
Things that aren't work - jordanmessina
http://www.aaronkharris.com/things-that-arent-work
======
vinceguidry
Things that you might be tempted into cutting out because they don't look like
work but actually are:

\- Participating in your professional community. Looking at you, HN.

\- Going out for drinks with friends. Actually having friends.

\- Spending time with loved ones. Actually having loved ones.

\- Spinning your wheels for awhile when working in your business stops feeling
productive and your subconscious is prodding you to look for strategy
refinements by killing your enjoyment of the work. Yes, it's work finding out
what's not moving the needle, and the way you do that work is to stop doing
stuff, and the way you know to stop doing it is that you don't like doing it
anymore.

\- Spinning your wheels doing new stuff that you're not sure whether it will
ever contribute to the bottom line or not. Eventually you'll have to make a
decision, but if you're not sure yet, that time isn't now. Keep doing it until
you know exactly why you're stopping.

~~~
Chinjut
Instead of saying "these things [friends, loved ones] actually are work, in
the sense of sustaining your business productivity, and are therefore
valuable", I would prefer to say "these things aren't part of work (in the
business sense), but are nonetheless valuable". (Indeed, for many of us, more
valuable; business is a means to other goals, not vice versa)

~~~
vinceguidry
They are work because you have to invest time into them to get the rewards.
You have to find the time, in order to find the time, you have to claw back on
the time you spend working on/in your business. So it becomes 'work' even
though it's not, really.

~~~
candu
By this definition, just about everything is work, and the term "work" itself
becomes meaningless.

~~~
vinceguidry
That's what generally happens to people as their flywheel gains momentum. It
gets harder to tell where one's contribution to society ends and one's
contribution to self begins.

------
swombat
> _Talking to your cofounders and team - Sometimes, this looks like having
> coffee or grabbing a beer. Invariably, you 'll be talking about work and how
> things are going. This is work because you need to know what's going on, and
> need to care about how your team is feeling and doing._

I can't stress the importance of that enough. I think one of my best decisions
on GrantTree was, until recently, to have 121s with almost everyone in the
company on a biweekly basis. This scaled up to about 20 people. Yes, it took a
chunk of time out, but it was extremely well invested time, imho. I think it
was instrumental in pushing through some very complex cultural shifts and
getting to where we are now, which is that the company is basically self-
managing and I no longer need to steer people in this hands on manner at all.

I strongly recommend this type of work. Someone may occasionally criticise you
and say "but you're wasting a quarter of your time each week!" \- you're not
wasting it, you're investing it in the most valuable resource of your startup:
its people.

I guess the reason many people might not do it is that it takes a certain
humility to realise that your work output is actually worth less than
investing that time in growing and developing the people who work in your
business.

~~~
bobbles
Did you have any structure to these 1on1s?

My old manager used to do these with the entire team, but he would literally
sit with us, as 'how are things?' and then end the conversation if they said
not bad

~~~
dmlol
From the management perspective, I want to know about personal development
goals, team member interactions (and problems), and generally just "how you
are doing" with a focus not on work product/tasks but on human health.

I block off an hour for each, but want a minimum of 30 minutes of conversation
and I can't imagine leaving before then.

When I have mine with my manager, I tend to break it down into four
categories: personal, team, department, company.

------
birken
> Writing blog posts about running startups

Glad this is first. It is ironic because the founders writing the blog posts
and giving advice have proved that they actually don't know what they are
doing by the very act of wasting their time writing blog posts.

\---

I feel one of the luckiest things that happened to Thumbtack was that for the
first 3 years or so the company got basically no press, raising money was
difficult and we got a lot of negative feedback from a lot of people. This
meant not only did we not have any opportunities for the time wasting things
listed (giving advice to others, talking on panels, etc), but we didn't get
any validation from anybody for pretending to be successful.

~~~
Swizec
For a lot of people, me included, writing about things is the same as thinking
about things. I _need_ that written output to be able to work through things
and inspect them deeply.

And if I've spent all that time distilling my thoughts into a readable form, I
might as well post it.

------
joshu
Re investor updates - a thousand times yes. A huge chunk of the companies I
invested in never send updates unless I push them. YC companies are especially
guilty (a few never even told me when/if they shut down.)

------
at-fates-hands
>>> Writing blog posts about running startups - This feels good. If it gets
onto Hacker News and gets a lot of views, you'll feel really flattered and
proud. But don't confuse people reading your post with people knowing and
caring about your company.

Not sure I agree with this one.

I've worked at two startups and both made major inroads in industries they
wanted to break into by doing this. They wrote several posts that were
published in various magazines and "{trade rags" for their industry.

It gave them exposure and explained what their application did and how it
could solve an industry wide problem. Doing this actually landed both
companies a major corporate client.

Blogging about general stuff isn't work, and if you're trying to get it on HN
or some other "technical" site that is not related to your business, then yes,
not work. If, however, you get it published in an industry specific
newsletter, magazine or trade paper, I would say it will worth it.

