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How To Become Uber Productive While Working For Yourself

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196 pointsjoelrunyon90 comments

Wow, I feel like I could have written this a year ago -- I was doing exactly this. To-do lists, three coffee shops a day, 1-2 hour breaks in between, super-productive, as I've been bootstrapping my software product.

Then I ran into problems:

1) Wi-fi problems. Wound up getting a cellular dongle for the laptop, but there are still a surprisingly number of places it doesn't work reliably. When you need to push something to server ASAP, this is a killer.

2) It's exhausting. You only have so much mental energy. Finding suitable coffee shops online, finding them in person, exploring, walking, figuring out what to do for food -- this stuff is basically going to take up your entire day outside of work, no joke.

3) No "zone". If you have lots of bite-sized pieces of work to do, that don't require massive amounts of concentration, it can work really well. If you need to write a new database wrapper that is really just a sustained 8 hour stretch, you can't do it.

Then, there's the little details. Outlets for laptops. Spotty reception for phone calls. What to do with your laptop while you use the bathroom and there's a line, but you can't see your table from the line. The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter. And so on.

And above all, the last week here in NYC has been like 15-20°F. Forget about walking around outside. So I'm actually learning, there's something to be said for working from home, in a reliable environment. And then, to get out of the house, I schedule lunches with people, go to the gym, "extracurriculars" like basketball, music groups, that kind of thing. It actually works pretty well.

Good feedback. Here's a few counter points to the ones you brought out.

1) If you spend the time at the beginning vetting the places, you tend to figure out the intricacies. Once you find 3-5 shops, you can pretty easily avoid the ones with spotty wifi.

2) I find it actually does the opposite - it energizes me getting up, being outside & moving every once in a while.

3) I find my "zone" ends up tapping out after 3 hours anyway. I don't know the last time I can honestly say I had a productive 8 hours of "straight" work.

As for your location, that's a valid point. I just moved to San Diego for the winter. I couldn't (or probably wouldn't) have done this in the winter in Chicago.

I don't know about not being able to do this in Chicago. We live in Uptown and I can think of six do-able work locations within a three block radius of my house. I probably wouldn't've ventured out on Monday and Tuesday, when we have severe windchill, but I _could_ have.

> The café that has the A/C pushed to arctic temperatures when you're in shorts and sandals in the summer. The café that is freezing cold in the middle of winter.

This is done very much on purpose to subtly (passive-aggressively?) discourage people from camping out and using their coffee shops as offices.

Layers and no shorts.

Its probably done for the people working there. Working with hot drinks probably makes you hot, while sitting around probably doesn't.

Maybe, but 99% of the time it's because the proprietors can't pay their bills when people occupy their limited seating area for hours and hours on end without spending any money. Take the hint and find a Starbucks.

What about a co-working space? Prices range from $400-800/mo depending on space, privacy, and neighborhood; comes with "everything included" for a productive office space; is tax deductible. And you may meet other individuals or startups there during break times or evening events.

If you did a cost/benefit analysis on this already, I'd like to hear the details.

Note: I have worked from home for four months and then worked from a coworking space the past month.

Actually I did, just a few blocks away, right in that price range. It's a beautiful space with floor-to-ceiling windows (apparently they use it on weekends for film shoots and whatnot).

But I found it didn't actually provide anything, except for extremely high-quality coffee -- everyone was extremely hard at work, there wasn't really any socialization going on at all, so it was hard to see any reason to pay, when it wasn't really different from working from home.

It seemed to make more sense as a location once you've got your first two or three employees and you all want to have a spot to work together, but you don't want to rent a proper office yet.

But I'm sure a lot of coworking spaces are all different.

So, you decided to continue working from home. For context, do you have your own home/apt? Or do you have roommates? Or partner/kids?

I've seen in other threads that this becomes a factor. Having other people around (though sometimes distracting) keeps you fresh and helps prevent loneliness. Perhaps your motivation to do out-of-the-house activities help.

It's an apt, my own, no roommates. So it's great for getting work done, because there aren't tons of distractions.

