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How To Become Uber Productive While Working For Yourself

196 points by joelrunyon 13y ago

joelrunyon 13y ago
I discovered this technique through a comment somewhere here on HN. I couldn't find the commenter who originated it, but if you see this, let me know and I'll properly credit you (also, thanks!).
technotony 13y ago
I think the breaking this into different sections of the day is over-rated. The most important thing in this is 'plan specifically what you are going to do today, then do it'. As the poster says, this is actually one of the hardest things about getting stuff done and most people don't actually do it. Personally I like to plan that out the night before, so I can get cracking right in the morning.
- nbouscal 13y ago
  Agreed. Here's another blog post on the subject: http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day/ http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-import...
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  This is sort of a personal preference, but I tend to find that I work best with an imminent deadline. Before this, I would sometimes not doing anything all day and then rush to get things done before the end of the day. Splitting it into parts gives me an artificial deadline that helps me focus my energy a little better. Also, taking the breaks in between each set of tasks helps with a sense of accomplishment but also just gets me moving so I'm not in front of a screen for 8 hours a day straight.
pmichaud 13y ago
I like techniques like this, but the issue I find myself struggling with a lot is that some tasks I have are ambiguous enough to be practically open ended. It's one thing to bang out 1000 words for a blog post, but I might decide that in this 2 hour block I want to implement a feature. Except at the end of 2 hours I've made almost no progress because of some bug I didn't expect to crop up. So I stick on the "feature" because I want to mark it off the list, but then I run over the rest of my list in doing so. "Estimate better" isn't really actionable, so my issue stands.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  I tend to try and break those ambiguous tasks down to less ambiguous action items. Sometimes that's not so easy because the task is "fix the stupid thing" - but I've found you can at least outline your process for approaching it & then sort of make sure you're following your troubleshooting process & using those steps as "action item" tasks.
- akg_67 13y ago
  I agree with you about ambiguous/open-ended tasks. I experienced the same. And also I don't like to spend too much time trying to list out specific tasks that I need to accomplish every day or do too much context-switching between tasks without continuity. Instead of focusing on daily list, I categorized tasks in large buckets. I drew a square with four quadrants on a Whiteboard. Each quadrant is focused on four distinct aspects. My quadrants for example are: Q1 - Job Search, Freelance work, Q2 - Side Project, Blog, Data Analytics, Q3 - Algorithms, Python and Linux, Q4 - OpenStack, Networking My goal is to spend at least one day on each quadrant every week. Every morning I look at Whiteboard, and decide what Quadrant I want to spend time on that day. At the end of the day, I mark the Quadrant that I spent the most time on with day initials on Whiteboard (M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, Su). I keep the day initials for 3-4 weeks so that I can visualize which Quadrant I am spending too much time in and which is being ignored and forces me to balance out day allocations. This visual display keeps me focused and on track.
  - toumhi 13y ago
    Interesting! Your quadrant approach reminds me of an article I had read some time ago, about a framework to spend time on different categories (Work, Play, Fit, Push) and the idea of planning one task for each category the week before on a weekly calendar. http://www.fastcompany.com/3008409/dialed/how-schedule-your-day-peak-creative-performance http://www.fastcompany.com/3008409/dialed/how-schedule-your-...
    - akg_67 13y ago
      Very cool. Thanks for sharing the link. It gave me some idea to improve upon my approach. I like the idea of planning one task for each category at start of the week. Right now, for me that weekly task list stays in my mind instead of showing up on whiteboard ... definitely room for improvement. Thanks again for the great link.
expo123 13y ago
I usually keep adding a todo's in a list, and each todo is with a countdown timer. so it's works like : not when due, but how much time left for a task.. and it seems to be working for me for last 4 months! http://www.twikstik.com/ http://www.twikstik.com/ i get alerts like : 3 hours 29 mins left to task 1 2 hours 29 mins left to task 1 ....
- dreeves 13y ago
  Here's a similar todo-list app that actually charges you money if you don't finish the tasks in time (it integrates with Beeminder, my startup): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8
