Ask HN: What's a day in your life look like?
67 comments
If you don't mind me asking, how do you go about acquiring clients for the web dev, and what rates do you charge? Thanks!
This came up on HN a week ago, might be helpful :)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8908279
I don't mind you asking! I wish I could be of more help. I've had the same "freelance boss" for the past 6 years. I've worked on a dozen different projects with him; some were his own ideas, but most were for his various clients. I met him through a friend who also worked freelance at the time. This was back when iOS development was in huge demand, everyone thought they had the killer app idea.
He was more than happy to hire a 17-year-old programmer for about $25/hr. I now charge about $120/hr.
I have no clue how he gets most of his clients. I suppose I'm in a privileged position.
He was more than happy to hire a 17-year-old programmer for about $25/hr. I now charge about $120/hr.
I have no clue how he gets most of his clients. I suppose I'm in a privileged position.
You sound really interesting! Are you in Los Angeles? I'd love to meet up for coffee one day.
Thanks, but I'm in Santa Barbara! I don't often make it to LA. If you're ever passing through SB, feel free to drop me a line (contact info in profile).
Wake up at an unknown point in the day or night, somewhere in the continental United States or Central America.
Assess the situations my wife might have gotten into while I was sleeping and do triage, or wake up gracefully.
Determine which emails and phone calls need a response and reply as briefly as possible.
If we're going somewhere else, prepare the mobile lab for departure and get under way. Otherwise enjoy wherever it is we are.
Connect with business partners and make any outstanding decisions required for that time.
Connect with F/OSS collaborators and audit any outstanding bug reports or feature requests.
Scout around the area with my wife, figuring out what about where we're currently staying is worth coming back for.
Eat something in the local area or come back to the mobile base and make something.
Assess situation of deliverables and code on most mission critical pieces due soonest.
Unravel some visionary pieces coming in the mid/long term and discuss future scenarios with advisors and agents.
Take on a large piece of code that needs to be written, or a large bug that needs to be weeded out.
Make a campfire, have a beer... maybe cook something on the fire.
Watch a few episodes of something on Netflix with my wife... assuming 4G access or WiFi in the location is stable enough.
Either turn in for the night/day or continue with more of whatever large coding project I took on.
Periodically communicate with partners, collaborators, or clients passed to me by agents managing contacts.
Assess the situations my wife might have gotten into while I was sleeping and do triage, or wake up gracefully.
Determine which emails and phone calls need a response and reply as briefly as possible.
If we're going somewhere else, prepare the mobile lab for departure and get under way. Otherwise enjoy wherever it is we are.
Connect with business partners and make any outstanding decisions required for that time.
Connect with F/OSS collaborators and audit any outstanding bug reports or feature requests.
Scout around the area with my wife, figuring out what about where we're currently staying is worth coming back for.
Eat something in the local area or come back to the mobile base and make something.
Assess situation of deliverables and code on most mission critical pieces due soonest.
Unravel some visionary pieces coming in the mid/long term and discuss future scenarios with advisors and agents.
Take on a large piece of code that needs to be written, or a large bug that needs to be weeded out.
Make a campfire, have a beer... maybe cook something on the fire.
Watch a few episodes of something on Netflix with my wife... assuming 4G access or WiFi in the location is stable enough.
Either turn in for the night/day or continue with more of whatever large coding project I took on.
Periodically communicate with partners, collaborators, or clients passed to me by agents managing contacts.
Is this like your dream day or your real day?
I forgot to add Obsessively track HackerNews, GitHub, and StackOverflow
9-11 maybe wake up, sex, or not
10-11 check the internets
11-3 frantically work on tasks that I should have started at 9a
2 or so : fry some potatoes and eggs and eat them with avocados, cheese, and tortillas
after lunch till 5 or 6 frantically work on tasks
11-sleep - check social media and write messages to folks who might need what I do
6-8 goof off with my kids
6 maybe exercise
9-12 play a gig if one has been booked (usually only on Friday or Saturday)
12-5 play a gig (usually only on Sunday)
7-9 practice playing jazz with old people (typically only one or two days a week)
9-12 drink some beer and practice new programming techniques
2 or so go to sleep with my beautiful and talented wife, sex, or not
Is this satire?
Naw, that's me writing in the 12-2 time frame when I get blitzed drunk with my violinist wife and her pianist. Before going to bed. It will probably tip over someday but I can say that it has been working for the last 5 years.
What.
Location: Kuwait
05:30 Wake up. Followed by an hour of coding / reading / follow-up of what I left last night.
06:30 Shower, freshen up for work.
07:15 Cook breakfast, browse HN, pocket some articles for the ride to work.
07:45 Leave for office.
08:15 Arrive at office. Begin the day by checking emails.
08:30 Shuffle between meetings & coding. On a good day, I'm able to avoid meetings until lunch.
12:00 Lunch time and hanging out at the proverbial water-cooler with colleagues.
13:15 Meetings and hopefully some productive coding
17:15 Prepare to leave. Check email one last time and send off replies to anything pending.
17:45 Leave for home.
18:30 Reach home. Order dinner, call parents.
19:30 Finish dinner while watching some TV show / talk on Youtube. Head out for a walk / run
20:15 Get back from walk / run. Relax by listening to some music, IMing with friends, watching few videos.
21:00 Start work on side-project or coursera course or blog post. Try to get a couple of hours of productive work done.
23:00 Prepare to sleep.
05:30 Wake up. Followed by an hour of coding / reading / follow-up of what I left last night.
06:30 Shower, freshen up for work.
07:15 Cook breakfast, browse HN, pocket some articles for the ride to work.
07:45 Leave for office.
08:15 Arrive at office. Begin the day by checking emails.
08:30 Shuffle between meetings & coding. On a good day, I'm able to avoid meetings until lunch.
12:00 Lunch time and hanging out at the proverbial water-cooler with colleagues.
