
Ask HN: Developers, how many hours do you feel you are productive in a day? - moosov
I had emotional discussion with my boss and I couldn&#x27;t convince him that 40h in a week and 8h in a day is not always the most productive approach. So please share your feedback and based on that I&#x27;m going back to my boss - https:&#x2F;&#x2F;guaana.com&#x2F;quiz&#x2F;how-many-hours-do-you-feel-you-are-productive-in-a-day
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hmark
I feel like such a sucker! I got excited to go to your quiz and vote for the
5-6h option just to show your boss.

Then Spidey sense tingled...

Looked at your profile, then followed your last submission to product hunt and
found out that you are the Founder CTO at guaana.com. Co-incidence?

Next time please do put a disclaimer and definitely do not try to "Growth
Hack" HN.

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saluki
Going back to your boss . . . not recommended . . .

y, most likely you're never going to convince your boss that you're only
productive 3 or 4 hours per day . . . if anything you'll be bringing scrutiny
on what you accomplish daily and possibly lower reviews/raises/advancement.

Very few companies are open to anything less than 40 hours per week or even 4
day work weeks.

I would put your efforts in to finding a company/boss that does or work on
starting your own thing in your extra time.

Good luck in 2016, fight the good fights.

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markcmyers
On your quiz, the average answer is "3-5 hours," and this squares with recent
research suggesting that in an 8-hour day, mind workers are doing actual work
about 3 1/2 hours on average. The rest of the day is spent on snacking,
gossiping, Facebook, etc.

I'm a highly motivated independent developer and writer, and I've been
studying my own work habits to try to become more productive. I use toggl —
[https://www.toggl.com/](https://www.toggl.com/) — to track my time throughout
the day. I'd work 12 hours a day if I could, but I can't. I run out of gas
after 2 hours, 3 hours — and sometimes 8 hours. My limit on tedious, fussy,
boring tasks is about 2 hours, after which I'm not much good for anything. My
limit when I'm writing a book is 3 to 4 hours. If I'm building something out
of code or working in Photoshop, sometimes I get addicted, and then I can go 8
hours. Addiction seems to be the only thing that gets me close to being as
productive as I'd like to be. Sadly, I can't choose to focus only on the types
of tasks that I'm addicted to.

My sense is that most people — probably including your boss — have never
measured how much cognitive work they themselves can do before their brain is
fried. I'm talking about real work, not meetings. Meetings use almost no brain
glucose at all, so are a way to pad "working" hours without increasing fatigue
substantially. I'm convinced this is why meetings are so popular in corporate
America.

As long as no one is measuring, it's easy for everyone to kid themselves that
they're good for 8 hours and that everyone else should be, no matter how
unrealistic that may be.

~~~
samizdatum
Sometimes, at the tail end of a day, I'll be sitting in front of my computer,
with a clear idea of exactly what I need to do and how to do it... and yet I'm
just sort of sitting there stupidly, because my brain feels fried. It's the
same sensation you get when you crank out one too many reps at the gym- you're
sending all the right signals, the nerves are firing, but your muscles just
don't _work_.

When I get this fried brain feeling, I've found that eating something sugar-
rich, like a piece of chocolate, can attenuate this feeling- not completely,
but enough to get me out of the paralysis and started, at least. I don't know
how much is placebo, but hey, it works, so I'm not complaining, and there
seems to be at least some studies supporting the existence of similar effects.

~~~
hanniabu
> I'll be sitting in front of my computer, with a clear idea of exactly what I
> need to do and how to do it... and yet I'm just sort of sitting there
> stupidly, because my brain feels fried

Thank you for that comment, I thought this was just me....definitely makes me
feel a little better

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forgottenacc56
Code in your most productive hours, do documentation, emailing, whatever other
tasks when your daily ration of coding energy is gone.

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t-rav
I agree with your boss, 40h work weeks are the right way to do things. It's up
to you to find the discipline to focus during the day to make it truly
productive, not just feel productive.

Finding a good workflow for what you do is the hard part. A good workflow will
include timeboxed sessions between 50-90 minutes with regular breaks after
each session to keep your mind fresh and focused. A lunch session away from
the PC, take a walk. And a firm commitment to sticking to a true 8h work day,
the real mental strain happens when one tries to exceed this daily limit.

And most important factor required to only working an 8h day, is to keep the
messaging and social media use to outside work hours. These nasty distractions
will destroy productivity and focus likely causing you to "work" and +8h day.
All the chatting and social media can wait until you are home, life will carry
on. Every distraction you give into will cause you to take 20 minutes to
rebuild focus.

~~~
zimpenfish
> messaging and social media [are] nasty distractions [that] will destroy
> productivity and focus

I have talkative people behind me, CTO to my left (on the phone a fair bit),
sysadmins to my right (frequently desk-meeting with people), and a row of
project managers over the minimal partition. Trust me when I say that there
are far bigger problems for some people's focus than messaging and social
media.

~~~
cweagans
A good, noise cancelling headset has been one of my best investments - and I'm
not talking about one of the nice looking $50 models from Best Buy. I'm
talking about something in the $200-300 price point - high end gaming headsets
are particularly nice for a number of reasons, but anything will do.

It seems like a lot of money, but if it triples your productivity while in the
office (and I'd recommend measuring it with something like RescueTime - if the
headset doesn't help your productivity significantly, you can always return
it), it's worth it.

~~~
hanniabu
Can confirm, always was skeptical when I heard people say this, but I borrowed
my brothers for a week when he was on vacation and it was a game changer. Now
I've become a proponent myself.

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andersthue
Instead of talking about hours I think about how many times a day I get to be
in flow.

For me personally being 44 I am only able to hit a good flow once or twice a
day for 2-3 hours each time.

When I am in flow I am faster and more creative than when I am not, so more
hours would not add significantly to my productivity.

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coderKen
That depends on the kind of project you are working on, If you are highly
motivated and the project is fun you may work for longer hours, my case I
could go as long as 8hrs non-stop but if it's not as described above then 3hrs
max.

Two years ago I experienced a burnout for the first time, for a 23-year old
freelancer, I knew nothing about burnouts and thought I was severely
depressed. My motivation level was 0.

So if your job is fun then you may find 8hrs a day not even enough, but it's
not your fault, it's your employers.

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tdsamardzhiev
3 or 4 hours. Can go up to ~10h/day for a few days, but that usually leads to
a burnout. Burnouts are bad. Avoid them. You'd actually do better if you work
less.

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raooll
If I'm doing heavy coding work my cap is 6 continuous hours after which I'm
brain dead.

My daily average is around 6 hours & I accomplish a lot in this time.

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kdamken
Depends on the project. If I'm on an intense project, easily 7-8. If I'm not
on a project, maybe 1-3. If I'm unemployed and left to my own devices
(pursuing projects/freelance or furthering my education), probably 4-5.

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tmaly
For me it depends on the interruptions / context switching.