But on the other hand, you absolutely do need to be very on top of scheduling activities, and make sure you get out of the house at least once a day. Friends, romantic partner, sports, groups, these things are all key no matter if you work from home or not, but especially if you work from home.

> What about a co-working space? Prices range from $400-800/mo depending on space

That is so damn expensive. I used to use one, near the heart of London (Farringdon), and it was £50 a month.

erm, that's fairly cheap - have you got the URL?

That is cheap. I'm in west London and looking at £360.

I'm at one and I would recommend it. But it's not the perfect solution, It provides you some socialization but it can be a little bit distracting: people chatting, mobile phones, somebody wants to show you a youtube video...

We have the rule that somebody with headphones cannot be distracted, but even with this sometimes is hard to get focused.

Good point. You can get a desk in London, UK for £200. In Shoreditch.

One note for wifi - if you have a home cable modem, find out if your carrier (and plan) are part of http://www.cablewifi.com/. In Comcast territory, it seems like these days most business connections going in also come with a wifi hotspot completely separate from the business service - the only common item is they're on the same coaxial cable and they plug an adapter in. I believe Comcast is putting these in a bunch of their outside equipment cabinets as well, so you'll find coverage in the oddest places.

The connections are fast, and at least in the Chicago area they've been spreading like the plague (they use red blobs to show areas of coverage/infection on a map).

Also find out if any of your friends has a cable internet carrier that's part of that deal. (Almost certainly yes.) Then beg or bribe them to create a sub-account for you under their cable account. (At least with Comcast this is easy, for some small number of accounts.)

Thanks to my cable provider's wifi network, I can get fast connections at my laundromat. Great time to get things done, since you're spending most of the time waiting for clothes to finish washing.

What about working in a public library?

The one near me has no problem with someone setting up a laptop for a day, has plenty of plugs, never a line for the bathroom, and provides a quiet working space.

Public libraries, at least in the UK, has very strict policies on their broadband connections. zyou cannot connect to non-standard ports there. Normally only the 80 is open.

If you are in London, the BL has a good broadband and I can use my VPN there.

Consider running a VPS (or just a router from home) and having sshd bind to port 80 perhaps? :)

I went Virgin.

Which ones? I sometimes work in the Swiss Cottage library and the Internet connection is usable and they don't seem to block ports. One alternative is to get a 3G/4G usb dongle.

Hertfordshire, also Hillingdon Borough except Uxbridge.

My local library has neither broadband nor toilet, but it does have power, and is always quiet. Crazygringo has described my days well, but I also have to coordinate my library time. There are paid workspaces nearby, which would cost about £150 per month more than the coffee shop, which I'll probably try out soon for a month. Working from home I certainly can't do in the morning at least, as I need the ritual of the 20 minute walk to "work". I believe Rene Magritte used to leave home in the morning, having kissed his wife goodbye, would walk around the block a few times, then return home to work.

I live a few blocks away from the main library in my city, they have a fiber connection through the state college that's in our county, for 150mbs connection.

There are some people in there looking for jobs and surfing Facebook but there aren't a ton of people in there using the wireless.

The problem is, it's useless for anything but web surfing. No github, no apt-get, no ssh, heck I couldn't even download the latest Java SDK.

Might be a bit of a yak shave, but you can tunnel arbitrary traffic over http. http://dag.wiee.rs/howto/ssh-http-tunneling/

Yeah, also tried this. The biggest thing that prevents me from working in a coffee shop is that it is simply uncomfortable. My home office is totally optimized for my comfort, with a big monitor and a comfy chair. I've tried working from cafes, but if anything they seem to be designed to be a bit uncomfortable to get you to finish your coffee fast.

I think you've been going to the wrong coffee shops. Does this look like a place that wants you to leave?

http://coffeecultureatx.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/dsc_7712... (warning: youth/"hipster")

Yes those are retractable power strips hanging over the tables. Incidentally (re: your username) this place is called Bennu and yes I just wanted to show it off cause it's great, and open 24/7.

