

How to murder your productivity - jirinovotny
http://www.dextronet.com/blog/2012/04/how-to-murder-your-productivity/

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dfan
According to Jiri Novotny, 'As popularized by Tim Ferris, according to Josh
Waitzkin, “A study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking
your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the
moment 10 points." '.

Only three levels of indirection from the (purported) original source! I'm
convinced.

I tried tracking down the original study, because I have access to the
internet, and eventually found
[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002493.h...](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002493.html),
in which the guy who ran the original "study" says how ridiculous the reaction
to it is.

Too late now, though - every other blog post about productivity mentions how
Tim Ferris mentions that Josh Waitzkin mentioned that he heard about it. The
next one I see will probably use this post as its source.

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vbtemp
Quite simply, the best way to strangle your productivity and toss it in the
bay is to work at an office with a regular 9-5 weekly schedule. For innovative
types (e.g., software engineers) and people with my temperament, what ends up
happening is that you build a lifestyle based around the daily schlep to work,
and you end up doing just enough to get by.

~~~
dansingerman
Absolutely true. I have recently changed my career from mostly office-based to
mostly working at home. I think the days I now spend at home are about 200%
more productive.

The typical office environment is the antithesis of what you need to achieve
'flow'.

~~~
vbtemp
I'm not sure if it's the "office environment" per se. It's the lifestyle built
around the daily routine. The problem is, in big organizations, it isn't
really fair to everyone. A receptionist, for example, has to be there during
work hours, or many managers, and many other types of engineers such as RF
guys or mechanical guys. It wouldn't be fair to yield tremendous flexibility
to the software engineers, despite higher productivity.

~~~
RollAHardSix
Sure it would. If they want to become an Engineer help them. Obviously most of
them won't. When you take a job, you're taking that lifestyle to boot. I
remember the exact MOMENT I didn't want to do sales for the rest of my life. I
was at an award conference for being in the top 5% of performers (yay me) and
the discussion was on reality tv shows (oh so boring). One of the _managers_
sitting across from me remarks how he's never seen most tv shows because he's
worked 2nd shift for 15 years straight. It wasn't anger in his voice, or
jealousy, it was simply a statement of fact.

Fact is, I did not want to be him working 4 - 1 for the rest of my life. Most
sales jobs require odd hours, pushes on weekends, and a different skill-set
than other types of jobs. No thanks, I'll take my 9-5 in exchange of other
crappier hours, working on weekends, etc. You take a job, you know what effect
it will have your lifestyle, that's really all I'm saying.

~~~
vbtemp
> If they want to become an Engineer help them.

I'm trying to understand what you mean...

Yes, you're right. when you sign up for a job you acknowledge the change in
lifestyle it may cause. My point is that from the perspective of the
organiztion, it can a highly inefficient use of money, and aggravate some
otherwise competent and capable engineers.

~~~
RollAHardSix
Education Benefits of course. Tax deductible for businesses, and great
compensation for employee's. I've almost obtained a second degree in
Communication Design due to my job needing advanced graphics and printing
industry knowledge. It was a benefit I suggested and my employers were more
than happy to work with me.

That's true, some would enjoy the freedom of more flexible scheduling. I
consider myself very lucky to be able to change my schedule around to make my
daughters doctor appointments, tour several private schools in the area, and
sometimes stack my hours at the beginning of the week, so it's 2'o clock on a
Friday and I'm out the door. Not all the time of course, but every once-in-
awhile it IS fantastic.

------
Zanon
I'd prefer fewer self-post spam blog entries on HN. Seriously.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=jirinovotny>

~~~
DenisM
So if a person has something to say to HN that does not fit small text box, he
should not say it at all?

~~~
Zanon
It becomes pretty obvious when a person views HN as just a SEO fountain.
Occasional self-posting is fine. This is extreme. Especially when you consider
he seems to be involved in both componentowl and dextronet. That's blatant
continuous self-promotion.

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bemmu
Adding everything to a to-do list isn't so bad, as long as you consider it a
"rough list of ideas it might be a good idea to do, but need to be seriously
prioritized" instead of a MUST do list.

~~~
jirinovotny
What you describe is not a to-do list. It's a list of ideas. And if you start
putting urgent stuff into your list of ideas, you are in trouble.

Have two lists. It's that simple, really.

~~~
oscilloscope
If you have two lists, why not three? Maybe you should just have a list of
lists.

~~~
leviathan
After trying a lot of approaches, I found that the two lists approach is what
works best. One list has the general overview of what I need to do, the second
list is what I need to do right now.

List one is edited only when a change in schedule is required, or a new
project is added. The second list is edited and revised daily.

More importantly, those two lists are done using pen and paper, which I found
to be the best tool for the job.

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tluyben2
It depends on the work you do. The bad chair obviously not and besides that I
have most of these things. I'm very productive for what needs to be done by me
in the position I hold currently. As developer, this would be a great way to
destroy my productivity indeed.

~~~
coffeecheque
It does indeed depend.

I work in the media, so it's my job to react to what is happening. Information
comes through to my email and if I miss it, we are behind competitors.

Notifications at essential to immediate communication between colleagues who
need me to certain things for program output.

That said, I would like a new chair...

------
chhantyal
This is so true. Is there any post just opposite of this one: How to save your
productivity?

