--- title: Doing nothing at work | daily.dev description: Engineers should deliberately operate at 80% utilization rather than staying perpetually busy. High-impact opportunities in tech are time-dependent and require... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-m7gedjkee twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Doing nothing at work | daily.dev og:description: Engineers should deliberately operate at 80% utilization rather than staying perpetually busy. High-impact opportunities in tech are time-dependent and require... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-m7gedjkee og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/M7GEdJkEE.png og:image:alt: Doing nothing at work og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Doing nothing at work **[sean goedecke](https://daily.dev/sources/seangoedecke)** · 10 min read · 245 upvotes · 24 comments ## Summary Engineers should deliberately operate at 80% utilization rather than staying perpetually busy. High-impact opportunities in tech are time-dependent and require both awareness and available capacity to act on them. Constantly grinding tickets means missing chances to unblock big deals, mitigate incidents, or accelerate high-profile features. Doing nothing has real value: it reduces stress-induced mistakes, enables clearer thinking, and keeps you available for outlier events that drive outsized career impact. The post also advises avoiding glue work that the organization doesn't formally prioritize, resisting requests for uncompensated backchannel work, and delaying effort on unstable or politically weak projects until they stabilize or get cancelled. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akkitto** · 40 upvotes > So true and many smart engineers do that exactly. However, do not tell your non-technical boss about it, as he thinks, that people are actually robots, just made to be exploited at permanent 100% utilisation... **@doncho** · 27 upvotes > A wise man, a mentor of mine a decade and a half ago, asked me once: “If you’re so, so busy with work, then _when you think_?” > > > This question is the baseline for any person with an intellectual job. Make time to do nothing. Then it’s the time when you sit back and reflect. You think. You discover improvement opportunities. Or you just relax. > > > All is highly necessary, if you work with your brain! **@lynnfredricks** · 7 upvotes > Looks like a mix of good advice, but also dangerous advice. For example: > > **Being too helpful leaves you vulnerable to predators**. > > > That is true. But with experience you start to smell this and you ensure that what you are working on is significant enough to allow you to say "I just can't get away for that" so you leave yourself on relatively good terms with the person. > > I have seen many get promotions because they jumped in to something that isn't part of their day-to-day work. **@aryanpanwar1** · 2 upvotes > yes, correct. You have to be aware about everything going around you or in the world **@baptistecrouzet** · 2 upvotes > Operating at 80% capacity to stay ready for high-leverage problems makes perfect sense, but it feels like a luxury reserved for senior engineers. > > If a junior tries this, 'strategic patience' will likely look like underperformance or lack of motivation. Early in your career, you often need to crush the routine JIRA tickets just to build the trust and visibility required to even get invited to those high-impact projects. > > Great strategy for staff engineers, but risky advice for someone starting its job. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Doing nothing at work](https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-wzxdeddcu) · Tech Lead Digest · 150 upvotes · 6 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture), [#work-life-balance](https://daily.dev/tags/work-life-balance) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-m7gedjkee) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Doing nothing at work","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-m7gedjkee","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/doing-nothing-at-work-m7gedjkee"},"datePublished":"2026-06-07T21:58:57.874Z","dateModified":"2026-06-07T21:59:24.484Z","description":"Engineers should deliberately operate at 80% utilization rather than staying perpetually busy. 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However, do not tell your non-technical boss about it, as he thinks, that people are actually robots, just made to be exploited at permanent 100% utilisation…","datePublished":"2026-06-07T23:07:11.929Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/M7GEdJkEE#c-KtQNsUwsl","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel","url":"https://daily.dev/akkitto","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FtwJqX4c--/f_auto/v1754900041/avatars/avatar_29TCpY2hJR72V3BlxPXzX?_a=BAMClqZW0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":40}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"A wise man, a mentor of mine a decade and a half ago, asked me once: “If you’re so, so busy with work, then when you think?”\nThis question is the baseline for any person with an intellectual job. Make time to do nothing. Then it’s the time when you sit back and reflect. You think. You discover improvement opportunities. Or you just relax.\nAll is highly necessary, if you work with your brain!","datePublished":"2026-06-08T05:26:24.988Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/M7GEdJkEE#c-nClc9Cdgs","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Doncho Angelov","url":"https://daily.dev/doncho","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--j1MSm0hy--/f_auto/v1716369534/avatars/avatar_EB0j0Umzh5v3zGWUSL5ma"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":27}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Looks like a mix of good advice, but also dangerous advice. For example:\nBeing too helpful leaves you vulnerable to predators.\nThat is true. But with experience you start to smell this and you ensure that what you are working on is significant enough to allow you to say “I just can’t get away for that” so you leave yourself on relatively good terms with the person.\nI have seen many get promotions because they jumped in to something that isn’t part of their day-to-day work.","datePublished":"2026-06-08T13:56:45.792Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/M7GEdJkEE#c-LgoZ3tpPJ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lynn Fredricks","url":"https://daily.dev/lynnfredricks","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RD_nOlcG--/f_auto/v1725028985/avatars/avatar_9IZpn14Ye21pdYIySNTth"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"yes, correct. You have to be aware about everything going around you or in the world","datePublished":"2026-06-08T14:21:01.948Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/M7GEdJkEE#c-7YLRLW2At","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Aryan Panwar","url":"https://daily.dev/aryanpanwar1","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocL_TlXeCl9hTi1o2l9Uh79IOjoiMcQtp8kLWL12QE6dfJTDMypQ=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Operating at 80% capacity to stay ready for high-leverage problems makes perfect sense, but it feels like a luxury reserved for senior engineers.\nIf a junior tries this, ‘strategic patience’ will likely look like underperformance or lack of motivation. Early in your career, you often need to crush the routine JIRA tickets just to build the trust and visibility required to even get invited to those high-impact projects.\nGreat strategy for staff engineers, but risky advice for someone starting its job.","datePublished":"2026-06-08T18:36:51.033Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/M7GEdJkEE#c-KQTelT5Me","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Baptiste Crouzet","url":"https://daily.dev/baptistecrouzet","image":"https://avatars0.githubusercontent.com/u/26898487?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}}]} ```