Hacker News Reader

Comment by bubblebeard | Hacker News Reader

My feelings exactly. Whenever I get one of those days I’ve found I get more done away from my desk. Taking a walk in the forest or doing some household chores can really help you get back on track.

Of course at times it’s just better to admit altogether this isn’t a day meant for work and spend it relaxing instead. Usually, the benefit of that is a really productive day at work the day after too, everybody wins.

View on HN

Almost all my employers and managers have been very understanding about this. But one of my favourites was a manager earlier in my career who picked up that I was anxious about my work hours and ethic. To paraphrase, he said, “the company isn’t paying you to solve problems M-F 9-5. It’s paying you for when you solve them in the shower or on a walk or when you’re putting your kid to bed, and then come into work and implement the solution.”

I’ve thought about this for years as I tune my work life balance. I’ve never felt like I’m wrongly bringing work home with me that way. It’s always felt like an incredible optimization where my job gives me these puzzles I get to carry with me and work on when I’m bored or my ADHD addled brain screams for stimulation.

You've been very lucky. I wish I had a similar experience. Managers who truly think that way are beautiful creatures.

Do you happen to know if that one is hiring for anything at the moment? Left to solve problems at that pace, I'm pretty sure I could do some great things for them.

Most remote work gigs are basically this.

There are absolutely places where you are chained to the computer in remote positions this is a culture thing not how work is done. We have a nice culture and we are hiring, sadly not remote anymore.

I do not think it actually affects productivity in either way. What happens is that people seem to feel better.

I've never worked anywhere where I wouldn't be laughed at for suggesting this. "No, we do pay you to work from 9-5, M-F." You are very lucky.

As long as I compulsively think about work in the shower, at 3AM in bed or while out running, I will never feel guilty about thinking about anything else than work for a while during 9-5.

This is one of the very best things to me about work from home. There are times I just get up and go piddle in the garden, take a short bike ride, or even just run an errand. I even do it when I'm stuck rather than just from being interrupted. It helps the brain to essentially, ctrl-z; bg and then move on to the next thing. When I return, I find the job %1 has completed, and I have a new approach/idea that is typically much more successful than the previous attempt of banging my head on the desk/keyboard in frustration. It's much healthier for me than vibe coding around the problem

Sorry my grandmother used to use the word piddle to mean pee so I got a real crack out of this.

I read it the same way and assumed they were piddling in the garden to add nitrogen to their compost.

In my experience, to piddle around is to fool about, while to simply piddle is, indeed, to potty. So based on that, I see where you're coming from.

I absolutely meant piddle about, but I guess that key word got left out.

In my experience, to piddle around is to fool about, while to simply piddle is, indeed, to potty. So based on that, I see where you're coming from.

Yeah, most of my best work comes while I’m out for a run on a local forest track. I try not to think about work while I’m out there, probably that’s why it’s so helpful.

100%!and also why I have been self employed for 11+ years.

Same here. I often work more on the productive day if possible to maximise the roll I’m on

Reply on news.ycombinator.com