Ask HN: Have you ever not done anything on work whole day?

[mib32]

When working remotely, sometimes I find myself at the end of the day and see that I did nothing today for my software engineering work. Does it happen to you too? What do you say the next morning in the daily meeting to your manager, do you say honestly or come up with something?

[mindvirus]

It depends on why.

Some days you'll find yourself in meetings, reviewing code, and emailing/messaging others, but not writing code. You should recognize that this is work, and you should ask yourself whether this was the best use of your time. Which it may or may not be. Ask yourself, was it useful for you to attend the meetings and have those discussions?

Other days, you'll find yourself investigating how to do something, or starting down a path only to realize it's a dead end, and so have nothing to show for it. It's also work, and the best way to manage this is to document what you've tried, and time box work to make sure you don't waste too much time.

Other times, you won't know what to work on, or feel lacking direction. In my mind, the best way to deal with that is just talk to people - your manager, peers, etc., about what you are trying to do or what to work on.

[shortcake27]

Productivity should be measured on a much larger scale (weeks/months). Day to day, productivity varies wildly. Some days your productivity is 0%, others it’s 300%.

How would you rate your productivity on a longer timescale? If you’re doing well then there’s no need to worry; it’s normal.

At standup, I’d say the truth - bashed my head against a wall to no avail. If this results in punishment, something is very wrong. You don’t get rewarded when you do a weeks worth of work in a day, so you can’t be expected to output a _minimum_ of 100% every day. This is how burnout occurs.

[paulcole]

> Some days your productivity is 0%, others it’s 300%.

Obviously this depends on the job, but the problem is that people like to believe that they have plenty of those “other” days you describe. If you ask somebody at random how productive they were that day and they answer, “not at all” isn’t it much more likely that person is generally unproductive than an exceptional performer having a slower day?

[shortcake27]

This is a difficult question to answer as I don’t even know if it’s possible to measure this objectively at all.

But in my experience, the people with enough self-awareness to admit they got nothing done yesterday are not the same people who assume they overachieve every other day. I find the least productive people to be the ones who always pretend like they’re super productive all the time.

Self-assessing on this metric may very well be biased. However, your performance is being measured externally. a good manager understands people can have very unproductive days and very productive days, and they should be looking at the broader picture. If someone gets dragged for a single bad day, something is very wrong with the management.

[ipaddr]

No because productive people ebb and flow. The productive person is too burned out to make up an answer but the unproductive spent their time coming up with material for the standup show

[annie_muss]

Yes. I have had many weeks, and sometimes even months when I have done nothing.

The root cause for me is ADHD. I'm often distracted to an extreme level. I'll get into work, boot up my computer and then realise it's 5 in the afternoon and I've been reading datasheets for LEDs all day instead of writing code related to work.

Of course this then triggers the anxiety. How do you tell your boss that you haven't done anything? Especially when you have no good reason.

I advise you to nip this in the bud. Try to work out if there was anything internal or external holding you back but if not, don't sweat it. Get away from work, rest, relax and then try again tomorrow.

[mrrthrowaway]

Yes, quite often. I like programming but can't do it for 8 hours per day. I'm not sure how I'm keeping this up, but I am. I do it for like 4 to 5 hours at most.

I know I should count my blessings as programming is an easier job than most (doesn't wear on your body, etc.). I just don't know how I'd be able to work 8 hours per day in any job. I don't want to work. I try myself to get to work because it's not a nice situation to be in, but here I am.

Currently getting away with 25 hours per week. I don't feel guilty. I couldn't bear life if I had to work more. I'm trying to get myself to work more, I just can't.

I don't think it's burnout, I've had this since I was a kid. During college I didn't have it since I was hopeful for rapid career advancement. But FAANG never looked at me, despite the fact that I had a good GPA + side jobs. I just don't see the point in being ambitious. I don't see the point of working more. HN made me too cynical to ever see an employer as my friend. All I know is balancing this tightrope.

I'm learning a lot of random stuff. I like learning a lot of random things, just not one specialty thing. And it's all outside of work. People outside of work think I'm a wonderful person. My colleagues seem to like me too.

Life is weird, whatever. I'll roll with it. I have no other option anyway.

[musicale]

John Carmack would probably be disappointed, but 25 hours of productive tech work in a week, especially at a typical company, sounds pretty good to me.

There's also something to be said for learning things outside the narrow range of work and having a life outside work.

[mrrthrowaway]

Thanks for saying that, I really don't feel good about doing this. But I feel worse if I don't do it.

[mattpallissard]

There is a difference between doing nothing and accomplishing nothing. Sometimes you're trying to figure out the next step, sometimes you've gone down the wrong rabbit hole, sometimes you just have a shitty day. That's much different than just slacking off or getting distracted and is easy enough to explain to a reasonable person.

