Why ev decided to stop exercising in the morning

Ah yes, welcome back to The Highly Effective Work Habits of People Flush with Silicon Valley Cash.

How does this help the rest of us who have to be in the office during core hours, no more than an hour for lunch, or else look for a new way to feed our families? In a down job market?

I was doing this for a while. I used to go after work, then started going at lunch.

But the place I go doesn't have a shower, so even after I dry of with a towel and take a hobo shower with some baby wipes, I'm still kind of icky when I get back to work. I don't really like being even a little bit stinky out of respect for my co-workers.

It also causes me to take another 20 minutes for lunch or eat at my desk, and in the summer it takes me a good 20 minutes for my body temperature to come back to normal.

It works but as always there are compromises to be made.

This is a smart idea, but it made me think: I'd like to see some productivity/exercise/lifehacks for those of us who are stuck with inflexible managers or retrograde office cultures. I know I'd be vastly more productive if I could knock off around 2:00pm for a thirty-minute nap (or jog, depending) every day but unfortunately my company takes an Office Space-style approach to personnel management. It'd be great to see what people who have worked years in similar environments have been able to come up with.

Ev has a lot of good productivity tricks. I think this is one of his favorite topics, plus he's had a long career with important things to work paired with tons of people trying to get his time.

I tried to get him to give his philosophy on saying no. He's apparently very good and systematic about it. But somehow he still manages to know when to say yes.

I have found that working out in the morning is very good for my productivity. I've written a blog post about it: https://medium.com/better-humans/50c835e15244

The keys for me were doing so for only 10 minutes, with 2 of those being very intense, otherwise you get too exhausted.

I've lost 15lbs in 3 months also. By working out in the morning you get over the cortisol peak, grogginess and get off to a good start.

I need to finish that blog post series, but I'm actually working on a mobile app to help me keep track of some data.

To manage those energy/focus swings (especially after lunch), instead of working out, I go for a walk or step outside the office to work with fresh air and some sunlight.

I completely agree with this (although I did happen to exercise early this morning). Nothing is better for a long day of coding than a good ride, climb or surf in the middle. Lunch can really slow me down, and taking time to get exercise is a great remedy.

"If there were more travel time involved, it might not be worth it (or it might be worth switching how you exercise)"

Which for 95% of us out there, is the case. So this is a rather pointless article.

I think it really depends on the person. I always get an energy boost heading to the gym and I find my mind is clearer from the endorphin rush. Some people are clearer out of bed; I have had allergies to pollen and the environment all my life, so going to the gym clears it for me and I find I am more productive as a result. I go to the gym twice a day, akin to getting a cup of coffee to helping me focus.

Exercise and fitness is different for everyone. I don't think there is a single categorical way to approach exercise other than that you do it.

It depends on what works for you. I find that working out in the morning is better just so you can get it out of the way. I tend to be the in the zone throughout the whole day when coding so it would feel like an interruption for me.

Evan Williams isn't even swole. Why is he qualified to give workout advice?