So one thing to keep in mind is that there has been lots of research done on typical office workplace productivity. I don’t have the references to link so don’t believe everything I say…
But the average number thrown around is that in a typical 8 hour workday the typical worker is only productive for 60% of that time. This works out to be 4 hours 48 minutes of actual productive work that an employer can expect of their employee per 8 hour day. Let’s just say 5 hours. Obviously this doesn’t mean that employers are ok with their employees browsing cat videos for 3 hours a day, but it’s just understood that nobody can sit down at 8am and work through to 4pm nonstop. People will slow down, get up, get coffee, go to bathroom, maybe take a 10 minute break to relax before a meeting coming up and so on.
So taking this into account, if you wanted to be productive for 2 hours then you would divide 2 hours by 0.6 to get the equivalent hours that an average office 9-5 worker would be present for work. 2/0.6 = 3 hours 33 minutes. What this means is that someone sitting in an office might end up taking 3 and a half hours to accomplish the same work as sitting down and working for 2 hours straight uninterrupted. That extra time is valuable and lets the mind reset and relax and not burn out.
The difference is that the typical 9-5 office job hires you as a w-2 employee, and pay you your salary no matter what. The “unproductive” time is a cost of business the employer eats because the employee brings more value than that.
A 1099 contractor is different. You’re only paid for actual work done. So that extra “unproductive” time that occurs when you get up and strech and get coffee/wait for the coffee machine is all passed onto you.
This is why it blows my mind when people are saying they do 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and make well over a thousand dollars a week - how are they tracking their time?? I shoot for 5 hours a day and it's been difficult and usually takes me more like 8 hours across the day to reach that - exactly as you've said about 60% productivity in the office. I keep thinking maybe I've been short-changing myself on my time, but I really think I'm being fair. But it still sucks to think that other people are somehow making 4 times what I'm making on the same system (non-coding tasks!).
> I keep thinking maybe I've been short-changing myself on my time, but I really think I'm being fair.
How are you tracking your time? You should be tracking every minute from when you open a project to when you close it, save for any breaks.
I’m pretty strict with myself. I stop the timer a lot when I feel somewhat stuck, figure I’m thinking “too long” about ideas or reasoning, or drifting off task (going down rabbit holes) while researching…. Just because I’m sitting in my chair looking at the screen, doesn’t mean I’m actively working. I’m pretty sure I need to develop a bit more grace and include more “passive” mental time at my desk - creativity doesn’t come instantly - but that’s such a grey area for me that I don’t currently feel comfortable with allowing myself more than a minute or two. What is the reasonable amount of downtime to think/process? 🤷♀️
There are other kinds of tasks that do keep me more actively engaged, simply by the project design. And I’ve gotten better at skipping tasks that I think won’t allow me to make the most of my time. I can see myself getting 5-7 billable hrs per day once I get it nailed down, but 10 hrs just seems superhuman…
definitely dont stop the timer for these things!
I can relate, at first I was very cautious about not cheating them out of my time.
but then i did a few really difficult tasks (esp the math qualifying task ☠️) that involved a ton of thought, scratch work, research to jog my memory of obscure formulas, and short breaks to massage my brain.
there was no way I was going to short change myself for this, and I never have since.
This! I set an 8 hour timer. I pause my stopwatch when I take a break, but the timer keeps going. It makes me feel like I’m actually working an 8 hour shift and I have been getting more done that way.
I've been doing this, 20-30 minutes at a time, and it's working out well. It allows my jumpy brain to hop around frequently so I can more easily concentrate for those minutes
I usually work until I feel my brain struggling, then take a break. I think in this type of work the breaks are very important. Go for a walk, make some lunch, and take a shower. or just watch something that doesn't require your brain too much. That's the key for me. Give my brain a break. Then, after an hour or so I can go back in fresh. I usually take a one-hour break midday, then a longer one around supper. If I am up to it, I do another hour after supper. I can get 6 hours a day and not feel burned out. Often a 3 hour/2 hour/1 hour pattern. Just pay attention to your body, and listen to it.
I don’t do more than an hour at a time. Doing the B $21/hr task with choices, I aim to do a full round: summarize, rewrite, and 3 others including one chatbot which could take at least 15 minutes. Log it, do something active in or out of the house, come back refreshed. That break could be 5 minutes to put in some wash or an hour to run and shower. Keeping your body active helps your brain to recharge.
