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Ask HN: Devs now working remotely, how productive have you been recently?

12 points by dyingkneepad ↗ HN
Since the whole Coronavirus lockdown thing started my productivity dropped significantly. My job is fully doable remotely and previously I even took quite a few remote days, but these weeks I have not been productive at all. Between constantly checking the news (way more than I should), being interrupted by the kids that are now home, feeling bad for my wife who is now ultra tired of spending the whole day with a baby and a very active 3 year old, trying to do groceries outside busy hours, among other Coronavirus-related stresses, my productivity has tanked dramatically.

Looking back, what I accomplished in the last 2 weeks is something previous me would have accomplished in about 3 days. Am I alone in this?

13 comments

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mortivore
I'm accomplishing far more than I did in the office. I don't have kids so my at home experience is one devoid of the usual distractions of talking with coworkers. I do miss the random conversations, and coworkers venting about their kids though.
godot
It sounds like the main issue for you might not be actual work but might be about childcare. This is a completely reasonable problem to have, with kids that otherwise would be in school/daycare but are now not. I don't know about your local city's situation, but is there any hired nanny help you might be able to get? Re: groceries, try using one of the grocery delivery services to help with it, even if it costs a bit more.
throwaway743
Personally I'm always more productive and energized when working from home/away from the office. Office noise, low indoor air quality, long walking/public transportation commute, office politics, etc are all very draining for me. Then again, I don't have kids, but know that it'd add stress to both working at home and the office
pesfandiar
You're not alone. Having young children at home is a huge hit to productivity, and it should be taken into account when setting your expectations. I saw a rule of thumb on Twitter for how productive you can be when taking care of children at home (can't find it now):

Number of pomodoros (25 minutes) of productivity = <Age of youngest child> - <Number of children> + 1

codingdave
You are not alone, but the scale of your productivity dip seems high.

I have been working remotely for almost a decade, and I am easily far more productive here than in an office. But there is a productivity hit in the summer when the kids are home from school. Even so, what you are describing is far more than that accounts for.

One suggestion is to break up your day into shifts - take 2 hours helping your wife and kids, then 2 hours working. You can split your time like that for most of the day, which is a smaller productivity hit, ending up with maybe 6 hours of productive work each day. Not ideal, but an improvement. You'll find flexible schedules such as this make remote life far easier to manage then trying to sit for an 8-hour day and expecting to get no distractions.

inertiatic
I've been far more productive in the time I've been able to work but the fact that I have a young kid at home isn't helping, exactly as you're describing. So I end up having a lot less time to get deep into problems.

All in all, only one of my tasks suffered because of this because most of the work I do doesn't require deep thought all that much.

austincheney
My productivity has shot up. I have no commute now (1 hour each way during low traffic times). I have my personal computer to supply music and other entertainment to help me focus while I am working. I have nothing like this when I am the office. My kids are home from school now, but that does not slow me down.
potta_coffee
Had about a week of low productivity which I attribute to some personal turmoil / depression / loss of routine in the midst of the virus lockdown. After that, I've ramped way up and have been more productive than usual. I think this is because far less of my time is being wasted in pointless meetings and I have larger blocks of uninterrupted development time.
huangmi
Took me a while to get into the groove, but now I'm more productive than ever. Some tips:

- Designate a separate room or area as your workspace. This will help you establish boundaries and have separate contexts for working / relaxing.

- Stick roughly to your normal schedule. Once work hours are over, stop until the next day.

- Get dressed as if you are going to the office. I find that this gives me a psychological boost of taking work more seriously.

I also benefit from a short (~20 min) power nap after lunch, which isn't always possible at the office.

muzani
Very productive. My home equipment is better than office equipment. Without a 3 hour commute and more rest time, I have a lot more energy.

But a lot of it is because my wife who stopped her cooking job to help me take care of the kids. We get some gov aid to keep people at home, but I've funneled all of it to my wife.

kasey_junk
I was full time remote before covid and have been remote for a long time before that. My productivity has tanked.

It’s not remote vs the office for me. It’s all the crap that is going with the quarantine. Child care, stress, close quarters, shopping confusion, etc.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to compare productivity right now.

thorin
As with you I'm struggling with work due to childcare/teaching a 4 and 6 year old. Their mum is working in a hospital 3days/week so it's hard to get things done while they're around. I just accept it and try and make it as fun as I can while still attending meetings and resolving issues.

In terms of development it's difficult because our work is largely collaborative, involves a lots of secured remote server connections which require vpn and/or remote desktop and a lot of the ops guys I need to speak to are even more busy or unavailable than usual. I think I'd be ok with 2 days a week at home but 100% is too much.

jcpst
Some points first: I am an introvert, and normally work in a crowded, noisy open office, as a programmer.

I would say I’m at least as productive. The way I see it, I could distract myself in the office too if I want, bullshitting on chat or watching videos. I have developed a lot of personal techniques and mind games to keep me working. Some of that with therapy (All major insurers are covering phone calls like office visits right now). I have ADHD and couldn’t afford to lose more jobs because of it.

My wife shares the office with me. We have a 16, 7 and 4 year old. The teenager is in charge of the kids while we work. This works with limited success. Fortunately, she only works 30hr/wk and gets done at 2. Fortunately, we have a back yard. And it’s the burbs, so we can go on walks without getting close to others.