
The Productivity Cycle - slexaxton
https://alexsexton.com/blog/2014/1/the-productivity-cycle/
======
groby_b
I just wish articles like this would lead with a tiny bit of research. The web
is flooded with "here's how I think you can work better" articles, but very
few go beyond personal anecdotes. As such, many of them are just not that
useful.

Here are few things that would've been beneficial in giving a better
foundation to this article - it would've been a much better starting point for
actually taking action, for one thing.

BRAC/ultradian rhythm cover the basic idea of a cyclical nature of focus.

Basic neurological effects of caffeine and withdrawal cover the idea that
caffeine is a zero-sum game.

The Hawthorne effect[1] covers the idea of "Macro-caffeine"

There are quite a few case studies[2] to support the idea that stress
reduction improves productivity.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect)
[2] [http://www.amazon.com/Preventing-Stress-Improving-
Productivi...](http://www.amazon.com/Preventing-Stress-Improving-Productivity-
Case-Studies-
ebook/dp/B000PWQMJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389827676&sr=8-1&keywords=Preventing+Stress%2C+Improving+Productivity%3A+European+Case+Studies+in+the)

~~~
casca
While the Hawthorne Effect is widely cited, even after many years the results
have not been reliably reproduced so it should be invoked cautiously.

~~~
groby_b
It is certainly a debated effect, but at least it'd be a starting point for a
discussion. As is, the article is "well, for me...". Any further discussion or
research is impossible since it is a purely personal anecdote.

(N.B., since on re-reading this is less than clear from my original post: I
did not intend to give a definitive answer to any of the items raised in the
article. I do not possess the knowledge to do so. I merely intended to point
out trivial starting points for research for this article)

------
dzink
Nice work! In order to balance my project and school I ended up taking 2 hour
naps around 6pm (right after school) to refresh my brain for coding between
8pm and 4am, then napping again till 8am for the 9am till 5pm cycle. The good
news was that the project I was building allowed me to post all of my side
projects for others to be able to contribute to and see all cool projects done
around me ( [http://doerhub.com](http://doerhub.com) ) , so now that both
helps me jump back on the bandwagon faster and energizes my new cycle of work.

~~~
uioffoo
Why don't go fuck yourself ? Every time I see your comment I always wonder why
the FUCK you post link to your website. I mean, just see your own comment
history. We all know you are girl who code, so there are thousands many like
you , more smarter , brilliant than you. Don't for FUCKING sake relate
everything to you. Its like saying I am super hard worker and everyone else is
stupid. Again, go fuck yourself

~~~
visakanv
Hey, I'm sorry that somebody else is getting you down. Is everything okay? Are
you going through any sort of trouble?

I ask not to be condescending or sarcastic, but because there are usually
deeper causes for such anger and aggression. You can talk to me if you like,
email or whatever. Take care.

------
Swizec
The coolest thing about caffeine is that it does actually help with mental
agility and various cognitive tasks. But surprisingly few cognitive tasks. It
actually only increases your working memory and positively influences your
ability to concentrate on a task. That's it.

More interestingly still, it doesn't have any cognitive effects at all unless
you're sleep deprived. It also doesn't have any cognitive effects in the
morning. So that coffee people drink in the morning to wake up, that's just a
placebo (unless they slept less than 6 hours, then it helps a bit).

But it does have a bunch of physical effects. Like increased blood flow to the
brain, which helps with various things regardless of the fact that blocking
adenosine receptors is doing jack shit. It also increases your stamina and
physical strength. Which can be useful. Also why a lot of sports bars and most
flu medicine contain a bunch of caffeine.

I write about this a lot in my book about Why programmers work at night:
[https://leanpub.com/nightowls](https://leanpub.com/nightowls) (shameless plug
:))

~~~
cma
Flu medicine has caffeine because often people unknowing go through caffeine
withdrawal unknowingly while they have the flu. Excedrin has it because people
with headaches often just hadn't had their fix recently enough. Headaches are
one of the major things a day or two after stopping.

~~~
unmei
Caffeine also potentiates the effects of OTC painkillers

[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2012456](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2012456)

------
brd
I am a big fan of these ideas. I've long since concluded that caffeine is a
tool best used sparingly.

As for the macro productivity cycles, I totally agree that they exist and I
very much think that burn out is essentially a case of ignoring those cycles.
Sometimes you just need to ease off and coast the downtrend.

I'm hoping to, at some point in the near future, experiment with
working/traveling across hemispheres in order to see if I can induce highs in
productivity by abruptly placing myself in nicer weather. I have a hunch that
your typical seasonal depression has a manic phase and I want to see if I can
exploit that.

~~~
reneherse
I too wish to make the same personal experiment. As I seem to be almost
exclusively solar powered, I've resolved to spend my next winter as a summer,
or at least as close to the equator as possible. :)

~~~
brd
if I make it to Argentina next winter consider yourself invited

------
octix
"I’ll hop off my projects with deadlines and build something that I know
probably won’t ever even get finished, but that I’m just excited to build."

That's sooo me... I always tell myself and my wife that these keep me sane.

PS: I don't drink coffee or mt dew though...

------
fauigerzigerk
I have stopped paying attention (well, obviously not entirely) to all the
coffee stories, because I realized how tiny the effect of coffee is compared
to other things.

Trying to solve a tricky problem that I already know well (that is I don't
have to read tons of background material first) keeps me very focused
regardless of time of day. Same thing with some kinds of debates I have with
people. Time of day only makes a difference when I'm not focused to begin
with, and that difference is huge.

The other thing is that standing up and moving around is orders of magnitude
more effective than any substance. It works instantly.

------
Uncompetative
When I read one of these Lifehackery blogs with a section that is entitled
'The Nap Month' it makes me feel that the author was procrastinating and
trying to justify behaviour they felt guilty about.

