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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?

#261

Profession: Software Developer [5:30-6:15] Get up --- [6:15-6:35] bath and espresso [6:35-7:00] commute --- or --- [6:15-6:45] make breakfast for the family [6:15-7:00] Wake wife and kids [7:00-7:30] Family breakfast [7:30-8:15] Commute --- Mostly I work uninterrupted until lunch. [12:00-12:30] Lunch [12:30-14:30] work and/or meetings [14:30-14:45] daily stand-up [14:45-15:50] uninterrupted work [15:50-16:30] Commute…

I've heard of showerbeer, but never showercoffee. This has completely changed my outlook on consumables taken while bathing.

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

#262

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…

Same. The bit about headphones kills me.

I love being in the office until the cacophony of everyone else begins and the noise is maddening. Sometimes I don't want to need to listen to music to be uninterrupted.

I now work from home 2-3+ days per week, even though I live about 20 minutes from HQ.

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

#263
post #94
post #86

Profession: CIO - Full time at company of roughly 3400 employees - [6:45 AM] - Wake up, take out dog - [7:45 AM] - Place kids in the car, off to car pool - [8:25 AM] - Arrive at work - [8:30 - 9:30 AM] - Catch up on email and news - [9:30 - 11:45 AM] - Work on whatever - [11:45 - 12:45 PM] - Head to gym and get workout in - [12:45 PM - 5:45 PM] - Work on whatever - [5:45 PM - 7:45 PM] - Head home, spend time with fam…

Wow, less than 6 hours of sleep. Is that sustainable?

No.

Source: I sleep less than 6 hours most nights.

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

#264

Profession: Music Tech Developer - Freelance, Remote 6:30am : Wake up, sit (meditate > 10min) 7:00am : Make tea/coffee and breakfast for my wife, eat together, she leaves 7:30am : Quick exercises 8:00am : (Sometimes 9a, 11a, or a combination) Meeting to plan the days priorities with either clients or my associate developers 9:00am - 12:00pm : Making things (researching, writing code, testing, taking screen shots / re…

Most healthy life plan I've seen so far. How did you get there? E.g. what brought you to meditating or taking a walk every afternoon.

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

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious. What makes you hangout at HN?

Just curious: What makes you ask?

Legitimate question as it was also quite surprising for me to see a firefighter respond to an ask HN. Though op does have apps in the app store and tinkers with Python so this is their hobby I take it.

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

#266

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…

> [08:00] ... work on something I procrastinated on the previous day so that I can have a good standup report lol, me too, I'm afraid to admit. Every dang day.

My equivalent of that, when I have a bad day and/or was working primarily on conceptual stuff, is to find some low-hanging refactoring fruit (like a typo a cow-orker made in a class name) that I can do in 2 minutes and that will touch several files, so there's some movement from me on source control. I tend to notice and note down such "high-noise/low-importance" quick fixes, so that the next time I spend few days grappling with huge architectural issues, I don't hear "you didn't commit anything in the past few days, what's wrong".

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

#267
Profession: Software Engineer - FT - 1500 employees

[05:00] Alarm goes off;

[05:20 - 6:30] Gym;

[6:45 - 7:30] Get back from the gym, shower, make breakfast, leave for work.

[08:00] Get to work. Check email/news.

[08:30 - 9:30] Do actual work. Most of the office isn't in yet.

[9:30 - 11:00] Meetings, general discussions, some work sprinkled in between.

[11:15 - 11:30] Daily Standup

[11:30 - 12:00] Eat lunch on site.

[12:00 - 13:00] Transition back to work, have some work-related discussions.

[13:00 - 16:00] Dedicated no-meeting work time. Engineers are exempt from scheduled meetings after 1PM.

[16:00] Go home, eat, sleep, rinse & repeat.

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profession: Another Software "Engineer" [05:00 - 06:00] Wake up with the sun, and work in bed on side projects on personal laptop; [06:00] Get myself together, spend the only waking time I have with my infant child during the week. [06:30] Gym [07:00] Commute to work [08:10] arrive at desk, have breakfast at desk while picking up on momentum from yesterday, or fixing what problem I was too mind-numbed to see through…

You may complain a lot later about not seeing your child grow up for more than 30 minutes a day, but I'm sure you have probably considered that :)

Believe me, I've considered it. For now, I'm content to take over parenting for a good chunk of the weekend, which gives the working mama a break and chance to prep for the next week. I'm banking on a big enough exit imminent before the baby hits 4 years old so that I never have to work again if I don't want to.

Failing that rough time frame, it's off to a big firm or government where hours are tightly defined. As you're alluding to, time is too precious a resource to squander. I joined this last company not long ago and I'm very enthusiastic about it, but this is the last start-up I can see myself doing. Unless someone is independently wealthy, I don't see how the commitment it takes is an acceptable sacrifice for a full and satisfying life once kids come into the picture.

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

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Profession: software "engineer" too. [08:00] First alarm goes off; [10:00] I'm starting to wake up [11:00] Some quick HN checking [12:00] Ok, off to office. [13:00] At the office; talking with customer if needed, otherwise desperately trying to get some work done amidst noise and distractions, including but not limited to people occasionally playing board games for a break. [18:00] All my cow-orkers in the room have…

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 mostly hard for me because of... some weird mix of biology and psychology, I guess. Since the end of highschool, I'm incapable of maintaining a "morning person" lifestyle for longer than half a week, full week at best. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the benefits of having some time alone in the office, when I can focus.

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

#270
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> I usually get this after-disco/cinema low when the amount of people in office starts to slow down When the office slows down and things get quieter is when I find myself finally able to get completely focused in on things that require all of my attention. I enjoy meetings, business talk, planning and miscellaneous conversations with coworkers more than (I think) most software developers, but to get any sizable soft…

Yeah that "reloading " process is hard for me as well, which is why I wear headphones. But some people don't respect headphones! They still interrupt with trivial bs, even after you've given them every possible nonverbal clue that you're trying to get shit done!
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