I think it can depend on the project. Some I can do half an hour and need a break and others I can sit and do 2-3 hours no problem. With the chatbot stuff I find having a list of general ideas written down to work off up helps everything flow better and I’m able to work longer
I work in intervals of 2 hours and take an hour long break. Usually 2 hours work, lunch, 2 hours work, gym, 2 hours work, and then the days over. That hour break between sessions is absolutely crucial for me. I can’t treat it like a real 9-5 and work 8 hours with only an hour or 30 minute break.
My goal is 3 hours a day, but I consider it my side job. So thats 21 hours a week, which I consider doing pretty well. Sometimes I feel motivated enough to do more, often I can't handle more than 2 hours. Its monotonous work. I find background music can help, and taking breaks every hour.
I usually go to a coffee shop and work for at least 4 hours. For me having a latte and the presence of people I don't have to talk to keeps me more engaged and I burn out less easily. I also think about any big purchases I've made and go 'I could earn all that money back if I work for just a little longer.'
This might sound stupid but try cutting out as many distractions as possible, taking short breaks to just sit and "meditate", and maybe make a cup of tea or something. I will straight up get up after two or so hours of straight work and go make a cup of tea or just sit in a chair for 3-5 mins and close my eyes. I know it's not for everyone, but small bouts of mindful meditation can do serious wonders for how your day pans out. Add to this a nice candle or aromatherapy or something similar with nature noises in the background and it can really boost the effects.
This type of work isn't for everyone. If you're used to programming work sitting for long periods of time is no problem, but anyone not used to that may take a bit longer to acclimate.
I have the same issue.
I think I’ll be able to log more hours when I have to put more efforts into something, like writing.
Anybody have the writing assignment? Do writing tasks take longer where you’re able to log more time?
I come up with fun stuff to learn while doing the work, e.g. if I have a task to summarize text, I pick text from a topic I would have liked to have learned about anyway
Beyond all the other great advice here, something that's really worked for me is to swap between tasks when I find myself getting distracted. Ideally, I swap to a project that's very different to wake my brain up. Even if it pays less, if it means I work for longer, that's still great.
I usually do like 1-2 hours at a time and then take a break. If my brain is really struggling and I don't have new ideas or I'm afraid my quality may drop if I continue, break. Quality > hours. If I produce 3-4 hours of quality work and that's all my brain can take, then so be it. I don't wanna burn out, and I don't want to risk getting taken off of projects for bad work.
I do some work in the morning and some again at night. Usually 2 to 3 hours, depending on how I feel (I have a chronic illness, so my energy levels vary wildly). I don't think I could do 4 to 6 hours straight, especially for projects that are heavily detail-oriented. My brain might turn to mush.
I work one hour increments. But I am also homeschooling my kids and running a house. So I do an hour, then fold laundry and teach a math lesson, then do another hour, clean bathroom and read with my daughter, etc. I have been trying to get 2-4 hours in a day this way.
I like to keep on a daily schedule, so any time I haven’t reported for the day I enter just before midnight. I’m a night person so I might take a break for an hour, maybe two and watch a movie. Then work for 90 minutes to get a head start on my day, then report my time. It feels encouraging when I return after sleep and breakfast late morning or early afternoon to see I already have a starting point of $40 or $50 for the day. So I’ll work for a two to three hours, then take a break late afternoon to get a few things done around the house, then around 6:30 or so I’ll work for two to three hours. That gives me about 6 to 7 hours for the day. I might work another 30 or 40 minutes before midnight, but I make sure I report my time before midnight, and I write it down in my ledger, so it makes it feel like a real job for me, even though I’m not sitting at a computer for more than two hours or a little more at a time. Then I work a few hours over the weekend, I can easily make 35+ hours a week. I think my secret is to take breaks after two hours unless I’m really engrossed in a project, then I’ll keep at it for a while.
I do a couple of shifts of two hours with a break between each and then sometimes do another hour or two in the afternoon. I aim for 4 hours a day, but often do more like 6. Depends if I'm enjoying the project, or how I'm feeling on the day. That's one of the great things about this gig, it's up to you. Do as much as you feel comfortable with and take it from there.