I have 5 kids, live in a very remote community (so getting some things done is a multi day affair), and am fairly involved in my community. My schedule is always full weeks in advance. Even if you set aside the honesty aspect of it, I can't afford to procrastinate.

I'm always a little anxious about getting everything done. When you pair that with time constraints it's easier to be disciplined. No, it's not easy and yes, it takes practice, but it's attainable for most people.

[guilhas]

First relax, it happens to everyone. And no one is coming after you for working less some days

Some people share a lot of details, some just say the title of the task assigned

These daily meetings, where I work, are not so much to say what you've done, but more If you are having any problem

During work also don't hesitate to contact coworkers to unblock any small problem that might drag your day

I normally say "I'll keep working on X" / "Still tidying up Y" / "Learning about some technical subject related to the task Z"...

After finishing a task I take at least 1 or 2 days just to wind down and organize notes

And sometimes I'm just lazy. But I'll try to do the very minimum. Like logging in with the test user. "All day testing bug... trying out feature... problems debugging"

[byoung2]

Sometimes I'm blocked on something so I can't write any code, so I just say that I was blocked. Sometimes I have meetings all day and I didn't write any code so I say that I was in meetings all day and didn't get to work on any tickets. If I genuinely didn't do any work and wasn't blocked or in meetings, I just repeat the previous day's update. For example on Monday I worked on ticket ABC-001 and Tuesday morning my update was "yesterday I worked on ABC-001, today I'll continue on ABC-001, no blockers", and then I secretly went to the beach that day. Wednesday morning I will say "yesterday I continued on ABC-001 and today I should have a PR by end of day, no blockers".

[DarrenDev]

I once worked a short contract for a big name telecom company in Ireland. I was one of about 15 contractors they’d hired for a big project.

Every day we’d all form a big circle on the balcony on the third floor, right next to the pool table that nobody used. The usual daily stand-up, only without the “any blockers” question.

There was one guy who was working on a user story that required a file from another part of the business. Every day, for 2 months, he said with a straight face “I’m waiting for the file.” And every day, we all nodded our heads as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Two months. I left before he ever got his file. Maybe he’s still there now, 8 years later, waiting for his file.

[lordkrandel]

Who says it never happens, either lies or has some worse problems.

[ChildOfChaos]

I really struggle with this and honestly the days I get little done, I really wish I did, but often I just feel tired, unfocused, struggle to concentrate etc and then other times I am able to make myself sit down and pump out what I need to do.

I'm a more chaotic worker, I work in spurts, which can be horrible at work, currently on a project that is due at the end of the month, project manager wants updates at the end of the week to see where we are, basically expecting 25% a week, but to me life and things don't work like that, I will make sure we hit that target and do the hours towards the end that require it if we are off track, but for me it's never consistent, I would love for it to be that way, but i've kinda just realised that the world is chaos and I am chaos and I just try to mold things too that.

For me as well, usually it takes me a bit to fully understand something and then once I do, I tend to be able to get it done much quicker and it's simple to me, so i always tend to be much slower at the start than others as I am trying to figure it out, prodding and exploring the different options until I find what fits.

I feel like a lot of the world just isin't setup for how I work or how some people work, it seems it's better suited for early birds and highly organised people, rather than those of us that are introverted, night owls and distracted/work better in spurts.

[radicalriddler]

100% happens. I usually just make something up, but if it happens consistently, people know.

[xupybd]

Yes today I had administrative tasks all morning. Then meetings. Then a fault with the email provider in production. Then in the last brain fried hour of the day attempted to code but didn't get far.

[mattbrewsbytes]

You didn't ask about productivity, you just stated that you did nothing for your software engineering work. This implies you have other types of work, possibly meetings, documentation, helping out others. Did you do those things? Then state that, many of the little things that happen add up and if you get slammed with a lot of that then you may not write any code that day. Did you spend hours troubleshooting some weird bug? Maybe feel imposter syndrome about it like others might be better at solving it and don't want to mention that, I would mention it to your manager. Long hours on tough problems are learning opportunities, things you'll likely remember for a career.

If you are distracted and didn't do any work at all for your employer, just tell your manager you need to put in a day off request for yesterday, got distracted with "life" (bingeing a show, grinding levels in a video game, staring at a wall, etc). Own up to it because if you end up letting it slide, its a slippery slope into that growing to a week of doing nothing and covering for yourself with varying excuses. Sure a day here or there might go unnoticed but eventually this will catch up with you if you aren't being honest with yourself. Then time goes by and someone looks at your outputs and sees next to nothing. A nothing day might be a sign that you should schedule time off every month/quarter, if you have one planned you'll look forward to it more and that might motivate you to get your stuff done.

Software work can be extremely boring at times and being remote has lots of potential distractions. Another perspective could be asking yourself if remote work is a good fit for you personally? It isn't for everyone.

[bediger4000]

How do you count doing a bunch of work one day, then finding out you misinterpreted requirements, or requirements have changed, and throwing it all out? This happens, believe me.

