Here’s an interesting NYT feature on burnout, which suggests that burnout is a problem with self-efficacy, a lack of social support, and an increasingly chaotic environment. One of the most interesting studies found that interruptions are as destructive as drug use to IQ:

The uninterrupted group did better by an average of ten points, which wasn’t much of a surprise. What was a surprise is that the e-mailers also did worse, by an average of six points, than a group in a similar study that had been tested while stoned.

One of the effects of lowered IQ is that we get less done. When we accomplish less, we’re frustrated because we wanted to do more. And that frustration is one of the big factors in our burnout.

Busy versus Productive, an interesting contrast. The question is: do I agree with the article because it’s what I already think, or is the author’s comparison valid? (via 37Signals)

Jabber + whiteboard for Linux, Windows, and Mac.

Evhead asks: Why do we work on things that don’t matter?

Where developers can’t agree on code standards, separate them by interfaces. Sometimes the differences are good, indicative of other valid approaches (and backgrounds). Should we kill developer productivity by arguing K&R versus Microsoft standards? In the end it’s about solid code and productive people. The rest is bullshit.

My favorite new feature in Thunderbird 2.0 isn’t the tagging or improved list view, it’s the right-click “move-to-folder-again” feature. It’s something I do a few dozen times a day, to tend my inbox in GTD style. Sweet.

It’s funny how it goes. You use stuff, you find it useful, and you consider it pretty good. Then you use something else and a gap appears — what was pretty good now looks like crap, and you realize that your perception was warped. It happens to me all the time, and the resets are really cool. When I get a glimpse at something I really like, it refreshes my spidey senses and kicks my ass. And that’s a good thing.

So I spend most of my time in Windows Land. It’s ok. I’ve even pimped out my development machines with every tool I need. Then I boot my Ubuntu system at home and it kicks my ass. This is what real tools look like. I browse AmieStreet for some new tunes, and it kicks my ass again. It’s what browsing music should be like. Suddenly I’m inspired again. I queue up some tunes in Rhythembox, and it’s what iTunes should be like. Simple, solid, and does what I want. There’s inspiration everywhere, I just have to remember not to get stuck in the crap.

I’m tempted to buy a license of VMWare so I can boot my Windows development partition from a productive environment.

Have you ever had one of those days filled with email, IM, and office debate, where none of it gets anything done? Communication is useless on its own–if it isn’t metered, focused, and intelligent. A lot of what slows us down is due to simple, standard corporate ways of doing things. But just because it’s common doesn’t mean that it’s productive.

So in that vein, here are five ways to be totally unproductive.

1. Passively ask for help

“Who would be responsible for managing EULAs?”

When you ask for something passively, you’re really wishing that something gets done without requiring any of your own effort. You know that something needs to be done, but are too lazy to figure out the who, the what, or the how. It’s like you don’t even care if it gets done, but you know enough to cover your ass. The problem is that when you don’t care, things only sort of get done … if at all.

So say what you want, and be willing to help it along. You do care, don’t you?

“Who wrote the EULA for the last release? Do they have time to update it, or should I?”

If you can’t say what you really want, then you don’t want it enough. If you’re not willing to do a bit of work to get it done, then you don’t deserve to have it done for you. Don’t be so lazy: your own success rides on the success of everyone around you.

2. Don’t give a real opinion

“I guess that feature would be nice.”

Do you want it or not? When you can’t say what you want, you’re doing a few things: wasting my time, making me think about what you’re saying, and forcing me to question your intelligence. When I ask you what you think, I actually want to know what you think and why. And if you really don’t care, then just say so.

“We need that feature, because of X. “

Say what you want and why; you’re not going to offend me. You’re helping me understand if something is important, based on your area of expertise. You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?

3. Respond with only opinion

“Whoever did it last time should do it again.”

This is another tool of the I-don’t-care-enough mindset. It doesn’t get anything done, and it doesn’t answer any part of what’s required to get that thing done. In fact it does nothing other than give someone more work to do. Hey, go and ask other people more questions.

“Joe should do it because he’s a ninja.”

It’s clear that you want to influence things, but you don’t have the time or energy to actually help. Your best bet is to either take a few minutes to do the leg work (and actually help), or shut up and save your breath. Either approach is better than adding noise to the problem.

4. Complain about something that’s really your fault

“Boy that company is retarded.”