~~~
akharris
I think you're absolutely right. Same rule for blogging as for conferences -
if you're writing for your customers or users, then that's good.

I've yet to see a case where writing posts about running a startup falls into
that category.

~~~
millisecond
37 Signals blogged about running a startup to good effect. Although worth
noting that I believe they stopped doing conferences and lightened up on
blogging considerably in the past few years.

------
pyre
Wait a minute... This "isn't work":

> Having coffee with investors - This can be confusing, because sometimes you
> need to meet with investors. If you're gearing up to raise money or need
> specific advice, this is work. Most of the time, though, this isn't work

But this is:

> Writing updates for your investors and meeting with them one on one - I've
> written about investor updates. These relationships are important, and can
> be incredibly helpful as you grow. Maintain them.

Notice the "meeting with them one on one" in the last quote. Wouldn't having
coffee with them qualify as meeting with them one on one and "maintaining" the
relationship?

~~~
jordanmessina
I believe the first point is referring to investors who haven't put money into
your company. If you aren't currently raising money, you shouldn't waste your
time talking to investors. Raising money is a long process, and can't be done
part time. Some might argue that meeting for coffee can help build a
relationship with an investor, which would result in making raising easier in
the future. However, if your company is worth investing in, these
relationships shouldn't matter when it comes time to raise.

The second point is referring to your company's current investors. A monthly
update let's those who have a vested interest know where you're at currently,
and what you may need help with. Investors should be doing everything they can
to help a company. That's why this relationship is important.

~~~
pyre
> If you're gearing up to raise money or _need specific advice_

(emphasis mine)

That part makes it seem like they are talking about _current_ investors. How
many random investors (that are not currently vested in your company) meet you
for coffee and give you specific advice? Maybe this is just a Valley-specific
thing?

------
mfoy_
Here I was thinking this was going to be a blog post advocating a work-life
balance...

~~~
jlarocco
Ha! Me too. Then I saw "Co-founded Tutorspree. Partner at Y Combinator.", and
realized it was going to be the opposite.

~~~
akharris
Why? I actually think I have a pretty good work-life balance, though
admittedly I've had times where that wasn't true.

~~~
jlarocco
You're a partner at Y Combinator, I'm sure you have a great work-life balance.

But, being a partner at Y Combinator, it's in your interest for the founders
of the companies you're invested in (especially the newbies who would need
this advice) to not have a very great work-life balance, and that's who your
article was targeted to.

Maybe I read too much into it, but some of the points are so obviously not
work that I have a hard time believing anybody would think they are. It made
the whole article come off as, "You shouldn't be screwing around, you should
be toiling away at your startup."

~~~
akharris
I think you're bringing a lot of false assumptions into your argument.

It's definitely not in my interest for the founders I've invested in to have
bad work-life balances. It's not in my interest because I like them and care
about them as humans.

Even if you were to assume that I was motivated exclusively by profit (which
I'm not), then it would still be in my best interest to help founders find
good balances. In that world, I wouldn't want them burning out, which is what
happens when there's no balance.

I've seen founders and friends do everything on this list and call it/justify
it as work. That's why I wrote the piece.

------
karangoeluw
> Things that look like work but aren't: > Writing blog posts about running
> startups

Anyone else see the hypocrisy here?

------
seanplaice
Talking about work != Work

~~~
candu
Depends.

If your partner asks you how work went and you answer, it's not work.

If you're out for beers "after work" with your coworkers and you end up
discussing outstanding bugs, planned refactorings, or anything else that you
would normally be paid to make decisions on, it most certainly is.

