DISQUS

tjstankus · 10 months ago

Nice post. As a self-employed freelancer, it's tempting to measure everything with time, because I'm literally trading time for money. I've found that when I just focus on the work process, and not even necessarily the results, I'm most effective, most productive, and (surprise!) get the best results.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

I've found the same... I found freelancing very frustrating because of having to measure the time I spent on things. I can get a whole lot done, but I work best in a chaotic manner, and, strangely enough, the constant distraction of the internet raises my energy levels rather than lowering them (on average - there are obviously exceptions).

Dave · 10 months ago

I love the format of your site. The font is incredibly readable and the large icons are pleasing to the eye. Did you do the design yourself? Or did you grab it somewhere?

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

Thanks! I did the design myself. The icons were fetched from around the web... if you look for free icon packs for social sites you can find them fairly easily in multiple sizes up to 128x128 (this is 64x64).

On that note, clearly the comments need to be styled with a bigger font. I'll make sure I do that soon.

Jón · 10 months ago

Funny, I'm reading this on a EEEPC, and am frustrated because of the wide margin, having to scroll left and right to read it. Doesn't make the article any worse, though.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

I tweaked the font size a little (it's a tiny bit smaller now, though the comments font size is now bigger)... Ultimately I did design for 1024 (the EEE is 800 right?), so that will always be a problem. Can you zoom out?

Jyothirmayee · 10 months ago

I noticed the same. I am in India and after a tiring day reading this post was really pleasing. Really neat design and I am going to copy this font & size. :)

Regarding the post, I find myself in the very same bucket. There have been times in the past when I have just waned for 2 weeks (probably accumulating a creative energy) and churned out a mammoth platform over 4 days working early hours (4 am to 10 am with no disturbance). People thought I took a month to develop it which is true as a whole but not exactly.

Peter Flick · 10 months ago

Great post. An an entrepreneur i have struggled to find the right balance between working hard enough and revitalizing my energy. I still feel guilty at times if i go workout in the middle of the day - partly because it is hard for me to measure my energy level and my work output, while much easier to measure my hours. Two things have encouraged me to put more energy into things that generate more energy for me. The first is when i think back to periods when i was in great shape. For example, in college i was in the best shape of my life and i had 2x the energy i had while in high school. Being in shape changed how i saw things, what i worked on and how i related to others. The second point of encouragement is my daughter Isabella. Like all 2.5 year olds she has a ton of energy. This energy, along with her beginners mind, has served her well - she has learned more in the last 2.5 years than i have in the last 15 years. What is interesting is that she is asleep 16 hours a day. If we kept her up later or removed her nap time there is no doubt in my mind she would learn less and have less energy. What more of an example do i need that hours are the wrong thing to measure! Thanks for the reminder.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

Thank you! I have yet to have children (I wonder how dinosaur-like I'll feel then!), but I definitely have noticed a strong correlation between regular exercise and getting stuff done.

rick · 10 months ago

"energy" doesn't make much sense either. I propose: energon cubes (http://www.michaelchristophers.net/images/movie...)

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

If only Fogbugz and Trac had a plugin to track energon cube expenditure!...

Margaret · 10 months ago

I spent about a year running my start-up with an hours-worked based mentality. I was putting in 90 hours every week and not really getting anywhere. I noticed that when there was a big project - a contract deadline or a new internal development or some such - that I stopped tracking the hours and started tracking the progress. The latter way of measuring my work made me feel more energetic and so the work I was doing was of a higher quality.

Now, I still probably put in over 80 hours a week on my company, but I don't think about the time in the chair so much as my "points". It may seem strange, but we've come up with a system of assigning points to every bit of productivity that's actually moving our company forward. When I don't get any points in a day, I know the company is just treading water and it's time to rethink my priorities. But when I get even a few positive points in a day, I know that we are getting somewhere and that gives me more energy to do more for the company.

Thanks for your post!

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

Thanks for your comment! I love the idea of the points system. Hadn't thought of applying this sort of agile practice to non-programming task. I'll give it a go. Thanks for the idea!

Leen · 10 months ago

Great points! I'd like to add that, counting work in hours also causes stress, anxiety, and doesn't leave room to experiment and make mistakes. I used to be a salary worker, and some law was clarified and resulted in many (including myself) becoming hourly, now I find my work to not be fun any more, the work environment has also become more 'corporate'.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

I basically went the other way and found the reverse process happening. The mere act of measuring the wrong thing encourages the wrong behaviour, using the wrong words encourages the wrong way of thinking. I know it's very hard to get away from it when you're in the corporate world.

blaxter · 10 months ago

But the how many hours question is easier to answer (and mesaure).

tjstankus · 10 months ago

Interesting to see that there are 3x as many comments in the Hacker News thread for this article than there are here. Just an observation - I'm not sure what to make of it. EDIT: Oops, I didn't mean this comment to be a reply to the above comment, but the article itself.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

That's why I love Hacker News :-) It's a great place to get insightful comments and ideas. It's really quite a unique community at the moment, I haven't found another one like it.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

It's true that this is very hard to measure, but, as someone said on HN ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=494845 ), using an incorrect measure just because it's easier is not the right answer.

stevewa · 10 months ago

I have to track how many hours I work each day, because I want to make sure I am putting enough effort into my project, and not letting my tech support service eat up all all my time. Therefore by limiting the amount of hours I offer tech support, I can make sure I have time for me to work on my development projects. The time I spend working on my project is always quality time, so I never have to worry if I am putting in enough hours. Instead it's a constraint, and I have to make sure I am getting the most done. At times that can be stressful, but I find it motivating. Plus by tracking my time, I can create better estimates of how long it will take me to code the next section, since it is just like this last thing I did 2 weeks ago. So it's sort of a game. (and I can celebrate and get drunk on the weekends when I get my time in during the week!)

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

I think this is a different circumstance. Tracking hours for the purpose of understanding what you spend your time on is a great way to improve your productivity. However, that's very different to tracking hours to figure out "how hard" you're working.

Anon · 10 months ago

I totally agree with your point here, but I disagree with your title and last sentence. I loved the slashdot poll. I liked it because even though the poll question overtly focused on hours worked, I think it's real effect was to cast light on the inadequacy of that metric. I see the question as a parody on real life: ostensibly claiming that hours are important, but really unmasking the cold hard facts that a large percentage of people can do their job even while spending far less time than what is recorded. The unfortunate thing is that In written policy, businesses call this time fraud. I understand why they do this, but I think everyone should be aware that this presents many other problems.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

Imho the real irony is that if you were to try and force these people to "work longer hours" (i.e. focus on their primary work 8 hours a day instead of 4), you would probably rob them of various activities that help keep their energy high, and decrease their total productivity. So in fact, time fraud is the way to higher productivity...

Anon · 10 months ago

I completely agree.

James H · 10 months ago

This is an interesting idea, and on the plane of discussion I'm likely to agree with you. However, I'm not sure this idea has any sort of relevance outside of lofty ideals without a little further refinement. Hours, unlike energy, cannot be measured. If you can't measure energy, it'll be a tough sell as a metric management can use.

Daniel Tenner · 10 months ago

As far as management metrics go, I think that measuring results is much more productive. My point here is that if you're looking to improve your results, telling yourself "I need more results" or "I need to work longer" isn't going to help. Asking yourself questions about where and how you spend your energy is more fruitful, I think.