I think the idea of measuring productivity by hours spent is absurd.
I manage my teams by tasks accomplished. I really don't care if they were able to complete it in 2 hours and take the rest of the day off.
I simply acknowledge formally what happens in practice anyway. The average "8 hour workday" only contains about three productive hours [1].
For me, it varies wildly. Some days, I'll get in "the zone" and 12 hours / and thousands of lines of code will fly by. Then I'll spend the next day or two in a brain funk waiting to recharge.
I've learned to embrace my "bursty" productivity patterns and to structure my delivery expectations around them. If I get trapped into a X number of hours per day butt-in-seat situation, my overall productivity declines sharply.
I manage my teams by tasks accomplished. I really don't care if they were able to complete it in 2 hours and take the rest of the day off.
I simply acknowledge formally what happens in practice anyway. The average "8 hour workday" only contains about three productive hours [1].
For me, it varies wildly. Some days, I'll get in "the zone" and 12 hours / and thousands of lines of code will fly by. Then I'll spend the next day or two in a brain funk waiting to recharge.
I've learned to embrace my "bursty" productivity patterns and to structure my delivery expectations around them. If I get trapped into a X number of hours per day butt-in-seat situation, my overall productivity declines sharply.
[1] https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/in-an-8-hour-day-the-aver...