Ask HN: Developers, how many hours do you feel you are productive in a day?

[moosov]

I had emotional discussion with my boss and I couldn't convince him that 40h in a week and 8h in a day is not always the most productive approach. So please share your feedback and based on that I'm going back to my boss - https://guaana.com/quiz/how-many-hours-do-you-feel-you-are-productive-in-a-day

[hmark]

I feel like such a sucker! I got excited to go to your quiz and vote for the 5-6h option just to show your boss.

Then Spidey sense tingled...

Looked at your profile, then followed your last submission to product hunt and found out that you are the Founder CTO at guaana.com. Co-incidence?

Next time please do put a disclaimer and definitely do not try to "Growth Hack" HN.

[saluki]

Going back to your boss . . . not recommended . . .

y, most likely you're never going to convince your boss that you're only productive 3 or 4 hours per day . . . if anything you'll be bringing scrutiny on what you accomplish daily and possibly lower reviews/raises/advancement.

Very few companies are open to anything less than 40 hours per week or even 4 day work weeks.

I would put your efforts in to finding a company/boss that does or work on starting your own thing in your extra time.

Good luck in 2016, fight the good fights.

[markcmyers]

On your quiz, the average answer is "3-5 hours," and this squares with recent research suggesting that in an 8-hour day, mind workers are doing actual work about 3 1/2 hours on average. The rest of the day is spent on snacking, gossiping, Facebook, etc.

I'm a highly motivated independent developer and writer, and I've been studying my own work habits to try to become more productive. I use toggl — https://www.toggl.com/ — to track my time throughout the day. I'd work 12 hours a day if I could, but I can't. I run out of gas after 2 hours, 3 hours — and sometimes 8 hours. My limit on tedious, fussy, boring tasks is about 2 hours, after which I'm not much good for anything. My limit when I'm writing a book is 3 to 4 hours. If I'm building something out of code or working in Photoshop, sometimes I get addicted, and then I can go 8 hours. Addiction seems to be the only thing that gets me close to being as productive as I'd like to be. Sadly, I can't choose to focus only on the types of tasks that I'm addicted to.

My sense is that most people — probably including your boss — have never measured how much cognitive work they themselves can do before their brain is fried. I'm talking about real work, not meetings. Meetings use almost no brain glucose at all, so are a way to pad "working" hours without increasing fatigue substantially. I'm convinced this is why meetings are so popular in corporate America.

As long as no one is measuring, it's easy for everyone to kid themselves that they're good for 8 hours and that everyone else should be, no matter how unrealistic that may be.

[samizdatum]

Sometimes, at the tail end of a day, I'll be sitting in front of my computer, with a clear idea of exactly what I need to do and how to do it... and yet I'm just sort of sitting there stupidly, because my brain feels fried. It's the same sensation you get when you crank out one too many reps at the gym- you're sending all the right signals, the nerves are firing, but your muscles just don't work.

When I get this fried brain feeling, I've found that eating something sugar-rich, like a piece of chocolate, can attenuate this feeling- not completely, but enough to get me out of the paralysis and started, at least. I don't know how much is placebo, but hey, it works, so I'm not complaining, and there seems to be at least some studies supporting the existence of similar effects.

[hanniabu]

> I'll be sitting in front of my computer, with a clear idea of exactly what I need to do and how to do it... and yet I'm just sort of sitting there stupidly, because my brain feels fried

Thank you for that comment, I thought this was just me....definitely makes me feel a little better

[remyp]

I absolutely agree that this seems to be why meetings are so popular. It's the business equivalent of two exhausted boxers "hugging" each other.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I spent some time with google looking for the references to no avail, but from what I recall, the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) agrees with you. Measured across thousands of projects, the average number of hours of actual software development is 2-4 hours per day.

In my experience with teams actively and accurately tracking time, the average is about 2.5 hours for most development work. It can spike up, but the spikes are typically not sustainable for more than a few days. Even then, the higher number days are typically spent doing design documentation or other non-coding tasks.

[forgottenacc56]

Code in your most productive hours, do documentation, emailing, whatever other tasks when your daily ration of coding energy is gone.

[t-rav]

I agree with your boss, 40h work weeks are the right way to do things. It's up to you to find the discipline to focus during the day to make it truly productive, not just feel productive.

Finding a good workflow for what you do is the hard part. A good workflow will include timeboxed sessions between 50-90 minutes with regular breaks after each session to keep your mind fresh and focused. A lunch session away from the PC, take a walk. And a firm commitment to sticking to a true 8h work day, the real mental strain happens when one tries to exceed this daily limit.

And most important factor required to only working an 8h day, is to keep the messaging and social media use to outside work hours. These nasty distractions will destroy productivity and focus likely causing you to "work" and +8h day. All the chatting and social media can wait until you are home, life will carry on. Every distraction you give into will cause you to take 20 minutes to rebuild focus.

[zimpenfish]

> messaging and social media [are] nasty distractions [that] will destroy productivity and focus

I have talkative people behind me, CTO to my left (on the phone a fair bit), sysadmins to my right (frequently desk-meeting with people), and a row of project managers over the minimal partition. Trust me when I say that there are far bigger problems for some people's focus than messaging and social media.

[cweagans]

A good, noise cancelling headset has been one of my best investments - and I'm not talking about one of the nice looking $50 models from Best Buy. I'm talking about something in the $200-300 price point - high end gaming headsets are particularly nice for a number of reasons, but anything will do.

It seems like a lot of money, but if it triples your productivity while in the office (and I'd recommend measuring it with something like RescueTime - if the headset doesn't help your productivity significantly, you can always return it), it's worth it.

[hanniabu]

Can confirm, always was skeptical when I heard people say this, but I borrowed my brothers for a week when he was on vacation and it was a game changer. Now I've become a proponent myself.

[zimpenfish]

I have in-ear Etymotics - they do an effective job of blocking most noise at a decent price point. But the combination of noises and movements and people banging laptops on the omnidesks and ... mean they're at best a limited stopgap.

[atmosx]

Maybe you should try working remotely if that is a possibility.

[zimpenfish]

It is but only really for 1 day a week at the moment.

[andersthue]

Instead of talking about hours I think about how many times a day I get to be in flow.

For me personally being 44 I am only able to hit a good flow once or twice a day for 2-3 hours each time.

When I am in flow I am faster and more creative than when I am not, so more hours would not add significantly to my productivity.

[coderKen]

That depends on the kind of project you are working on, If you are highly motivated and the project is fun you may work for longer hours, my case I could go as long as 8hrs non-stop but if it's not as described above then 3hrs max.

Two years ago I experienced a burnout for the first time, for a 23-year old freelancer, I knew nothing about burnouts and thought I was severely depressed. My motivation level was 0.

So if your job is fun then you may find 8hrs a day not even enough, but it's not your fault, it's your employers.

[tdsamardzhiev]

3 or 4 hours. Can go up to ~10h/day for a few days, but that usually leads to a burnout. Burnouts are bad. Avoid them. You'd actually do better if you work less.

[raooll]

If I'm doing heavy coding work my cap is 6 continuous hours after which I'm brain dead.

My daily average is around 6 hours & I accomplish a lot in this time.

[kdamken]

Depends on the project. If I'm on an intense project, easily 7-8. If I'm not on a project, maybe 1-3. If I'm unemployed and left to my own devices (pursuing projects/freelance or furthering my education), probably 4-5.

[tmaly]

For me it depends on the interruptions / context switching.