Yup, as noted in many other threads that external monitor is critical and the chair, comfortable keyboard and my shelf of reference books are pretty critical, as are ear plugs and headphones.

I floated the idea to a couple coffee shops of buying some Costco 23" monitors and renting them for $4/hour, but nobody bit

The no "zone" thing is a big one. I feel like to churn out quality work I need absolute peace and quiet. A coffee shop is a massive distraction. People coming in and out, espresso machines, miscellaneous chatter; it's tough to concentrate and get some quality work done. Coffee shops just aren't made for that.

you're not hipster enough :p

I actually need that kind of background noise. I sometimes create a coffee shop environment from home with Coffitivity.

For all the people working at coffee shops/libraries... how do you deal with having to leave the place for a few minutes? For example, say you receive a call at a library, or want to go to the bathroom, etc. Do you take your laptop with you or do you risk getting it stolen?

Leaving my laptop unattended is the main point that stops me from working away from home

I usually ask someone who's been sitting there for a while to keep an eye on it. Hasn't been stolen yet! Though the coffee shops I work in tend to have other people doing work as well, with people sitting next to me.

I do a lot of my work from the cafe at Barnes & Noble, and I routinely walk away for extended periods of time, leaving my laptop sitting on the table, my car keys and wallet in my backkpack beside the table, and a cup of coffee sitting there. I've been doing this routinely for well over a year, and I've never had any of my stuff messed with.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I don't really feel like the crowd of people who come in there contains a lot of people who are going to try to steal a laptop or anything. And there are usually plenty of people around, and I've gotten to know a lot of the other "regulars" so that probably helps as well.

Turn off your phone. Call them back later. Take your laptop to the can.

Kensington Lock.

How common is it to work out of coffee shops? Where I'm from (Norway) I think you'd be asked to leave if you were to be sitting in a coffee shop day in and day out - unless you were drinking a whole lot of coffee, eating a lot of food, and drinking a lot of beer in the evening. Is it mostly a day-time activity perhaps? When the shop could be mostly empty anyway? The start-up culture is not so strong here though, and people tend to lease space in dedicated "start-up spaces".

Hi, I've been doing this is Oslo. You actually get well aquainted with the staff and it's been no problem the places I've been at.

How much did you spend each place / day?

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing.. I'm sure there's places that are quite empty and let you stay for a while during the day. But with the prices here it's cheaper to rent a co-working space than buy 3 cups of coffee each day :)

The mesh cafe is startup friendly, but I haven't tested how long I can sit there without buying anything :D http://www.yelp.com/biz/mesh-caf%C3%A9-oslo-3

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/867302-pic-starbucks-with-...

Very common in US, very rare in Eu. I believe is partially cultural, partially to show off, and mostly because there aren't enough public study spaces/libraries. (at least in Northwestern). In Eu, you look like a dork if you work in a bar, because is much more common to go to libraries. And to find suitable spots in an university to study.

I like techniques like this, but the issue I find myself struggling with a lot is that some tasks I have are ambiguous enough to be practically open ended.

It's one thing to bang out 1000 words for a blog post, but I might decide that in this 2 hour block I want to implement a feature. Except at the end of 2 hours I've made almost no progress because of some bug I didn't expect to crop up.

So I stick on the "feature" because I want to mark it off the list, but then I run over the rest of my list in doing so.

"Estimate better" isn't really actionable, so my issue stands.

I tend to try and break those ambiguous tasks down to less ambiguous action items. Sometimes that's not so easy because the task is "fix the stupid thing" - but I've found you can at least outline your process for approaching it & then sort of make sure you're following your troubleshooting process & using those steps as "action item" tasks.

I agree with you about ambiguous/open-ended tasks. I experienced the same. And also I don't like to spend too much time trying to list out specific tasks that I need to accomplish every day or do too much context-switching between tasks without continuity.

Instead of focusing on daily list, I categorized tasks in large buckets.

