People don't work as much as they say
I’ve been reading some variant of this, for many years.One of the reasons that I hated being a manager, was because the job involved a lot of sitting around, waiting for stuff to happen.I couldn’t work on my own projects (because I was on paid work time), and it would have been irresponsible, in the extreme, to put myself into the critical path (because it was no guarantee that I would be able to reliably work). I sometimes tasked myself with projects for work, but they were almost always ignored by my company, and that hurt.I’ve heard that being a soldier in a combat zone is long hours of idleness, punctuated by short periods of terror and stress.That pretty much describes my time as a manager, without the “terror” part (and the bullets and explosions).It sucked.I now work at home, on my own technical tasks. I get a lot done. My personal productivity is through the roof.I take a lot of breaks. Sometimes, I even nap.But I don’t have a time clock. I will often start coding, at 6AM (sometimes, before I even get in the shower, after my morning exercise), and will continue to code, until I hit the sack. I often test my software, while I’m sitting in bed, and will enter issues, from my iPad.When I have a problem that I’m chasing, or I am in the middle of a big implementation phase, I can work for many hours, straight. I will barely come up for air, and I feel absolutely exhausted, when I finally step back (nap time!).I’m not particularly concerned about a measured life. I get a lot done; far more than I ever did, when I was being paid.And I’m having a blast.