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Comment by nik736 | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure about that. There are always tasks that can be done without having to think too much about it. The more time you put into them, the more of those small tasks you can complete. I wouldn't start building new features or change important parts of the code base after a 10hr day for sure, but there is a lot more that can't "break everything".

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> There are always tasks that can be done without having to think too much about it

As you tack more of these on to the end of the day, you get less rest, and tomorrow's window of opportunity for doing difficult work shortens.

The problem is there will always be small tasks and those tasks might actually delay longer more important tasks. At some point you need to prioritize what is most important with your time.

If you’re always grinding small tasks to make time for a larger task that too will burn you out.

The point is there are lots of small tasks you can do when you're brain isn't capable of doing focused work. Certain work requires careful thinking and can only be done when you're in top shape to be done effectively. Prioritize that work when you're energetic, etc. Do the small tasks when you're not so you're high quality time get's used well.

Those tasks don't require concentration, yes, but they drain your energy supply just as well as those that do. This means that the likelihood you'll be energetic and creative tomorrow diminishes the more of them you pile up at the end of your shift.

So IMO do 2-3 of those and call it a day. You have to be in a work shape tomorrow as well.

There’s also personal aspect to that: working when your mind already fails - sucks. It feels like wandering in a deep forest only occasionally seeing the light. Or clicking randomly through windows management consoles in hope it works. Very uncomfortable, boring and demotivating, even if nothing goes wrong in a project afterwards.

This probably has no economical benefit even. I believe in most cases a second shift would do this work much quicker than an exhausted team that spends most of this time squeezing last drops of sanity at overtime rate. [laughs in corporative]

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