13:15 Meetings and hopefully some productive coding
17:15 Prepare to leave. Check email one last time and send off replies to anything pending.
17:45 Leave for home.
18:30 Reach home. Order dinner, call parents.
19:30 Finish dinner while watching some TV show / talk on Youtube. Head out for a walk / run
20:15 Get back from walk / run. Relax by listening to some music, IMing with friends, watching few videos.
21:00 Start work on side-project or coursera course or blog post. Try to get a couple of hours of productive work done.
23:00 Prepare to sleep.
7:00 AM - Alarm goes off. get self out of bed, take phone, snooze alarm, go back to sleep.
7:15 AM - Alarm goes off. turn on lights. squint until eyes acclimated to light.
7:30 AM - Put on running clothes. Leave residence, embark on run.
8:00AM - Reenter apartment after ~3 mile run, take shower and get ready.
8:30AM - leave apartment again for work
9:00AM - arrive at work, get coffee & light breakfast
9:10-12:00 - most productive programming hours of the day
12:00 - 12:45 - lunch, either onsite or off depending on day
12:45 - 3PM - usually when I have meetings, if not in meetings then programming
3-3:30 PM - afternoon break, have a snack, leave office for a bit and walk around
3:30-6PM - more programming & meetings
6-7PM - leave office, go home, cook & eat dinner if I don't have dinner plans.
7-11PM - social life (dates, friends, etc.)
11PM-12AM - read a chapter of current book I am reading
12AM - bedtime
7:15 AM - Alarm goes off. turn on lights. squint until eyes acclimated to light.
7:30 AM - Put on running clothes. Leave residence, embark on run.
8:00AM - Reenter apartment after ~3 mile run, take shower and get ready.
8:30AM - leave apartment again for work
9:00AM - arrive at work, get coffee & light breakfast
9:10-12:00 - most productive programming hours of the day
12:00 - 12:45 - lunch, either onsite or off depending on day
12:45 - 3PM - usually when I have meetings, if not in meetings then programming
3-3:30 PM - afternoon break, have a snack, leave office for a bit and walk around
3:30-6PM - more programming & meetings
6-7PM - leave office, go home, cook & eat dinner if I don't have dinner plans.
7-11PM - social life (dates, friends, etc.)
11PM-12AM - read a chapter of current book I am reading
12AM - bedtime
6:30 wake up
7:00 drive to BART in walnut creek
7:15 park at Walnut Creek Bart
8:00 get off BART at Montgomery
8:05 arrive at office
8:05 - 9:00 grab breakfast, informally sync with Product Managers
9:00-10:40 code alone
10:40 standup meeting
11:00 - 12:00 informal design discussions with team mates, lots of white boarding
12:00 - 1:00 grab lunch, play super smash brothers with colleagues
1:00 - 4:30 push changes to prod, review code, pair program
4:30 head to BART
4:35 head upstream on BART to civic center
4:45 catch BART from civic center (get a seat)
5:35 get off at Walnut creek
5:40 drive home
6:00 arrive home, eat, play with kids
7:00 kids bedtime, free time for parents (generally try to spend this together)
9:00 go running
10:00 wife goes to bed, I'm less of a sleeper so I usual stay up another hour or two working on side projects or sometimes just playing video games.
7:00 drive to BART in walnut creek
7:15 park at Walnut Creek Bart
8:00 get off BART at Montgomery
8:05 arrive at office
8:05 - 9:00 grab breakfast, informally sync with Product Managers
9:00-10:40 code alone
10:40 standup meeting
11:00 - 12:00 informal design discussions with team mates, lots of white boarding
12:00 - 1:00 grab lunch, play super smash brothers with colleagues
1:00 - 4:30 push changes to prod, review code, pair program
4:30 head to BART
4:35 head upstream on BART to civic center
4:45 catch BART from civic center (get a seat)
5:35 get off at Walnut creek
5:40 drive home
6:00 arrive home, eat, play with kids
7:00 kids bedtime, free time for parents (generally try to spend this together)
9:00 go running
10:00 wife goes to bed, I'm less of a sleeper so I usual stay up another hour or two working on side projects or sometimes just playing video games.
When I was on Co-op in Boston at a late stage start up my usual schedule looked like
8am - 9:30am - Wake up and Skype long distance fiance as she gets ready for class. Check emails, hipchat and social media. Push some bug fixes / product updates and deploy.
9:30 am - Shower and get ready to head to work.
10 am - 10:15 am - Walk a mile to T (JFK/UMass)
10:15 am - 10:45 am - Take red line to MIT/Kendall
10:45 am - 11am - Walk 1 mile to the office (Could also take the green line and walk a few steps but I enjoy the walk)
11am - 12:30pm - Email, push some more code, go over pull requests
12:30pm - 1pm - Lunch with co workers maybe longer if its a team lunch
1 pm - 2:30pm - code code code
2:30pm - 3:00pm - Meeting with tech lead if its a Monday
3pm - 7pm - code code code
7pm - 7:15pm - walk back to the T
7:15pm - 7:45pm - Red line
7:45pm - 8pm - Walk back to apartment
8pm - 10pm Dinner, Skype, Stream something from my Plex server
10pm - 12/1/2/3am - Work on a personal project or more work stuff. Push some changes and deploy them
??? - 8am - Sleep
I would also play lacrosse on Wednesdays which changes the whole end of my day.
8am - 9:30am - Wake up and Skype long distance fiance as she gets ready for class. Check emails, hipchat and social media. Push some bug fixes / product updates and deploy.
9:30 am - Shower and get ready to head to work.