thrush 13y ago
Not loading for me. Try: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://impossiblehq.com/workstation-popcorn http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...
- thrush 13y ago
  Of course, now it's working.
vonmoltke 13y ago
I was talking to my wife about something like this at lunch today and am trying to get it started for myself. The thing I struggle with when digesting all these methods (workstation popcorn, Pomodoro, gamification, etc) is how, if you are having so much trouble staying on-task, you actually get yourself to stick to the set time/reward schedule. What keeps you from going, "Fuck this!" and shitcanning your schedule/to-do list/whatever in the absence of an outside force? I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else. I'm not sure how to get past that second hurdle.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  The biggest thing this comes down to is discipline. Deciding that you're going to do something & simply doing it. Breaking this down into 3 parts means that I'm not spending more than 2-3 hours in one place. If I'm having trouble sticking to something for a couple hours - there's usually a bigger problem than just being "productive."
- ronaldx 13y ago
  > I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else. I've worked a lot on these for myself and ended up with a process that's extremely similar to the article here. Remember that changing your habits is hard and takes time: rather than changing everything at once, it may be better to build on and try to gradually improve on your existing routine. I'm not sure I could have successfully implemented all of this advice overnight, yet I've gotten there by building up good habits over time ('habit stacking'). I believe the exercise is perhaps the most important part of this: getting regular exercise helps you to keep good, consistent habits.
- bemmu 13y ago
  If you really just want to do something else, then maybe you should be doing that? And if in response to this you think "oh no, I can't do that because XYZ", then maybe that XYZ is the motivation you are looking for. You won't shitcan your schedule if you have a good internal reason for doing those tasks, because then you wouldn't get what you want. My current motivation is that I want to grow recurring revenue by enough that I can move to a new apartment in Tokyo, which I have already picked out should I ever hit my goal. The tasks I pick for each day, I try my best to think "how will doing this task help me get there?". And sometimes the motivation is that whatever I happen to be doing is just interesting / fun in itself, where no grander goal is necessary to work on that.
elwell 13y ago
Answer: Don't read this article and get off HN.
crazygringo 13y ago
Wow, I feel like I could have written this a year ago -- I was doing exactly this. To-do lists, three coffee shops a day, 1-2 hour breaks in between, super-productive, as I've been bootstrapping my software product. Then I ran into problems: 1) Wi-fi problems. Wound up getting a cellular dongle for the laptop, but there are still a surprisingly number of places it doesn't work reliably. When you need to push something to server ASAP, this is a killer. 2) It's exhausting. You only have so much mental energy. Finding suitable coffee shops online, finding them in person, exploring, walking, figuring out what to do for food -- this stuff is basically going to take up your entire day outside of work, no joke. 3) No "zone". If you have lots of bite-sized pieces of work to do, that don't require massive amounts of concentration, it can work really well. If you need to write a new database wrapper that is really just a sustained 8 hour stretch, you can't do it. Then, there's the little details. Outlets for laptops. Spotty reception for phone calls. What to do with your laptop while you use the bathroom and there's a line, but you can't see your table from the line. The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter. And so on. And above all, the last week here in NYC has been like 15-20°F. Forget about walking around outside. So I'm actually learning, there's something to be said for working from home, in a reliable environment. And then, to get out of the house, I schedule lunches with people, go to the gym, "extracurriculars" like basketball, music groups, that kind of thing. It actually works pretty well.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  Good feedback. Here's a few counter points to the ones you brought out. 1) If you spend the time at the beginning vetting the places, you tend to figure out the intricacies. Once you find 3-5 shops, you can pretty easily avoid the ones with spotty wifi. 2) I find it actually does the opposite - it energizes me getting up, being outside & moving every once in a while. 3) I find my "zone" ends up tapping out after 3 hours anyway. I don't know the last time I can honestly say I had a productive 8 hours of "straight" work. As for your location, that's a valid point. I just moved to San Diego for the winter. I couldn't (or probably wouldn't) have done this in the winter in Chicago.
