Ask HN: How do you decide when you’ve done enough work for the day?

Reference

• Start the day with a plan, list things that need to be completed, list things that would be great if it can be completed, and have a set time when you are going to finish work. When do you decide when you’ve done enough work for the day? When you feel “accomplished” for the day.
• When you start the day without a plan, even if you get “lots of things done”, you feel stressed all day.
• Butts in seats and meeting a quota of 8 hours a day is entirely pointless, and serves neither you nor your employer. The only things that matter are your health & work/life balance, the value you bring to your employer.
• What’s going to happen to your life is you’re going to learn what other people’s natural speeds are, what yours is, and what is needed for your specific job, and you’re going to have a much better barometer for that.
  • What do you think I should do to be more useful to the project? Alternatively, you can wait until a more social occasion or a lull when working 1:1 with someone and just ask “so how do you think the project is going?”
• I make sure I’m stopping at a point where I know and I am excited to continue the following day. I never stop at an impasse, personally.
• When the end of the day approaches, start finishing up whatever you were working on, and mentally prepare for what you’ll be doing the next day.
• Try to know how many hours of “deep work” you can do before losing steam. Usually, it’s ~4 hours, once you get past that point, do some tickets that are not too demanding, and preparation for the next day.