My favorite time to code is between about 10pm and 3am when the world is asleep and there are few interuptions.
So, question: When do you code? Extra Credit: What do you do to give yourself more time to code during other parts of the day?
That gives me a few hours of productivity, then when they wake up begging for more food way before dinner so I kick them outside for a couple hours so they realize that life isn't all that easy, and sometimes it's a bit tough, because I'm busting my ass to keep them living what appears to me to be the perfect life. (except for the fact that they have no balls)
My gf sent it to me a while back. It's a Swollen Members song called "Deep End" talking about rappers who like to work at night cuz "that's when the tracks come out right..."
Good song...
I feel cheated on the days I accidentally get on an express.
This would be impossible if I was still hacking in C/C++ like a year ago. Then, it would take me 2 hours just to get in the zone. Hacking sessions less than 4 hours were simply useless. Now my unit tests make the zone super-easy to find. It's been the biggest epiphany of 2008.
But... Recently I discovered that this also works if I rise early, _very_ early. This month, I've been waking up at 3am and accomplishing a LOT, until about 10am, when the outside world comes alive. It's nice because my mind is sharp -- I get to wake up and do something I love. I'm not racing against the urge to fall asleep, like when I code at the end of my day.
The downside is that I go to bed at 6pm every night... But apart from that, I really like this sleep cycle.
This style of work tends to occassionally push my sleep cycle around in funny ways. After intensive "sprints" it's not uncommon for me to have a week where I wake up at 6pm in the evening. That seems to be my recovery mode then, I don't get anything done in these weeks.
But sometimes, towards the end of such a recovery week, I notice the same thing that you mention. As I slowly adjust my cycle back towards the accepted norm there is often a period where I get up between 2-4am and many of these days have turned out amazingly productive, too.
Sometimes I wish I could just sustain either one of these rhythms (either getting up very early or getting up midday and working late) but for some reason I'm always slipping towards the "recovery state" after a few weeks. I guess that's my body's way of telling me when to stop...
I'm drifting forward (woke up at 7am today), I may be cursed with an inability to sustain a healthy rhythm at one specific time. Not sure yet.
Run before work. It's like 3 hours of regular brain bootup/procrastination are all taken away by that run.
When I have company I do end up working late night.
http://github.com/quad/moxie/graphs/punch_card for example.
Sometimes, I sneak into an empty conference room when I've to really focus during the day.
If you are anything like me, the root cause may not be the noise and movement. It may instead be the anticipation that the noise and movement is someone who is about to pull you out of your flow. Even if it doesn't happen that often, the psychological jolt that occurs every time it does is enough to make my mind resist concentrating when potential distractions are around. Noise-canceling headphones do nothing against a tap on the shoulder.
From, you guessed it, Paul Graham... (Specifically, footnote #1 of chapter 6 of Hackers and Painters, aka "How to Make Wealth" http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html#f1n)
Aggh, I'm getting paranoid just thinking about someone walking in behind me now. Working when nobody else is around and no phones can ring is the best kind of work.
I come into work at around 9. Sit away from the rest of my lab and code until my battery dies. Then I let my macbook fully recharge while I try to get through as much of my reading as possible.
Rinse and repeat.
Recent research points to a faster way to adjust your body clock:
That said, I tend to get up and work out in the morning and if its Tue/Thu then I'm coding till lunch, coding till dinner, then on and off in the evening unless the g/f objects. MWF its just whenever I get time. In between classes and so on. Sat & Sun is hit or miss. Just depends on my plans.
My best time of day to code is around 2pm - 9pm actually, I find I get more done during those times. I find that I read better later in the evenings and that I'm more of a cheerful person from late mornings to early afternoon - which is when I do most of my phonecalls.
Normally, I work in the afternoon in my home office with no one around.
Few distractions/noise, plus you can't make noise yourself so you end up banging away at the keyboard for a while.
the world IS quiet, you are just fresh from a good sleep (even if it is only 4-5 hours) and man the zone is like there never before... ofcourse if you are NOT a morning person then it wont be for you (lucky for me, i can be a morning or a night person when necessary!)
i tend to be most focused around 10-noon and 7-midnight.
but then again, i have a circadian rhythm disorder.
Offsite, it's when I can.
What if - and believe me this is a hypothetical - but what if you were offered some kind of a stock option equity sharing program. Would that do anything for you?
The world is asleep, the morning starts to pop up, I am totally relaxed and restored after a good night sleep.
Full brain speed, no distractions: greatest time.
The rest of the day is to run tests, write documentation and polish something here and there. [And to sleep: I usually take a nap between 8 and 9 AM, before getting out of home].