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Ask HN: What's your working day like?

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Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#201

Post by ntsplnkv2 »

erikb wrote: post #146
treehau5 wrote: post #46

Profession: Software "Engineer" [06:15] First alarm goes off; [06:45] Finally wake up, get out of bed, shower, shave, make espresso for me and the wife [07:15] out the door, 30 minute commute to office [07:45] breakfast bagel at my work cafe [08:00] arrive at desk, begin contemplating work -- work on something I procrastinated on the previous day so that I can have a good standup report [9:00] everyone arrives at off…

Many people complain about the usual work chaos. I'm also an engineer and I don't get it. For me, having other people come and ask questions is not distraction but an opportunity to help, learn to know their point of view, learn new things. Meetings are a way to influence the direction of the company however small my influence may be. Other people talking can really distract if it's heavily on topic, but usually also…

No surprise, some people prefer other methods of work than others. But it isn't black and white.

Helping others is fun but I've been on both sides. There are plenty of people who always need help and never put effort in, and are extremely distracting and lower morale.

And interactions are not always of the "Hey can you explain this" variety. Sometimes it's your manager worrying about a project and nitpicking every detail and still managing to not know what's going on. Sometimes it's your manager trying to prove he is "technical" despite not being technical at all, and just downplays your work. Yes, I deal with this daily. Sometimes people are just assholes, and HR/management doesn't deal with it because they produce or are too afraid. Something else I deal with daily. And on top of that, sometimes I just don't want to talk to someone about something. I just want to focus and get done what I need to get done.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#203

Post by mikmeh »

Profession/position: Sysadmin - full time, remote - Workday:

    - 7:45am Wake up. Let the dog out. Slowly try to wear off soreness from psoriatic arthritis. Get coffee. Go to office. 
    - 8am Check email, hipchat, reports and alerts that came in that weren't critical enough to SMS me. 
    - 9am Do the needful from jira, that I assigned myself. I'm the only sysadmin/ITops/devops person. Add more tasks to jira. My sprint ends with more story points than it started with. I know, but I like using scrum and sprints even if I'm doing it all wrong. It's just me. I also like to schedule meetings between 9am - 11am.  
    - 11am Keep plugging away at jira tasks, try to stay away from /r/sysadmin which will only add more jira tasks. 
    - 1pmish 3 days/week go for lunch ride on the bike.
I love it. Very easy to get distracted, but I am distracted with work to do. I end up reading about some new vulnerability or 0day and I start checking to see if I need to worry about it. Or a new tech that could be useful. New feature was released in Azure/o365.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#204

Post by L_Rahman »

dejv wrote: post #148

Profession: Farmer (growing wine and winemaker) - about 20 - 30 hrs week, owner, single employee (For the rest of my time I write software as a single contributor/freelancer) [6:30] Wake up, light breakfast [7:30 - 10:00] commute to the village where is my farm, there is no need to rush. I take tram to train station, get some coffee, read emails on train commute, then switch to bus, read some book, then 4 km walking…

Idyllic. I love the unhurried cadence of this day.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#205

Post by robotnoises »

hopfog wrote: post #123
robotnoises wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a badass schedule. I've often wondered/daydreamed about running a company with a similar schedule. E.g. Extremely focused, productive mornings for writing code, meaning no interruptions if possible followed by lunch until whenever, then afternoons are flex time for meetings/planning/whatever the business needs.

Thank you! Yes, during the effective hours I get in everyday I get more done than on my previous job where I had to do 8 hours.

May I ask what you're working on?

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#207

Post by mrkgnao »

thatwebdude wrote: post #165
Etheryte wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your work schedule speaks to mine on a spiritual level. I can't imagine working anywhere where strict hours (9-5 or similar) are required.

It's not necessarily strict; just most convenient.

"Non-strict, not lazy"

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#208

Post by Insanity »

Profession: Software Engineer (medical software)

start:

[07:50] First alarm

[08:10] Out of bed and getting ready

[09:05] 10 minute trip to campus + 5 min walk to office

[09:20] Catch up with Slack, Email

[09:50 - 12:30] Work with regular interruptions

[12:30 - 12:45] Eat a quick lunch

[12:45 - 17:30] Coding, or meetings with some interruptions again.

[17:30] Head home, cook, have dinner with my wife and talk with her, do dishes.. (or, go swim 2x a week and short dinner)

[19:30] Play around with some other projects

[21:30] Play a boardgame with my wife, talk, watch something

[00:00] Read a bit and sleep.

GOTO start;

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#209

Post by RumHamPlanet »

Profession: SysAd- Full time remotr at company of ~800 employees

[7 AM] - Baby wakes up. Wife gets her and begins process of waking me up. Brings me some pre-workout. [7:45 AM] - The combination of unreasonable amounts of caffeine and my wife constantly prodding me finally gets me out of bed. Shower. [8 AM] - Head to the gym. [8:15 AM- 10:15 AM] - Work out. I'm already late. [10:30 AM] - Log in to Lync/Slack. I'm a half hour late, but nobody notices or cares. [11 AM - 2 PM] - Messages start rolling in. The QA environment is borked. Prod is screwy - better have an hour long meeting to discuss the ten minute fix. Someone wants to use me to unlock their account. Random questions. [2 PM] - Realize I've done a lot of bullshit but have accomplished nothing. Attempt to scrape up enough concentration to make a dent in one of my projects. [2:15 PM - 6PM] - Get side tracked and spend the rest of the day on unplanned work. [6 PM - ??? AM] - Relieve my tired wife of her motherly duties for a while. Catch up on TV. Do some programming. Play Zelda.

Re: Ask HN: What's your working day like?

#210

Post by jepper »

2nd year Surgical resident, part of my education to be an orthopedic surgeon. Currently working in a town 100km away.

05:45 wake up, quick breakfast and cycle to the train station 06:20 train. Grab the laptop, prepare for procedures or work on research 07:45 handover or 08:00 start of first procedure. Do timeout, grab a coffee while the anesthesist does his job 12:00 when lucky time for lunch behind the PC, administration 16:30 usually last procedure, handoff when on wards or clinic duty 17:00 see patients of the day, check for question from the new shift of nurses 18:00 train home. Do some coding for a company my friends and me run 19:15-19:30 home

Excerise, work on scientific papers or meet with the team at the office. Work on some points in the job queue. Sleep at 23:00.

Just a few more months and I'll change to a job closer by

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