I have experienced a similar thing while freelancing or design and web development. I used to work 16 hours some days and less hours others, but then sometimes I would need to work and found it hard to kick it into gear.
I think creativity is like a well, and when you do creative work its like drawing that water out. If you use too much water one day, the well runs dry. You have to wait for the goundwater to fill it up again.
Not only did I begin viewing creativity as a limited resource I create and have access to over time, but I noticed that some activities, like reading about science, listening to music, and walking around town actually increase the rate at which the well fills up.
So now I have made it a daily habit of doing things that inspire me, and I also daily draw from the well like the author said - but Im more careful not to creatively 'overdo it' and leave myself unable to be creative the next day.
Viewing it this way has helped a lot, for all the same benefits the author listed. Im in a rhythm where I dont feel I need a break on the weekend, I just still have energy.
"Not only did I begin viewing creativity as a limited resource I create and have access to over time, but I noticed that some activities, like reading about science, listening to music, and walking around town actually increase the rate at which the well fills up."
+1, many times over.
Taking breaks and having fun are very important to maintaining high productivity and creativity when I am working. Unfortunately it's in stark contrast to the mantras I often hear suggesting "there's someone out there who is working harder than you on the same thing and they're going to win if you let up." That mentality is unhealthy and leads to depression/exhaustion.
Do you think this is related to biorhythms? I meant to post an Ask HN on it recently, then saw your comment. I know a lot of people will dismiss it as pseudo-science, but my reply to that kind of answer, is sometimes this: if we could go back in time and describe to a cave man or even a person of two or three or ten centuries ago, some of the inventions that we take as commonplace today, like airplanes, computers, land line phones, cellphones, fax, Internet, TV, credit cards, bikes, cars, satellites, CAT scans, X-rays, etc. etc., they would disbelieve us, think we were mad, and maybe burn us at the stake as dangerous witches. Apply the analogy to today. So, many of the things that are dismissed as pseudo-science, may just be things that actually work or are true, but we just don't happen to know how they work or the physical laws that govern them, as of now.
I think some of the question is Research versus Development. If you're doing creative work, constraints and deadlines help, but working past coherent thinking doesn't. You hit this point later (but still eventually) in Development projects where the creative demands are lower.
If I told you that every car needed 8 gallons of gas to drive 100 miles, you'd point out I was wrong - so many different makes and models, not to mention variables from tire pressure to driving style.
Yet for the potentially even more complex range that is different people, it amazes me that so much of the advice is didactic - we all need 8 hours sleep, 8 glasses of water, and 8 hours of work with breaks is optimal.
The closest I get to advice is 'learn your body and what works for you'. Thanks to the OP for sharing what works for him.
This is one of my gripes about working in an office. More often than not I cannot work continuously from 9-5, and end up wasting time just trying to get myself back into working mode - which usually descends into browsing HN/Reddit/etc or just working half as effectively as I usually do.
When I work remotely and have freedom over my time, I can take a few hours off to go for a walk, sleep, go for a long lunch, meet friends, or even play games. Afterwards I feel recharged and can be 110% productive, and usually end up working more hours than I would in an office.
I did this for a lot of last year, as I needed to overlap with teams in India and PST, so I usually worked 10am - 10pm taking a few hours off in the afternoon. I was able to get so much more done because of that extended break.
I agree with your point, one size certainly doesn't fit all. However, people should also be aware that they are not special snowflakes and there large groups of people who have the same tendencies and benefit from the same advice.
Therefore, even though I appreciate that this isn't a solution for everyone, I don't think it's fair to say that this boils down to just a personal experience with no external value.
I agree with what you're saying, which is also why I think the title of the blog post should really be: "I work for only 3 hours a day, but everyday". It's less of a command or suggestion and more an expression of what works for him.
