Learn Hardcore Russian: Когда мне хочется поработать продуктивно, я отключаю уведомления и закрываю лишние вкладки в браузере. - When I feel like working productively, I turn off notifications and close unnecessary tabs in the browser.

Мне хочется поработать is an impersonal construction. Literally: “It is wanted to me to work.”
- It sounds more like “when I feel like working”, focusing on a spontaneous inner feeling or mood.
Я хочу поработать is a personal construction: “I want to work.”
- It sounds a bit more direct and volitional, like a clear decision or intention.

So:

Когда мне хочется поработать… ≈ “When I feel like getting some work done…”
Когда я хочу поработать… ≈ “When I want to get some work done…”

In everyday speech, мне хочется is very natural when you talk about desires, cravings, or moods (sleeping, eating, working, going somewhere, etc.).

Why is it мне (dative) with хочется and not я (nominative)?

Because хочется is used in an impersonal construction.

Хочется comes from хотеться, which usually works like:
- Кому? (to whom?) – dative case
- Что сделать / что делать? – infinitive or noun

So:

Мне хочется поработать. – “To me it is wanted to work” → “I feel like working.”
Ему хочется спать. – “He feels like sleeping.”
Нам хочется мороженого. – “We feel like (having) ice cream.”

The subject is not a person in nominative; instead, you have:

Дательный падеж (dative) to show who experiences the desire: мне, тебе, ему, ей, нам, вам, им.
Хочется agrees with an implied neuter subject (like “it”), so it stays in the 3rd person singular neuter form.

With я хочу, я is the clear grammatical subject in the nominative, so the structure is different.

What is the difference between поработать and работать here?

Both come from работать (to work), but:

Работать – imperfective, general ongoing activity.
- Я хочу работать. – “I want to work (in general / as a state or habit).”
Поработать – perfective, with по- suggesting “to work for some time / to get some work done.”
- Я хочу поработать. – “I want to do some work / get some work done (for a while).”

In мне хочется поработать продуктивно:

поработать suggests a bounded action: you want to sit down, focus, and get a chunk of work done, not just “be working” in a general sense.
Using поработать here in Russian sounds very natural and matches the idea of “to work productively (for a period)”.

Why is продуктивно used, and not something like продуктивная работа?

Продуктивно is an adverb made from the adjective продуктивный.

Продуктивно answers the question как? (“how?”)
→ поработать продуктивно = “to work productively.”
If you used продуктивная работа, you would be talking about a noun phrase: “productive work.”

Compare:

Я хочу поработать продуктивно. – “I want to work productively.” (describes how you will work)
Я хочу продуктивную работу. – “I want (a) productive work / a productive job.” (what kind of work/job you want)

In this sentence, we describe the manner of working, so the adverb продуктивно is the natural choice.

What does отключаю mean exactly, and how is it different from выключаю?

Both отключать and выключать can translate as “to turn off,” but they are used a bit differently.

Выключать / выключить – to switch off a device, light, sound:
- выключить свет – to turn off the light
- выключить компьютер – to turn off the computer
Отключать / отключить – to disconnect, to disable a function, a service, or a setting:
- отключить интернет – to disconnect the internet
- отключить звук – to mute the sound
- отключить уведомления – to turn off/disable notifications (in settings)

With уведомления (notifications), native speakers strongly prefer отключить уведомления, because you’re usually disabling a feature/option, not just turning off one physical device.

What form and case is уведомления here?

Уведомления is:

Noun: уведомление (notification)
Number: plural
Case: accusative (direct object)

The verb отключать is transitive and takes a direct object in the accusative:

отключать что? – уведомления

For neuter nouns ending in -ие like уведомление:

Singular:
- nominative: уведомление
- accusative: уведомление (same as nominative)
Plural:
- nominative: уведомления
- accusative: уведомления (same as nominative)

So here, уведомления is “notifications” as the thing being turned off.

What does лишние вкладки literally mean, and why is лишние in that form?

Literally:

лишние вкладки = “extra tabs” / “unnecessary tabs”

Лишние is the adjective лишний (extra, unnecessary, superfluous):

Noun вкладка – feminine, singular
Here we have вкладки – plural, accusative (direct object of закрываю)
For feminine plural nouns in the accusative (and nominative), adjectives end in -ие:
- лишние вкладки
- новые вкладки
- все вкладки

So grammatically:

лишние – feminine, plural, accusative
вкладки – feminine, plural, accusative

It matches the English idea of “closing extra / unnecessary tabs.”

What exactly is вкладки here? Is it always used for browser tabs?

Вкладка literally means “tab” or “flap,” and in modern usage it very often means a tab in a program, especially in a browser.

одна вкладка – one tab
две вкладки / много вкладок – two tabs / many tabs

It’s not limited to browsers; you can have:

вкладки in text editors or other tabbed interfaces
But context here (вкладки в браузере) makes it very clear we’re talking about browser tabs.

So закрываю лишние вкладки в браузере = “I close unnecessary tabs in my browser.”

Why is it в браузере and not just браузер?

Because в + prepositional case is used to express location (“in/inside something”).

браузер – nominative (dictionary form)
в браузере – prepositional case, after в = “in the browser.”

Structure:

в чём? – in what? → в браузере, в телефоне, в компьютере
закрывать что? – direct object → вкладки

So:

закрываю лишние вкладки в браузере = “I close the extra tabs in the browser.”
If you said закрываю лишние вкладки браузер, it would be ungrammatical; the preposition в is necessary to mark location.

Is the comma after продуктивно obligatory? Why is it there?

Yes, in standard written Russian the comma here is obligatory.

The sentence has a subordinate clause with когда:

Когда мне хочется поработать продуктивно, – subordinate (adverbial) clause of time
я отключаю уведомления и закрываю лишние вкладки… – main clause

Rule:

A clause introduced by когда is normally separated from the main clause by a comma:
- Когда я устал, я ложусь спать.
- Когда идёт дождь, мы остаёмся дома.

You can swap the order:

Я отключаю уведомления и закрываю лишние вкладки в браузере, когда мне хочется поработать продуктивно.

The comma remains, because you still have two clauses joined by когда.

Can I change the word order, for example: Я отключаю уведомления и закрываю в браузере лишние вкладки? Is that natural?

Yes, that word order is possible and understandable:

Я отключаю уведомления и закрываю в браузере лишние вкладки.

Russian allows quite flexible word order. However:

The original закрываю лишние вкладки в браузере is a bit more neutral and typical:
[verb] + [object] + [place].
закрываю в браузере лишние вкладки places a bit more emphasis on “in the browser”, as if contrasting it with some other place or program.

Both are grammatically correct, but for a neutral statement of habit, the original order is slightly more common and smooth.