

Only Working When You Feel Like It? - thecombjelly
http://thintz.com/essays/work-when-you-feel-like-it

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eavc
The big lesson here that might be more pragmatic is to avoid quasi-working,
the state of half-working that feels like full-bore work without actually
getting much done.

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stretchwithme
I recently came across PJ Eby's work on thinkingthingsdone.com and find his
insights very useful.

He's made a study of what mental habits cause us to be either "naturally
successful" or "naturally struggling".

I personally have not been making headway on my goals for a while now, so I
would say I've been struggling.

One key idea is whether one chooses to focus on what one can gain or on what
one might lose as you pursue a goal.

A focus on potential losses makes one fearful, more likely to be paralyzed and
ultimately fail.

If you ignore the potential losses and focus on what you can gain, you more
naturally just take the actions required to get what you want. Flow is the way
to go.

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angkec
Just watched his video and tried the method, all I know is: now my desk is
finally clean!

Thanks for pointing the blog out :)

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stretchwithme
my pleasure :-) mine too!

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nitrogen
Personally, when I'm completely unmotivated I do have to step away from my
work for a while. But, the times when I'm on the edge of calling it a day but
not too tired, and push myself to code for another hour or two, I have the
most breakthroughs.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
"know thy self"

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neonak
Steve Pavlina wrote a post about his one week on, one week off workflow. It's
similar to the post that's discussed here. It doesn't really matter how long
your on and off days are.

He uses his on days to get as much done as is possible and his off days to
just do what he wants. In the off days he gets the inspiration and motivation
for another round of high productive on days.

[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-on-one-
wee...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-on-one-week-off/)

I also noticed similar effects in my own life. It's like creating little
deadlines for yourself where you have to get something done within a couple of
days, and you make everything work to do just that. Within the 9-to-5, monday
through friday mentallity it always seems if there will be another day to get
it done. There's no pressure.

Also, the long days off indeed help to think creativly about your work and
have idea's and solutions just 'pop up' at random.

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JacobAldridge
I have confidence in this model for certain people who have a drive to achieve
things.

I feel it's mostly incompatible with having a partner / spouse (and would love
any disagreement or contrary evidence). Especially if the partner works 9-5,
working when I feel like it will often eat into relationship time.

~~~
thecombjelly
I would agree on with you on having a drive to achieve things makes it easier.
Then again what model works for someone that doesn't have a drive to achieve
things?

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JacobAldridge
True, there's no model that works. They need to receive very clear
expectations, be held constantly accountable, and appreciate that they will
probably transfer through a lot of jobs (or roles within a government
department or large corporation) and never earn more than an average salary.

For plenty of people, that's actually OK. For others, insert the occasional
'the world owes me' or 'life isn't fair' discussions.

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mattvanhorn
I pretty much do this myself now, and although I find myself working more than
ever (in terms of both hours and productivity), I also feel better about my
work life than I ever have.

One caveat, though - 'only working when you feel like it' works best for me if
I 'always work when I feel like it'. Which is to say, staying late when I'm in
flow, and picking up my laptop when I get a good idea on the weekend, etc.

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hooande
On the tv show Mad Men, Don Draper described it as "we let our people be
unproductive until they're productive". I think this applies to any kind of
creative work. If I know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it, I'll
just do it. If I have to come up with a solution to a difficult problem, I do
whatever until I solve it.

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dotBen
I've actually been able to work "when I feel like it" for the past 1.5 months.

Honestly. I've not really been anywhere near as productive as I should have
been -- because I've had no reason to set goals/objectives/milestones.

Maybe this doesn't work for everyone.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
"should have" ? maybe you needed some time to unwind

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rosshudgens
This reminds me of 37signals ideology a good bit. It works for them, but not
everyone. But props to you for doing what they don't - not shoving it down our
throats, opening it up for conversation, and accepting potential barriers to
success.

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djm
I've been starting to do this over the last week or so as an experiment. It's
too short a time span to give me any useful data, but so far my impressions
are positive. I've gotten less work done than usual but feel considerably less
stressed, which is a net win in my view.

If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, read through the articles in
the study hacks blog - <http://www.calnewport.com/blog/>. It's aimed at
students but I've found it interesting and somewhat inspiring nonetheless.

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greenlblue
I have experienced the same thing. I can't figure out why it is this way
though from a biological/neural perspective. When I'm getting tired of work I
usually just step back for a few days and just do fun stuff like watching
movies, playing video games, and in general just doing stuff completely
unrelated to work. Magically, after a few days of routine that's unrelated to
work, when I get back to it everything just seems more manageable.

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jaekwon
At happy hour nearby, chatting with a new coworker.

"So, why do _you_ get to come to work so late?"

What do you say to that?

~~~
JacobAldridge
Define "come to work". Am I considered at work if I'm going through that
annoying bug during my morning shower, or spending my weekends networking
online with technical colleagues?

~~~
sirrocco
I doubt this is a good comeback as the other person might very well also be
thinking about some company related stuff and talking to colleagues on
weekends.

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jister
This work habit won't work if you have an employer otherwise your employer
will also "Pay You When He Feels Like It".

~~~
nostrademons
Depends how enlightened your employer is. We've got a HarborMaster high score
whiteboard in my cube, and one of the guys in the next cube over was showing
us his Starcraft 2 Beta skillz today. Nobody bats an eyelash when I get into
work at 1 PM and leave at 10 PM.

It's an issue if you aren't working _at all_ , but as long as you're getting
your work done and your job function doesn't require client contact, why
should your employer care?

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kunley
Good strategy, but there's a catch:

when you expect that taking off will boost your productivity afterwards, it
won't work.

This is general rule in life: if you stick to expectations you loose.

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schammy
I didn't see this so much as "working when I feel it" but more as "wow I sure
am productive after a nice relaxing break".

I agree that a nice break from the daily grind can be very good for you. I as
well find myself quite productive after being away from the grind for a day or
two. But that doesn't mean I despise what I do!

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jimmyrcom
Sitting in front of the computer sometimes isn't the most productive use of
time. All the greatest ideas have come from people who were thinking while on
the shitter. You can't avoid thinking about the problem whether you're working
on it or not. Forcing yourself to work obviously by definition means you don't
want to think about the problem while you ADHD tab switch between hacker news
reddit, digg,IM and your email anyway. If at any point working entails anxiety
it's not being managed correctly. The sitting in front of the computer part is
reserved for when you know how you're going to implement/structure the
problem. Starting at it while what's next seems fuzzy only leads to
distractions.

Also if you 'try an experiment for a month' hoping to your hypothesis is
correct, you're easily setting yourself up for a logical fallacy.

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TotlolRon
I read it. But in my head I heard Peter Gibbons saying it. Strange.

Edit: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax2Dpr6r98Q> Sorry. Had to.

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kahawe
Working long hours on pointless stuff just to cover your 9 to 5 makes you
exhausted, demotivated and brunt out? Spontaneous, fun activities and just
taking some time off for yourself recharges your cells and makes you feel
fresh, focused and energetic the next day? Please do tell more of your crazy,
new ideas!!

In other breaking news, a sack of rice has tipped over in China!

