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Productivity System Testing

I review and experiment with productivity systems in hopes of finding one that improves my own system. Each entry is organized as follows (as applicable):

My productivity philosophy is simple: take what works, discard what doesn't, and don't try too hard to force anything to work. This is my attempt to see what works for me in these systems. The timeframes range from 1-60 days, which isn't trying too hard to force anything to work. If something really isn't working for me, I'll stop when I recognize that.

Contents

Working Alone

Info

Summary

(I'm actually writing this report despite not planning this experiment.)

I am often distracted at work because of how good of friends I am with people. I play and joke around very often with others, occasionally talking about work-related topics. I've noticed this is a drain on my productivity—while I am at work for 10 hours or so, I rarely work for 10 hours. This leaves me with two options:

  1. Become worse friends with coworkers
  2. Reduce time spent with coworkers and increase time spent alone

For obvious reasons, I chose the latter.

Methods

I will work later than usual to minimize my interactions with coworkers.

Results

This worked surprisingly well and I am happy with the results, although I'm not sure I'm able to decouple my increased productivity with the exciting work I was doing. I worked until 12:00am on Monday and Tuesday (dinner from 5:30-8:30pm), 11:00pm on Wednesday (dinner from 6:00-8:30pm), 4:00pm on Thursday, 5:00pm on Friday, and for three hours on Sunday (in an empty office). In total, around 55-60 hours. I estimate 20 of those hours were alone.

And I thrived. I cranked out emails and to-dos that had been sitting untouched for a while. There was no itch to socialize or joke around—I was focused and diligent in knocking out work. I looked good to my manager and coworkers for staying late to knock out items.

The downsides were not insignificant. My sleep suffered: throughout the week I got 6 (Sunday), 7, 4, 5, and 7 (Thursday) hours of sleep. My training suffered: I got a couple of bike sessions in but very little strength training. My social life wasn't horrible: I went out to nice dinners with friends twice before heading back into work to finish some stuff up. My hobbies suffered: I didn't touch this website, journal, and read very little. Part of the issue is my expectation of being at work at 7:00am for the daily priorities meeting (and morning meetings taking place). If I could get by this, I'd exercise and do personal stuff in the morning and work from 11:00am-8:00pm, giving me a solid three hours of alone time to crank through what I need to. One other downside is the expectation it could set for myself: if someone leaves at 7:00pm every night and leaves at 5:00pm one day, they just left two hours early. While I don't think my manager is like this, there is always the chance it could turn out like that.

But this isn't feasible, so other solutions will have to be formed. A few ideas:

The solution remains undecided for now, but I'll likely continue to work late for the productivity benefits it provides.

Pomodoro Technique

Info

Summary

The Pomodoro technique is simple: set a timer for 25:00 min to work on a single task and nothing else whatsoever. After the 25:00 min is up, take a 5:00 min break. Rinse and repeat. After every fourth cycle, take a longer 15:00-30:00 min break.

Comments from The Power of Pomodoros (unformatted for simplicity):

What you do during the break matters a lot. It should be rewarding and energizing or relaxing. Anyway, I've had success reducing an Ugh Field (around studying) by celebrating like a madman when the timer ended and then doing a few dishes (which I usually abhor, but is both relaxing and rewarding as a break). Once the Ughly Beast was down on its knees, I was able to abandon the timer and go over 25 minutes and I have been kicking its ass ever since. Some suggestions for break activities: dancing, jumping, throwing air punches; playing with a musical instrument; scribbling on a piece of paper; small housekeeping tasks. Avoid: browsing, esp. reddit; anything that can't be interrupted instantly e.g. reading or watching a video; anything that may cause an interruption later on or will occupy your mind e.g. beginning to cook; reddit

Methods

I will use Pomodoros over the course of two workweeks.

Results

  1. Total: 7 cycles. Started with 25-5 cycles, but increased it to 40-5 after 25:00 minutes wasn't enough and I was starting to get into the flow. Definitely helps to "gamify" work, and the app I use keeps track of total number of cycles performed per day (and graphs them over the course of time). Cut a few short/long due to other stuff. Overall, around 8:00 hours of focused work today, more than I normally complete.
  2. Total: 4 cycles. Continued with 40-5 cycles today, but even those are a bit too short at times. Will update to 50-10 cycles beginning tomorrow. Worked much longer not on cycles.
  3. Total: 2 cycles. 50-10 worked well. Work periods allow flow and breaks feel fairly long. I will stick with this, if not decrease the break a bit. Worked much longer not on cycles.
  4. Total: 0 cycles. Didn't do any cycles today—the work I was doing just didn't call for it and I was regularly interrupted.
  5. Total: 0 cycles. Didn't do any cycles today—the work I was doing just didn't call for it and I was regularly interrupted.
  1. Total: 6 cycles. Worked well today, although a few times where I went over due to work priorities.
  2. Total: 7 cycles. Updated cycle to 53-7, as 50-10 was a bit long break-wise, but I still wanted to keep it at an hour.
  3. Total: 5 cycles. Found that listening to music is fine for mundane, mindless tasks, but shouldn't be used during more intense ones.
  4. Total: 0 cycles.
  5. Total: 0 cycles.

Thoughts

I will continue using 53-7 cycles during tasks in which I have to do for an extended period of time. In any other circumstances, I will work as I see fit.

See Also