The habit is in the 7th paragraph, after 2 images:
> Rather than trying to complete your task in 20 minutes, take this time to write down your thoughts, and a step-by-step action plan of what you think you need to do to finish your task. Then go home. Rest. A feeling of incompleteness will motivate you to come back and finalize your work the next day. Only you will be full of energy, together with a settled plan. No doubt you’ll accomplish your task before lunch.
I wonder what the oldest reference is we can find to this practice. I bet it's very old. Oldest I know of is only the late 19th century, but I bet we could beat that by at least several hundred years. Surely it comes up at least once somewhere in Shakespeare?
To add to that, leaving something in a very obviously broken unfinished state really helps to jump back into the flow the next morning, or whenever you come back.
I actually find it very hard to do this, to walk away with some code that isn't compiling or a test that isn't passing. It feels like leaving something unfinished.
When you return it's an easy jumping off point, with a tangible goal and helps bring you back into the context.
During my previous jobs, i used to use a sort of "end of day review" to see both what i accomplished that day (which made me feel good when i completed things), plus also get allowed me to get ready for what i need to do the next day. I suppose its similar to the habit denoted in this piece; pretty cool!
At my current job, things are messier and shall we say not sustainable - culture is simply toxic. I actually can not do a review...because the moment someone sees that i am still logged on, i get bothered...Mostly this is from folks in other time zones (who don't care that its my end of day...like i said, its toxic here). So, i started doing the review offline, but saw that i needed to be logged on to review stuff...i started jumping through too many hoops to still access info as inputs for review and next-day prep...but appear to be offline...so, instead, nowadays, at a very strict time, i log off, and have abandoned my formal end of day review...I mean i still review my thoughts...but its not as structured, and i don't write anything down...and, i see the difference (sadly)...but, mostly, i just don't like my current job. ;-)
Genuine question, why do you feel the need to respond to every message? I work in a place with teams on my project split across multiple time zones, and I reply to people when I'm able. If something is really on fire, I'll get a load of messages but generally that stuff should go to the team chat and not at me directly.
Of course, we all keep some 'favourites' we do the odd favour for, but if you can't find 15 minutes to work interrupted (and your review is work) then you really need to think about how you're working as you're making the problems worse.
Being the superhero feels good for the first decade, eventually you realise you're Brent from the Phoenix Project and you're really part of the problem.
Not a personal attack, mxuribe, just some crap I worked out over the years. YMMV.
Another options (particularly if your org runs off MS outlook & Teams) - pencil in the review time as an appointment in your calendar, so your status shows as 'Busy' during that time. If that's not sufficient, you can even make it a Teams meeting with only yourself in it, so then your Teams status would show that you're in a call.
Reminds me of Cal Newport's "Shutdown ritual" advice. Marathon sessions can lead to burnout. It's better to use time block planning to prioritize the most important tasks. A feature of time block planning is you have to stop working at the end of the aloted time.
I've been doing this for a long time and find it's also a good way to get yourself out of ruts and tar pits; when a project gets really gnarly, you can end up spending most of your time just re-establishing context every day. Never thought of it as a permission structure for closing my Macbook at the end of the day!
I think in a similar way, though from a slightly different angle. For me, the value of stopping on time isn’t just about avoiding overtime — it’s also about not waiting for a clean break.
When I wrap things up too neatly, the next day feels like a cold start, and that makes it harder to dash into new work. But if I deliberately leave a task half-finished, then the next day I can just pick up where I left off and get moving much faster.
Yeah well, what can I say ... totally resonates, except that for me, the "getting in the zone" part is most definitely not two hours, rather tends to stretch to 4am if not worse.
And the "write down everything and go home" is:
a) extremely frustrating
b) cant get anywhere near to dumping the amount of context that's flying in my head while I code/build. Most of it evaporates if I don't get to the end.
So ... agree with the problem, really not sure I agree with the solution.
The habit is in the 7th paragraph, after 2 images:
> Rather than trying to complete your task in 20 minutes, take this time to write down your thoughts, and a step-by-step action plan of what you think you need to do to finish your task. Then go home. Rest. A feeling of incompleteness will motivate you to come back and finalize your work the next day. Only you will be full of energy, together with a settled plan. No doubt you’ll accomplish your task before lunch.
a feeling of incompleteness couldn't even motivate me to finish thi
I see what you’re doing, yet it’s still infuriating me.
I'm infuriated t
OP discovered clocking out and going home, how innovative!
