This is fun. I haven’t had this much social fun on-line for a decade. I’m a corporate stooge, and usually sitting at a keyboard and typing for a living is not that social and not that fun for me. As much as I enjoy spending time there, the mere social fun is not the purpose. I’ve noticed that whenever I join the chat without a clear goal, I tend to drift through pomodoros without achieving that much. I first need to do some GTD-style analysis of what project I want to work on, and what are actionable steps to take during a pomodoro. I like to ask the participants about their projects and I like and find it useful to briefly explain mine.
Apparently a little social salience can go a long way with me. BTW, that is a possibly useful observation for team mangers, and it agrees with what random pop-psychology of human motivation I’ve heard about.
I’m worried about the long-term prospects of this idea. I think most of the participants are students. During the first summer vacation season we’ll likely see a big drop in participation.
Personally I’ve actually already covered the university spring break with this chat. I’m not sure how it’s for other students, but I don’t actually get fixed holidays, I get “lecture-free time”, with a lot of internships, exams and such. Then those lecture-free times aren’t synchronized in different countries, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’m actually looking forward to using my pomodoros for things that are more about personal development than university in the summer break.
I agree with BerryPick on the optimal amount of people. Usually it gets more fun with more people, but for disciplined working you don’t need more than two people that are actually around. You should maybe try and see for yourself what works best. The schedule for the following week should be full enough to pick a time where at least one person is around.
For me, it’s been effective with just one other person (often tkadlubo himself :p) in the room, but I find it’s most effective when there are three to five others working.
Are you differentiating between people who provide a video feed and people who don’t? (I just checked it out a while ago, and there were 2 text participants and 0 video participants… I didn’t really see how it could be an effective motivator, and closed the tab for the sake of stimulus discrimination.)
Generally for me people who have video on are useful and people who dont have video aren’t. However there are other factors as well. For example, someone who has their video on but is not doing anything useful will not do much for my productivity.
I’m worried about the long-term prospects of this idea. I think most of the participants are students. During the first summer vacation season we’ll likely see a big drop in participation.
I think you’re probably right about that. I’m a pretty regular user, but I don’t intend to log on at all starting in August. Still, it is enormously useful and effective for me at the moment.
I’m a regular there. Here are my observations.
This is fun. I haven’t had this much social fun on-line for a decade. I’m a corporate stooge, and usually sitting at a keyboard and typing for a living is not that social and not that fun for me. As much as I enjoy spending time there, the mere social fun is not the purpose. I’ve noticed that whenever I join the chat without a clear goal, I tend to drift through pomodoros without achieving that much. I first need to do some GTD-style analysis of what project I want to work on, and what are actionable steps to take during a pomodoro. I like to ask the participants about their projects and I like and find it useful to briefly explain mine.
Apparently a little social salience can go a long way with me. BTW, that is a possibly useful observation for team mangers, and it agrees with what random pop-psychology of human motivation I’ve heard about.
I’m worried about the long-term prospects of this idea. I think most of the participants are students. During the first summer vacation season we’ll likely see a big drop in participation.
Personally I’ve actually already covered the university spring break with this chat. I’m not sure how it’s for other students, but I don’t actually get fixed holidays, I get “lecture-free time”, with a lot of internships, exams and such. Then those lecture-free times aren’t synchronized in different countries, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I’m actually looking forward to using my pomodoros for things that are more about personal development than university in the summer break.
What’s the minimum amount of people it needs to be effective for you? Not sure how I’d do with just one other person.
I agree with BerryPick on the optimal amount of people. Usually it gets more fun with more people, but for disciplined working you don’t need more than two people that are actually around. You should maybe try and see for yourself what works best. The schedule for the following week should be full enough to pick a time where at least one person is around.
For me, it’s been effective with just one other person (often tkadlubo himself :p) in the room, but I find it’s most effective when there are three to five others working.
Are you differentiating between people who provide a video feed and people who don’t? (I just checked it out a while ago, and there were 2 text participants and 0 video participants… I didn’t really see how it could be an effective motivator, and closed the tab for the sake of stimulus discrimination.)
Generally for me people who have video on are useful and people who dont have video aren’t. However there are other factors as well. For example, someone who has their video on but is not doing anything useful will not do much for my productivity.
I think you’re probably right about that. I’m a pretty regular user, but I don’t intend to log on at all starting in August. Still, it is enormously useful and effective for me at the moment.