I drew a square with four quadrants on a Whiteboard. Each quadrant is focused on four distinct aspects. My quadrants for example are:

Q1 - Job Search, Freelance work, Q2 - Side Project, Blog, Data Analytics, Q3 - Algorithms, Python and Linux, Q4 - OpenStack, Networking

My goal is to spend at least one day on each quadrant every week. Every morning I look at Whiteboard, and decide what Quadrant I want to spend time on that day. At the end of the day, I mark the Quadrant that I spent the most time on with day initials on Whiteboard (M, Tu, W, Th, F, Sa, Su). I keep the day initials for 3-4 weeks so that I can visualize which Quadrant I am spending too much time in and which is being ignored and forces me to balance out day allocations.

This visual display keeps me focused and on track.

Interesting! Your quadrant approach reminds me of an article I had read some time ago, about a framework to spend time on different categories (Work, Play, Fit, Push) and the idea of planning one task for each category the week before on a weekly calendar.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3008409/dialed/how-schedule-your-...

Very cool. Thanks for sharing the link. It gave me some idea to improve upon my approach. I like the idea of planning one task for each category at start of the week. Right now, for me that weekly task list stays in my mind instead of showing up on whiteboard ... definitely room for improvement. Thanks again for the great link.

I think the breaking this into different sections of the day is over-rated. The most important thing in this is 'plan specifically what you are going to do today, then do it'. As the poster says, this is actually one of the hardest things about getting stuff done and most people don't actually do it. Personally I like to plan that out the night before, so I can get cracking right in the morning.

Agreed. Here's another blog post on the subject: http://calnewport.com/blog/2013/12/21/deep-habits-the-import...

This is sort of a personal preference, but I tend to find that I work best with an imminent deadline.

Before this, I would sometimes not doing anything all day and then rush to get things done before the end of the day.

Splitting it into parts gives me an artificial deadline that helps me focus my energy a little better. Also, taking the breaks in between each set of tasks helps with a sense of accomplishment but also just gets me moving so I'm not in front of a screen for 8 hours a day straight.

I was talking to my wife about something like this at lunch today and am trying to get it started for myself.

The thing I struggle with when digesting all these methods (workstation popcorn, Pomodoro, gamification, etc) is how, if you are having so much trouble staying on-task, you actually get yourself to stick to the set time/reward schedule. What keeps you from going, "Fuck this!" and shitcanning your schedule/to-do list/whatever in the absence of an outside force? I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else. I'm not sure how to get past that second hurdle.

The biggest thing this comes down to is discipline. Deciding that you're going to do something & simply doing it.

Breaking this down into 3 parts means that I'm not spending more than 2-3 hours in one place. If I'm having trouble sticking to something for a couple hours - there's usually a bigger problem than just being "productive."

> I have the dual issues of poor time management and trouble focusing when my mind wanders and wants to do something else.

I've worked a lot on these for myself and ended up with a process that's extremely similar to the article here.

Remember that changing your habits is hard and takes time: rather than changing everything at once, it may be better to build on and try to gradually improve on your existing routine. I'm not sure I could have successfully implemented all of this advice overnight, yet I've gotten there by building up good habits over time ('habit stacking').

I believe the exercise is perhaps the most important part of this: getting regular exercise helps you to keep good, consistent habits.

If you really just want to do something else, then maybe you should be doing that? And if in response to this you think "oh no, I can't do that because XYZ", then maybe that XYZ is the motivation you are looking for. You won't shitcan your schedule if you have a good internal reason for doing those tasks, because then you wouldn't get what you want.

My current motivation is that I want to grow recurring revenue by enough that I can move to a new apartment in Tokyo, which I have already picked out should I ever hit my goal. The tasks I pick for each day, I try my best to think "how will doing this task help me get there?". And sometimes the motivation is that whatever I happen to be doing is just interesting / fun in itself, where no grander goal is necessary to work on that.

Personally I tend to be suspect of people who will talk at length about how you need time management and how they do time management.

It's an area which seems like it's ripe for investing a lot of time into it, and presuming you're actually being productive.

