rfjason's comments

rfjason | 13 years ago | on: Your most productive time. How do you do it?

1. I get the most work done during bipolar hypomania episodes. Cognitive functions, creativity, focus, and vision are all enhanced. In these episodes, I can replace entire teams. I have to compensate by going mostly into maintenance mode after the end of an episode, in order to prevent an extended depressive episode.

2. Pre-defined hours are useful to maintain work discipline.

3. I manage and prioritize distractions by utility and time sinks. I pre-manage situations by making sure that stuff is reliable or stupid-easy-to-fix so that people don't freak out. That makes it easy to engage opportunities when they arise.

4. A good tech thinks like a business guru and a good business guru thinks like a tech. It's all the same discipline.

5. Chat is disabled for all of my work. I typically disable e-mail unless I'm filing a status report or handing off an asynchronous task.

6. My productivity is scheduled according to whether I'm with people, or by myself. I handle extended tasks when I'm alone. When I'm with people, I handle the tasks that benefit more from real-time iteration. I prefer to work independently since real-time iteration almost always leads to a dumbing down of a final product.

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