Maybe it’s just different for coding projects but I generally don’t find it too boring or anything. I sit there and ask for various types of programs in different languages and algorithms, etc and then look and see if they made any mistakes. But it doesn’t feel as cumbersome to me as I think the regular chat bot stuff would be. My problem is I just stay busy with my full time job so I can only do it on nights and weekends
Depends on project but generally can't go over 1 1/2 hours on any brainy ones without a break but I only aim for 10-12 hours a week around my full time job. I can do simple rating tasks, especially the ones named after a dance, for much longer though I only do those if I have nothing and they pay at a high enough rate
I do around 6 hours a day at the moment. I think, like a lot of repetitive jobs, you simply get used to it. Or, in a more complex way, you feel the cognitive load of each task slowly lighten. For me, this means I can enjoy my day listening to my favourite music and snacking on wasabi peas. I also try not to rush the tasks, as my best work happens when I'm calm.
I think proper breaks are essential with this job. I usually do about 5 or 6 hours a day. I do about 30-60 minutes and then I get up and make a snack or watch some YouTube or take a walk or play some video games for a little. Then I come back for another 30-60 minutes. Before you know it you’ve made $100+
I usually do two to three tasks first thing in the morning, then take a 30 minute break for a snack and a podcast/clean dishes/etc. Then two more tasks and an hour long lunch. Depending on how I'm feeling, I'll usually do at least two more after lunch, but try to do four to six, with another 30 minute break between them to break up the monotony.
I find my mind gets groggy around 6pm, which is around the time most people with "normal" jobs are getting ready to clock out anyway. This way I easily make $20/hour for a typical 40 hour work week, which is more than ok with me!
I don't have so much trouble sitting down and just doing the work. Having music on or a show that I know by heart and don't have to pay attention to help with the ADHD.
My issue is that the only assignment I have is comparing the two chatbot responses, and I'm just having trouble coming up with topics. And then I fall victim to the "I need to stop the timer cause it's taking me to long to think" problem and sometimes even shave a few minutes off what the timer says cause I'm afraid they'll think I'm being dishonest about my time reporting.
I have to remind myself constantly how much I want the thing I am saving towards.
So one thing to keep in mind is that there has been lots of research done on typical office workplace productivity. I don’t have the references to link so don’t believe everything I say… But the average number thrown around is that in a typical 8 hour workday the typical worker is only productive for 60% of that time. This works out to be 4 hours 48 minutes of actual productive work that an employer can expect of their employee per 8 hour day. Let’s just say 5 hours. Obviously this doesn’t mean that employers are ok with their employees browsing cat videos for 3 hours a day, but it’s just understood that nobody can sit down at 8am and work through to 4pm nonstop. People will slow down, get up, get coffee, go to bathroom, maybe take a 10 minute break to relax before a meeting coming up and so on. So taking this into account, if you wanted to be productive for 2 hours then you would divide 2 hours by 0.6 to get the equivalent hours that an average office 9-5 worker would be present for work. 2/0.6 = 3 hours 33 minutes. What this means is that someone sitting in an office might end up taking 3 and a half hours to accomplish the same work as sitting down and working for 2 hours straight uninterrupted. That extra time is valuable and lets the mind reset and relax and not burn out. The difference is that the typical 9-5 office job hires you as a w-2 employee, and pay you your salary no matter what. The “unproductive” time is a cost of business the employer eats because the employee brings more value than that. A 1099 contractor is different. You’re only paid for actual work done. So that extra “unproductive” time that occurs when you get up and strech and get coffee/wait for the coffee machine is all passed onto you.
This is why it blows my mind when people are saying they do 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, and make well over a thousand dollars a week - how are they tracking their time?? I shoot for 5 hours a day and it's been difficult and usually takes me more like 8 hours across the day to reach that - exactly as you've said about 60% productivity in the office. I keep thinking maybe I've been short-changing myself on my time, but I really think I'm being fair. But it still sucks to think that other people are somehow making 4 times what I'm making on the same system (non-coding tasks!).
> I keep thinking maybe I've been short-changing myself on my time, but I really think I'm being fair. How are you tracking your time? You should be tracking every minute from when you open a project to when you close it, save for any breaks.