As a freelancer, I understand where some of the comments "As a freelancer this won't work" are coming from. However, the last year I've flipped my freelancing model where I offer a more productized service with a clearly defined scope and set price. Instead of doing design work for $XXX/h, I'll deliver A,B,C within Timeframe Y, for Price $XXXX. With clearly defined services, I've actually been working for the last 12 months using a similar model, usually constraining myself to 4h/day with weekends off. My productivity + revenue have increased dramatically. Productizing your service makes it easier to market and generate leads, while it gives you the flexibility to work the way you want and actually free up time. Awesome post OP!
This approach has a lot of pros and cons.
By committing to a fixed price for a project, you're taking a lot of risk on yourself.
What if it takes more than Y?
What if you weren't able to expect the true scope of the project?
What if the customer isn't cooperative and wastes your time?
What is considered a reasonable delivery? How many bugs do you continue to fix for free without charging more?
How many changes to you put in your design without charging more?
Working at an hourly rate saves a lot of legal and contractual headaches. Its also critical when you're working with an agile company that has constantly changing needs and expectations.
I started contract work last fall. I set me rate assuming a 25 hour work week. At first I tried working ~4 hrs / day everyday day. I quickly realized this did not work for me. Working everyday, even just a little is not sustainable for me. I have a family and they are still on the 9 to 5 schedule, so working even a few hours on weekends cut into my family time which is important to me. So now I force myself to take at least one weekend day off with no prgramming. This is hard because I love to program. Also I have a hard cutoff time during the week days at about 5:30pm when my wife and kid get home. I usually feel like I want to keep working but that forces me to stop (at least until my daughter goes to bed). So now I work 5 or 6 days a week but seldom exceed 6 hours/ day. Most days are closer to 4hrs. It's great at this pace because I usually always feel like i want to keep programming so I don't get burnt out. And if I do have an off day I just don't work.
The problem I am running into now is what do I do with my spare time? All my hobbies are computer based (video games and Raspberry Pi projects) but I am trying to minimize my screen time in my off hours. This will get better in the spring and summer as the weather gets better but during winter on the Oregon Coast going outside is hit or miss.
And I hear you about not being able to go to bed until I solve a problem I am stuck on, that drives me crazy.
Since you mentioned Oregon, you should try rock climbing. This is one of the best places in the country to be a climber given we have Smith Rock, Broughton bluff and other climbing areas.
I've been climbing for years outside work and I feel like it's a great hobby for programmers. It gets you outside and you are essentially problem solving. I found my side projects (video games, rpi things, fun programming) are much more productive when I spend time climbing.
I also found it helps me not think about work. Before I started climbing, I would think about my next work day non-stop which was totally counter-productive. I would over think things and then get stuck in a rut for weeks at a time. I now care less about my work when I'm off and I think it's actually made me a better employee.
I agree with everyone else about the physical hobbies, but I find you need something else to fill the evenings when you don't necessarily want to go outside, or when you just want to spend half an hour doing something that's not coding and not reading.
Music does that for me. If you're at all interested, check out justinguitar.com (no affiliation, just love what the guy does) and try it out. There's something about the meditative aspects of playing music that really works for me.
I agree with this article mostly, although 3 hours a day might be too little to make good progress with work for some people.
This article reminded me of my previous workplace (about 7 years ago) where my manager discouraged engineers from working for more than 6 hours a day. He recommended 4 hours of work per day and requested us not to exceed more than 6 hours of work per day. He believed working for less number of hours a day would lead to higher code quality, less mistakes and more robust software.
Although, he never went around the floor ensuring that engineers do not exceed 6 hours of work a day, and some engineers did exceed 6 hours a day, however, in my opinion, his team was the most motivated team on the floor.
For some projects it's perfectly fine but some tasks can only be done if you focus for a large amount of time on it, work obsessively on it until you reach a milestone.
The greatest work I have ever done, was always done when I retreated like a monk for several weeks, cutting myself of the whole world and working almost non-stop on the task until I made a significant breakthrough.
Then I go back to the livings and share the fruits of my work, and of course, take a well deserved rest for several days.
The trap into most people fall is that they are confusing being active and working.