Next up: how to poop on company time.
I wonder what the oldest reference is we can find to this practice. I bet it's very old. Oldest I know of is only the late 19th century, but I bet we could beat that by at least several hundred years. Surely it comes up at least once somewhere in Shakespeare?
You need clock based wage labor for that. Which only really starts with the Industrial Revolution
Solid question for r/askhistorians
To add to that, leaving something in a very obviously broken unfinished state really helps to jump back into the flow the next morning, or whenever you come back.
I actually find it very hard to do this, to walk away with some code that isn't compiling or a test that isn't passing. It feels like leaving something unfinished.
When you return it's an easy jumping off point, with a tangible goal and helps bring you back into the context.
"park facing downhill"
During my previous jobs, i used to use a sort of "end of day review" to see both what i accomplished that day (which made me feel good when i completed things), plus also get allowed me to get ready for what i need to do the next day. I suppose its similar to the habit denoted in this piece; pretty cool!
At my current job, things are messier and shall we say not sustainable - culture is simply toxic. I actually can not do a review...because the moment someone sees that i am still logged on, i get bothered...Mostly this is from folks in other time zones (who don't care that its my end of day...like i said, its toxic here). So, i started doing the review offline, but saw that i needed to be logged on to review stuff...i started jumping through too many hoops to still access info as inputs for review and next-day prep...but appear to be offline...so, instead, nowadays, at a very strict time, i log off, and have abandoned my formal end of day review...I mean i still review my thoughts...but its not as structured, and i don't write anything down...and, i see the difference (sadly)...but, mostly, i just don't like my current job. ;-)
Genuine question, why do you feel the need to respond to every message? I work in a place with teams on my project split across multiple time zones, and I reply to people when I'm able. If something is really on fire, I'll get a load of messages but generally that stuff should go to the team chat and not at me directly.
Of course, we all keep some 'favourites' we do the odd favour for, but if you can't find 15 minutes to work interrupted (and your review is work) then you really need to think about how you're working as you're making the problems worse.
Being the superhero feels good for the first decade, eventually you realise you're Brent from the Phoenix Project and you're really part of the problem.
Not a personal attack, mxuribe, just some crap I worked out over the years. YMMV.
Does your chat client or whatever is making you visible logged on have an “away” mode?
Good idea, i'll give that a shot. Thx for the tip!
Another options (particularly if your org runs off MS outlook & Teams) - pencil in the review time as an appointment in your calendar, so your status shows as 'Busy' during that time. If that's not sufficient, you can even make it a Teams meeting with only yourself in it, so then your Teams status would show that you're in a call.
> As a bonus, there is a chance that new, better ideas will come while you sleep or rest.
IMO this feature should not be underestimated. Happens to me semi-regularly.
And then you wake up at 3:00am and start planning things to do the next working day. Do not recommend it.
I'd recommend one more step - after closing the laptop, bring a notebook and a pen with you.
People often get new ideas or unblocked somehow after stopping the work. If this happens, don't open the laptop again. Write it down.
Reminds me of Cal Newport's "Shutdown ritual" advice. Marathon sessions can lead to burnout. It's better to use time block planning to prioritize the most important tasks. A feature of time block planning is you have to stop working at the end of the aloted time.
I've been doing this for a long time and find it's also a good way to get yourself out of ruts and tar pits; when a project gets really gnarly, you can end up spending most of your time just re-establishing context every day. Never thought of it as a permission structure for closing my Macbook at the end of the day!
I think in a similar way, though from a slightly different angle. For me, the value of stopping on time isn’t just about avoiding overtime — it’s also about not waiting for a clean break.
When I wrap things up too neatly, the next day feels like a cold start, and that makes it harder to dash into new work. But if I deliberately leave a task half-finished, then the next day I can just pick up where I left off and get moving much faster.
You've got good company. Hemingway famously said he always stopped writing for the day at a point where he knew where his story was going next.
Sure, write a step-by-step action plan and leave it for
a next fresh new 1M tokens context window.
If the problem is that you get interrupted all day, how does waiting for tomorrow help?
Yeah well, what can I say ... totally resonates, except that for me, the "getting in the zone" part is most definitely not two hours, rather tends to stretch to 4am if not worse.
And the "write down everything and go home" is:
a) extremely frustrating
b) cant get anywhere near to dumping the amount of context that's flying in my head while I code/build. Most of it evaporates if I don't get to the end.
So ... agree with the problem, really not sure I agree with the solution.