  - 13y ago
kimonos 13y ago
Great post! I really learned many things from this. Thanks for sharing!
altero 13y ago
Getting uber productive while working at cofe on free wifi: To be uber productive you need good task list. Instead of writing 'get shit done' split it into smaller tasks: - find toilet - put toilet seat down - produce shit (at least 1 feet long) - sit down - cleanup and flush Also do not forget to produce piss in good balance. There is a rule called 80/20.
themodelplumber 13y ago
Thanks Joel. I use a slightly similar, more general framework--I only write down tasks that take less than 2 minutes to accomplish, and I never write down a task without a time estimate attached. http://www.marccarson.com/articles/how-i-keep-myself-on-target-5-steps-to-an-easier-to-do-list http://www.marccarson.com/articles/how-i-keep-myself-on-targ...
dba7dba 13y ago
I agree working at home has its downsides. There are just too many other things at home that scream for your attention. But working out of café has its issues, mainly slow internet and theft concern. So I tried working out of a coworking space. While it was great, it was too expensive. You pay a few hundred a month just for the privilege of getting in, and that's only during official business hour. To get your own key fob for 24/7 access, that's another 50% on top of the cheapest plan. But you can't really relax/nap there. And than I realized what about renting a cheap apt with a few friends? Rent 1-bed apt ($1000/month) and split with 3 friends. That's about $330/month, with automatic 24/7 access and space to nap in between marathon working sessions. And you can get fast internet of your choice. Has anyone tried this?
- normloman 13y ago
  Is that legal to do? It says in my apartment contract that you can't have more than 2 permanent residents in a 1 bedroom apartment. Granted, in your case, nobody will be living in the apartment, just working there at times. How did you explain this to the landlord? And were they cool with it? If so, sounds like a neat idea.
  - dba7dba 13y ago
    Just to clarify, I've never done it. I don't see why it would be illegal... The scenario I was describing does NOT include any 'permanent' residents. They would be there just during normal biz hours (like 10am - 7pm mon-fri). For legal reason, maybe one guy could be the permanent resident and invite 2 or so friends to come use the apt as an office (away from chores, kids, distraction) and help pay part of the rent? I first heard about an apt being used as office space while reading this book by Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days Ann Winblad is one of the founders interviewed in the book and she talks about using a 2-bed apt as the first office space for her startup, in late 1970s. I just find the co-working space to be obscenely expensive, especially for someone on limited income.
yawz 13y ago
When I work from a coffee shop one of my concerns is the restroom breaks. You can't really leave all your stuff on the table. You can't easily take them with you either. My solution is to ask people to my mind stuff but it's not always possible.
- drcode 13y ago
  You usually CAN leave everything at your desk besides your laptop. Just grab your laptop and things will be fine.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  The benefit of visiting a few coffee shops regularly is that you get pretty familiar with the staff & they'll keep a look out for your stuff if you have to go outside to take a call or head to the bathroom.
read 13y ago
I Find That The Hardest Part is Deciding What To Do It's also the one with the most impact.
scrabble 13y ago
I do find that I'm not nearly as productive working from home as I am working elsewhere. There are far too many distractions. If I do work from home, the best way for me to get work done is if I'm sitting at my kitchen table, which is not in view of a television. Even then, I leave my phone in a different room to avoid looking at it. Even at the office I find I get more work done if I accidentally leave my phone in my car. Even if I'm not doing much with it, if it's there I'm tempted to look at it every single time there's a notification.
avodonosov 13y ago
Working from coffee-shops? No, thank you. Look at the guy on the picture - he is holding his neck already. His workplace is absolutely not ergonomic. His laptop screen is positioned much lower than his eyes. You can work for 3 hours a month is such conditions, but if you try to work like this daily, you will cripple yourself very soon.
popee 13y ago
Exactly what someone needed to tell me in this period on my life. Thank you dude!
pheelicks 13y ago
