Ask HN: What does a typical day look like for you?
Also, could you please specify what's your "job title" and for how long have you been doing it.
Medium company (+150 people), small team (3), standups are in Slack.
Leave around ~17.00 - 19.00
8.6/10.
I love it. It's fun. Everyday I come into work and there is usually a job or two waiting for me. Some times are more busier than others, but every landing page, for the most part, is unique, and I get to be creative doing it. There are times where a client wants a new job to look like their last, so it sometimes "streamlines" the work, but we do try to make every page different. Been working at this business for almost 5 years -- I was a contractor for this very same company before they hired me as a full-time employee.
As a contractor, I used to work from home and actually held two jobs -- so my life had been that I would be working from 8 AM to 2 AM, 5 days a week, for about a year and a half. I even tried to find time to work on side projects. Sleep? Yeah, hardly any. Something had to give. Only 24 hours in a day! But that was a few years back. The second job laid me off before they went under themselves just 6 months later: lesson to all companies out there--IF YOU REFUSE TO KEEP UP WITH YOUR COMPETITION AND THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY, YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO FAIL. I was upset at first before realizing I could somewhat have a normal life again. Imagine working 5 days a week from 8 AM to 2 AM for over a year with almost no time off (excusing the weekends). And where was all the money I was making going? Aside from paying rent, all it did was pay off my student loans... and then I ended up owing the IRS $6,000. I gained a lot of experience though.
Long story shorter about the second job: I had been a web developer for a company that installed Solar Panels and I worked on the software that was displayed on the kiosks in buildings (they usually put them in the front lobby so people could see how much energy a building was using or saving). I worked on the graphics and made it all work with the building`s data. It was a platform that was done in Flash so I had to work in Flash. As you know by now... Flash has pretty much become a thing of the past, and all companies were using HTML5 and Angular and others out there, while my company just had this hard on for Flash. And when Flash went, so did they.
Anyways, as my life is now, I currently work the evening shift at my job, 3 PM to 12 AM. Since I can't sleep after work, I shifted my entire "life schedule" so that I stay up all night and I sleep the morning away, and wake up anywhere between 10 AM - 12 PM. During the hours I am awake after work, usually from 1 AM until 6 AM, I'm working on my own side projects.
I prefer to do it this way because I've tried it the other way around: Going to sleep after work and getting up early. The problem with this is: There are things to be done during the day and people (family/spouse) are bothering me during the day to run errands and stuff like that, so I have tried, but trying to get [my own] work done is almost impossible. They still bother me when I'm sleeping sometimes, but I'm usually unconscious and I don't remember. If not that, than everyone is being loud and I cannot focus at all. And as a programmer/developer, you know you can't just immediately "get into it" unless you really have to.. it takes time to relax your mind into the code.
So at night, while everyone is asleep, I can work in peace. The other thing is: If I wake up early, I find myself often needing at least an hour nap before work or I find myself tired and falling asleep at work. If I sleep till the 10 AM - 12 PM schedule, I don't need a nap, and I'm not tired at work.
I normally only eat once a day, so between 12 - 2 PM I will make something to eat. I mainly live on the ketosis diet, so my meals are often packed with a lot of fat which keeps me full throughout the day, though I do keep almonds or pistachios at my desk for a snack if I find myself hungry later on.
For exercise, I ride my bike to work, which takes me about 10-15 minutes each way, and works out my legs. I live an apartment complex that comes with an indoor heated pool and jacuzzi, so that works out my arms and helps me relax.
During some waking hours, I also run a popular website, http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com, which focuses on jobs, careers, and the workplace -- technically it runs itself, but I get many people contributing articles and infographics, which I have to process and get prepared to publish on the website, so this has basically become a part-time job that I don't get paid for... but it does help with networking, gaining exposure in the world, and helping others as well in the process as they help me. There are just too many benefits that are beyond the financial aspect of it. I normally take a few hours during the week to focus on this website, preparing all the articles and infographics sent to me during the week, scheduling them for a time to get published. Wait times usually range from 1-3 weeks. Since this is a [less than] part-time kind of deal, and the website is free, there is always a waiting period before people get published, but I've had very few complaints about it. As I can only respond: It is a free publishing platform and it is in demand and popular. I only publish once or twice a day and I could probably publish a lot more than that, but I've found a formula that works for me: doing it this way creates that supply and demand as well as that need to keep coming back to the website to see "today's confession".
On the weekends, when I'm off from work, I'm either sleeping, running errands, going to concerts, hiking, watching TV, or working on my side projects. And that is my exciting life.