

Are You Productive In the Morning Or Creative at Night? - skmurphy
http://blog.timberry.com/2008/07/productive-as-a.html

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jmtame
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.

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albertcardona
_I think most coders are more productive at night because there are fewer
distractions, when they're not expected._

You can say the same of very early morning. With the added bonus that then
your brain is refreshed and works faster.

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jmtame
Sure. I think most people merge the very late night with the very early
morning.

Ie my most productive coding sprees are from about midnight through 10am. And
then I hit a brick wall ;)

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pjackson
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.

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skmurphy
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.

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ojbyrne
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.

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rw
This is a false dichotomy; thought patterns are more nuanced.

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skmurphy
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.

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ced
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.

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arthurk
It's exactly the opposite for me. If I don't eat a good breakfast I'm likely
to get nothing done.

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azharcs
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.

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jfarmer
I find it's easiest for me to focus in the morning, from around 8AM to 1PM and
in the evening, from around 6PM to 10PM.

I don't know about "productive" versus "creative," though.

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ScottWhigham
_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.

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chris_l
I think people are creative at night because the body becomes tired and has
less energy to interfere with inspiration.