I too do my absolute best work in that kind of mode. However, I'm thoroughly lacking on the "take a well deserved rest" part after crunching on my own. Since no one actually sees me working so hard, I have no idea how I would go about making sure client/boss would be happy with that.
I'm pretty sure this has worked for the author, and it will work for a lot of other people as well, but a lot the benefits raised can still be achieved when working more than 3 hours a day.
A few points are raised in the post:
1. If you only work 3 hours, you're less tempted to go on twitter/facebook/hacker news.
True - but that's really a question of discipline, work environment and how excited you are about what you're working on.
It's perfectly possible to perform for 10 hours straight without distractions, just make sure to take an occasional break for physical health.
2. Better prioritization.
Treating your time as a scarce resource helps focus on the core features. But your time is a scarce resource even if you work 12 hours a day.
Programmers are in shortage. They cost a lot. And the time you're spending on building your own apps could have been spent freelancing and working for someone else's apps.
Always stick a dollar figure on your working hours. Even if you're working on your own projects.
You should always prioritize your tasks, and always consider paying for something that might save you development time (Better computer. better IDE. SaaS solutions, etc).
3. Taking a long break can help you solve a problem you're stuck on.
Personally, I find that taking a short walk, rubber duck debugging or just changing to a different task for a while does the same.
If I'm stuck on something, I don't need to stop working on it until tomorrow. I just need an hour or two away from it.
I agree with the author with some exceptions: when you are working as a contractor or freelancer for someone else's project maybe 3h/day is not acceptable. When you've got externally imposed deadlines 3h/day may not be sufficient.
But i agree that working less than 8h/day could be really more productive. I also liked the "less stuck for coding" topic as "...it is sometimes hard to go bed without solving some unknown issues, and you don’t want to stop coding in the middle of it..." so maybe forcing themselves to stop could be a solution.
Anyway, i would really like to work 4 or 5 hours a day but keeping holidays and weekends free from work and i think this can only be achieved if you can pay your living with products of your own such as your apps and not by freelancing (i am a freelance and i know it!).
But i enjoyed the idea behind the article and i will try to achieve it one day.
I mostly agree with the author, but I don't see the point of stopping yourself when you're "in the zone". Why lose the flexibility?
What works for me is having a baseline of 3 or 4 hours of daily work, and not imposing any hard limits when I want or need to do extra hours. This works out great, because I have no excuses not to do the boring routine work as it's just a few hours, but I also have the liberty of doing obsessive 10h sessions when I'm trying to solve a tough problem or when I'm working on something fun.
I'm currently experimenting with a very long kata (tens of hours) where I do 1 pomodoro a day (although I frequently miss a day, and occasionally do 2 pomodoros in a day). What I have found fascinating is that stopping early keeps my interest up for the project. I "feel like" working on the code every single day and only miss days due to illness or other unavoidable circumstances.
There is something to be said for always leaving yourself wanting to do a bit more. Never being satisfied means that you are always hungry for more.
It probably depends on the person. When I do what you are suggesting, I seem to burn through too much "cognitive resources", getting a ton done, then crashing into a haze for a few days to more than a week. At that point it's hard to get started again. So I see the advantage - for some people - of cutting "in the zone" time short.
I should note that "in the zone" time for me can last a few weeks. Most recently, a long one came after spending a lot of time at the gym doing cardio. When I hit "the zone", I stopped going to the gym and just worked. Now I'm in the "haze phase". The problem with the haze phase is it's hard to focus on anything, including going back to the gym, which should theoretically spur another "in the zone" phase.
The author thinks in the long run the 10h sessions hurt you. They acknowledge specifically that got a week long exercise more work will produce more results but that they feel their average productivity is much higher over months or years by never getting bogged down even when they're making progress.
There is a much better alternative: work really hard for 2 to 3 months per year and then take the rest of the year off. If you're doing high value consulting you can easily do this. You may have to forego some luxury but that's a very small price to pay for the freedom you get in return.
