We all have days where we are less productive. Something happening in our lives, medical appointments, errands, family or other social problems. We might get distracted or having a tough time focusing. Sometimes we might go down the rabbit hole on a work item or task that isn’t high value, but is personally interesting over less interesting work with higher impact. Whenever I have those days or slumps, I end up feeling like I “owe” productivity. I have to make up for lost time or effort. So I end up working late hours or do weekend work. Covid WFH has made this even worse, where I’ve found myself less productive, and have this feeling more often. Do others share in this feeling? Anybody with this type of feeling that has come up with tricks that have worked to minimize it?
No. My manager and skip told me its fine just take care of you and your family.
I used to feel like this and it would often times give me anxiety. I’ve learned to chill out and as long as I’m not missing any deadline then just try harder tomorrow.
In general I’m not going to work myself to the bone for someone else. If I wanted to go that route I’d work for myself. Hell most of the meetings we have are bloated and unproductive in my opinion. So do I put that in the “non productive hours” ?
Yeah, I feel it, but catching up doesn’t work too well because my best energy is gone. It creates a vicious cycle and domino effect. It’s better to cut the losses, plan properly, sleep like a king, and have a great morning the next day.
Took me a long time to learn this but I almost always regret working late into the evening vs. decompressing, getting a good rest, and coming back to the problem (and likely solving it much faster) the next morning
Yeah, me too, and I repeat this mistake from time to time. The more tired/nervous/reactive you let yourself be, the more you repeat these unhealthy patterns. Having backbone and be willing to be fired for doing the right thing kind of helps not repeating it.
No. We are knowledge workers. Sometimes you have 8 hours where you produce nothing or end up spending all your time correcting a previous mistake. Other times you have a moment of brilliance where one idea is worth thousands of hours.
Thank you for saying this
100%. I worked hard this week so feel l can truly relax and enjoy this mlk weekend.
Same! Enjoy the weekend! Go get some luvin’
When I was at Microsoft, I could work 4 hours a day and be a high performer. They simply didn’t have more tasks....
Perfect company for someone like me. Even though I'm a new grad, I like to not have too much pressure. I dont subscribe to grinding in my early years. 😊 I'd rather rest and vest lol
I stayed 5 years myself, plenty of time to do other stuff like gym or studying or ... I barely have energy and time now to do anything else, but I get more $. Will go back to MSFT in a couple of years..
I have highly productive days and less productive days. It averages out.
I feel like I committed a war crime if I don't push at least 1 diff a day.
This just lead to trash commits or one liner fluff commits
I have enough respect for myself to not pull that kid shit.