Only Working When You Feel Like It?

http://thintz.com/essays/work-when-you-feel-like-it

by thecombjelly • 16 years ago

118 39 16 years ago

thintz.com

jaekwon• 16 years ago

At happy hour nearby, chatting with a new coworker.

"So, why do you get to come to work so late?"

What do you say to that?

spudlyo• 16 years ago

"I'm a pampered software developer. I can't believe how much I complain about my job, despite the good wages, free snacks & beverages, flexible work hours, telecommute option, and having the boss refer to me as a rock star."

thecombjelly3• 16 years ago

"Because I direct my life towards where I want to be."

JacobAldridge3• 16 years ago

Define "come to work". Am I considered at work if I'm going through that annoying bug during my morning shower, or spending my weekends networking online with technical colleagues?

sirrocco• 16 years ago

I doubt this is a good comeback as the other person might very well also be thinking about some company related stuff and talking to colleagues on weekends.

sscheper• 16 years ago

"Don't mistake activity for achievement"

- John Wooden

InclinedPlane• 16 years ago

"What do you say to that?"

Answer: "Because the value I provide to the company through the work I do more than justifies my salary, regardless of how many hours I spend, and what time I arrive, in the office."

Shorter answer: "'Cause I get shit done."

btilly• 16 years ago

"Come by my desk at 8 PM tomorrow night and I'll be glad to explain."

azanar• 16 years ago

There really isn't a whole lot you can say; quips certainly won't help.

The problem here is a fundamental misunderstanding by your new coworker of exactly how the employer/employee relationship works, as opposed to how he, or really most people, believe it works.

In his understanding, the relationship stops with the employer, and the employer is paying for his time the same way he might pay at a meter for parking his car. What he's doing while his car is parked will vary, but he is expected to pay the same amount at the meter per unit time regardless of how worthwhile being parked there is to him at any point in time. In the same way, an employee is paid for seat time. The service he provides to his employer may vary depending on what the employer has him doing, but he expects the same remuneration regardless.

I suspect by your confusion, you see the same misunderstanding as I do. The relationship chain does not stop with his employer; instead it recurses out one or more levels from there until it reaches a customer paying for the product. This is where the value of the work is realized, when you find the person who will purchase the good or service on behalf of themselves, rather than on behalf of someone else further up the chain. More often that not, this last person in the chain will end up paying based on something other than time. If this customer refuses to pay more than employer is paying for your time, you are not productive enough, regardless of what sort of sense of entitlement to employment you think your diligence and hard work provide for you. You cost more than you produce; thanks for playing.

If you generate enough value for the actual customer that your employer is happy with the cut they get, then it absolutely should not matter how many hours you put in to generate that value.

It really comes down to a question of which is more important in being an employee: the value you produce for your employers customers; or how well you demonstrate your willingness to work hard, be a team player, demonstrate a strong work ethic, be diligent and obedient to the chain of command, or any of a myraid other things that might increase the value you produce to your customers, but are not the same thing as producing value to your customers.

The market is brutal; it couldn't care less how pious and moral you are.

JacobAldridge3• 16 years ago

I have confidence in this model for certain people who have a drive to achieve things.

I feel it's mostly incompatible with having a partner / spouse (and would love any disagreement or contrary evidence). Especially if the partner works 9-5, working when I feel like it will often eat into relationship time.

thecombjelly3• 16 years ago

I would agree on with you on having a drive to achieve things makes it easier. Then again what model works for someone that doesn't have a drive to achieve things?

JacobAldridge3• 16 years ago

True, there's no model that works. They need to receive very clear expectations, be held constantly accountable, and appreciate that they will probably transfer through a lot of jobs (or roles within a government department or large corporation) and never earn more than an average salary.

For plenty of people, that's actually OK. For others, insert the occasional 'the world owes me' or 'life isn't fair' discussions.

SomeCallMeTim• 16 years ago

I'm thinking about trying this, despite having a relationship/family. I think the right approach is to set expectations appropriately--and to spend at least some of your "off" time with the family to make up for the long days "on". At least that's my theory.

jimmyrcom• 16 years ago

Sitting in front of the computer sometimes isn't the most productive use of time. All the greatest ideas have come from people who were thinking while on the shitter. You can't avoid thinking about the problem whether you're working on it or not. Forcing yourself to work obviously by definition means you don't want to think about the problem while you ADHD tab switch between hacker news reddit, digg,IM and your email anyway. If at any point working entails anxiety it's not being managed correctly. The sitting in front of the computer part is reserved for when you know how you're going to implement/structure the problem. Starting at it while what's next seems fuzzy only leads to distractions.

Also if you 'try an experiment for a month' hoping to your hypothesis is correct, you're easily setting yourself up for a logical fallacy.

nitrogen• 16 years ago

Personally, when I'm completely unmotivated I do have to step away from my work for a while. But, the times when I'm on the edge of calling it a day but not too tired, and push myself to code for another hour or two, I have the most breakthroughs.

aaronblohowiak2• 16 years ago

"know thy self"

greenlblue• 16 years ago

I have experienced the same thing. I can't figure out why it is this way though from a biological/neural perspective. When I'm getting tired of work I usually just step back for a few days and just do fun stuff like watching movies, playing video games, and in general just doing stuff completely unrelated to work. Magically, after a few days of routine that's unrelated to work, when I get back to it everything just seems more manageable.

