How to Be a Rocket Ship: Be More Productive One Minute at a Time

Well, tell you what, that's not the metaphor I was hoping to see. Rocket propulsion gets more efficient in flight because the rocket gets lighter as it burns its fuel: same punch, less mass to move. What I _figured_ I'd see here was the same notion applied to software work. Namely, building up small efficiencies in an organization will have compounding effects. What are those? Well, percentage point improvements to build systems, slow, careful work to cut down on resource consumption in software systems, etc etc.

This was... different. Achieving maximal time efficiency -- "goofing off for 5 minutes every day adds up to 3 more full days of work per year" -- is sacrificing long-term sustainability for short-term, uh, presence, I guess? It's certainly not that your work is better when you micro-manage your time, even in the immediate term. The mind needs play time to make associations between ideas, to keep up one's well-being. Three more full days of work a year don't mean anything to anyone if to _get_ those three days you're left a shambles.

In short, rockets don't work this way and neither should anyone else.

> Choosing to work instead of goofing off for 5 minutes every day adds up to 3 more full days of work per year. That’s a big deal.

You know what else rocket ships do? They burn out.

More worship at the altar of optimally-filled-time which misses a larger point - research consistently shows that the "goof-off" time is where our brain goes to work on the real hard problems.

Sure, if all your startup does is crank out CLs, optimize for that. But I'd wager that unless you're solving bigger problems than "more code!", your startup is not going anywhere. (Don't get me wrong, there is a phase when all you want is more code, but it's a very short moment in the life cycle)

Oddly, Knuth comes to mind: Programmers waste enormous amounts of time thinking about, or worrying about, the speed of noncritical parts of their programs, and these attempts at efficiency actually have a strong negative impact when debugging and maintenance are considered

> hack your hamster brain and trick it into working harder

If you need to 'hack' and trick yourself into being productive, try find another line of work or just take a break.

I'm not knocking this approach - all of us are wired differently and this method may squeeze another line of code out of an under-stimulated brain - but there's something decidedly anti-'flow' about conditioning sips of coffee around how often you save your code.

Instead something like the Pomodoro method, 5 minutes of play at the end of every 25 minutes of work, might be more effective with less mental overhead: don't trick the hamster. Cede 15% of each hour to him/her while the rest of the time is work.

It's non-trivial to calibrate your work habits and psychology for maximum sustainable productivity for different tasks. "But but flow!" someone might say. To which I'd respond: even flow has its weaknesses. Get flow-greedy for writing software, and you'll find yourself working late, eating crap, and not exercising.

And it's different for different work. The mentality you need to be a good student is different than the one to be a good salesman, which is different from that required to be a good husband, etc.

What I can say with confidence, though, is that it makes a notable difference. A long time ago I read an article linked here that talked about "stacking wins." Consistent success can deliver crazy rewards, because so many (more than in the past, I feel) areas of our lives are subject to vicious/virtuous cycles.

Doesn't anyone else shudder at how honestly they express productivity as a simple brain chemistry hack? Is work supposed to be a Skinner Box?

I'm a huge fan of the Pomodoro Technique. TL;DR I do nothing but work - no email, no Twitter, no Hacker News, nothing - for 25 minutes and then take a mandatory 5 minute break. During that pause, I give myself complete permission to do whatever I want as long as it's not the thing I'd just been working on. Although it's probably not for everyone, it works brilliantly for me. There's a lot of research showing that the unskippable break gives your brain a chance to consolidate memories and your subconscious to pick away at new ideas while you check your Coinbase account. I also don't feel any guilt at all about taking breaks because I know they're good for me and that I've earned them.

The blog proposes the diametric opposite of Pomodoro, and I would probably be able to sustain that slog for about two weeks before having a breakdown. I am highly skeptical that anyone can work like that regularly while maintaining high productivity.

Has anyone considered that maybe the human biology is actually smart enough to figure out whether you should/shouldn't be focusing on something at a given time and that there might be negative effects to trying to scam it into doing what you (your boss) want (wants) all the time?

I don't like the notion of "hacking my brain".

First, it can create long term unwanted needs, such as requiring you to treat yourself for every little achievement. This could lead to a lot of things - weight gain, guilt, or all kinds of addictions (coffee, games..)

Second, I think that improvement is achieved by slow and consistent practice. "Hacks" are... well, hacks. They aren't supposed to be used over and over again.

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” -Zen proverb

To the moon with you then, worker bee.

Taking sips of coffee throughout the day is actually an awful idea, btw. You should drink it with meals or at least drink the cup at once, otherwise you're gonna be exposing your teeth continuously to an acidic beverage without giving them time to remineralize.

For some reason I get the most done when I decide to do nothing. It's like I relax, get in the flow and can really work. On the other hand the faster I try to run the further behind I get.