Something that has made a big difference to me is identifying my bad habits and constructing systems which actively prevent me from encouraging those habits (also see hyperbolic discounting). A few examples: - I waste time on HN and similar sites. Solution: Install selfcontrol.app and block these sites for the period of time I should be working - I find it hard to stick to the Pomodoro technique, ignoring the timer when it expires. Solution: Write custom timer app that locks my computer after 25mins and forces me to take that break.
_august 13y ago
I've been trying to work out of coffee shops, or even coworking spots the last few months, and I find that they are both lacking (unless you go all-in for coworking). I'm finding now that my money is better spent in creating a productive workspace at home, with a proper desk, chair, monitor and computer set up in a place dedicated for working.
magsafe 13y ago
Surprised that people still use "uber" as an adjective in 2014. It was cool in 2007.
uloweb 13y ago
This works only if you are doing the same tasks every time, or if they are easy. And you should already know how you can do it. But, in case you have a big problem to solve, and some details are unknown, dividing project in daily to-do's can be tricky.
stretchwithme 13y ago
For every project and track what tasks you've done, your current task and your very next task, tasks remaining, what you are waiting on, and whether you are blocked on this task. Every time you finish a task, return to this document (I use a text file), update all projects and pick the next task from your highest priority project. If you need to report progress, track recently done tasks, moving them to the done list once you've reported.
atmosx 13y ago
The 2Do-Lists are pretty-much obvious by now: If you have one, you decide what to do, if you don't then you go with the tied and that rarely brings where you wanna be. Now, if e-Todos works for you fine, otherwise use a notebook and a pen. But the coffee-shop thing, really? For me it's a problem of being comfortable and posture. No coffee shop that I've ever seen is optimized for programming. Jesus, the best job I could think of, if I were in Silicon Valley would be designing furniture specifically for professional programmers: Desks + programming chars slightly leaning backwards to support the spine properly, measured screen distance, upper plate to host external hardware (printers, HDs, etc.). A coffee-shop or a library might be an excellent place for group-work, but I would like to have a really small shiny (yes, shiny) office. Go there and be able to do work. NOTE: When I get concentrated my mind isolates everything else, I could barely hear a cannonball (which come to think of it, is weird because I tend to sleep like a cat, the slightest rumor will weak me up instantly). I don't tend to get into that level of concentration often, but when I'm under pressure I do and I'm always amazed by the volume of people/music/tv/whatever around me when I come back.
return0 13y ago
Does anyone other than bloggers work in coffee shops? I find it hard to believe that you can do serious programming in such a place.
- disputin 13y ago
  The places vary both from one to the next and from hour to hour. The coffee shop closest to me is large, and has a kiddies play area. In the afternoon it is unusable, overfilled, screaming, chaos, but from 5:30pm to 8:00pm closing time it's silent, everyone is reading or working, and it's very pleasant. The next coffee shop along has business meetings and bridge players in the morning, but the afternoons are quiet. There is coordination overhead.
- joelrunyon 13y ago
  I don't program, but I run an online agency & am able to get serious work done quite often.
illumen 13y ago
Good coffee at Silo hey? :) I like how you've integrated moving between coffee shops into your workflow.
chethiya 13y ago
In my experience I tend to loose my productivity a lot when working from home for days. Going out 2-3 times a week helps me a lot to charge up, not necessary to work. But I think the idea of going out to work will only work for energy suckers, not for energy givers like my cofounder who loves working from home.
kayoone 13y ago
Sounds interesting, but working hunched over a Laptop all day is terrible and does you no good. At home i have my 2x 24 inch screens, 50Mbit wired connection, silence. I also need to answer skype calls quite frequently so the background noise and spotty wifi of public places wouldnt be ideal. I like to get out 2-3 times a day to get a coffee/eat/work out but i dont want to take my work to coffee shops. To each their own i guess. I like the idea of splitting the day into 2-3 blocks and trying to finish things before moving on, as a programmer that is easier said than done though.
tymski 13y ago
How To Become Uber Productive While Working For Yourself: Step 1) Do work instead of reading articles like this. Partially kidding. It was a good and inspiring article.

