
Ask HN: Tools and resources for making a calm company or calm workplace? - carrygan
Hi!<p>I&#x27;ve been a workaholic these past few years and struggled with health and mental issues because of it. I used to work long hours and sometimes even work for 80+ hours a week. I sometimes even experience guilt when I&#x27;m out doing other things when I could have used the time to work instead.<p>Since last year, I&#x27;ve been slowly fixing my work habit (being a workaholic) and now try to only work less than or equal to 40 hours per week.<p>Books like &quot;Rework&quot; and &quot;It Doesn&#x27;t Have To Be Crazy At Work&quot; and following Jason Fried and DHH on Twitter really helped changed my perspective about work.<p>I&#x27;m planning to curate a list of tools and resources for making a calm company or a calm workplace. So my question is, what are the tools and resources that you know that would help in making a calm company or a calm workplace?<p>Currently, this is what&#x27;s on my list:<p>- &quot;Rework&quot; book: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;rework<p>- &quot;It Doesn&#x27;t Have To Be Crazy At Work&quot; book: 
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;calm<p>- &quot;Remote&quot; book: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;remote<p>- &quot;Getting Real&quot; book: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;books&#x2F;getting-real<p>- Work Can Wait feature of Basecamp: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;features&#x2F;work-can-wait<p>- Shape Up: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;basecamp.com&#x2F;shapeup
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cco
Walls between employees, traditionally called offices.

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carrygan
Sorry, what do you mean? Is it a title of a book or something?

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hcarvalhoalves
I believe he's making a critic on open-office trend.

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carrygan
Thanks to all the responses so far!

I forgot to mention on the post that I also went through relationship issues
because of workaholism. Previously, I'm proud that I'm a workaholic and wear
it as a badge of honor. I'm glad that my perspective about workaholism has
changed now.

I know that a lot of people are having issues too because of workaholism so I
wanted to curate a list of tools and resources for making a calm company or
calm workplace and hopefully it will help people achieve a better work-life
balance and will help companies improve the work environment of their
employees. Hopefully, it will also help spread awareness and prevent people
from having to learn the negative effects of workaholism the hard way like
others and I did.

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AndreFvchs
Cognitive behavioral therapy is a really great way to get out of bad habits
like working long hours. A calm workspace is awesome but won't fix
psychological issues.

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winkelwagen
[https://hurryslowly.co/](https://hurryslowly.co/) it’s a podcasts, think
there are definitely some interviews with people that might give you new
resources.

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carrygan
Since you mentioned a podcast, I remembered "The Rework Podcast" \-
[https://rework.fm/](https://rework.fm/)

I'm learning a lot from its episodes.

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cntainer
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67825.Peopleware)

Happy and healthy teams result in productive teams, who would have thought :)

Some of my best work was done during 40 hours weeks or less. Whenever I break
that rule the end result suffers because I lose creativity and focus.

It's ok to do the occasional extra time when you're really engrossed in what
you're doing, but overwork has long-term negative effects.

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carrygan
Thanks! I'll check that out.

Couldn't agree more on the things you said.

When I started only working for 40 hours or less per week, the quality of my
work improved. I guess it's because I learned how to use my time better since
I know that I will only work for 40 hours or less. And most importantly, I'm
happier and healthier now and I get to spend more time with family and friends
:)

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nefitty
My life feels nicer with plants around. I would love having plants at my
workplace. The second best thing is views of greenery outside. The last resort
is pictures, posters, desktop wallpapers of green places.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2018/02/10/think-
you...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2018/02/10/think-you-dont-
need-houseplants-science-says-different/)

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carrygan
Thanks! Interesting.

Do you work in a company's office? Or do you work remotely?

I'm also curious on how many plants do you have in your workplace?

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nefitty
At my previous office we had a huge window view to a really green area. It was
great. We didn't have any real plants inside, though. That might be a
maintenance thing, i.e. we'd have to figure out who would take care of them
and it might be out of the scope of the janitorial staff.

At home I'll randomly but little $5 plants for me and my wife. They add a
little more life to house.

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AndreFvchs
Get yourself a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. Inspiration:
[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-
head...](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-noise-cancelling-headphones/)

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rapnie
This resource (while mainly targeted at improving insane Chinese work
schedules) is about work-life balance:

[https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU/blob/master/README.md](https://github.com/996icu/996.ICU/blob/master/README.md)

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carrygan
Thank you! I'll check it out later.

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gtirloni
[https://twist.com/](https://twist.com/)

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carrygan
Thanks! This looks like a really great tool. Would most likely be a great fit
for us since we're a distributed team and our working hours are different from
each other. I'll give it a try soon.

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gtirloni
It's pretty good and a breath of fresh air from using Slack.

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carrygan
Glad to know that you're having a great experience in using it. Curious on how
large is your company or team? And its setup (e.g, distributed)?

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sjg007
You need to say "no!" and get managers to say "no!" as well. Setting limits
and boundaries etc...

