I'd say that six hours is smashing it! I'd guess at 3 hours of primo quality output, then a couple of hours of good stuff, then an hour or two of mundane emails and meetings. Anything after that is probably flushable.
100% this. I sometimes have days where I have 5 or 6 hours of back to back meetings, so my productivity is non existent. 6 hours of consistent work is knocking it out of the park, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I managed that 😅
Six hours of work a day sounds about right. It would be nice if it was my work, and not everyone else's BUT THAT'S ANOTHER ISSUE.
Two hours a day spent talking shit, getting coffee, glancing at reddit, ABC news, or Wordle (we have a hyper competitive wordle chat on Teams and the mocking if you take more guesses than the winner is soul scarring and therapy inducing).
I can't help but feel that the 1999 movie Officespace describes my feeling in the workplace and effort/focus.
PETER
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way Lumbergh can't see me. Uh, and after that, I just sorta space out for about an hour.
BOB PORTER
Space out?
PETER
Yeah. I just stare at my desk but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd probably, say, in a given week, I probably do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work.
BOB SLYDELL
Uh, Peter, would you be a good sport and indulge us and tell us a little more?
PETER
Let me tell you something about TPS reports...'
Cut to later. Peter is more relaxed.
PETER
The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's just that I just don't care.
BOB PORTER
Don't, don't care?
PETER
It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now, if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So where's the motivation? And here's another thing, Bob. I have eight different bosses right now!
BOB SLYDELL
I beg your pardon?
PETER
Eight bosses.
BOB SLYDELL
Eight?
PETER
Eight, bob. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my real motivation - is not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job, but y'know, Bob, it will only make someone work hard enough not to get fired.
BOB SLYDELL
Bear with me for a minute.
PETER
Ok.
BOB SLYDELL
Believe me, this is hypocritical. But what if you were offered some kind of stock option and equity sharing program?
PETER
I don't know. I guess. Listen, I'm gonna go. It's been really nice talking to be of you guys.
He shakes their hands.
BOB SLYDELL
Absolutely. It's all on this side of the table, trust me.
PETER
Good luck with your layoffs. I hope your firings go really well.
I read a book called Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, and he mentions a whole bunch of prolific writers and scientists who found ~4 hour work days got them the best results 👀 He goes into detail about their work lives and schedules- really interesting.
When you calculate project management timelines you only do 6 hours maximum work hours per team member. Even in the public service. If they go over that just speeds up output, under you can fix that with oversight. So you're doing Aussie standard project batting and balling.
The 8 hour day thing is dumb. Don't know why that number was picked and cannot be bothered doing my own research, but bet it's for some inane way out of date reason. Probably capitalism. 5, maybe 6 hours good output a day is doing well. And then only if you can avoid office and sundry distractions.
I read somewhere that bell labs in 60s estimated that workers in the knowledge workers are only good for about 6hrs a day. Everything after that was just wasted time. It seems pretty consistent with my own experience.
Six out of eight hours sounds unfeasibly good to me. The only times I've managed better than six is when "working" many more than eight hours. If I get seriously obsessed with a project I can do three hours at a time without noticing the outside world at all, three hours later I look at the clock and am surprised what time it is - but then I'm knackered, need to do something else or else the next few hours of "work" are entirely non-productive. It's been a while since I've managed a three hour stretch - current workplace is carefully designed to force us to "collaborate", which is another way of saying never focus for more than five minutes at a time - it's a wonder the operating systems get delivered in more-or-less working form.
I had that 'lost time' effect with Weapons of Choice. I sat down to playt with the idea, to avoid working on another project. Looked up. Six hours gone. Eight thousand words written.
I'd say that six hours is smashing it! I'd guess at 3 hours of primo quality output, then a couple of hours of good stuff, then an hour or two of mundane emails and meetings. Anything after that is probably flushable.
100% this. I sometimes have days where I have 5 or 6 hours of back to back meetings, so my productivity is non existent. 6 hours of consistent work is knocking it out of the park, I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I managed that 😅
Mostly, after work, I drank beer.
