get more work assigned, and expectations will rise, which will make it progressively harder for me to achieve. For what it's worth, I'm in this situation at the moment. Was working on a project where I found it simple to finish things quickly. Am now on a project where things are considerably more complex but it's expected I finish them at the speed I was previously. Not sure how to crawl out of this hole, other than to continually get faster at everything.
- gingerlime 14y ago
  this reminds me of a joke I've heard (poorly translated): "How do you win a 100m swimming race? You start at your absolute top speed, and slowly slowly increase the pace"
  - TeMPOraL 14y ago
    And there's also this saying: "the better you get, the better you'd better get."
- mtrimpe 14y ago
  Keep in mind that it's actually your desire to meet their expectations that's at play here. You can also go back and tell them that your previous speed is probably an outlier, but you don't/didn't do that because you want to maintain this high level of expectations. I'm not sure I'd even advice against it, since that mechanism is what kept me improving until 30, but at one point it'll also pull you beyond what your physical limits ... and that, my kids, is how I me^H^Hgot a burnout ;)

b1daly 14y ago

As I've gotten older, I'm struggling with my productivity because I get more tired from being in that intense "grind" mode. If I am real focused for several days,I hit a wall and then I'll need more time to recover. Forcing it doesn't seem to help as fatigue gets worse. A big part of it is the physical feeling of working at the computer, it starts to hurt after a few intense days, which adds stress. It's been making me mad as i would like to get more done, but I have to rest. I never know how to apply advice like that of the original poster. It seems to be, to excel be smart and work diligently. How is this helpful to anyone?

kps 14y ago
First, fix what is making your body hurt. Presumably the problems are with your back or hands or both (and if not both, the other will come along soon enough). For your back, the solution is pretty well documented: chair that fits you, displays at eye level, keyboard at elbow level. For your hands, the solutions may be more personal, but likely involve (a) keeping your wrists straight and (b) kinesthetic feedback on your fingers.

pcestrada 14y ago

This reminds me of a quote from Richard Hamming's talk "You and your research" ``Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest.'' Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest. I don't want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime. http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

Lost_BiomedE 14y ago
My favorite part of that talk is where he highlights the value of creating to solve a class of problems vs. a unique instance. Build in a way that others can build off of your work. Recently, I built an automated Skinner box that has the ability to run most of the protocols of classical behavioral research. It allows the mouse to be head fixed, enabling brain readings while the experiment is running^. We could have built just what we needed, but instead, we are going to open source this general solution in a methods paper soon. I am unsure if this would have happened if I had not read Hamming's talk. ^The hope is that this will reduce the amount of this type of research done with monkeys, enable reductions of costs/time, and enhancing the ability to learn more due to the huge genetic catalogs for mice.

tehwalrus 14y ago

I'm a PhD student, so apart from once-a-week conversations with my supervisor, I'm on my own when it comes to picking what to do today. For the objective metric of productivity, I've found Rescue Time [1] very helpful. It is literally a little virus that sits there watching everything you do (including what websites you visit, what programs have focus, and so on,) and uploading it all to the cloud. Then, the kicker; a weekly email saying what fraction of your time was spent productively, and the total hours spent on productive stuff (you can configure what's productive pretty finely.) you can view all the graphs and charts you want, but ultimately I find total hours logged, and % productive, to be the only two numbers I need. (it also sets you goals; N productive hours a day, less than M distracting hours per day, and so on, and reports your success or failure in the email too.) [1] https://www.rescuetime.com/ https://www.rescuetime.com/

delian66 14y ago
You are right - RescueTime is very helpful indeed for overcoming some kinds of procrastination. >>It is literally a little virus Just a little nitpicking ... it is not a "virus", neither literally nor figuratively - it does not replicate nor infects anything. You can call it a "trojan" at worst, but certainly NOT a virus.