Moving to a 4-day workweek

It's been interesting to watch Buffer move to a four-day workweek and share their results. > The four-day work week resulted in sustained productivity levels and a better sense of work-life balance. These were the exact results we’d hoped to see, and they helped us challenge the notion that we need to work the typical ‘nine-to-five,’ five days a week. It’s worth noting that though we’ve seen sustained productivity levels, we’ve been gauging that based on teammate feedback and not company-wide g…

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15 Years

Eugene Federenko, my colleague from Wildbit and someone I admire very much, had his 15th anniversary with the company this week. That’s a crazy number in our current times. He took the time to share a few thoughts about the idea and it’s a great read. On what makes Wildbit such a great place: > 15 years in the same company is rare, but tech companies that old are unicorns by themselves. Unlike traditional businesses, most of them come and go with a new wave of hype. Wildbit is product agnostic…

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Darwin was a slacker and you should be too

This was a fun read (hat tip [https://efedorenko.com/reading/darwin-was-a-slacker-and-you-should-be-too] to my coworker, Eugene Federenko). The article covers the working habits of several well known thinkers from years past, and also digs in to the psychology and research that supports their tendencies. I came away from the post feeling like it was a page out of Deep Work. But it is good to remind ourselves of some of these truths. And I love it when I am able to read about people like Darwin…

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Assume they have something to teach you

Rands shares a good piece of advice for how to get value out of all interactions. At the base of his advice is that, although not all interactions with all people will benefit you directly, it’s still worth your time to make investments in others. He summarizes his advice this way: > Life isn’t short. It’s finite. As a leader with a finite set of minutes, it is your job to find the stories. They will teach you. He’s describing that idea that although he is not hiring for a position, it can sti…

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How to manage up with your boss

This article is interesting to me for two reasons. One, it well illustrates the different type of communication preferences people have. And how that can be hard when your boss communicates differently than you. > I once had a boss who would send me a series of two-word emails throughout the day, each one bearing the same message: “Call me.” Each time I received one of these emails, the hairs on the back of my neck would stiffen and my stomach would churn violently. The author’s reaction was ne…

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Why GitHub finally abandoned its bossless workplace

If there was ever a “well, duh” sub-title, this is it: > The software maker, which once prided itself on a flat corporate environment similar to Valve and Zappos, finds that workers can benefit from a little direction. This article discusses the progress that GitHub has taken from a holocracy to its current structure. It includes some of the struggles the company has gone through over the past few years and their direction for the company. I find the topic of leadership and company culture a f…

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A new type of work schedule

Related to my focus [https://chrisbowler.com/journal/perfect-week] last week, Shawn Blanc and his team are experimenting with how they structure their work time in 2017. Taking cues from the Basecamp team, they’re trying an 8 week cycle, where focused work happens in weeks 1–6, followed by a buffer week, then finishes up with a week off. It’s an interesting concept with a couple of benefits. One, the team members will take time off. That sounds a bit pedantic, but in environments like Shawn’s,…

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