I have zero caffeine in my diet, try to sleep between 7 and 10 hours a night -
the latter is preferred when I am learning new concepts as it gives my brain a
chance to rewire. Walking will stop my sedentary work from leading to
constipation more than high-fibre alone.

Really, the secret to productivity is understanding the nature of the problem
you are working on. All too often you can think it is all about solving X when
in fact it is more about Z. No one really sets aside sufficient time to take
stock and review the trajectory of their work so that they smooth the path
that lies ahead with proper insight into what constitutes the essential
aspects of the solution. As a designer it is vital for me to list every
feature I aspire to include and then rank them mercilessly in order of most
essential constraining and ultimately eliminating subsequent dilemmas of
choice further down the list towards those aspects that would be nice to have
but are not essential should you run out of time.

Even if you don't know enough about a highly ranked feature in this list its
position in the list should not be influenced by your ignorance of it. It
merely represents an area of on the job training that you need to budget for
(or realise that you have no time to learn about, in which case you should
probably ditch the whole endeavour and pick a project more suited to your
skill set, don't pretend that you can reshape your design without it as it
will just remind you of its compromised state each time you test it and make
you unhappy with your craft).

------
softbuilder
Intentionally inducing manic depressive swings seems like a bad idea. The
first-order problem is that you're self-administering, causing changes to your
mental state while you have to make decisions about your mental state. But
even if you have a physician on standby trying to optimize your state you're
still only human.

The theme in the post that resonated with me is that we're subject to waves in
the day, the year, etc.. This jibes with my experience. We're only so
effective at any given time, and certain times we're far more effective than
others.

Rather than trying to create more of those times, I've come to the conclusion
that I already get plenty of those times. I just don't always see it.
Realizing this, life becomes more like surfing: sharpen awareness of
opportunity, be ready when the opportunity comes, and then ride it to see
where it takes you.

------
JacobIrwin
Enjoyed the read, but not so sure that "caffeine is a zero-sum game." \-
[http://www.futurity.org/caffeine-stimulates-long-term-
memory...](http://www.futurity.org/caffeine-stimulates-long-term-memory/)

~~~
ta43434
From your link:

    
    
        The subjects—*none of whom regularly ate or drank caffeinated products*—
    

Tolerance is the main reason why caffeine is a (mostly) zero sum game.

------
dschiptsov
These "optimizations", assuming they are correct and will work, would give
some 5% "improvement" as so many optimizations do.)

Another thing is all linked to this very meaningless term "creativity", and,
perhaps, caffeine could somehow boost it, but in context of real craftsmanship
we probably should talk about artistic sense and inspirations, insights,
"flow" and "aha-moments" which, it seems, follow much more complex and subtle
patterns than just sleep, routine, glucose and caffeine. This will definitely
work for sports, but programming is not a sport, it is an art. And for an
artist a Muse is required, not a military routine.

Of course, routines and rituals has tremendous power - entire religions are
still standing on nothing but them, but this quite another subject.

------
neosergio
I like the macronap concept

------
michaelochurch
_I can’t help but lead with “ego” and “legacy” because the entire ability to
create something from nothing (programming) and to get disproportionally
rewarded for doing so (programming salaries) comes along with more than a
touch of blind privilege._

#Fail

[http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/software-
engi...](http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/software-engineer-
salaries-arent-inflated-at-least-not-for-the-99/)

Programmers are well-compensated compared to most people outside of the 1%,
but this idea that we're this overpaid class of people is ludicrous. Look at
the Bay Area: there's immense value being created entirely by some of the
world's top programmers, most of whom can't even afford to buy a house there.

We make enough money that no one should pity us, but the general payoff we get
is on the low side of fair, especially in VC-istan where the upside is mostly
hogged while the downside risks (damaged careers, sudden firings, constant
reorgs, rapid obsolescence of skills) are externalized to the engineers, who
are almost _trained_ to personalize their failures amid the dysfunctional
institutional miasma (marginal, poorly-managed companies) the VCs have
created.

Even if it were true, it would be against our interest to say that we're an
overpaid, entitled class. The fact that it's not true makes it even more
ridiculous when I hear people say it.

~~~
slexaxton
I don't know if I can properly distinguish the difference between programmers
being overpaid and the rest of humanity being underpaid.

> Even if it were true, it would be against our interest to say that we're an
> overpaid, entitled class.

Not everything that's true or right has to be in our interest.

~~~
wavesounds
I think everyone can agree that what you are paid to work should be near the
value your work provides to whomever is paying you.

Therefore people are underpaid if they provide a lot of value and receive a
lot less in return and vice versa.

Therefore are lawyers who create bad patents and then sue people over them,
thus destroying value and producing none themselves overpaid? Yes

Is a fast food worker working for minimum wage for a company that makes
billions of dollars in profits underpaid? Yes.

Unfortunately supply and demand determine our salaries and not strictly the
value our labor produces.

~~~
crusso
_Therefore people are underpaid if they provide a lot of value and receive a
lot less in return and vice versa._

The problem is determining the value those people provide.

If a business owner invests $10 million dollars in a complex machine that
creates $10 million dollars a year, is the employee who flips the machine on
and off every day and replaces toner cartridges producing $10 million dollars
in value? Hardly. The person/company who created the machine more directly
produced the value and he/they determined to sell it to the business owner for
$10 million dollars.

 _Is a fast food worker working for minimum wage for a company that makes
billions of dollars in profits underpaid? Yes._

No.

This has similarities to my contrived scenario. Billions of dollars were spent
in creating fast food companies that can mostly be operated by teenagers with
little or no skills. What creates the profit, the investment in all of the
infrastructure that lets the teenagers follow simple instructions or the
easily replaceable teenagers themselves?