TotlolRon• 16 years ago

I read it. But in my head I heard Peter Gibbons saying it. Strange.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax2Dpr6r98Q Sorry. Had to.

eavc2• 16 years ago

The big lesson here that might be more pragmatic is to avoid quasi-working, the state of half-working that feels like full-bore work without actually getting much done.

thecombjelly3• 16 years ago

Is there a better way to avoid 'quasi-working' then to work only when you feel like it? I've never been able to figure out a good, sustainable way to do this without really being motivated.

eavc2• 16 years ago

There are a ton of tricks for it.

Give yourself a reward to work for. Take frequent breaks. Delimit your tasks into very specific chunks of time. Usually, just getting started is a huge factor.

stretchwithme2• 16 years ago

I recently came across PJ Eby's work on thinkingthingsdone.com and find his insights very useful.

He's made a study of what mental habits cause us to be either "naturally successful" or "naturally struggling".

I personally have not been making headway on my goals for a while now, so I would say I've been struggling.

One key idea is whether one chooses to focus on what one can gain or on what one might lose as you pursue a goal.

A focus on potential losses makes one fearful, more likely to be paralyzed and ultimately fail.

If you ignore the potential losses and focus on what you can gain, you more naturally just take the actions required to get what you want. Flow is the way to go.

angkec• 16 years ago

Just watched his video and tried the method, all I know is: now my desk is finally clean!

Thanks for pointing the blog out :)

dotBen• 16 years ago

I've actually been able to work "when I feel like it" for the past 1.5 months.

Honestly. I've not really been anywhere near as productive as I should have been -- because I've had no reason to set goals/objectives/milestones.

Maybe this doesn't work for everyone.

aaronblohowiak2• 16 years ago

"should have" ? maybe you needed some time to unwind

jister• 16 years ago

This work habit won't work if you have an employer otherwise your employer will also "Pay You When He Feels Like It".

nostrademons• 16 years ago

Depends how enlightened your employer is. We've got a HarborMaster high score whiteboard in my cube, and one of the guys in the next cube over was showing us his Starcraft 2 Beta skillz today. Nobody bats an eyelash when I get into work at 1 PM and leave at 10 PM.

It's an issue if you aren't working at all, but as long as you're getting your work done and your job function doesn't require client contact, why should your employer care?

GFischer• 16 years ago

Reminds me of a quote from a former Uruguayan president: "They pretend to work and I pretend to pay them".

That aside, I guess this approach might work in a results-oriented work environment (not that I've seen many).

kd0amg• 16 years ago

The author is a student at Michigan Tech (not sure if/where he has a job). I o_0'd a bit at taking this particular week off, since this week was final exams. Whatever works for him, I guess...

rosshudgens• 16 years ago

This reminds me of 37signals ideology a good bit. It works for them, but not everyone. But props to you for doing what they don't - not shoving it down our throats, opening it up for conversation, and accepting potential barriers to success.

schammy• 16 years ago

I didn't see this so much as "working when I feel it" but more as "wow I sure am productive after a nice relaxing break".

I agree that a nice break from the daily grind can be very good for you. I as well find myself quite productive after being away from the grind for a day or two. But that doesn't mean I despise what I do!

hooande• 16 years ago

On the tv show Mad Men, Don Draper described it as "we let our people be unproductive until they're productive". I think this applies to any kind of creative work. If I know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it, I'll just do it. If I have to come up with a solution to a difficult problem, I do whatever until I solve it.

kahawe• 16 years ago

Working long hours on pointless stuff just to cover your 9 to 5 makes you exhausted, demotivated and brunt out? Spontaneous, fun activities and just taking some time off for yourself recharges your cells and makes you feel fresh, focused and energetic the next day? Please do tell more of your crazy, new ideas!!

In other breaking news, a sack of rice has tipped over in China!

djm• 16 years ago

I've been starting to do this over the last week or so as an experiment. It's too short a time span to give me any useful data, but so far my impressions are positive. I've gotten less work done than usual but feel considerably less stressed, which is a net win in my view.

If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, read through the articles in the study hacks blog - http://www.calnewport.com/blog/. It's aimed at students but I've found it interesting and somewhat inspiring nonetheless.

mattvanhorn• 16 years ago

I pretty much do this myself now, and although I find myself working more than ever (in terms of both hours and productivity), I also feel better about my work life than I ever have.

One caveat, though - 'only working when you feel like it' works best for me if I 'always work when I feel like it'. Which is to say, staying late when I'm in flow, and picking up my laptop when I get a good idea on the weekend, etc.

neonak• 16 years ago

Steve Pavlina wrote a post about his one week on, one week off workflow. It's similar to the post that's discussed here. It doesn't really matter how long your on and off days are.

He uses his on days to get as much done as is possible and his off days to just do what he wants. In the off days he gets the inspiration and motivation for another round of high productive on days.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/02/one-week-on-one-wee...

I also noticed similar effects in my own life. It's like creating little deadlines for yourself where you have to get something done within a couple of days, and you make everything work to do just that. Within the 9-to-5, monday through friday mentallity it always seems if there will be another day to get it done. There's no pressure.

Also, the long days off indeed help to think creativly about your work and have idea's and solutions just 'pop up' at random.

kunley• 16 years ago

Good strategy, but there's a catch:

when you expect that taking off will boost your productivity afterwards, it won't work.

This is general rule in life: if you stick to expectations you loose.

Only Working When You Feel Like It?

Related Stories