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Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

This is the great thing about remote working. When I worked in the office I felt like I needed to be seen working, even if I really wasn’t because, let’s face it, programming often requires time not working to allow your subconscious to figure out the solution to the problem you are working on. So I would have my butt in the seat, but wasn’t actually doing anything. Now with remote work I can go for a walk, do the dishes, etc. while my mind is working through things. I get just as much actual work done (if not more), but I no longer need to pretend to be doing something for appearance sake.

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Yes! And it's more than just the need to appear to be working—in the office I don't get much choice what I do with the breaks that I do take.

At work, many of my "breaks" are involuntary distractions that yank me out of flow, and during the others I can't do anything productive for my home life, so I end up reading HN or something similar.

At home, I can go out and play with my kids, take care of something that's been bugging me around the house, start dinner, or walk the dog. Those breaks not only give me the subconscious processing time I need, they also check things off my to-do list that have been distracting my subconscious, allowing me more focus for my work. I end each day having done more at work and more at home, so when Saturday rolls around I don't feel like I'm playing catch-up.

I believe that's an open secret few, if any, people are talking about and is the largest reason why WFH has increased productivity so much. Not to mention your mental health is far improved because you don't have to keep up the BS of appearing to work to people who don't understand the nature of our work. They're still scratching their heads as to why we became so much more productive while WFH.

yes. people don't realize this, but IT'S OKAY to take a break... in my last office, besides dragging feet to get coffee it seemed people wouldn't even go stretch for 10 seconds. they even bought a brand new PS5 and NEVER even played for months and months (and it probably still accumulates dust over there...)

it seemed inhumane - and crazy nobody told them it wasn't okay or anything... I like getting some sun, let the blood flow, things like that. it's not only okay, it's highly recommended - even necessary.

This is one of the reasons diversity (in this case neural diversity) is important in the office. I've worked in a number of startup where theoretically take breaks, playing video game, going for a walk, whatever was supported, but in practice nobody did it. But all it takes (when the management is supportive) is 1 or 2 outgoing people that make a point to prod their colleagues to do something. Working with a few people that say, "hey, who wants to go play drisbee in 15 minutes" or "pinball tournament after lunch" makes the work environment much more enjoyable. On the other side, the company driven "mandatory fun" is a drag. It needs to be opt-in, often spontaneous, and supported by culture.

>"hey, who wants to go play drisbee in 15 minutes" or "pinball tournament after lunch" makes the work environment much more enjoyable

Oh hell no. I need a break, but the last thing I want to do is take a break with other people. I'd rather sit at my desk pretending to work that go play games with other people. That is literally hell on earth.

But now I can't go for a walk on my own because then I'll get questions about where I am going and why didn't I go and play their stupid game with them instead of going on a walk on my own.

one size doesn’t fit all is the takeaway of almost every post here.

there's an unspoken rule to appear productive and "committed" while in the office, especially when everyone else - including your engineering manager - is doing it, you feel a pressure to do the same!

same thing for not leaving home at 5pm sharp and waiting 15-30 mins before you allow yourself to leave

it has to start from the top

If the weather is nice, you should leave at 3. To stay happy and motivated.

The weather is almost always nice in california

Then you need to create the special occasion on your own :)

And yet if you have to use or rely on code by other people, you for sure don't want the code from a grinder, work hard and get something out by hook or by crook, rather than the code from a brilliant thinker who goofs around and then does an elegant and complete solution. There's good intentioned and capable people that are a net negative to a code base. It's like yes, this solves the problem of the minute, but couldn't you have taken two hours to think a little?

Absolutely. I never understood why taking mid-day breaks and relaxing wasn't encouraged when I was a full-time employee. Coworkers even mentioned it regularly during conversations that their problems always seemed to be solved while on a walk, in the shower, etc.

When I started my own business I made it absolutely clear to the people I hired that the workday is just when you start and when you finish, but everything in between (including breaks, walks, lunch, etc.) are all part of "work". It's not like when you go to lunch you just stop thinking about the hard problem you were working on, and even if you do stop thinking about it, that's an important part of the mental digestion process.

In my last on-site programming job I spent at least half of the time either talking with colleague about not (directly) work related stuff or I spent it in the break room. Nobody cared, we got our work done, everybody was happy.

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