I think most coders are more productive at night because there are fewer distractions, when they're not expected.
At night, I typically go into the "zone" where I'll allocate most of my attention span to my code base and to the syntax of a particular language and to the higher-level problem at hand, and my productivity is pretty high. But during the day, I usually can't get into that state, so I bounce back and forth between talking to people, answering questions, meetings, and coding.
I'm most productive in the early morning. I think the key to creativity is that leisure is an important part of it. The best ideas come during downtime of one form or another - hence we hear of people having ideas in the shower, or when they sleep, or walking around (my personal favorite). We generally have more leisure at night.
In this case productive for me means "focused on closure" or "getting things done" and creative means "generating possibilities, exploring new approaches." Obviously inspiration can strike at any time, and you have to find ways to get things done and even when you are not inspired.
I am most creative when I sleep. I wake up with ideas. But I'm not productive in the morning. If I can get to the office before it gets too busy or distracting, I find I can jell a lot of ideas in the morning.
I am productive late at night, when I can go into the coding zone with little interruption. But that late night time is generally not creative for me.
I notice that when I get enough sleep I will sometimes spend the last dream of the morning solving (or at least advancing on a solution) to a problem I have been wrestling with. My dead time is after lunch until early evening, I try and schedule phone calls and interaction with other people to renew my energy.
I found recently that I am most productive before eating anything in the morning. That was a study tip from one of my teachers, I should have paid attention.
I think i am most productive at night, I am awake almost all night and sleep in the morning and wake up at noon. The reason, nights are productive is because 99.9% of the people are sleeping, no phone calls to disturb, no online friends pinging you and many more reasons.
I don't know about "productive" versus "creative," though.
Me either - creativity and productivity aren't mutually exclusive in my business so I would struggle figuring out when I was better at one or the other.