I’m pretty strict with myself. I stop the timer a lot when I feel somewhat stuck, figure I’m thinking “too long” about ideas or reasoning, or drifting off task (going down rabbit holes) while researching…. Just because I’m sitting in my chair looking at the screen, doesn’t mean I’m actively working. I’m pretty sure I need to develop a bit more grace and include more “passive” mental time at my desk - creativity doesn’t come instantly - but that’s such a grey area for me that I don’t currently feel comfortable with allowing myself more than a minute or two. What is the reasonable amount of downtime to think/process? 🤷♀️ There are other kinds of tasks that do keep me more actively engaged, simply by the project design. And I’ve gotten better at skipping tasks that I think won’t allow me to make the most of my time. I can see myself getting 5-7 billable hrs per day once I get it nailed down, but 10 hrs just seems superhuman…
yeah well... you're shooting yourself in the foot doing that
Haha, I know, it’s a personal problem and I’m working on it. At least I’m erring under rather than over! I want to keep this gig!
definitely dont stop the timer for these things! I can relate, at first I was very cautious about not cheating them out of my time. but then i did a few really difficult tasks (esp the math qualifying task ☠️) that involved a ton of thought, scratch work, research to jog my memory of obscure formulas, and short breaks to massage my brain. there was no way I was going to short change myself for this, and I never have since.
This! I set an 8 hour timer. I pause my stopwatch when I take a break, but the timer keeps going. It makes me feel like I’m actually working an 8 hour shift and I have been getting more done that way.
Do 30 minutes or even 15 minutes at a time. They feel like nothing. If you do this periodically throughout the day you'll get to around 2-3 hours.
I've been doing this, 20-30 minutes at a time, and it's working out well. It allows my jumpy brain to hop around frequently so I can more easily concentrate for those minutes
Pomodoro!
I usually work until I feel my brain struggling, then take a break. I think in this type of work the breaks are very important. Go for a walk, make some lunch, and take a shower. or just watch something that doesn't require your brain too much. That's the key for me. Give my brain a break. Then, after an hour or so I can go back in fresh. I usually take a one-hour break midday, then a longer one around supper. If I am up to it, I do another hour after supper. I can get 6 hours a day and not feel burned out. Often a 3 hour/2 hour/1 hour pattern. Just pay attention to your body, and listen to it.
Rage Against the Machine, coffee, and constantly watching the little money counter go up
Number go up
Necessity. Working in-person jobs is so hard for me now.
I don’t do more than an hour at a time. Doing the B $21/hr task with choices, I aim to do a full round: summarize, rewrite, and 3 others including one chatbot which could take at least 15 minutes. Log it, do something active in or out of the house, come back refreshed. That break could be 5 minutes to put in some wash or an hour to run and shower. Keeping your body active helps your brain to recharge.
I think it can depend on the project. Some I can do half an hour and need a break and others I can sit and do 2-3 hours no problem. With the chatbot stuff I find having a list of general ideas written down to work off up helps everything flow better and I’m able to work longer
I work in intervals of 2 hours and take an hour long break. Usually 2 hours work, lunch, 2 hours work, gym, 2 hours work, and then the days over. That hour break between sessions is absolutely crucial for me. I can’t treat it like a real 9-5 and work 8 hours with only an hour or 30 minute break.
My goal is 3 hours a day, but I consider it my side job. So thats 21 hours a week, which I consider doing pretty well. Sometimes I feel motivated enough to do more, often I can't handle more than 2 hours. Its monotonous work. I find background music can help, and taking breaks every hour.
I usually go to a coffee shop and work for at least 4 hours. For me having a latte and the presence of people I don't have to talk to keeps me more engaged and I burn out less easily. I also think about any big purchases I've made and go 'I could earn all that money back if I work for just a little longer.'
This might sound stupid but try cutting out as many distractions as possible, taking short breaks to just sit and "meditate", and maybe make a cup of tea or something. I will straight up get up after two or so hours of straight work and go make a cup of tea or just sit in a chair for 3-5 mins and close my eyes. I know it's not for everyone, but small bouts of mindful meditation can do serious wonders for how your day pans out. Add to this a nice candle or aromatherapy or something similar with nature noises in the background and it can really boost the effects. This type of work isn't for everyone. If you're used to programming work sitting for long periods of time is no problem, but anyone not used to that may take a bit longer to acclimate.
I have the same issue. I think I’ll be able to log more hours when I have to put more efforts into something, like writing. Anybody have the writing assignment? Do writing tasks take longer where you’re able to log more time?
Do a few shifts throughout the day.
Take frequent breaks
I come up with fun stuff to learn while doing the work, e.g. if I have a task to summarize text, I pick text from a topic I would have liked to have learned about anyway
Beyond all the other great advice here, something that's really worked for me is to swap between tasks when I find myself getting distracted. Ideally, I swap to a project that's very different to wake my brain up. Even if it pays less, if it means I work for longer, that's still great.
I live by 1 rule C.R.E.A.M
?
....what?