196 points by joelrunyon 13y ago

I discovered this technique through a comment somewhere here on HN. I couldn't find the commenter who originated it, but if you see this, let me know and I'll properly credit you (also, thanks!).

technotony 13y ago

I think the breaking this into different sections of the day is over-rated. The most important thing in this is 'plan specifically what you are going to do today, then do it'. As the poster says, this is actually one of the hardest things about getting stuff done and most people don't actually do it. Personally I like to plan that out the night before, so I can get cracking right in the morning.

nbouscal 13y ago
Agreed. Here's another blog post on the subject: http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-importance-of-planning-every-minute-of-your-work-day/ http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-import...
joelrunyon 13y ago
This is sort of a personal preference, but I tend to find that I work best with an imminent deadline. Before this, I would sometimes not doing anything all day and then rush to get things done before the end of the day. Splitting it into parts gives me an artificial deadline that helps me focus my energy a little better. Also, taking the breaks in between each set of tasks helps with a sense of accomplishment but also just gets me moving so I'm not in front of a screen for 8 hours a day straight.

pmichaud 13y ago

I like techniques like this, but the issue I find myself struggling with a lot is that some tasks I have are ambiguous enough to be practically open ended. It's one thing to bang out 1000 words for a blog post, but I might decide that in this 2 hour block I want to implement a feature. Except at the end of 2 hours I've made almost no progress because of some bug I didn't expect to crop up. So I stick on the "feature" because I want to mark it off the list, but then I run over the rest of my list in doing so. "Estimate better" isn't really actionable, so my issue stands.

joelrunyon 13y ago
I tend to try and break those ambiguous tasks down to less ambiguous action items. Sometimes that's not so easy because the task is "fix the stupid thing" - but I've found you can at least outline your process for approaching it & then sort of make sure you're following your troubleshooting process & using those steps as "action item" tasks.
akg_67 13y ago
I agree with you about ambiguous/open-ended tasks. I experienced the same. And also I don't like to spend too much time trying to list out specific tasks that I need to accomplish every day or do too much context-switching between tasks without continuity. Instead of focusing on daily list, I categorized tasks in large buckets. I drew a square with four quadrants on a Whiteboard. Each quadrant is focused on four distinct aspects. My quadrants for example are: Q1 - Job Search, Freelance work, Q2 - Side Project, Blog, Data Analytics, Q3 - Algorithms, Python and Linux, Q4 - OpenStack, Networking My goal is to spend at least one day on each quadrant every week. Every morning I look at Whiteboard, and decide what Quadrant I want to spend time on that day. At the end of the day, I mark the Quadrant that I spent the most time on with day initials on Whiteboard (M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, Su). I keep the day initials for 3-4 weeks so that I can visualize which Quadrant I am spending too much time in and which is being ignored and forces me to balance out day allocations. This visual display keeps me focused and on track.
- toumhi 13y ago
  Interesting! Your quadrant approach reminds me of an article I had read some time ago, about a framework to spend time on different categories (Work, Play, Fit, Push) and the idea of planning one task for each category the week before on a weekly calendar. http://www.fastcompany.com/3008409/dialed/how-schedule-your-day-peak-creative-performance http://www.fastcompany.com/3008409/dialed/how-schedule-your-...
  - akg_67 13y ago
    Very cool. Thanks for sharing the link. It gave me some idea to improve upon my approach. I like the idea of planning one task for each category at start of the week. Right now, for me that weekly task list stays in my mind instead of showing up on whiteboard ... definitely room for improvement. Thanks again for the great link.

expo123 13y ago

I usually keep adding a todo's in a list, and each todo is with a countdown timer. so it's works like : not when due, but how much time left for a task.. and it seems to be working for me for last 4 months! http://www.twikstik.com/ http://www.twikstik.com/ i get alerts like : 3 hours 29 mins left to task 1 2 hours 29 mins left to task 1 ....