10 am - 10:15 am - Walk a mile to T (JFK/UMass)
10:15 am - 10:45 am - Take red line to MIT/Kendall
10:45 am - 11am - Walk 1 mile to the office (Could also take the green line and walk a few steps but I enjoy the walk)
11am - 12:30pm - Email, push some more code, go over pull requests
12:30pm - 1pm - Lunch with co workers maybe longer if its a team lunch
1 pm - 2:30pm - code code code
2:30pm - 3:00pm - Meeting with tech lead if its a Monday
3pm - 7pm - code code code
7pm - 7:15pm - walk back to the T
7:15pm - 7:45pm - Red line
7:45pm - 8pm - Walk back to apartment
8pm - 10pm Dinner, Skype, Stream something from my Plex server
10pm - 12/1/2/3am - Work on a personal project or more work stuff. Push some changes and deploy them
??? - 8am - Sleep
I would also play lacrosse on Wednesdays which changes the whole end of my day.
Wake up at some time X.
Check Slack, and my google calendar for the day.
Open up asana, check our priority queue and ensure my in progress/upcoming are set accurately (remote team, so this is very important)
I work mostly with data scientists. So, some days it's pure cowboy coding. Experimental and research stuff. Lots of image processing, NLP, and API design stuff.
After I finish the first task of the day, contact the Chief Scientist/senior data scientists. Review, consult, plan if we can do more to it or if its worth 'graduating' to a larger product.
Or, if its a larger, production project consult with product and VP of eng as well. Ensure all delivery needs are met.
At the end of the day we have an informal chat of no specified amount of time. The 'end' of the day is often midnight-1am-ish for us because we have people in 5 time zones. We try to be as flexible as possible especially with a guy in South Korea.
Check Slack, and my google calendar for the day.
Open up asana, check our priority queue and ensure my in progress/upcoming are set accurately (remote team, so this is very important)
I work mostly with data scientists. So, some days it's pure cowboy coding. Experimental and research stuff. Lots of image processing, NLP, and API design stuff.
After I finish the first task of the day, contact the Chief Scientist/senior data scientists. Review, consult, plan if we can do more to it or if its worth 'graduating' to a larger product.
Or, if its a larger, production project consult with product and VP of eng as well. Ensure all delivery needs are met.
At the end of the day we have an informal chat of no specified amount of time. The 'end' of the day is often midnight-1am-ish for us because we have people in 5 time zones. We try to be as flexible as possible especially with a guy in South Korea.
I understand your company has lots of remote data scientists... Are you hiring? I'd be interested to have a go if it's the case. How can I contact you?
Lots of great responses here, I can chime in! I'm from Minneapolis.
I usually wake up between 9-11, and always without an alarm. I'll get up, take a 5-hour energy, go have some breakfast while I watch Reddit.tv. Breakfast is usually toast and Honey Bunches of Oats, sometimes eggs and toast, sometimes a toaster strudel (no toast). I'll then pop my Vyvanse (adderall) and head to my office.
Once I'm in my office I'll hop on Slack, Ventrilo (we <3 it), and check my emails. I'll check in with everyone to let them know I'm alive and I'll excuse myself while I spend 15-minutes max replying to emails.
Lunch is usually around 1, but no later than 2. It's a bit smaller than my breakfast is, but enough to ensure that I don't get hungry before dinner.
I'll then spend the next five hours as close to a 100% productivity level as I can.
Figure it's about 7, I start to unwind. I'll put on a sports game or head out for a drink with colleagues or clients.
Around 9 is when I'm usually doing my own thing. I'll spend some time on my piano or working on a side project.
It's now about 11 where I settle into bed, no laptop allowed on my bed. I'll put on a documentary, close out emails, and prepare for the next day.
I'm 23, self-employed. I quit my bullshit "100+ hour work week let's call you at 1am saying somethings not working on my daughter's iPhone with the app" a few months ago. I'm not going back.
I usually wake up between 9-11, and always without an alarm. I'll get up, take a 5-hour energy, go have some breakfast while I watch Reddit.tv. Breakfast is usually toast and Honey Bunches of Oats, sometimes eggs and toast, sometimes a toaster strudel (no toast). I'll then pop my Vyvanse (adderall) and head to my office.
Once I'm in my office I'll hop on Slack, Ventrilo (we <3 it), and check my emails. I'll check in with everyone to let them know I'm alive and I'll excuse myself while I spend 15-minutes max replying to emails.
Lunch is usually around 1, but no later than 2. It's a bit smaller than my breakfast is, but enough to ensure that I don't get hungry before dinner.
I'll then spend the next five hours as close to a 100% productivity level as I can.
Figure it's about 7, I start to unwind. I'll put on a sports game or head out for a drink with colleagues or clients.
Around 9 is when I'm usually doing my own thing. I'll spend some time on my piano or working on a side project.
It's now about 11 where I settle into bed, no laptop allowed on my bed. I'll put on a documentary, close out emails, and prepare for the next day.
I'm 23, self-employed. I quit my bullshit "100+ hour work week let's call you at 1am saying somethings not working on my daughter's iPhone with the app" a few months ago. I'm not going back.
What's the start-up?
I'm actually running a little development agency while I work on some side projects. My goal is to use my income from developing other people's ideas to develop my own. Sooner or later, though, I hope the agency is on autopilot so I can devote full-time to one of my own ideas.
[deleted]
From Ottawa, Canada. Before I had a very loose daily structure but was noticing my output and general health was suffering, so trying to stick to this structure on weekdays:
6:30 - Alarm on gym days, otherwise I just naturally wake up around 7-8
7:30 - work with my PT on gym days and refresh myself after, or on non-gym days I catch up on the Internets and prepare for the day
8:30 - hit a coffeeshop and motor through client work (mornings are where I find it best for me to work on this stuff)
12:30 - lunch break, where most of the time I just grab something from the same vegetarian restaurant and bring it home and usually couple with reading a book during this time
13:30 - nap if I’m tired, otherwise continue with client work, though my energy levels are usually sapped by now so I work on low-hanging fruit items
16:30 - wind down, catch up on the Internets
The rest of the evening is more loose, either hanging out with friends, playing some board or video games, figure out if I need to restructure possessions or other things in life, or continue my indie game dev hobby (recently started). I go to sleep anywhere between 22:00-2:00. I also try to make a todo list for the next day so I do less planning on the fly, but that habit hasn’t sunk in yet.