Which is indeed flushable...but I meant the output of any "work" in the remaining couple of hours of the workday.
I’ve been retired for 10 years, but even as an office drone this sounds pretty productive.
Coffee, shooting the shit, emails and assorted web surfing eats up a lot of time.
More than working from home and keeping the cats off the keyboard.
Looking forward to the big reveal.
Six hours of work a day sounds about right. It would be nice if it was my work, and not everyone else's BUT THAT'S ANOTHER ISSUE.
Two hours a day spent talking shit, getting coffee, glancing at reddit, ABC news, or Wordle (we have a hyper competitive wordle chat on Teams and the mocking if you take more guesses than the winner is soul scarring and therapy inducing).
I can't help but feel that the 1999 movie Officespace describes my feeling in the workplace and effort/focus.
PETER
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late. I use the side door, that way Lumbergh can't see me. Uh, and after that, I just sorta space out for about an hour.
BOB PORTER
Space out?
PETER
Yeah. I just stare at my desk but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch too. I'd probably, say, in a given week, I probably do about fifteen minutes of real, actual work.
BOB SLYDELL
Uh, Peter, would you be a good sport and indulge us and tell us a little more?
PETER
Let me tell you something about TPS reports...'
Cut to later. Peter is more relaxed.
PETER
The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy. It's just that I just don't care.
BOB PORTER
Don't, don't care?
PETER
It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now, if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime. So where's the motivation? And here's another thing, Bob. I have eight different bosses right now!
BOB SLYDELL
I beg your pardon?
PETER
Eight bosses.
BOB SLYDELL
Eight?
PETER
Eight, bob. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my real motivation - is not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job, but y'know, Bob, it will only make someone work hard enough not to get fired.
BOB SLYDELL
Bear with me for a minute.
PETER
Ok.
BOB SLYDELL
Believe me, this is hypocritical. But what if you were offered some kind of stock option and equity sharing program?
PETER
I don't know. I guess. Listen, I'm gonna go. It's been really nice talking to be of you guys.
He shakes their hands.
BOB SLYDELL
Absolutely. It's all on this side of the table, trust me.
PETER
Good luck with your layoffs. I hope your firings go really well.
I concur with everyone here. Six hours is heaps. Five is a good day.
I read a book called Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, and he mentions a whole bunch of prolific writers and scientists who found ~4 hour work days got them the best results 👀 He goes into detail about their work lives and schedules- really interesting.
When you calculate project management timelines you only do 6 hours maximum work hours per team member. Even in the public service. If they go over that just speeds up output, under you can fix that with oversight. So you're doing Aussie standard project batting and balling.
The 8 hour day thing is dumb. Don't know why that number was picked and cannot be bothered doing my own research, but bet it's for some inane way out of date reason. Probably capitalism. 5, maybe 6 hours good output a day is doing well. And then only if you can avoid office and sundry distractions.
Unions won it (and weekends) after beating the monstrous hours of the industrial revolution. 8 hours sleep. 8 hours ‘relaxation’. 8 hours work.
I read somewhere that bell labs in 60s estimated that workers in the knowledge workers are only good for about 6hrs a day. Everything after that was just wasted time. It seems pretty consistent with my own experience.
Six out of eight hours sounds unfeasibly good to me. The only times I've managed better than six is when "working" many more than eight hours. If I get seriously obsessed with a project I can do three hours at a time without noticing the outside world at all, three hours later I look at the clock and am surprised what time it is - but then I'm knackered, need to do something else or else the next few hours of "work" are entirely non-productive. It's been a while since I've managed a three hour stretch - current workplace is carefully designed to force us to "collaborate", which is another way of saying never focus for more than five minutes at a time - it's a wonder the operating systems get delivered in more-or-less working form.
I had that 'lost time' effect with Weapons of Choice. I sat down to playt with the idea, to avoid working on another project. Looked up. Six hours gone. Eight thousand words written.