There’s a complainer hidden deep within all of us. The complainer deflects responsibility, pollutes the thinking space, and brings down the team. Is it really someone else’s fault? I doubt it. Most of our failure is our own, and complaining about it certainly doesn’t get anything fixed.

“You know, we could have done better there. No matter, we’ll do X next time.”

Shut up and reflect on the problem. Study it. And learn from it. Then talk about it–only when what you plan to say has a chance of making people laugh, think, learn, or actually get something done.

5. Make fun of the complainers (meta complain)

“Ha, they’re not retarded, you are!”

Be careful when you mock the complainer, as they’re unlikely to hear you. You’re really just complaining too, which doesn’t change much. The mocking, while entertaining, is mostly spam in the work environment.

If you have to chastise the complainer, then make damned sure that you’re accurate and brief. If you fail to be either, your message will fall flat.

Even better than mockery: do something to prevent that thing from happening again. Show people how they can change, or put practices into place that encourage measurement and analysis. If you really want to improve things, then you’ll look for ways to help. And you’ll participate in the fixing.

6. (Bonus) Rant about the whiners, the complainers, and the spineless

Yes, I’m writing about a the lame communications I see every day. Yes, I’m wasting time. And yes, I’m complaining about it. But I’m making fun of the insanity in a semi-entertaining form. The problem is that I’ve never groked why the standard corporate culture cultivates such a meaningless, passionless, passive way of saying things. Frankly, I’m surprised that it works at all.

At least the whiners, the complainers, and the spineless offer us something great. They give us the opportunity to kick their asses, as it’s easy to say what you mean and do what you say.

I’ve been reading a book about writing. Not one of those dry technical pieces either, it’s a downright reasonable read. Not that I’m recommending it of course, unless you want to hear about writing from the tiny little voice in someone else’s head.

Anyway, in one of the chapters that I read this week the author talks about how to write. Not how to form sentences of any semblence of coherence, but how to actually get off your ass and do some writing. It’s an interesting problem, one that she illustrates with several funny stories and metaphors.

My favorite device-slash-image from the chapter was the suggestion to write everything that you would like to write about in a 1×1 inch square, a list of sorts. You can’t fit much in an inch of space, which makes it easy to actually do. Even better, the visual of a problem smashed into a 1×1 square is powerful: it makes the problem even smaller than it is, providing the sort of nudge that might actually get you to do it. It’s a small step.

And even better yet, 1x doesn’t allow a lot of room for distraction.

Speaking of distraction and metaphor, while writing this post I was watching House, M.D., a show about an obsessive-compulsive doctor. He had something funny to say about metaphors:

You do realize that the point of metaphors is to scare people from doing things by telling them that something much scarier is going to happen, than what will really happen? God, I wish I had a metaphor to explain that better. — House, M.D.

The 1×1 inch constraint is a good tool to help you focus on a small amount of work, but it doesn’t save you from external distraction. Getting things done is both about starting, and continuing at a useful pace.

And that’s where the web comes in

So I’m writing tonight, something I don’t spend near enough time doing. I have no problem with the starting or with the focusing my initial blob of work. And I don’t struggle to find inspiration or with the tools. All of that is easy for me. The problem I have is that I’m constantly distracted, and not by the sort things you’re expecting. I’m interrupted by the variable of the network itself, and the low quality of appications used to do web stuff.

While the net is everywhere, it isn’t there all of the time. It goes up. It goes down. It stutters. It’s a pencil that keeps on breaking (some days more than most). A tool that’s only there part of the time is a royal drain on my gusto.

And the net isn’t just spotty, it’s a bad excuse for shitty applications. I am still far more productive working in a real word processor, which is a writing interface well-tuned over a decades of development. These damned web interfaces look cool, but they’re a distracting drain on my desire (and ability) to write.

I mean not that anything stopped me tonight, I still wrote something … it just wasn’t as focused on the writing as it could have been.

Another 37Signals insight: Writing words vs. writing software, a comparison of writing software and writing prose.

A choice quoted quote:

“Books aren’t written - they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.” -Michael Crichton

Rewriting isn’t always bad. The software industry just needs to learn to accept it as part of the process of improvement. Rewriting shouldn’t prevent finishing the damned thing, though. Not that I’ve ever seen that before.

Another great writer’s quote from the article:

“Remember this: Don’t spend too much time visiting writing groups. You are not writing then. You are writing when you are WRITING.”

Reading your RSS feeds IS NOT WRITING SOFTWARE. Back to work I guess …