That was my schedule the past 8 or 9 years (actually it was closer to working 4 months and taking 8 months off because I'm not that high value). The problem is that I like what I do but the months I was working I enjoyed it less and the months I was off I missed working. Also it's killing for your social life when you're working nonstop. Another problem is you'll lose clients if you're not available for months at a time. My new schedule is closer to what the post describes and it works much better for me personally.
It reads like someone who isn't doing much of realtime support. This works great for projects that haven't been unveiled or even ones that require little ongoing maintenance like a game. But if I worked 3 hours a day, my clients would crucify me.
When I was freelancing there were a lot of days when I didn't do much but then there were days when I got into the flow and worked 2 or 3 days almost straight. Most of the time this ended up at around 40 hours/ week on average but in spurts. This was probably the best work environment I have ever been in.
I hate about the corporate workplace that it doesn't accept any kind of rhythm but treats you like a machine that performs exactly the same at all times. Nature is built around seasons and so are humans. They are not machines.
I would much prefer to have a time sheet where I can do my 40 hours whenever I feel like it.
I work 4-5 hours everyday but everyday on my own project. I wish I could have more time on work since most of the rest time I have is allocated to housework and taking care of two little ones. I guess the key is to control your work pace. When a sprint is needed and you are ready for it, a two-week with 90-100 hours in each week would not be a bad idea. Just like running. Listen to your body, pick your pace and keep going towards your goal.
I actually had similar routine while at school, but it was 6 hours a day total. 3 hours in the evening, usually just before I went to sleep, might be 19-22, or 21-24 and 3 hours in the morning when I woke up and continued for ~3 hours and then left for lectures.
I started doing this because I realized that I am no longer capable of pulling all-nighters. And it worked surprisingly well :-)
> Making money on the App Store is really tough, and people don’t care how many hours I spend on my apps. They only care if it is useful or not. This is a completely result oriented world, but personally, I like it.
I would guess that, if the OP had a competitor, then the OP would be easily forced out of the market if that competitor worked 4 hours a day :)
One size certainly does not fit all, however, my one take away is that this is huge benefit to paying close attention to what works best for you and optimizing your life around that. When you focus on productivity and happiness (often the 2 are linked) ignoring, when possible, schedules dictated upon you your quality of life will improve.
3 hours is not enough time to get anything done. I'm self employed. I go 12 hours straight before I realize I should probably eat something. I love what I'm doing so I'm drawn to it all day, every day. At the end of the day I've hardly made a dent in my project though. 3 hours is just getting warmed up.
Do you do this every day? I also used to go 12 hours straight but then there were days I would take off and not do anything. I am not capable of going 12 hours hard every day.
I read an essay several years ago that suggested working three focused hours a day. But, it suggested slowly increasing the hours worked while keeping the same level of focus, and doing restorative activities in the remaining time. The idea was that this would "triple" productivity.
[+] [-] err4nt|10 years ago|reply
I think creativity is like a well, and when you do creative work its like drawing that water out. If you use too much water one day, the well runs dry. You have to wait for the goundwater to fill it up again.
Not only did I begin viewing creativity as a limited resource I create and have access to over time, but I noticed that some activities, like reading about science, listening to music, and walking around town actually increase the rate at which the well fills up.
So now I have made it a daily habit of doing things that inspire me, and I also daily draw from the well like the author said - but Im more careful not to creatively 'overdo it' and leave myself unable to be creative the next day.
Viewing it this way has helped a lot, for all the same benefits the author listed. Im in a rhythm where I dont feel I need a break on the weekend, I just still have energy.
[+] [-] katzgrau|10 years ago|reply
+1, many times over.
Taking breaks and having fun are very important to maintaining high productivity and creativity when I am working. Unfortunately it's in stark contrast to the mantras I often hear suggesting "there's someone out there who is working harder than you on the same thing and they're going to win if you let up." That mentality is unhealthy and leads to depression/exhaustion.