Working from coffee-shops? No, thank you.

Look at the guy on the picture - he is holding his neck already. His workplace is absolutely not ergonomic. His laptop screen is positioned much lower than his eyes. You can work for 3 hours a month is such conditions, but if you try to work like this daily, you will cripple yourself very soon.

I agree working at home has its downsides. There are just too many other things at home that scream for your attention.

But working out of café has its issues, mainly slow internet and theft concern.

So I tried working out of a coworking space. While it was great, it was too expensive. You pay a few hundred a month just for the privilege of getting in, and that's only during official business hour. To get your own key fob for 24/7 access, that's another 50% on top of the cheapest plan. But you can't really relax/nap there.

And than I realized what about renting a cheap apt with a few friends? Rent 1-bed apt ($1000/month) and split with 3 friends. That's about $330/month, with automatic 24/7 access and space to nap in between marathon working sessions. And you can get fast internet of your choice.

Has anyone tried this?

Is that legal to do? It says in my apartment contract that you can't have more than 2 permanent residents in a 1 bedroom apartment. Granted, in your case, nobody will be living in the apartment, just working there at times.

How did you explain this to the landlord? And were they cool with it? If so, sounds like a neat idea.

Just to clarify, I've never done it.

I don't see why it would be illegal...

The scenario I was describing does NOT include any 'permanent' residents. They would be there just during normal biz hours (like 10am - 7pm mon-fri). For legal reason, maybe one guy could be the permanent resident and invite 2 or so friends to come use the apt as an office (away from chores, kids, distraction) and help pay part of the rent?

I first heard about an apt being used as office space while reading this book by Jessica Livingston: Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days

Ann Winblad is one of the founders interviewed in the book and she talks about using a 2-bed apt as the first office space for her startup, in late 1970s.

I just find the co-working space to be obscenely expensive, especially for someone on limited income.

When I work from a coffee shop one of my concerns is the restroom breaks. You can't really leave all your stuff on the table. You can't easily take them with you either. My solution is to ask people to my mind stuff but it's not always possible.

You usually CAN leave everything at your desk besides your laptop. Just grab your laptop and things will be fine.

The benefit of visiting a few coffee shops regularly is that you get pretty familiar with the staff & they'll keep a look out for your stuff if you have to go outside to take a call or head to the bathroom.

The 2Do-Lists are pretty-much obvious by now: If you have one, you decide what to do, if you don't then you go with the tied and that rarely brings where you wanna be. Now, if e-Todos works for you fine, otherwise use a notebook and a pen.

But the coffee-shop thing, really? For me it's a problem of being comfortable and posture. No coffee shop that I've ever seen is optimized for programming. Jesus, the best job I could think of, if I were in Silicon Valley would be designing furniture specifically for professional programmers: Desks + programming chars slightly leaning backwards to support the spine properly, measured screen distance, upper plate to host external hardware (printers, HDs, etc.).

A coffee-shop or a library might be an excellent place for group-work, but I would like to have a really small shiny (yes, shiny) office. Go there and be able to do work.

NOTE: When I get concentrated my mind isolates everything else, I could barely hear a cannonball (which come to think of it, is weird because I tend to sleep like a cat, the slightest rumor will weak me up instantly). I don't tend to get into that level of concentration often, but when I'm under pressure I do and I'm always amazed by the volume of people/music/tv/whatever around me when I come back.

I usually keep adding a todo's in a list, and each todo is with a countdown timer. so it's works like : not when due, but how much time left for a task.. and it seems to be working for me for last 4 months!

http://www.twikstik.com/

i get alerts like : 3 hours 29 mins left to task 1

2 hours 29 mins left to task 1

....

Here's a similar todo-list app that actually charges you money if you don't finish the tasks in time (it integrates with Beeminder, my startup): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gtbee/id779525180?mt=8

Answer: Don't read this article and get off HN.

Not loading for me. Try: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...

Of course, now it's working.

