
Ask HN: What do you do with downtime at work? - kotojo
I’m just in a transition period between two different projects at work and the new one is still in a discovery phase, so I am finding myself with a significant amount of free time for a week or so.<p>What are your go to activities to make the most of this time?
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GrumpyYoungMan
First and foremost, relax and recharge. The hard work will come again soon
enough. Go out to a long lunch or have a team lunch or something, for example.

Second, take some time to take care of yourself professionally. Now's a good
time to network with former colleagues and other people you haven't talked to
in a while, to spend some time learning about something that will enhance your
skills or to make sure your résumé is up to date.

Lastly, take some time to clean up your workplace. Take care of old tech debt
items, update documentation, and, in general, take care of any part of the
systems you work on that have been neglected for a while. There's always
something that needs maintenance.

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openlowcode
The worst thing is idling browsing on the web. It really drains energy

Then, if you say you have free time, there is a high chance you did not look
hard enough. Is there really no document you could read, noone you could talk
to ? Very often, when I find myself idle, I realize there are things I could
do.

If really you are idle, check how much you really need to stay at work. In
some environments, you could very well take some time off, or spend less time
at work, and nobody would care. 7

In some work, you need to do sometimes 14 hours working days for long period.
It would be fair, and is sometimes accepted that in exchange you go back home
at noon on some other days.

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ktpsns
Learning! Reading relevant books, talking with colleagues. Or doing
orgamization overhead, such as the preparation of an issue tracker or a wiki
for the new project. Thus you are fully prepared once the new project starts.

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CyberFonic
I'm surprised that your manager hasn't assigned specific tasks to do.

If I were in your position, I'd take some holidays. That would be the best way
to recharge.

If you still have to go to work, then brushing up on some skill in an area
that will help you be more productive in the next project is probably a good
idea. That could be increasing your proficiency in a language, framework,
libraries. A small side-project to automate some rote task could also be very
beneficial.

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Jugurtha
Something useful is to write the copy for the future project. Writing the
draft for the docs too as if the project was already shipped. It helps a lot
with focus and alignment. Making sure we want to build the same thing. Adding
new ideas. This is basically a period with no constraint as no code is written
yet and no sunk cost to hinder your thoughts.

A useful exercise is to imagine you're making a tour video showing off what
the product does. What would be in that video, and then the code to write to
make that happen becomes clearer.

Also, reflecting on the project that was done and all the hidden skeletons can
be useful. The mistakes and inefficiencies. How to avoid those in the new
project? For example: it was super hard to add functionality or remove it in
the previous project. The next project starts by being extensible, with a
plug-in architecture with zero change to add am extension. You write how you
would add extensions and then write the code to allow that flow.

How to transfer the learning from the previous project on to the next one, and
just individually but as a team.

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ankit_it09
Take a break if you were working too much before spend a day or two relaxing,
rejuvenate, read books.

Else, whenever I get some free time, I use to clear my Pocket reading list,
read my open tabs which I opened to read but couldn't get time, after clearing
my tabs I really feel good :P

Or you can always learn something not just technical but also a life skill.

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gitgud
Here's a good process, when you're bored:

1\. Imagine random projects you're interested in e.g. _" Dog door alarm", "3d
maze online"... "nearest toilet app"_

2\. Try and find if someone has done it; search Github, Google etc

3\. If it's been done _GOTO step 1._

4\. Else; Try and build it!

This method works for personal and professional ideas

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sarcasmatwork
Work on scripts/automation/testing. Do any prep work or reading/research.

Get any systems setup, updated, patched etc.

Learn new tech and methodologies that may help you in the new project.

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muzani
I'm usually learning on the active days; the best time to pick up a tool
related skill or keyboard shortcut is while you're active.

Downtime days sounds like a good time for light play. Something like Codepen
is a good example, all kinds of CSS art, and figure out how they work. Maybe
mess with some animation on existing code. Maybe find a new way to write
documents and tests faster.

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eager_noob
How often do the people here find that they have too much of down time at
work? a bit tangential but asking since i find myself in this situation a bit
too often.

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cheshireoctopus
Browse HN - look for content I am interested in learning.

Setup coffee/walk with teammates.

Work on internal hack projects.

Purge the backlog.