[+] [-] vram22|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mathattack|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsli|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JacobAldridge|10 years ago|reply
Yet for the potentially even more complex range that is different people, it amazes me that so much of the advice is didactic - we all need 8 hours sleep, 8 glasses of water, and 8 hours of work with breaks is optimal.
The closest I get to advice is 'learn your body and what works for you'. Thanks to the OP for sharing what works for him.
[+] [-] lucaspiller|10 years ago|reply
When I work remotely and have freedom over my time, I can take a few hours off to go for a walk, sleep, go for a long lunch, meet friends, or even play games. Afterwards I feel recharged and can be 110% productive, and usually end up working more hours than I would in an office.
I did this for a lot of last year, as I needed to overlap with teams in India and PST, so I usually worked 10am - 10pm taking a few hours off in the afternoon. I was able to get so much more done because of that extended break.
[+] [-] MarcusP|10 years ago|reply
Therefore, even though I appreciate that this isn't a solution for everyone, I don't think it's fair to say that this boils down to just a personal experience with no external value.
[+] [-] RobertoG|10 years ago|reply
8 hour of work is 24/3. That is a turn in a factory. It have nothing to do with 'optimal', at least that we are talking optimal for the factory.
[+] [-] daveguy|10 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JB2di69FmhE
[+] [-] barbs|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jiblylabs|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkopi|10 years ago|reply
What if it takes more than Y? What if you weren't able to expect the true scope of the project? What if the customer isn't cooperative and wastes your time? What is considered a reasonable delivery? How many bugs do you continue to fix for free without charging more? How many changes to you put in your design without charging more?
Working at an hourly rate saves a lot of legal and contractual headaches. Its also critical when you're working with an agile company that has constantly changing needs and expectations.
[+] [-] lojack|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] radicalbyte|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wilblack|10 years ago|reply
The problem I am running into now is what do I do with my spare time? All my hobbies are computer based (video games and Raspberry Pi projects) but I am trying to minimize my screen time in my off hours. This will get better in the spring and summer as the weather gets better but during winter on the Oregon Coast going outside is hit or miss.
And I hear you about not being able to go to bed until I solve a problem I am stuck on, that drives me crazy.
[+] [-] vhost-|10 years ago|reply
I've been climbing for years outside work and I feel like it's a great hobby for programmers. It gets you outside and you are essentially problem solving. I found my side projects (video games, rpi things, fun programming) are much more productive when I spend time climbing.
I also found it helps me not think about work. Before I started climbing, I would think about my next work day non-stop which was totally counter-productive. I would over think things and then get stuck in a rut for weeks at a time. I now care less about my work when I'm off and I think it's actually made me a better employee.
[+] [-] spatten|10 years ago|reply
Music does that for me. If you're at all interested, check out justinguitar.com (no affiliation, just love what the guy does) and try it out. There's something about the meditative aspects of playing music that really works for me.
[+] [-] Pamar|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] susam|10 years ago|reply
This article reminded me of my previous workplace (about 7 years ago) where my manager discouraged engineers from working for more than 6 hours a day. He recommended 4 hours of work per day and requested us not to exceed more than 6 hours of work per day. He believed working for less number of hours a day would lead to higher code quality, less mistakes and more robust software.
Although, he never went around the floor ensuring that engineers do not exceed 6 hours of work a day, and some engineers did exceed 6 hours a day, however, in my opinion, his team was the most motivated team on the floor.
[+] [-] charlesism|10 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2_snSkpULQ
[+] [-] jqm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chris11|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shin_lao|10 years ago|reply
For some projects it's perfectly fine but some tasks can only be done if you focus for a large amount of time on it, work obsessively on it until you reach a milestone.
The greatest work I have ever done, was always done when I retreated like a monk for several weeks, cutting myself of the whole world and working almost non-stop on the task until I made a significant breakthrough.
Then I go back to the livings and share the fruits of my work, and of course, take a well deserved rest for several days.
The trap into most people fall is that they are confusing being active and working.
[+] [-] Nemcue|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dkopi|10 years ago|reply
A few points are raised in the post: 1. If you only work 3 hours, you're less tempted to go on twitter/facebook/hacker news.