6:30 - Alarm on gym days, otherwise I just naturally wake up around 7-8
7:30 - work with my PT on gym days and refresh myself after, or on non-gym days I catch up on the Internets and prepare for the day
8:30 - hit a coffeeshop and motor through client work (mornings are where I find it best for me to work on this stuff)
12:30 - lunch break, where most of the time I just grab something from the same vegetarian restaurant and bring it home and usually couple with reading a book during this time
13:30 - nap if I’m tired, otherwise continue with client work, though my energy levels are usually sapped by now so I work on low-hanging fruit items
16:30 - wind down, catch up on the Internets
The rest of the evening is more loose, either hanging out with friends, playing some board or video games, figure out if I need to restructure possessions or other things in life, or continue my indie game dev hobby (recently started). I go to sleep anywhere between 22:00-2:00. I also try to make a todo list for the next day so I do less planning on the fly, but that habit hasn’t sunk in yet.
I'll describe the best and worse daily routine I ever had during my working life.
Best (I was truly happy with this routine):
08:00 - Waking up with somebody that makes you happy. (When there is urgent "homework", getting up at 06:00). Tasty and elaborated breakfast.
08:40 - 20 minutes walking to work, independently of the weather (sun, rain, snow). Good time to contemplate and meditate.
09:00 - Work that I really like, feeling that I'm making something that makes a difference, with people I respect and being reasonably well paid for that.
12:15 - Lunch. 2 options: a) Buying something in the shop and walking around or going to the park to eat it. b) Going to a restaurant with colleagues/friends.
13:00 - Work that I really like, feeling that I'm making something that makes a difference, with people I respect and being reasonably well paid for that. Anyway I prefer to work mornings.
17:00 - Walking every day to a different gym in the city. Normally meeting friends there.
18:30 - Arriving home in the city and having a girl/woman with a great smile on her face waiting for you. Making/having a tasty and elaborated dinner together.
20:00 - Time for novelty: movies at home, meeting friends/new people, going somewhere. No TV. Unpredictability is great here.
24:00 - Sleep with a girl/woman with a smile in the face.
Worse (my unhappy times):
08:00 - Waking up alone.
08:30 - Long commute(1.5h) during rush hour to work, changing transportation 3 times.
10:00 - Work that I really hate, feeling that I'm making bullshit, with people I don't respect and being very bad paid for that.
13:00 - Lunch. Taking food from home to compensate long commute costs and low wage.
14:00 - Work that I really hate, feeling that I'm making bullshit, with people I don't respect and being very bad paid for that. Afternoons are even worse.
19:00 - Long commute home.
20:30 - Arriving home in suburbs. Too late and far way for gym. Eating something.
21:30 - Too late and far away to meet somebody. Crappy TV/internet till sleeping time.
24:00 - Sleep alone.
Best (I was truly happy with this routine):
08:00 - Waking up with somebody that makes you happy. (When there is urgent "homework", getting up at 06:00). Tasty and elaborated breakfast.
08:40 - 20 minutes walking to work, independently of the weather (sun, rain, snow). Good time to contemplate and meditate.
09:00 - Work that I really like, feeling that I'm making something that makes a difference, with people I respect and being reasonably well paid for that.
12:15 - Lunch. 2 options: a) Buying something in the shop and walking around or going to the park to eat it. b) Going to a restaurant with colleagues/friends.
13:00 - Work that I really like, feeling that I'm making something that makes a difference, with people I respect and being reasonably well paid for that. Anyway I prefer to work mornings.
17:00 - Walking every day to a different gym in the city. Normally meeting friends there.
18:30 - Arriving home in the city and having a girl/woman with a great smile on her face waiting for you. Making/having a tasty and elaborated dinner together.
20:00 - Time for novelty: movies at home, meeting friends/new people, going somewhere. No TV. Unpredictability is great here.
24:00 - Sleep with a girl/woman with a smile in the face.
Worse (my unhappy times):
08:00 - Waking up alone.
08:30 - Long commute(1.5h) during rush hour to work, changing transportation 3 times.
10:00 - Work that I really hate, feeling that I'm making bullshit, with people I don't respect and being very bad paid for that.
13:00 - Lunch. Taking food from home to compensate long commute costs and low wage.
14:00 - Work that I really hate, feeling that I'm making bullshit, with people I don't respect and being very bad paid for that. Afternoons are even worse.
19:00 - Long commute home.
20:30 - Arriving home in suburbs. Too late and far way for gym. Eating something.
21:30 - Too late and far away to meet somebody. Crappy TV/internet till sleeping time.
24:00 - Sleep alone.
This made me realize how messed up my day is.
California:
Wake up at 1 - 2 pm
Wash brush
3 pm go out and get breakfast and listen to podcast
3:30 pm I record podcast
5 pm I play with the kids (niece and nephew)
6 pm fire up laptop edit the podcast write a blog post - if the stars are aligned I may publish.
8 pm I waste time on the web
10 pm watch a movie and dinner.
12 am I open blender and work on my 3d project
3 am I code and experiment new tech.
4 am I listen to another podcast while playing clash of clans
5 am I am consumed by sleep.
Context: I quit my job 6 months ago after 3 and a half year. I am trying a bunch of new things to see what sticks.
California:
Wake up at 1 - 2 pm
Wash brush
3 pm go out and get breakfast and listen to podcast
3:30 pm I record podcast
5 pm I play with the kids (niece and nephew)
6 pm fire up laptop edit the podcast write a blog post - if the stars are aligned I may publish.
8 pm I waste time on the web
10 pm watch a movie and dinner.
12 am I open blender and work on my 3d project
3 am I code and experiment new tech.
