
I Am a 9 to 5 Developer (And So Can You) - joeyespo
https://exceptionnotfound.net/i-am-a-9-to-5-developer-and-so-can-you/
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retrac98
Is this hard to achieve or something? Most developers I know work relatively
low hours.

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jrs95
Personally I have too many ops responsibilities. I'm essentially always on
call and work anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours a night after I'm done
with the 9-5. Usually 1-2 nights a week are 2+ extra hours.

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toomuchtodo
Please ensure you’re getting paid for that time, or find a new job. You should
be paid for the hours you work, including on call time.

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jrs95
Well, I’m salaried, so I’m not really being paid for it. The salary is good
though, given my lack of college. I’m not the only one doing this sort of
thing though and to be honest I’m more upset that we can’t solve this problem
for all of us than I am about the time I spend on it personally.

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toomuchtodo
Don’t sell yourself short because of a lack of a degree. The labor market is
extremely tight right now, and you have bargaining power as long as you have
the skills.

Moving to security architecture from infrastructure/DevOps with no degree, I
doubled my compensation.

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itamarst
And if you don't know how to get to 9-to-5, I wrote a book that can help you
get there:
[https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/](https://codewithoutrules.com/saneworkweek/)

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steego
Good for this guy. I've never been a 9-5 developer because I'm not a great
developer who can get everything done between 9-5. I've always found I have to
put more hours in just so I can get stuff done.

If you can do it, do it.

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itamarst
As I said in the other comment, it really goes the other way: there's a bunch
of skills involved in being productive, but most of them learning one way or
another how to prioritize, and what work _not_ to do. So starting with
attitude of "I have too much work to do" will result in working long hours,
starting with attitude of "I have limited time" will allow you to work less,
once you have the relevant skills.

Example skills:

* Working from goals ([https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/))

* Knowing how and when to ask for help ([https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/12/07/asking-for-help/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/12/07/asking-for-help/))

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Kuraj
For this to work, you first have to get yourself into the mindset than when
you _are_ working, you're kicking ass. I'm having a lot of problems with this.

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itamarst
Other way around. If you work less hours, you end up becoming more productive
because you value your time more and learn how to prioritize better.

[https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/11/10/work-life-balance-
so...](https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/11/10/work-life-balance-software-
engineer/)

~~~
bulatb
If your high-priority task takes _N_ hours, and you only work for _N-k_ hours,
you won't finish your work. You can't just magically do more with less.

Working longer is a proven way to finish work that takes more time.
Prioritizing only lowers _N_ , not _k_.

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itamarst
That is true, but somewhat tautological. You're making the following
assumptions:

1\. There is only one way to solve the problem. Often there is more than one
way, and the proposed way is just one of them, and not necessarily the
fastest.

2\. The whole task needs to be done by deadline. Often only part of it does.

3\. The task actually needs to be done. Often it's not actually high priority.

Etc..

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bulatb
The assumptions I'm making are:

1\. There exists, for many tasks, some indivisible, minimal unit of value
created by work. If you need your car _today_ , but your mechanic left an hour
early with the engine disassembled, it doesn't matter that they finished 95%
of the work. The value of that 95% to you is zero.

2\. In practice, how your work is thought to be divided into value-units (by
whoever is assigning it) matters more than than how you think it is, or how it
optimally could be.

3\. Whether the demands on you are self-imposed, or reasonable, or whatever
else, not meeting them has consequences.

It isn't tautological to say that, even after finding all the better ways to
do it, there are things you have to do and there exists some minimum amount of
time you need to do them ( _N_ ). If you work _k_ fewer hours than required,
you won't finish work that takes _N_ time. This is just an observation of a
fact.