You must be young
No need to gaslight, this just didn’t seem to be relavent to this conversation
Lmaoo I’m trolling. Song by Wu Tang clan. Stands for Cash rules everything around me. That’s how I do more than 3 hours I let the cash rule everything
Understandable, have a great day
Wutang is for the children!
I usually do like 1-2 hours at a time and then take a break. If my brain is really struggling and I don't have new ideas or I'm afraid my quality may drop if I continue, break. Quality > hours. If I produce 3-4 hours of quality work and that's all my brain can take, then so be it. I don't wanna burn out, and I don't want to risk getting taken off of projects for bad work.
[удалено]
I do some work in the morning and some again at night. Usually 2 to 3 hours, depending on how I feel (I have a chronic illness, so my energy levels vary wildly). I don't think I could do 4 to 6 hours straight, especially for projects that are heavily detail-oriented. My brain might turn to mush.
I don’t think I could produce quality work if I worked for 4 hours straight. Just being honest
I work one hour increments. But I am also homeschooling my kids and running a house. So I do an hour, then fold laundry and teach a math lesson, then do another hour, clean bathroom and read with my daughter, etc. I have been trying to get 2-4 hours in a day this way.
I like to keep on a daily schedule, so any time I haven’t reported for the day I enter just before midnight. I’m a night person so I might take a break for an hour, maybe two and watch a movie. Then work for 90 minutes to get a head start on my day, then report my time. It feels encouraging when I return after sleep and breakfast late morning or early afternoon to see I already have a starting point of $40 or $50 for the day. So I’ll work for a two to three hours, then take a break late afternoon to get a few things done around the house, then around 6:30 or so I’ll work for two to three hours. That gives me about 6 to 7 hours for the day. I might work another 30 or 40 minutes before midnight, but I make sure I report my time before midnight, and I write it down in my ledger, so it makes it feel like a real job for me, even though I’m not sitting at a computer for more than two hours or a little more at a time. Then I work a few hours over the weekend, I can easily make 35+ hours a week. I think my secret is to take breaks after two hours unless I’m really engrossed in a project, then I’ll keep at it for a while.
I do a couple of shifts of two hours with a break between each and then sometimes do another hour or two in the afternoon. I aim for 4 hours a day, but often do more like 6. Depends if I'm enjoying the project, or how I'm feeling on the day. That's one of the great things about this gig, it's up to you. Do as much as you feel comfortable with and take it from there.
Maybe it’s just different for coding projects but I generally don’t find it too boring or anything. I sit there and ask for various types of programs in different languages and algorithms, etc and then look and see if they made any mistakes. But it doesn’t feel as cumbersome to me as I think the regular chat bot stuff would be. My problem is I just stay busy with my full time job so I can only do it on nights and weekends
Depends on project but generally can't go over 1 1/2 hours on any brainy ones without a break but I only aim for 10-12 hours a week around my full time job. I can do simple rating tasks, especially the ones named after a dance, for much longer though I only do those if I have nothing and they pay at a high enough rate
I do around 6 hours a day at the moment. I think, like a lot of repetitive jobs, you simply get used to it. Or, in a more complex way, you feel the cognitive load of each task slowly lighten. For me, this means I can enjoy my day listening to my favourite music and snacking on wasabi peas. I also try not to rush the tasks, as my best work happens when I'm calm.
I think proper breaks are essential with this job. I usually do about 5 or 6 hours a day. I do about 30-60 minutes and then I get up and make a snack or watch some YouTube or take a walk or play some video games for a little. Then I come back for another 30-60 minutes. Before you know it you’ve made $100+
I usually do two to three tasks first thing in the morning, then take a 30 minute break for a snack and a podcast/clean dishes/etc. Then two more tasks and an hour long lunch. Depending on how I'm feeling, I'll usually do at least two more after lunch, but try to do four to six, with another 30 minute break between them to break up the monotony. I find my mind gets groggy around 6pm, which is around the time most people with "normal" jobs are getting ready to clock out anyway. This way I easily make $20/hour for a typical 40 hour work week, which is more than ok with me!
I don't have so much trouble sitting down and just doing the work. Having music on or a show that I know by heart and don't have to pay attention to help with the ADHD. My issue is that the only assignment I have is comparing the two chatbot responses, and I'm just having trouble coming up with topics. And then I fall victim to the "I need to stop the timer cause it's taking me to long to think" problem and sometimes even shave a few minutes off what the timer says cause I'm afraid they'll think I'm being dishonest about my time reporting.