[BizarroLand]

My last job, when we went WFH prior to covid, I had at least 2 full weeks in a row where because I had worked ahead I had nothing to do.

I answered a few emails, kept my laptop open and active, and binged shows all workday long.

It sucked because it was so boring and I felt strapped to my laptop all workday long, and lead to me getting another job.

[andrewfromx]

I think you have to forgive yourself if that happens every so often but you make up for it by coding a lot the next day. Average it out. I knew someone that did all their work on Monday but made commits throughout the week. But the answer to what do you say at meeting is "still working on x."

[touisteur]

That rhythm fits with the 'code as fast and much as possible - might be the result of thinking things through during the preview week - and edit like a hawk, add or improve comments, refine, check all tests, improve coverage metrics, prepare PR (often harder than the code itself), update design docs...'

There's also a nice effect to staggering deliveries (or for QA people, tickets) that don't feel the 'dump all 463 issues at once' hangover :-)

[mattbgates]

My job is to sit and wait for emails to come in. I work with a team of 4 other people who are doing the same thing as me. Whether it is to build a job or make edits to a job, we wait. We have all been working together nearly a decade so we have it down a system: we rotate on who takes the work.

So to elaborate we have jobs and edits. Each Job that comes in goes to the person that came in according to when their shift started. Job #1 comes in at 8 or 9 AM. The very first person to arrive for their shift that day takes that Job. Job #2 comes in. The next person who came in takes it. And so on and so forth.

If a person is working on a Job, they do not take Edits. If no one has a Job, we all take turns taking Edits. If everyone has Jobs, then the person who is closest to being done fills in to take Edits, but if they already took an Edit, the next person who might also have a Job would take that Edit.

Is it a perfect system? It works. Sometimes work is doubled up. Sometimes a Job will come in towards the end of a person's shift. They are excused if they only have 3 or 4 hours left in their shift. Sometimes we can get slammed with several Jobs. Like yesterday, having to work July 3. It was slow all day. No one had any Jobs and very few Edits. My coworker called out, and everyone else from the earlier shifts went home early, while I got to "come in" (WFH) later, so I was the only one covering the shift. I got two Jobs, while everyone else got nothing because it was a slow early part of the day, yet busy later on, and there was no one but me working.

Fortunately, there are days where all the Jobs come in for the day and everyone has one and I might not get one that day. We all still get a paycheck regardless of who does more or less work. Sometimes it doesn't seem fair at times, but it usually balances itself out. At the end of the year, they show the tallies for who has done the most jobs. It's me every year. Doesn't change my paycheck or even help with bonuses.

Basically how I think of it is that I am paid to be on call. My company pays me to sit at a computer and be present and aware for 8 hours a day. By the way, I'm a web designer.

[nickd2001]

Its probably common for people to have procrastination problems when working remotely, especially those who are younger and haven't got sufficiently frustrated with their own procrastination and failure to deliver, to address it and develop more self discipline yet. To address the exact Q though - how about pick a 1-point story off the "Refined and Ready" column or whatever you call it, and get that into UAT / Code Review, then at least you got something to show however small. Doing that tends to lead you to, er, start getting on with your other work. ;)

[nicbou]

Productivity ebbs and flows.

I'm self-employed and I'm not forced to be productive. Some days I work from dusk until dawn, and others I just send an email. The best part of this arrangement is that I don't need to pretend otherwise.

I am human. Sometimes I sleep poorly. Sometimes I have more important things to do than work. Sometimes I frankly just don't feel like it. I get more done overall if I accept this and give myself space to recover.

You are a garden, not a machine. Your intellectual output is subject to external conditions. It can't be exploited with the regularity of a well-oiled machine.

[ineedausername]

I've spent about 2 years cumulatively doing absolutely nothing at "work".

There was a funny case where I was assigned to a project that had almost no work and no meetings at all. And in another case I was in a dev support team as a junior, where we had meetings but it didn't matter at all what we were reporting, nobody cared if it took you two months or more for a simple bug.

So yeah I think I have some amusing experiences.

[iamflimflam1]

Try taking notes through the day - you probably are doing things that count towards work (thinking about problems etc).

[clnq]

It has never happened to me but I did have days when it was difficult to get started and I didn’t do much. I guess you can just say you’re still working on whatever you were working on. There’s probably no value in emphasizing you were stuck unless asked.

[olgeni]

If you are forced to have "daily meetings with your manager" you might have spent the whole day drinking Jack Daniel's and planning a prompt exit :D

[karif_ghannam]

Yea, sometimes happened when your brain just can't be productive. I do feel a bit bad from it and usually overcompensate the day after.

[segmondy]

Where do you work? I'll like to get.a job there!

[mib32]

A bank :)

[cultofthecow]

Never. I also lie a lot.

[cafard]

Done, or accomplished?