4 am I listen to another podcast while playing clash of clans
5 am I am consumed by sleep.
Context: I quit my job 6 months ago after 3 and a half year. I am trying a bunch of new things to see what sticks.
I tried blender once, it was taking too much time so I gave up. I wanted to make animation movie. Would you mind sharing your stuff with blender?
In Belgium working for a startup which I just gave my notice to so I can start my own business:
06:00 Alarm goes off and get up
06:15 Leave for work, listen to podcasts or music depending on mood
07:00 arrive at work, check up on email and monitoring tools
07:30 pick a task from Jira and start coding
11:30 daily scrum standup to see what my colleagues are doing and how we can help out each other
12:00 lunch, usually I buy something from the local supermarket and we eat in the office kitchen
12:45 resume work, mostly coding and avoiding meetings
15:30 start commute home, podcasts or music depending on mood
16:15 do freelance work or work on one of my own projects
18:00 pick up my daughter from daycare, have dinner and play with her until she goes to bed
20:15 more freelance/own project work or watch TV shows with my wife
23:00 sleep
The last few weeks I tried moving those 2 hours of freelance work from late in the afternoon to right after I wake up (and move my day job 2 hours later), and this seems to massively improve the quality of the work I get done for my own company while not impacting my day job code quality that much. I suspect this is because otherwise the long commute home is draining a lot of energy.
06:00 Alarm goes off and get up
06:15 Leave for work, listen to podcasts or music depending on mood
07:00 arrive at work, check up on email and monitoring tools
07:30 pick a task from Jira and start coding
11:30 daily scrum standup to see what my colleagues are doing and how we can help out each other
12:00 lunch, usually I buy something from the local supermarket and we eat in the office kitchen
12:45 resume work, mostly coding and avoiding meetings
15:30 start commute home, podcasts or music depending on mood
16:15 do freelance work or work on one of my own projects
18:00 pick up my daughter from daycare, have dinner and play with her until she goes to bed
20:15 more freelance/own project work or watch TV shows with my wife
23:00 sleep
The last few weeks I tried moving those 2 hours of freelance work from late in the afternoon to right after I wake up (and move my day job 2 hours later), and this seems to massively improve the quality of the work I get done for my own company while not impacting my day job code quality that much. I suspect this is because otherwise the long commute home is draining a lot of energy.
Location: Kharkov, Ukraine
7:30-8:15 Wake up, get out of bed, shower, coffee
8:30-8:45 Walk to work, open up the office for the rest of the staff
9:00-14:00 Work work work work. Since we have an 'open office' there are no set meetings but as the manager I will be usually having sit-downs with each of my reports and figuring out what's going on. Also will engage in Skype-chats with my other reports/colleagues (we have remote developers in Europe and Africa)
14:00-17:30 Wind down with a long lunch or work on extra projects if there is a tight deadline (usually the case)
17:30-18:00 Close up the office and walk home
18:00-18:20 Standup with the USA office (there are ten hours' difference between CA and UA), get updates on what is going on and get latest assignments
18:30-19:30 Dinner break
20:00-22:00 Skype calls with the USA for work, usually with PMs and clients based in the USA. Can also include answering emails, answering forums, or running demos/presentations over the GoToMeeting
22:00-midnight or 1am - cycle down, watch some streaming shows, goof around on a tablet, go to sleep
7:30-8:15 Wake up, get out of bed, shower, coffee
8:30-8:45 Walk to work, open up the office for the rest of the staff
9:00-14:00 Work work work work. Since we have an 'open office' there are no set meetings but as the manager I will be usually having sit-downs with each of my reports and figuring out what's going on. Also will engage in Skype-chats with my other reports/colleagues (we have remote developers in Europe and Africa)
14:00-17:30 Wind down with a long lunch or work on extra projects if there is a tight deadline (usually the case)
17:30-18:00 Close up the office and walk home
18:00-18:20 Standup with the USA office (there are ten hours' difference between CA and UA), get updates on what is going on and get latest assignments
18:30-19:30 Dinner break
20:00-22:00 Skype calls with the USA for work, usually with PMs and clients based in the USA. Can also include answering emails, answering forums, or running demos/presentations over the GoToMeeting
22:00-midnight or 1am - cycle down, watch some streaming shows, goof around on a tablet, go to sleep
Pomodoros = a productivity technique I use when I'm working. Currently I'm learning algorithms as I apply for programming jobs.
09:00 - wake up via alarm and hit snooze
09:40 - actually wake up -> check internet stuff
10:00 - get out of bed and start doing pomodoros
11:00 - make smoothie and drink it while continuing pomodoros
11:30 - do pushups -> continue pomodoros
12:30 - lunch
01:30 - pomodoros (usually get interrupted with something)
05:00 - gym
06:30 - shower, surf web
07:00 - dinner, watch a little tv
08:30 - more pomodoros, or watch move/socialize
12:00 - lights out, listen to podcast/watch tv until I'm sleepy
01:00 - sleep
Really, this is the best case scenario.
* In practice, I often sleep later. And I often try to go to be earlier but end up lying in bed for too long trying to go to sleep.
* And somehow my meals end up taking forever. I'm a really slow eater, and apparently a slow cooker also. Plus I like to relax and watch a little TV after I finish.
* Often times I'm interrupted with stuff. Today I had to shovel the driveway. Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor.
09:00 - wake up via alarm and hit snooze
09:40 - actually wake up -> check internet stuff
10:00 - get out of bed and start doing pomodoros
11:00 - make smoothie and drink it while continuing pomodoros
11:30 - do pushups -> continue pomodoros
12:30 - lunch
01:30 - pomodoros (usually get interrupted with something)
05:00 - gym
06:30 - shower, surf web
07:00 - dinner, watch a little tv
08:30 - more pomodoros, or watch move/socialize
12:00 - lights out, listen to podcast/watch tv until I'm sleepy
01:00 - sleep
Really, this is the best case scenario.
