A Day without Programming

Something like 80% of my time is spent explaining existing systems, reading bug reports, going to meetings, talking through API designs and database modeling, answering email, etc.

I would love to take a day where I did nothing but program.

Last week I finally switched gears to marketing, design and biz-dev after coding core functionality for three months and it was by far the most productive week ever. I didn't touch code (other than a few bugfixes) all week and started doing press work, coming up with a distribution strategy, hiring interns etc. I should have done this much sooner and it's amazing. I'll try doing the same thing the next two weeks, I doubt not coming out with a new feature every few days is as bad as some of us engineers might think ;)

First is that I know I sometimes lose sight of the end goal of a project when I start coding for weeks on end. I'll get sucked into a bug or a feature that I think is necessary and my vision for the future of the product becomes clouded.

I also relate this to the design of a product. Without taking a day to step back and try to examine your product from a different perspective, I don't think you'll ever be able to properly analyze and iterate on anything you create.

This all stems from my feelings that every engineer should also furiously work to be a good designer as well.

I'd actually come to enjoy spending most of the day doing my finances, answering emails, cleaning out the inbox etc. All in a relaxed manner - and the weekend then takes of with a good conscience.

I highly recommend it.

Sorry. -- But we've been told to "learn teaching." Where else except in the wild? User testing opportunities abound since we are developing social apps.