Jason Fried: The pleasure of an open schedule | Hacker News Reader

Jason Fried: The pleasure of an open schedule

37signals.com

48 pointsmawhidby10 comments

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I totally agree with Jason on this one. (I'm usually their devil's advocate)

I had a week vacation in May, and then a long weekend in June where I went out of town. For the last 2 months, everything I've been doing has been clouded by a "I'll start on that when I'm back" mindset. I don't know why, I just couldn't focus on anything new until those vacations were over.

I wish I knew what was happening here on a deeper level. I need to keep this in mind next time I find myself doing this so I can out-think it and just move on anyway.

I thought that 37 Signals argued that constraints are good because they force you to be efficient. Can't a busy schedule with a lot of traveling be considered the same way?

Constraints != interruptions.

Perhaps it is not so much the case of traveling, but the case of high level context switching. What does "productive" mean to you? If you don't regard public engagements as productive, then I would agree that traveling for them is very unproductive! Otherwise, doing so could be viewed in the same way as a person who runs two types of businesses (e.g. a restaurant and a software shop) in which case switching between those responsibilities takes a lot of start-up time. I'd therefore agree with mburney's comment above that being aware of those constraints should force you to be more efficient.

I don't do near as much traveling as Jason Fried; but I personally find travel to be a refreshing interruption that is usually followed by a new perspective toward my work.

I'm always full of ideas after SXSW, for example.

summary: traveling every week makes you less productive.

What about the biggest and most regular productivity killer of all? Weekends.

Should we get rid of them?

Good idea, but make the workdays of everyday shorter so you still get same amount of hours of work done each day. I much prefer this method since whatever you were working on is still fresh in your head.

When I was doing freelance work I worked for ~4 hours every day of the week. I got much more work done that way than doing 9-5 Mon-Fri even though I was working less hours in total. Its a much easier rhythm to get into and you get to skip those unproductive hours spent just waiting for the clock.

This works especially well when you are doing creative work. Come in and do at least some work every single day you possibly can. You don't have to do a lot of work every day, but try to stop at a natural stopping point.

My theory is that by working every day you keep the work current and churning in the back of your mind; while by working to a natural stopping point, you avoid feeling frustrated by loose ends.

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