* In practice, I often sleep later. And I often try to go to be earlier but end up lying in bed for too long trying to go to sleep.
* And somehow my meals end up taking forever. I'm a really slow eater, and apparently a slow cooker also. Plus I like to relax and watch a little TV after I finish.
* Often times I'm interrupted with stuff. Today I had to shovel the driveway. Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor.
Would be really interesting if people could add their location. Seems like those in US have really long journeys to work?
That's a very good point. I'm going to upvote this to make it more visible. I would encourage others to do the same.
I wake up at 6:40 and make my way to work by 7:00.
I work at GoPro so the work is usually pretty relaxed. I spend most of the day working on software issues, browsing HN/PH/Quora, and studying programming languages (Java and Python are my flavors of the month).
I leave for school around 1:30 to make it to 2 o'clock classes. I'm there until 5-7pm.
Make my way home to my beautiful wife and baby girl. Eat, exercise, and hit the books. I try to pull the plug sometime around 9 but I'm usually too interested in whatever I'm studying.
My wife is good about keeping me balanced though so I try to spend as much time as possible with her.
Luckily, I sleep like a champ so I'm always out as soon as my head hits the pillow.
My life is crazy busy right now (I also do some freelance work with SumoMe and am trying to get a side business off the ground) but I totally love it. I just wish I were getting paid more!
I work at GoPro so the work is usually pretty relaxed. I spend most of the day working on software issues, browsing HN/PH/Quora, and studying programming languages (Java and Python are my flavors of the month).
I leave for school around 1:30 to make it to 2 o'clock classes. I'm there until 5-7pm.
Make my way home to my beautiful wife and baby girl. Eat, exercise, and hit the books. I try to pull the plug sometime around 9 but I'm usually too interested in whatever I'm studying.
My wife is good about keeping me balanced though so I try to spend as much time as possible with her.
Luckily, I sleep like a champ so I'm always out as soon as my head hits the pillow.
My life is crazy busy right now (I also do some freelance work with SumoMe and am trying to get a side business off the ground) but I totally love it. I just wish I were getting paid more!
Out of curiosity, what does PH stand for?
ProductHunt http://producthunt.com/
Yep, Product Hunt :)
I live in Fukuoka, Japan. Here's my antidote to the Tokyo rush:
8-10am Wake up, lounge a little, read. If I'm feeling very energetic I'll wake up at 7am and hop in the pool for a bit.
10-1pm Work on software projects, research papers, lesson plans.
1pm Quick snack. Cup of tea.
1.30-3.30pm More programming. My co-founder is probably up and useful by now, maybe run some by things, maybe not. Almost always via slack.
3.30pm Quick blast in the gym, usually weights.
4.00pm Biiig meal. I only eat twice a day.
4.30pm Get my things together for going to my teaching jobs.
5-9pm Teach English, Science, Math, all sorts to keep my rent paid.
10 or 11pm go to bed.
For a while I did a full time programming job at a company while doing the teaching in the evening. Definitely too many ours. If there's anything missing I thing I could do with a bit more outside time. What do you think?
8-10am Wake up, lounge a little, read. If I'm feeling very energetic I'll wake up at 7am and hop in the pool for a bit.
10-1pm Work on software projects, research papers, lesson plans.
1pm Quick snack. Cup of tea.
1.30-3.30pm More programming. My co-founder is probably up and useful by now, maybe run some by things, maybe not. Almost always via slack.
3.30pm Quick blast in the gym, usually weights.
4.00pm Biiig meal. I only eat twice a day.
4.30pm Get my things together for going to my teaching jobs.
5-9pm Teach English, Science, Math, all sorts to keep my rent paid.
10 or 11pm go to bed.
For a while I did a full time programming job at a company while doing the teaching in the evening. Definitely too many ours. If there's anything missing I thing I could do with a bit more outside time. What do you think?
I wake up at 7. Then take a shower and create 2 sachets of microwavable porridge, read something on reddit or hn / watch youtube scishow during breakfast.
Around 8:15-30-(45) go through the door and take 20 minutes bus and 35 minutes of tube then walk 5 minutes. Usually listening to music or some podcasts but the tube is so loud I can't hear anything.
At work from 9:30-10, try code something, review pull requests, tickets. Trying to concentrate. Lunch from around 13 until 14. Repeat previous coding part. Go home around 17:30 - 18.
Usually just reading and watching videos/ IM-ing. Sometimes coding if I have a good idea for my side project. Or creating content to my site project. But this is not longer than 1 hour, and usually not even exists. At 23:00 I go to sleep.
I posted mine because everyone else's was like my dream, hehe.
At work from 9:30-10, try code something, review pull requests, tickets. Trying to concentrate. Lunch from around 13 until 14. Repeat previous coding part. Go home around 17:30 - 18.
Usually just reading and watching videos/ IM-ing. Sometimes coding if I have a good idea for my side project. Or creating content to my site project. But this is not longer than 1 hour, and usually not even exists. At 23:00 I go to sleep.
I posted mine because everyone else's was like my dream, hehe.
Most days I turn the music on and start programming 0830 or 0900. I'll probably check new music releases while programming. Take short breaks to faff around on Internet.
1100 is probably dogs's first walk for 20 minutes.
Stop programming for an hour at 1300 for lunch - probably watch something.
Might listen to a podcast while I continue programming until about 1800; at this point take dogs out again but for a longer walk.
Might do more programming, work on a set, study something technical - usually sound orientated these days - or make dinner if it's my turn.
Eat dinner 2100 and go to bed at 2200.
Unless this is the Monday after our monthly sunday electronica evening; in which case I'm probably annihilated for the rest of the day.
Edit: In the UK
1100 is probably dogs's first walk for 20 minutes.
Stop programming for an hour at 1300 for lunch - probably watch something.
Might listen to a podcast while I continue programming until about 1800; at this point take dogs out again but for a longer walk.
