And if
you feel very tired, say after lunch, retire somehwere and take a nap, 15-20
minutes of nap time will totally transform the rest of your
day.
It is
better that a rest area be designated so that when your brain does turn into a
sleepy mush, and your fingers start doing their epileptic dance on the keyboard,
you can take a relaxed nap, on a comfy chair, and come back
revitalized.
I know
of a few habits that are more effective at increasing productivity than the
power nap...
Amir Kolsky
XP& Software
Energized Work
Work only as many hours as you can be
productive and only as many hours
as you can sustain. Burning yourself out
unproductively today and
spoiling the next two days' work isn't good for
you or the team.
Where does this penchant for long hours come from? I'm
often asked for
"scientific" evidence for the practices in XP, as if
science could
somehow bear the responsibility for project success or
failure. Work
hours are one area where I wish I could turn this argument
around. Where
is the scientific evidence that members of a software team
produce more
value in 80-hour weeks than in 40-hour weeks? Software
development is a
game of insight, and insight comes to the prepared,
relaxed mind.
In my own case I think I turn to long work hours as a way
of grabbing
control in a situation in which I am otherwise out of control.
I can't
control how the whole project is going; I can't control whether
the
product sells; but I can always stay later. With enough caffeine
and
sugar, I can keep typing long past the point where I have
started
removing value from the project. It's easy to remove value from
a
software project; but when you're tired, it's hard to recognize
that
you're removing value.
When you're sick, respect yourself and
the rest of your team by resting
and getting well. Taking care of yourself
is the quickest way back to
energized work. You also protect the team from
losing more productivity
because of illness. Coming in sick doesn't show
commitment to work,
because you aren't working effectively.
You can
make incremental improvements in work hours. Staying at work the
same
amount of time but managing that time better is an improvement.
Declare a
two-hour stretch each day as Code Time. Turn off the phones
and email
notification, and just program for two hours. That may be
enough
improvement for now and may set the stage for fewer hours at
work
later.
| Yahoo! Groups Sponsor |
ADVERTISEMENT
![click here]() | |
![]() |
Yahoo! Groups Links
