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Waking up at 5am to code

mattgreer.org

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Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#51

Post by benregn »

Stormbringer wrote: post #50
tjr wrote: post #40

Could someone please expound upon the term "Kanban board", as used in this article? I am not understanding the connection between Kanban and what the author is describing, though I would like to.

It's some kind of sticky-note board / to do list thingy. Have a look over at JoelOnSoftware (?? Or was it the Fog Creek Site?) They have a free online version of something similar that they are trying to hit the big time with. I forget what it is called though.

You are talking about Trello from Fog Creek.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#52

Post by falcolas »

This seems highly related to a recent poll - how many hours of sleep do you need a night?

For example, if I tried this, I would have to go to bed at around 7:30pm at night. For a number of reasons (including eating dinner at 6pm), this is completely infeasible. A shame too, since a few hours of uninterrupted time would be great.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#53

Post by nsfmc »

dvdhsu wrote: post #49
kabdib wrote: post #27

In the last six or seven years I've been up regularly at 5am or so. I can get an hour of work done before the rest of the household wakes up. It's great. My inspiration was Gene Wolfe, who wrote _The Book of the New Sun_ in the wee hours, and held down a day job as a technical magazine editor. [I'm not claiming my code is anywhere near as great as the wonderful writing that Wolfe did, but the early hours are definite…

> My inspiration was Gene Wolfe, who wrote _The Book of the New Sun_ in the wee hours, and held down a day job as a technical magazine editor. Wow. That's really interesting. I was actually going to give this a try because of Robert Pirsig, who wrote Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance . Here's how he did it: In a 1974 interview with National Public Radio, Pirsig stated that the book took him four years to writ…

random fact, but Thomas Pynchon also jobbed as a technical writer for a period of time shortly before publishing V. His fictional Yoyodyne company is loosely modeled after boeing, apparently.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#55

Post by johnm »

bri3d wrote: post #24

Love this - a simple personal anecdote/retrospective rather than a self-promotion or "everyone should do as I say" piece. You could solve the girlfriend + music issue with a nice set of closed-stage headphones. I love my AKGs. But I'd actually A/B test with and without headphones - without the distraction of office noise, no headphones/music might actually be helping you focus as well. I find that even with a solid,…

Yes, in the morning it's so quiet that I find music distracting.

The one thing I've added is a nice room air filter and run it on low. The quiet white noise from the fan provides a smooth background.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#56

Post by gte910h »

joeyo wrote: post #25
gte910h wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OT: Why do surgeons start work at 5 am?

Table time for the first case of the day is usually quite early, as you want lots of time in case there are complications.

That doesn't seem to change the available time. You can start at any time of the day, there still the same amount of available time (ie 6-1800 hours is the same as 8-2000 hours)

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#57

Post by TomGullen »

I'm coding at 6am now, because I've been up all night! I don't enjoy it, but I find it very difficult to want to go to bed at the right time. Working in a startup time doesn't seem to matter so much I guess.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#58

Post by johnm »

derekja wrote: post #2

was a post a day or two ago about creativity being highest in the early AM as well. I do this in spurts but can't maintain it for long stretches...

It depends on the person but it's true for me. I tend to do my really hard/deep thinking in the morning and queue up stuff that I can do the rest of the day. The creativity that tends to appear more often later in the day and in the evenings end up being the cool stuff that bubbles up.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#59

Post by johnm »

97s wrote: post #8

I am a stay at home dad recovering from AML stim cell transplant. I have been trying to find time in my day to work on a personal project that I need to develop for myself and I think has a potential for profit. However with my busy 1 year old son waking up at 8AM(sleeps all night, which I am super thankful for), I can't find the time during the day to focus on a project. I get spurts during his 30-40 minute naps and…

People generally have two high-quality stints in them per day. Putting in a sleep cycle (be that a power nap or up to a full cycle) between them works wonders for all sorts of benefits physiologically and creatively.

Re: Waking up at 5am to code

#60

Post by j45 »

This totally works. Why?

You put your best and most creative energy into your own project.

Instead of whatever you have left in the tank after a long day of work and then doing home stuff and then finally settling in.

Getting out of bed isn't a problem when I'm so excited to work on something and I know what exactly I need to do -- I make a list before I go to bed.

Lack of distraction plus a full head of steam and energy is a great combination.

I try to do this as much as possible because it's so rewarding. Breaking the cycle with a late night or the weekend seems to be my main obstacle, I'm thinking of waking early 7 days a week and becoming like my old man, lol.

Will work/job suffer? Our work/job often needs our attention to detail more than our best and most creative effort every day.

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