Might do more programming, work on a set, study something technical - usually sound orientated these days - or make dinner if it's my turn.
Eat dinner 2100 and go to bed at 2200.
Unless this is the Monday after our monthly sunday electronica evening; in which case I'm probably annihilated for the rest of the day.
Edit: In the UK
In SF (pretty typical weekday M-Th, Friday's are different)
6:30 wake up, stretch, pull-ups, handstands, meditate (don't eat breakfast, intermittent fasting has changed my mornings and I haven't looked back)
7:30ish catch bus to work, read industry news on bus
8:30 arrive at work, make tea, review tasks for day, set up pomodoros, take care of personal errands (once or twice a week meet a good friend to catch up)
9:00 begin work
12:30ish post lunch walk (about 20 min)
5-5:30pm leave work
6:30 get home, maybe workout (2-3 times a week), prepare/eat dinner with wife, maybe go for a walk together
8:30ish or 9:00- work on personal projects (python, watch repair, blogging, etc.), or watch TV with wife
10:30ish get in bed, read
Midnight, sleep.
6:30 wake up, stretch, pull-ups, handstands, meditate (don't eat breakfast, intermittent fasting has changed my mornings and I haven't looked back)
7:30ish catch bus to work, read industry news on bus
8:30 arrive at work, make tea, review tasks for day, set up pomodoros, take care of personal errands (once or twice a week meet a good friend to catch up)
9:00 begin work
12:30ish post lunch walk (about 20 min)
5-5:30pm leave work
6:30 get home, maybe workout (2-3 times a week), prepare/eat dinner with wife, maybe go for a walk together
8:30ish or 9:00- work on personal projects (python, watch repair, blogging, etc.), or watch TV with wife
10:30ish get in bed, read
Midnight, sleep.
During the work week...
04:30 - Alarm, followed by shaving, showering, etc.
06:00 - begin walking to bus stop
07:10 - arrive at bus stop
07:15 - board the bus
08:15 - bus arrives downtown; walk to office
08:30 until 17:00 - work
17:45 - board bus
19:00 - arrive at bus stop
20:00ish - arrive home
When I'm lucky, I can make the 17:15 bus home and shave 10-20 minutes (because Orlando traffic is the worst) off.
04:30 - Alarm, followed by shaving, showering, etc.
06:00 - begin walking to bus stop
07:10 - arrive at bus stop
07:15 - board the bus
08:15 - bus arrives downtown; walk to office
08:30 until 17:00 - work
17:45 - board bus
19:00 - arrive at bus stop
20:00ish - arrive home
When I'm lucky, I can make the 17:15 bus home and shave 10-20 minutes (because Orlando traffic is the worst) off.
San Diego County, California.
M-F: 06:30 stock market alarm rings. I sleep in.
06:30-07:15 twitter alerts inform me of stocks to trade.
07:30 I get out of bed
08:00 showered, i head downstairs to read more twitter
08:30 leave for work
09:30 arrive at work (yea, suck)... do work all day, non-stop, no lunch, no break.
17:00 leave for home
18:05 arrive at home, turn on oven, crack beer, clean up
18:15 pizza in oven, read twitter, ebook, or other reading
18:45 eat dinner
19:00 watch video lectures, set stock alerts
20:00 write notes, draw pictures, prepare for tomorrow's code session
21:00 tea and quiet time, screens avoided.
21:30 prepare for bed
21:45 in bed, lights out
S-S: 08:30 get out of bed... naturally
08:35 coffee, cold water, email
09:00 notes for items to do today
09:30 eat oatmeal, clean kitchen/house/bathrooms... whatever
10:30 computer time
11:00 programming time (or venture outside for a change)
17:00 make rice
17:45 prepare dinner
18:00 eat
18:30 dishes, tv
20:30 twitter/news/world events
21:30 prepare for bed
22:00 in bed... (possibly read a book)
22:30 lights out
M-F: 06:30 stock market alarm rings. I sleep in.
06:30-07:15 twitter alerts inform me of stocks to trade.
07:30 I get out of bed
08:00 showered, i head downstairs to read more twitter
08:30 leave for work
09:30 arrive at work (yea, suck)... do work all day, non-stop, no lunch, no break.
17:00 leave for home
18:05 arrive at home, turn on oven, crack beer, clean up
18:15 pizza in oven, read twitter, ebook, or other reading
18:45 eat dinner
19:00 watch video lectures, set stock alerts
20:00 write notes, draw pictures, prepare for tomorrow's code session
21:00 tea and quiet time, screens avoided.
21:30 prepare for bed
21:45 in bed, lights out
S-S: 08:30 get out of bed... naturally
08:35 coffee, cold water, email
09:00 notes for items to do today
09:30 eat oatmeal, clean kitchen/house/bathrooms... whatever
10:30 computer time
11:00 programming time (or venture outside for a change)
17:00 make rice
17:45 prepare dinner
18:00 eat
18:30 dishes, tv
20:30 twitter/news/world events
21:30 prepare for bed
22:00 in bed... (possibly read a book)
22:30 lights out
Wake up at 06:00
Work in the last CS project until 07:00
Shower, breakfast, clean up after myself, leaving home at 08:15
Get to work at 09:00, go into jungle mode until 14:00
Drive to father's place, eat in under 5 minutes, go back to work to be there at 15:00
Work until 18:00, pick up the girlfriend, get home at 19:00
Do house maintenance, cook, eat, watch something over popcorn time.
Go to sleep between 22:00 and 23:00
Repeat until I get fired or I finish the CS project.
Work in the last CS project until 07:00
Shower, breakfast, clean up after myself, leaving home at 08:15
Get to work at 09:00, go into jungle mode until 14:00
Drive to father's place, eat in under 5 minutes, go back to work to be there at 15:00
Work until 18:00, pick up the girlfriend, get home at 19:00
Do house maintenance, cook, eat, watch something over popcorn time.