dreeves 13y ago
Here's a similar todo-list app that actually charges you money if you don't finish the tasks in time (it integrates with Beeminder, my startup): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8

thrush 13y ago

Not loading for me. Try: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://impossiblehq.com/workstation-popcorn http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

thrush 13y ago
Of course, now it's working.

vonmoltke 13y ago

I was talking to my wife about something like this at lunch today and am trying to get it started for myself. The thing I struggle with when digesting all these methods (workstation popcorn, Pomodoro, gamification, etc) is how, if you are having so much trouble staying on-task, you actually get yourself to stick to the set time/reward schedule. What keeps you from going, "Fuck this!" and shitcanning your schedule/to-do list/whatever in the absence of an outside force? I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else. I'm not sure how to get past that second hurdle.

joelrunyon 13y ago
The biggest thing this comes down to is discipline. Deciding that you're going to do something & simply doing it. Breaking this down into 3 parts means that I'm not spending more than 2-3 hours in one place. If I'm having trouble sticking to something for a couple hours - there's usually a bigger problem than just being "productive."
ronaldx 13y ago
> I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else. I've worked a lot on these for myself and ended up with a process that's extremely similar to the article here. Remember that changing your habits is hard and takes time: rather than changing everything at once, it may be better to build on and try to gradually improve on your existing routine. I'm not sure I could have successfully implemented all of this advice overnight, yet I've gotten there by building up good habits over time ('habit stacking'). I believe the exercise is perhaps the most important part of this: getting regular exercise helps you to keep good, consistent habits.
bemmu 13y ago
If you really just want to do something else, then maybe you should be doing that? And if in response to this you think "oh no, I can't do that because XYZ", then maybe that XYZ is the motivation you are looking for. You won't shitcan your schedule if you have a good internal reason for doing those tasks, because then you wouldn't get what you want. My current motivation is that I want to grow recurring revenue by enough that I can move to a new apartment in Tokyo, which I have already picked out should I ever hit my goal. The tasks I pick for each day, I try my best to think "how will doing this task help me get there?". And sometimes the motivation is that whatever I happen to be doing is just interesting / fun in itself, where no grander goal is necessary to work on that.

elwell 13y ago

Answer: Don't read this article and get off HN.

crazygringo 13y ago

Wow, I feel like I could have written this a year ago -- I was doing exactly this. To-do lists, three coffee shops a day, 1-2 hour breaks in between, super-productive, as I've been bootstrapping my software product. Then I ran into problems: 1) Wi-fi problems. Wound up getting a cellular dongle for the laptop, but there are still a surprisingly number of places it doesn't work reliably. When you need to push something to server ASAP, this is a killer. 2) It's exhausting. You only have so much mental energy. Finding suitable coffee shops online, finding them in person, exploring, walking, figuring out what to do for food -- this stuff is basically going to take up your entire day outside of work, no joke. 3) No "zone". If you have lots of bite-sized pieces of work to do, that don't require massive amounts of concentration, it can work really well. If you need to write a new database wrapper that is really just a sustained 8 hour stretch, you can't do it. Then, there's the little details. Outlets for laptops. Spotty reception for phone calls. What to do with your laptop while you use the bathroom and there's a line, but you can't see your table from the line. The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter. And so on. And above all, the last week here in NYC has been like 15-20°F. Forget about walking around outside. So I'm actually learning, there's something to be said for working from home, in a reliable environment. And then, to get out of the house, I schedule lunches with people, go to the gym, "extracurriculars" like basketball, music groups, that kind of thing. It actually works pretty well.

joelrunyon 13y ago
Good feedback. Here's a few counter points to the ones you brought out. 1) If you spend the time at the beginning vetting the places, you tend to figure out the intricacies. Once you find 3-5 shops, you can pretty easily avoid the ones with spotty wifi. 2) I find it actually does the opposite - it energizes me getting up, being outside & moving every once in a while. 3) I find my "zone" ends up tapping out after 3 hours anyway. I don't know the last time I can honestly say I had a productive 8 hours of "straight" work. As for your location, that's a valid point. I just moved to San Diego for the winter. I couldn't (or probably wouldn't) have done this in the winter in Chicago.
- 13y ago

kimonos 13y ago

Great post! I really learned many things from this. Thanks for sharing!

