What is your least popular but deeply held opinion on personal productivity?

About software development, I have a lot of unpopular views about testing.

- You should try to write as few tests as needed (and focus on getting as much value as possible out of each test case).

- Only write unit tests for logic that is either: 1. Too complex to reason about or 2. Very old and hasn't changed in a very long time (like 1 year or more) and you want to lock it down.

- For TDD; integration tests are the best.

Also, I have unpopular views about statically typed languages; I'm not a big fan of them. I spent many years working with statically typed languages in a professional setting (in fact, my first language was statically typed) so I have a deep understanding of the pros and cons of each one so I feel very strongly that dynamically typed is better in terms of productivity (both for initial development and also refactoring).

Basically I'm against the corporate approach of software development. I'm particularly against all software development approaches which aim to treat engineers as disposable and untrustworthy entities.

It's obvious why executives don't like this type of thinking but it's surprising to me why engineers themselves also often disagree with it.

Mine: getting a good sleep and regular exercise has a greater impact on productivity than your choice of methodology.

That we (in software development) should worry more about negative productivity than positive productivity. If you're headed in the right direction, doing the right things the right way, you're productive even if you're moving slowly. The world doesn't need more efficient mess makers, but that's exactly what we get when people focus too much on per-hour or per-day pseudo-productivity. Races don't award medals for being the fastest runner in the wrong direction.

Being productive doesn't make me happy. Sometimes being happy makes me productive, but certainly not always. I can be very content doing nothing for long time periods of time.

As a result, I generally don't value productivity very highly.

Going in with the mindset that I will probably fail (badly) the first time I try at something. Most people, including an earlier version of myself, are discouraged by it. I now find comfort in it, and I also find I'm a lot quicker at trying out new things and implementing new routines while succeeding at them than before.

Productivity is not about who is working the most. You can't always be productive. Sometimes it's better to take some time off and think about things.

Moving fast is not always the most productive way to do things.

Workplace environment can have a huge negative impact on productivity. Noise and distraction can kill productivity.

98% of meetings are useless for almost everyone in attendance, and the whole meeting could have probably been replaced with an email

> Being super organized is a bad thing... [It can] make you overly passive on other peoples’ use of your time.

This is why I practice “Inbox who gives a fk”. I scan the subject lines of the messages in my inbox, and only open the ones that I think have relevant information that I can’t get some other way. (I currently have greater than 7700 unread emails in a relatively low traffic account.) Any time taken to touch/manage/sort/categorize/unsubscribe is a waste.

Procrastination has benefits. I am not sure it's a net gain, but I will tell you it's paid off more then I would be comfortable admitting (over 20+ years).

As a manager, the job is to make your employees not happy but productive. Employee happiness is one of many ways you can get to consistent productivity, but it's not the end goal.

I've found too many managers believe as long as their employees are happy then they're doing a good job managing. It is totally possible to have happy unproductive employees, and sometimes the only way to help them improve is to make them unhappy. Set difficult expectations, alert them to their failings, and establish a transparent plan for improvement. If necessary, take away the damn ping pong table.

I want to employees to be happy insofar as it improves their output, retention likelihood, and company morale. If their happiness kills their and others productivity then difficult conversations must be had.

One big screen. Proper full-sized good quality keyboard. Fairly chunky wireless mouse.

If you spend most of your time working at a desk, why are you hobbling yourself with inferior kit which exists to be portable, not productive?

Yes, I'm relatively old... Get off of my lawn!

Productivity is a poor metric for actually improving your quality of life, solving hard problems, or doing much of anything other than running in circles at speed.

Keep a clean house and your equipment in a good state of repair; your kitchen and bathroom with all of their associated appliances and plumbing are as important as your bedroom and office, and it is worth it to keep a cleaning and maintenance schedule you follow like clockwork.

Get at least 8 hours of sleep, a physical at least once a year and see a dentist at least once a year. Cook your own food, or marry someone who will do it for or with you. If you drink any beverages routinely, invest in the equipment to do it yourself.