True - but that's really a question of discipline, work environment and how excited you are about what you're working on. It's perfectly possible to perform for 10 hours straight without distractions, just make sure to take an occasional break for physical health.
2. Better prioritization.
Treating your time as a scarce resource helps focus on the core features. But your time is a scarce resource even if you work 12 hours a day. Programmers are in shortage. They cost a lot. And the time you're spending on building your own apps could have been spent freelancing and working for someone else's apps. Always stick a dollar figure on your working hours. Even if you're working on your own projects. You should always prioritize your tasks, and always consider paying for something that might save you development time (Better computer. better IDE. SaaS solutions, etc).
3. Taking a long break can help you solve a problem you're stuck on.
Personally, I find that taking a short walk, rubber duck debugging or just changing to a different task for a while does the same. If I'm stuck on something, I don't need to stop working on it until tomorrow. I just need an hour or two away from it.
[+] [-] andretti1977|10 years ago|reply
But i agree that working less than 8h/day could be really more productive. I also liked the "less stuck for coding" topic as "...it is sometimes hard to go bed without solving some unknown issues, and you don’t want to stop coding in the middle of it..." so maybe forcing themselves to stop could be a solution.
Anyway, i would really like to work 4 or 5 hours a day but keeping holidays and weekends free from work and i think this can only be achieved if you can pay your living with products of your own such as your apps and not by freelancing (i am a freelance and i know it!).
But i enjoyed the idea behind the article and i will try to achieve it one day.
[+] [-] rmsaksida|10 years ago|reply
What works for me is having a baseline of 3 or 4 hours of daily work, and not imposing any hard limits when I want or need to do extra hours. This works out great, because I have no excuses not to do the boring routine work as it's just a few hours, but I also have the liberty of doing obsessive 10h sessions when I'm trying to solve a tough problem or when I'm working on something fun.
[+] [-] elliotec|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mikekchar|10 years ago|reply
There is something to be said for always leaving yourself wanting to do a bit more. Never being satisfied means that you are always hungry for more.
[+] [-] ChrisDutrow|10 years ago|reply
I should note that "in the zone" time for me can last a few weeks. Most recently, a long one came after spending a lot of time at the gym doing cardio. When I hit "the zone", I stopped going to the gym and just worked. Now I'm in the "haze phase". The problem with the haze phase is it's hard to focus on anything, including going back to the gym, which should theoretically spur another "in the zone" phase.
I have a lot of trouble achieving balance.
[+] [-] sleepychu|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Melk|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jjoe|10 years ago|reply
Sadly, it isn't always possible.
[+] [-] maxxxxx|10 years ago|reply
I hate about the corporate workplace that it doesn't accept any kind of rhythm but treats you like a machine that performs exactly the same at all times. Nature is built around seasons and so are humans. They are not machines.
I would much prefer to have a time sheet where I can do my 40 hours whenever I feel like it.
[+] [-] thearn4|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joeguilmette|10 years ago|reply
I usually work 7 days a week, but invariably a couple days a week I only work an hour, checking email and replying to people.
The work I do is of better quality, I'm happier, and I easily could work at this pace until the day I die.
[+] [-] LiweiZ|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spajus|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brianwawok|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marincounty|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] a-saleh|10 years ago|reply
I actually had similar routine while at school, but it was 6 hours a day total. 3 hours in the evening, usually just before I went to sleep, might be 19-22, or 21-24 and 3 hours in the morning when I woke up and continued for ~3 hours and then left for lectures.
I started doing this because I realized that I am no longer capable of pulling all-nighters. And it worked surprisingly well :-)
[+] [-] amelius|10 years ago|reply
I would guess that, if the OP had a competitor, then the OP would be easily forced out of the market if that competitor worked 4 hours a day :)
[+] [-] Drdrdrq|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shorrock|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TensionBuoy|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxxxxx|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tonyedgecombe|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 1123581321|10 years ago|reply