Working more

[jack]

Dear Brain,

The maximum efficiency is that I should work MORE on days when I'm getting a lot done[1], and LESS on days that aren't going so well. Less efficient but more sensible is the same amount every day.

Why do you constantly try to persuade me to do the opposite? Uncompleted features are not gazelles, I don't need a certain amount every day to live, and they run away slower.

Lots of love Jack

[1] Up to a sensible limit beyond which my performance will definitely suffer.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Please be aware that the sensible limit is around 40 hours per week:
http://legacy.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons

http://www.alternet.org/story/154518/why_we_have_to_go_back_to_a_40-hour_work_week_to_keep_our_sanity?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark

You can do more for a few weeks, but after that you'll be less productive than if you'd just stuck to the lower level.

[naath]

Heh, that's like, totally true; personally I don't feel much in danger of working more than 40 hours a week... but it's good advice that "when on a roll" I should keep bashing away at the bugs; whereas when I feel like curling up in a ball and sleeping maybe I should go home and do that rather than trying to understand hard things.

[jack]

Yes, I don't intend to go above that!

But if I've had an unproductive day, my brain says "that was hopeless, we still need to do 8 hours of thinking as hard as we can to make up the time!" and I need to remind it that panicking about not working as hard as I can can be just as tiring, and better to leave now...

I seem to recall friends who work in large banks and consultancies describing how they worked, and it seemed like 40 hours of work, but interspersed with more hours of on-site but "social" stuff, and showing your face but not really "working".