I don’t care what tools you hack in, you know what you need better than I do, the only thing I will say on this topic is that for any task I use a computer for, I make sure that of my equipment, there is one canonical way to do it. If I want to set a timer, I use Siri. If I want to invoke a podcast, I use Siri. If I want to know the time, I look at my watch on my wrist, not on my phone. If I want to read something, it is either in Instapaper or iBooks, unless it is Wikipedia. Anything overtly mundane, I probably already automated.

It’s not what you use, it’s how you use it, and I like things to be boring and predictable. I don’t ever want to be surprised.

Thow every best software practice out of the window. It is administration growing more administration. Peer programming is just dividing productivity by two.

To be productive: start vi, code, run the code. No source control. No planning. Just do until you reach your objective.

My way is to iterate and improve. I get in one day what a team gets in a month if they are lucky

And when I don't feel like working, I don't. I wait until I feel the need.

There are two kinds of work to be productive on: exciting work and busy work.

Exciting productivity occurs when you are doing or learning something new. The excitement motivates you to keep taking another step forward. For this type, I have learned it is best to take baby steps to avoid burnout and to create a steady flow of productive days.

Busy productivity is boring. It is standard routines that you just need to do. For this type, I have found that my mood greatly affects how much I can do. There is no strong motivation other than "it has to be done." That being said, I add additional motivation by keeping in mind that it will make my future self's life easier.

Last thing I want to add is that productivity stems from self love, and the simplest way to love yourself is to take care of yourself: eat well, exercise, and sleep well. Having that basis will motivate you in all other aspects of life.

That caffeine is bad for work that requires thought.

Productivity is largely dominated by decisions to keep using and deal with a tool which is mediocre for the job or to redesign the tool... and often the best decision is to keep using. I've found management of technical debt to be one of the hardest things. Most people either fall into the camp of continuously reinventing the wheel because it's kinda fun, often easy and satisfying, and they can convince themselves that the time invented will pay off, or they just use bad tools and curse the darkness rather than lighting the candle. Some snap back and forth between these two extremes. Having good judgement about this is a rare and valuable skill.

Mine is getting high and listening to Jazz while I clean the house. (I don’t know if it’s unpopular or not but I bet if it were more popular there would be less people in a shit mood)

For me - no remote work: I would fritter 12 hours being lazy and unproductive.

Instead, I'm at the client's site for 6 hours. I set my monitor so people can see it and then I crank. I go home and turn off the devices and enjoy the time with my family - without worry.

It is more productive to hate a task and do it in a rage than to love it.

You have to actually use the system for it to work.

Context: I have pomodoro timer, Asian Efficiency, 7 Habits, Personal Productivity self help books galore and still get nothing done.

Productivity is the death of personal growth. Talking zero sum game here. More of one means less of the other.

A) You have always done whatever you wanted to do. You get a say in which voice/urge most constitutes 'you'. The more you veto, and the more you can distinguish the urges, the more of a say you get. Everything else is fluff.

B) The productivity industry is a total sham and a net drain on productivity. It's mostly social manipulation. The industry takes attention away from the things productivity is a side effect of, such as level of control, overall health, and level of insight into oneself. This is partially due to -

C) All texts/advice/systems put minor spins on a couple of templates, and most of the good ones steal from Marcus Aurelius. Whichever flavour of system fits the fashion of the day the best becomes 'the best' because reasons.

D) The definition of 'productive' is so absurdly narrow and restricted in the late-capitalist hegemony as to render most of humanity utterly useless. Clearly, they're not [1]. It's more about raising members of a certain class with a certain personality profile [2] up to the status of a golden cow.

[1] for example, parenting is a fairly productive activity.

[2] that is, two things we're lucky to be able to change a lot about.

Good god, it's sunday. Can we lay off the 24/7 productivity mantra or propaganda for one day. Monday through saturday isn't enough?

A while ago I tried to count the number of overt "productivity" messaging I came across in a day and I stopped after 17 or so - probably because it wasn't a "productive" use of my time. Who knows how many subconscious or covert productivity messaging I was getting.