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Discussion on: How do you handle unproductive days at work?

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intercoder profile image
D/S

Unproductive days come and go, if your rate of productive days is > day productive days, better to sit down and really check why and how that is.

With that said, everyone defines "productivity" slightly different. Sometimes "being productive" doesn't necessarily mean doing tons of things and finishing everything in one go, but rather doing one thing and see in it through the end.

*Scenario: * "I will implement this feature today..."

*Reality: * your 1st implementation failed, your 2nd one did too and your 3rd is not looking any better. Now it's the end of the day, and the time to go home. 😢 😔

Where you "unproductive" that day? 🤔

Personally, I would say if you managed to learn something by the end of the day and try different ideas, then no. But always take an honest look at the end of the day to see what work, what didn't, and what you learnt, both in work as in life.

If in a company and you find yourself not being productive:

  1. Take a break, go for a walk or just help someone else.
  2. Try to do the bare minimum for that day cause your team also counts on you. This bare minimum could be to try an idea of what you are trying to do or explain it to someone else.
  3. Stop working as soon as you can and let your brain breath by doing something else
  4. When at home do a postmortem, where you unproductive because of tiredness, lack of motivation, difficulty of what yo are trying to do, hunger, etc.