

Ask HN: When do you code? - pj

I can't seem to get any code written during the day, just too hectic.<p>My favorite time to code is between about 10pm and 3am when the world is asleep and there are few interuptions.<p>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?
======
cmos
I am most productive after feeding my damm cat's. After gorging themselves on
diet cat food one falls asleep on my lap, and the other just to the left of my
laptop, usually on top of my phone, which is always set to vibrate.

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)

------
okeumeni
I code when I feel the groove. I'm one of those people who code until I’m done
with what I wanted to achieve or my head spins and I must stop.

~~~
pj
Feel this groove: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTBDsGzm1IU>

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...

~~~
okeumeni
Thanks, I'm coding now I'll enjoy it later.

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akkartik
Rather surprisingly, my most productive time is the 2.5 hours commuting on
caltrain everyday. No internet access, nobody around from work or home = no
distractions. It's been 4 months at this job, so it's unlikely to just be a
honeymoon period (knock on wood)

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.

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mlLK
Ever since losing my job (3 months ago), moving back in with my parents, and
returning to college to complete my degree, my sleep habits have been
dramatically altered and would now describe myself as either a B-person or
night owl. I get most of my work done from 10 pm to 4 am while
maintaining/establishing freelance contacts from 2 pm to 4 pm.

------
zkarcher
Interesting thread. My best hours are late at night, when the world is quiet,
and there are no distractions.

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.

~~~
moe
Yeah, same here. During the day I usually only get small things done, if at
all. Only after 10pm, sometimes closer to midnight, I really manage to zero in
on a task and work it through. Most of the time I'm either done or get tired
at around 4am. Sometimes I'll churn through till 9am without even noticing.

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...

~~~
zkarcher
That's exactly how I discovered the über-early cycle... I stayed up later and
later, one day 8am arrived and I wasn't even slightly tired. I knew I couldn't
sustain that sleep cycle (waking at 4pm feels grim) so I pushed my sleep cycle
forward, living 26-hour days.

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.

------
quadhome
Github's punch card graph gave me insight on my hours.

<http://github.com/quad/moxie/graphs/punch_card> for example.

~~~
niels
I must be a workoholic:
[http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rVJcTSk8x1mNm6ewL4lImQ?...](http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rVJcTSk8x1mNm6ewL4lImQ?feat=directlink)

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bprater
If I can isolate myself from distractions, I can code anytime.

~~~
sabon
Well, I think that the whole thread is all about that "if".

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swapspace
Same here. Between 11pm - 4am. I'm not sure why, but I just feel much less
distracted at night. Maybe it's the feeling that it's calm everywhere or maybe
because daytime at office, with low cubicles, is full of noise and movement.
Even with my noise-canceling headphones, I can never escape the feeling of
movement and noise around me.

Sometimes, I sneak into an empty conference room when I've to really focus
during the day.

~~~
azanar
> Even with my noise-canceling headphones, I can never escape the feeling of
> movement and noise around me.

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.

~~~
swapspace
Ya, I think that's what I fear as well. I get into a sort of tunnel vision
when I'm focused. Some of my colleagues have mentioned that they have stood at
my side for a minute or so(I have a slight reputation ;) ) and I don't feel
that there is anybody there. When they finally do tap, it's all the more
jarring.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I'm well known for jumping about a foot in the air when tapped on the
shoulder. I despise workspaces where people can walk in behind me. (Hello
cubicle!) When I'm in the flow though...

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.

------
nirmal
Right now I'm going through quals so...

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.

------
semicon
I get to work around 10:00am, but actually start coding at around 5pm and code
for about 2 hours and accomplish more than I did from 10-5. I feel like all
these people around me are just trying to cause some kinda intelligence
vacuum.

------
alecthomas
10pm to 3am also, but I think it's just that there are no distractions.

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sam_in_nyc
It goes in bursts, and depends how interesting the thing I'm working on is. My
sleep schedule shifts a lot, (I think I was meant for a 25 hour day) so right
now I work from 7pm to like 5am.

~~~
euccastro
The circadian cycle that regulates sleep (amongst other things) has a 25-ish
hour period for most people, in the absence of natural time signaling stimuli
(i.e. sunlight and noise). In natural conditions, sunlight in the morning
readjusts your body clock in roughly +/-15m increments.

Recent research points to a faster way to adjust your body clock:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=199394>

------
rufius
Being a student I've learned to pack it in between the classes as well as
during some classes. However this semester I've managed to get myself a
schedule where I have no classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

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.

------
froo
Through trial and error I've figured out what times of the day I'm 'switched
on' - for example, I'm not a morning person so I leave all the mindless stuff
for mornings (answering emails etc).

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.

------
leftnode
Both in the early evenings and early mornings. I have to work all day, so I'm
up at about 430 to take care of my dogs and then I start coding before I have
to leave for work at 7. Then I get home around 6, hang out with my wife and
dogs for a bit, then we usually each get on a computer, she does her thing and
I code till about 11 when we go to sleep. Works well, and I get a ton done.

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coryrc
From about 8AM to 11PM with meal breaks on the Empire Builder between Chicago
and Seattle. Unfortunately, that's only four days a year for me. The lack of
Internet is both a curse and a blessing. I can only do certain types of work
without the Internet.

Normally, I work in the afternoon in my home office with no one around.

------
tjr
Most preferably, 8pm - 2am or so, but I rarely actually get to spend those
hours programming.

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travisjeffery
Typically either late at night or very early in the morning.

Few distractions/noise, plus you can't make noise yourself so you end up
banging away at the keyboard for a while.

------
flashgordon
actually one of the best times i find is between 4 and 8 before going to
work!!! (problem is during my luckiest days i wake up no earlier than 5)...

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!)

------
gregstoll
My good zones are 2-5pm and 9-11pm. I try to fill the other parts of the work
day with administrative stuff or studying existing code, when possible.

------
oscardelben
I feel more productive in the morning and I use headphones to isolate myself
from external world. I also turn off skype and other IM.

------
johngunderman
My best hours are all the hours of night. 5-2ish. I just loose track of time
and end up getting sooo much done.

------
jparicka
10pm and 4am.

------
dan_sim
Between 10am and noon. I can do it again around 3pm to 8pm (or later if I'm in
the mood).

------
noodle
like you, i tend to get distracted, so i try and make it easy for myself to
sit and go when the mood strikes.

i tend to be most focused around 10-noon and 7-midnight.

but then again, i have a circadian rhythm disorder.

------
safetytrick
I code when and only when I've completed reading every article on Hacker News.

------
doogle
I code when I can, between meetings.

Offsite, it's when I can.

------
vijayshankar
I code usually between 3pm to 8pm. Sometimes 10pm to 1am.

------
chanux
When I'm in the mood & have the boost.

------
reg4c
When I'm alive.

------
known
pj, how old are you?

------
Allocator2008
I get in around 9:30 and usually zone out for an hour in front of my computer,
but it looks like I'm working. I then zone out for another hour after lunch
too. In fact, in a given day, I'd say I do fifteen minutes, of real, actual
work.

~~~
PStamatiou
Would you bear with me for just a second, please?

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?

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
(psst: Paul, I think he's referring to Office Space.)

~~~
Xichekolas
(psst: _whoosh!_ )

------
albertcardona
I code my best between 6 and 8 AM.

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].

