I couldn’t understand why my productivity went down when I had deliberately made more time available to write. Then I realized it was because I wasn’t flying as much. Before, I’d sit on a plane and pull out a computer and start writing a speech or whatever. And on most planes, there are no plugs, so I’d open up my computer and wrote until the battery died. Because I had this pressure of knowing the battery would die, I wrote monumental amounts in short periods of time.
Artur
on 23 Mar 09What is that supposed to mean from an only online company?
TG
on 23 Mar 09I think the airline companies are trying a new form of advertising :).
Charly
on 23 Mar 09I think he means, you are more productive under pressure. So just find a way to stay under pressure to increase your produtivity.
Mads
on 23 Mar 09Exactly. But you have to vary it or it will not work over longer periods of time. Also, try not to get too much under pressure. A stress seizure can come out of the blue and you will not be very productive recovering in the following years.
Graham
on 23 Mar 09Nope. I think the point of the posting here is that you are more productive under constraints. Knowing that you only have your battery life, and no access to Wikipedia, means that you will focus on writing, not on looking facts up, or wasting time.
ML
on 23 Mar 09What is that supposed to mean from an only online company?
Yeah, Graham said it well. I think the interesting part of this is how when we have a confined limit (“I’ve got 2 hours to get this done…for real!”) we manage to really pump work out.
JF
on 23 Mar 09I think the real insight here is the one left unsaid: When you’re on a plane you aren’t being interrupted by co-workers. You’re in your own zone. No phones ringing, no one calling your name, no meetings to attend. It’s just work time.
Drunken Pirate Yaaaaargh!
on 23 Mar 09And, the stewardesses wheel a cart full of alcohol down the aisle. Nothing like a few of those teeny bottles of Jack Daniels to get the creativity flowing.
Sikachu!
on 24 Mar 09I agreed with the writer. I mean, somebody would work better under the pressure, and on the plane there’s no disturbance.
I really, really, hate meeting. It just nuts that people keep asking for a meeting that just sits around, browse through the site, then said what’s wrong with them. They should just browse it on their own, fill the ticket with things that isn’t right. Also, if they don’t understand the interface, then that’s the problem that they need to tell the dev.
Thanks for another good quote :)
Farid Hadi
on 24 Mar 09I like this quote :) It’s true. You’d usually perform better when you’re under a bit of pressure. The stress gets your body pumping. I’ve read about it somewhere.
johnny kane
on 24 Mar 09“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
Grant
on 24 Mar 09I’ve found that starting my day at my favorite coffee shop (without plugs) instead of the office has a similar effect. It creates a situation where I’m able to focus, with less interruptions, and a goal of getting through email and catching up on small tasks before the battery runs out. When I step into the office I’m ready to get right to work on the big tasks of the day.
It’s amazing how a little management of time, constraints, and location can seriously affect my productivity.
Rich
on 24 Mar 09I hate meetings, period. The “chaos”, lack of organization just sends me up wall of ADD insanity.
John Gallagher
on 24 Mar 09Yep, good old Parkinson’s Law.
I’ve just written a complete presentation in 40 minutes under pressure. If I’d had eternal time, I’d have taken at least 3 hours to fiddle around with it, “honing” it to be something not really that much better.
The question I’m interested in is how we can create software that facilitates this urgency. Current applications give us effectively limitless time with which to complete something and allow (nay, encourage) our attention to wander. I often think that for productivity, modern software is a blessing as much as a curse.
Jeff Martin
on 25 Mar 09JF,
Not to mention the drinks keep on coming :)
Jeff
chris
on 25 Mar 09I work better with high blood pressure.
This discussion is closed.