altero 13y ago

Getting uber productive while working at cofe on free wifi: To be uber productive you need good task list. Instead of writing 'get shit done' split it into smaller tasks: - find toilet - put toilet seat down - produce shit (at least 1 feet long) - sit down - cleanup and flush Also do not forget to produce piss in good balance. There is a rule called 80/20.

themodelplumber 13y ago

Thanks Joel. I use a slightly similar, more general framework--I only write down tasks that take less than 2 minutes to accomplish, and I never write down a task without a time estimate attached. http://www.marccarson.com/articles/how-i-keep-myself-on-target-5-steps-to-an-easier-to-do-list http://www.marccarson.com/articles/how-i-keep-myself-on-targ...

dba7dba 13y ago

I agree working at home has its downsides. There are just too many other things at home that scream for your attention. But working out of café has its issues, mainly slow internet and theft concern. So I tried working out of a coworking space. While it was great, it was too expensive. You pay a few hundred a month just for the privilege of getting in, and that's only during official business hour. To get your own key fob for 24/7 access, that's another 50% on top of the cheapest plan. But you can't really relax/nap there. And than I realized what about renting a cheap apt with a few friends? Rent 1-bed apt ($1000/month) and split with 3 friends. That's about $330/month, with automatic 24/7 access and space to nap in between marathon working sessions. And you can get fast internet of your choice. Has anyone tried this?

normloman 13y ago
Is that legal to do? It says in my apartment contract that you can't have more than 2 permanent residents in a 1 bedroom apartment. Granted, in your case, nobody will be living in the apartment, just working there at times. How did you explain this to the landlord? And were they cool with it? If so, sounds like a neat idea.
- dba7dba 13y ago
  Just to clarify, I've never done it. I don't see why it would be illegal... The scenario I was describing does NOT include any 'permanent' residents. They would be there just during normal biz hours (like 10am - 7pm mon-fri). For legal reason, maybe one guy could be the permanent resident and invite 2 or so friends to come use the apt as an office (away from chores, kids, distraction) and help pay part of the rent? I first heard about an apt being used as office space while reading this book by Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days Ann Winblad is one of the founders interviewed in the book and she talks about using a 2-bed apt as the first office space for her startup, in late 1970s. I just find the co-working space to be obscenely expensive, especially for someone on limited income.

yawz 13y ago

When I work from a coffee shop one of my concerns is the restroom breaks. You can't really leave all your stuff on the table. You can't easily take them with you either. My solution is to ask people to my mind stuff but it's not always possible.

drcode 13y ago
You usually CAN leave everything at your desk besides your laptop. Just grab your laptop and things will be fine.
joelrunyon 13y ago
The benefit of visiting a few coffee shops regularly is that you get pretty familiar with the staff & they'll keep a look out for your stuff if you have to go outside to take a call or head to the bathroom.

read 13y ago

I Find That The Hardest Part is Deciding What To Do It's also the one with the most impact.

scrabble 13y ago

I do find that I'm not nearly as productive working from home as I am working elsewhere. There are far too many distractions. If I do work from home, the best way for me to get work done is if I'm sitting at my kitchen table, which is not in view of a television. Even then, I leave my phone in a different room to avoid looking at it. Even at the office I find I get more work done if I accidentally leave my phone in my car. Even if I'm not doing much with it, if it's there I'm tempted to look at it every single time there's a notification.

avodonosov 13y ago

Working from coffee-shops? No, thank you. Look at the guy on the picture - he is holding his neck already. His workplace is absolutely not ergonomic. His laptop screen is positioned much lower than his eyes. You can work for 3 hours a month is such conditions, but if you try to work like this daily, you will cripple yourself very soon.

popee 13y ago

Exactly what someone needed to tell me in this period on my life. Thank you dude!

pheelicks 13y ago

Something that has made a big difference to me is identifying my bad habits and constructing systems which actively prevent me from encouraging those habits (also see hyperbolic discounting). A few examples: - I waste time on HN and similar sites. Solution: Install selfcontrol.app and block these sites for the period of time I should be working - I find it hard to stick to the Pomodoro technique, ignoring the timer when it expires. Solution: Write custom timer app that locks my computer after 25mins and forces me to take that break.