Sounds interesting, but working hunched over a Laptop all day is terrible and does you no good. At home i have my 2x 24 inch screens, 50Mbit wired connection, silence. I also need to answer skype calls quite frequently so the background noise and spotty wifi of public places wouldnt be ideal. I like to get out 2-3 times a day to get a coffee/eat/work out but i dont want to take my work to coffee shops. To each their own i guess. I like the idea of splitting the day into 2-3 blocks and trying to finish things before moving on, as a programmer that is easier said than done though.

I do find that I'm not nearly as productive working from home as I am working elsewhere. There are far too many distractions.

If I do work from home, the best way for me to get work done is if I'm sitting at my kitchen table, which is not in view of a television. Even then, I leave my phone in a different room to avoid looking at it. Even at the office I find I get more work done if I accidentally leave my phone in my car. Even if I'm not doing much with it, if it's there I'm tempted to look at it every single time there's a notification.

I discovered this technique through a comment somewhere here on HN. I couldn't find the commenter who originated it, but if you see this, let me know and I'll properly credit you (also, thanks!).

Something that has made a big difference to me is identifying my bad habits and constructing systems which actively prevent me from encouraging those habits (also see hyperbolic discounting). A few examples:

- I waste time on HN and similar sites. Solution: Install selfcontrol.app and block these sites for the period of time I should be working

- I find it hard to stick to the Pomodoro technique, ignoring the timer when it expires. Solution: Write custom timer app that locks my computer after 25mins and forces me to take that break.

For every project and track what tasks you've done, your current task and your very next task, tasks remaining, what you are waiting on, and whether you are blocked on this task.

Every time you finish a task, return to this document (I use a text file), update all projects and pick the next task from your highest priority project.

If you need to report progress, track recently done tasks, moving them to the done list once you've reported.

Thanks Joel. I use a slightly similar, more general framework--I only write down tasks that take less than 2 minutes to accomplish, and I never write down a task without a time estimate attached. http://www.marccarson.com/articles/how-i-keep-myself-on-targ...

Does anyone other than bloggers work in coffee shops? I find it hard to believe that you can do serious programming in such a place.

I don't program, but I run an online agency & am able to get serious work done quite often.

The places vary both from one to the next and from hour to hour. The coffee shop closest to me is large, and has a kiddies play area. In the afternoon it is unusable, overfilled, screaming, chaos, but from 5:30pm to 8:00pm closing time it's silent, everyone is reading or working, and it's very pleasant. The next coffee shop along has business meetings and bridge players in the morning, but the afternoons are quiet. There is coordination overhead.

I've been trying to work out of coffee shops, or even coworking spots the last few months, and I find that they are both lacking (unless you go all-in for coworking).

I'm finding now that my money is better spent in creating a productive workspace at home, with a proper desk, chair, monitor and computer set up in a place dedicated for working.

In my experience I tend to loose my productivity a lot when working from home for days. Going out 2-3 times a week helps me a lot to charge up, not necessary to work. But I think the idea of going out to work will only work for energy suckers, not for energy givers like my cofounder who loves working from home.

This works only if you are doing the same tasks every time, or if they are easy. And you should already know how you can do it. But, in case you have a big problem to solve, and some details are unknown, dividing project in daily to-do's can be tricky.

I Find That The Hardest Part is Deciding What To Do

It's also the one with the most impact.

How To Become Uber Productive While Working For Yourself:

Step 1) Do work instead of reading articles like this.

Partially kidding. It was a good and inspiring article.

Good coffee at Silo hey? :)

I like how you've integrated moving between coffee shops into your workflow.

Exactly what someone needed to tell me in this period on my life. Thank you dude!

Great post! I really learned many things from this. Thanks for sharing!

Surprised that people still use "uber" as an adjective in 2014. It was cool in 2007.

Getting uber productive while working at cofe on free wifi:

To be uber productive you need good task list. Instead of writing 'get shit done' split it into smaller tasks:

- find toilet

- put toilet seat down

- produce shit (at least 1 feet long)

- sit down

- cleanup and flush

Also do not forget to produce piss in good balance. There is a rule called 80/20.

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