_august 13y ago

I've been trying to work out of coffee shops, or even coworking spots the last few months, and I find that they are both lacking (unless you go all-in for coworking). I'm finding now that my money is better spent in creating a productive workspace at home, with a proper desk, chair, monitor and computer set up in a place dedicated for working.

magsafe 13y ago

Surprised that people still use "uber" as an adjective in 2014. It was cool in 2007.

uloweb 13y ago

This works only if you are doing the same tasks every time, or if they are easy. And you should already know how you can do it. But, in case you have a big problem to solve, and some details are unknown, dividing project in daily to-do's can be tricky.

stretchwithme 13y ago

For every project and track what tasks you've done, your current task and your very next task, tasks remaining, what you are waiting on, and whether you are blocked on this task. Every time you finish a task, return to this document (I use a text file), update all projects and pick the next task from your highest priority project. If you need to report progress, track recently done tasks, moving them to the done list once you've reported.

atmosx 13y ago

The 2Do-Lists are pretty-much obvious by now: If you have one, you decide what to do, if you don't then you go with the tied and that rarely brings where you wanna be. Now, if e-Todos works for you fine, otherwise use a notebook and a pen. But the coffee-shop thing, really? For me it's a problem of being comfortable and posture. No coffee shop that I've ever seen is optimized for programming. Jesus, the best job I could think of, if I were in Silicon Valley would be designing furniture specifically for professional programmers: Desks + programming chars slightly leaning backwards to support the spine properly, measured screen distance, upper plate to host external hardware (printers, HDs, etc.). A coffee-shop or a library might be an excellent place for group-work, but I would like to have a really small shiny (yes, shiny) office. Go there and be able to do work. NOTE: When I get concentrated my mind isolates everything else, I could barely hear a cannonball (which come to think of it, is weird because I tend to sleep like a cat, the slightest rumor will weak me up instantly). I don't tend to get into that level of concentration often, but when I'm under pressure I do and I'm always amazed by the volume of people/music/tv/whatever around me when I come back.

return0 13y ago

Does anyone other than bloggers work in coffee shops? I find it hard to believe that you can do serious programming in such a place.

disputin 13y ago
The places vary both from one to the next and from hour to hour. The coffee shop closest to me is large, and has a kiddies play area. In the afternoon it is unusable, overfilled, screaming, chaos, but from 5:30pm to 8:00pm closing time it's silent, everyone is reading or working, and it's very pleasant. The next coffee shop along has business meetings and bridge players in the morning, but the afternoons are quiet. There is coordination overhead.
joelrunyon 13y ago
I don't program, but I run an online agency & am able to get serious work done quite often.

illumen 13y ago

Good coffee at Silo hey? :) I like how you've integrated moving between coffee shops into your workflow.

chethiya 13y ago

In my experience I tend to loose my productivity a lot when working from home for days. Going out 2-3 times a week helps me a lot to charge up, not necessary to work. But I think the idea of going out to work will only work for energy suckers, not for energy givers like my cofounder who loves working from home.

kayoone 13y ago

Sounds interesting, but working hunched over a Laptop all day is terrible and does you no good. At home i have my 2x 24 inch screens, 50Mbit wired connection, silence. I also need to answer skype calls quite frequently so the background noise and spotty wifi of public places wouldnt be ideal. I like to get out 2-3 times a day to get a coffee/eat/work out but i dont want to take my work to coffee shops. To each their own i guess. I like the idea of splitting the day into 2-3 blocks and trying to finish things before moving on, as a programmer that is easier said than done though.

tymski 13y ago

How To Become Uber Productive While Working For Yourself: Step 1) Do work instead of reading articles like this. Partially kidding. It was a good and inspiring article.