Go to sleep between 22:00 and 23:00
Repeat until I get fired or I finish the CS project.
5:20 - Wake up - Take a shower
5:45 - Leave for the office (to avoid MAD traffic)
6:15 - 7:15 - Read a book
7:15 - 7:30 - Breakfast (office), catch-up local news
7:45 - 8:10 - Hacker news/Reddit/Techcrunch et al ...
8:30 - 11:15 - Office work / side projects
11:15 - 11:45 - Tea break (office)
12:00 - 12:50 - Office work/ Side projects
13:00 - 14:30 - Gym
14:45 - 16:00 - Office work/side Projects
16:30 - 17:00 - Tea break
17:30 - 19:45 - Office work/side projects/hacker news et al ...
20:00 - 21:00 - Drive back home
21:00 - 22:45 - Read a book
22:45 - 05:20 - Sleep
... a tight loop of trying to define life...
5:45 - Leave for the office (to avoid MAD traffic)
6:15 - 7:15 - Read a book
7:15 - 7:30 - Breakfast (office), catch-up local news
7:45 - 8:10 - Hacker news/Reddit/Techcrunch et al ...
8:30 - 11:15 - Office work / side projects
11:15 - 11:45 - Tea break (office)
12:00 - 12:50 - Office work/ Side projects
13:00 - 14:30 - Gym
14:45 - 16:00 - Office work/side Projects
16:30 - 17:00 - Tea break
17:30 - 19:45 - Office work/side projects/hacker news et al ...
20:00 - 21:00 - Drive back home
21:00 - 22:45 - Read a book
22:45 - 05:20 - Sleep
... a tight loop of trying to define life...
This is an average day? That seems to me like an awfully long time at work. I'd like to ask a few sincere questions. Do you really enjoy being in the office? Do you feel compelled to be there? Do you choose not to have outside activities, or is it a side effect of this schedule? Thanks for the reply, if you choose.
Location: Manhattan, NYC
8:45am Alarm goes off
9:00am Wake up
9:40am Leave apartment and head to the subway
10:00am Arrive at work. Check HN, email, my stock portfolio, maybe get some breakfast, etc.
10:30am Start coding
11:30am Morning standup
12:00pm Get lunch
3:00 Grab snack from the kitchen
5:30pm Go home
6:00pm Work on side project or read stuff on the internet. Get dinner
12:00pm Tell myself that it's time to go to bed
1:00pm If I'm tired, go to bed. Otherwise keep doing whatever I'm doing. But hopefully I'm asleep by now
8:45am Alarm goes off
9:00am Wake up
9:40am Leave apartment and head to the subway
10:00am Arrive at work. Check HN, email, my stock portfolio, maybe get some breakfast, etc.
10:30am Start coding
11:30am Morning standup
12:00pm Get lunch
3:00 Grab snack from the kitchen
5:30pm Go home
6:00pm Work on side project or read stuff on the internet. Get dinner
12:00pm Tell myself that it's time to go to bed
1:00pm If I'm tired, go to bed. Otherwise keep doing whatever I'm doing. But hopefully I'm asleep by now
I live in Hong Kong, but work primarily with clients in the west so my schedule is shifted to compensate. All times are GMT+8.
12pm - 2p: Wake up (no alarm unless I have an early appointment)
2p - 6p: Run errands, exercise, meetings/calls with any APAC clients
6p - 10p: Hang out with my wife (who works a traditional 9-5 schedule), go out to dinner, meet friends, etc.
10p - 5am: Work.
5a - 6a: Read to wind down for bed
6a-ish: Sleep.
12pm - 2p: Wake up (no alarm unless I have an early appointment)
2p - 6p: Run errands, exercise, meetings/calls with any APAC clients
6p - 10p: Hang out with my wife (who works a traditional 9-5 schedule), go out to dinner, meet friends, etc.
10p - 5am: Work.
5a - 6a: Read to wind down for bed
6a-ish: Sleep.
Do you keep to the same sleep schedule on weekends?
Yep. This isn't massively different from what I did when living in the states; I've always found myself far more productive at night when there are fewer distractions. Now I just get more sleep since I don't have to report to an office in the morning.
[deleted]
Wake up between 11:00 and 12:30, arrive at work (Google NYC) by 1:30 or so, leave by 8:30ish (later when I have a good reason), get home, have dinner with my wife if I made it home by 8:00, kiss her goodnight, and take over watching my three-month-old twins until 4-5 AM, at which point I wake up my wife and go to sleep.
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
5:50 wake up: breakfast, preparing to work. 6:50 leaving home 7:30 arrive to the office by feat, during time audio books, podcasts, birds 8:15 starting working 11:00 walking across the forest by something for lunch 12:00 back to work 1) 16:45 leaving for gym 19:45 back from gym 20:00 light dinner 2) 17:15 leaving for home 18:00 dinner 19:00 hose hold stuff/coding/socialising/etc. -- 22:00 trying go to bed 23:00 sleeping ---- Typical developer day?
5:50 wake up: breakfast, preparing to work. 6:50 leaving home 7:30 arrive to the office by feat, during time audio books, podcasts, birds 8:15 starting working 11:00 walking across the forest by something for lunch 12:00 back to work 1) 16:45 leaving for gym 19:45 back from gym 20:00 light dinner 2) 17:15 leaving for home 18:00 dinner 19:00 hose hold stuff/coding/socialising/etc. -- 22:00 trying go to bed 23:00 sleeping ---- Typical developer day?
Sg
Here is my colleague's:
6.00 Am wakeup brush and shower 6.30 catch a train 7.45 eat breakfast 8.15 reach office 8.15 - 9 reply email 9-12.30 work 12.30-1 lunch 1-1.15 read news 1.15 -7 work/meeting 7-9pm reply email/work on crunching stuff 10pm reach home 10 - 11pm plays dota/Diablo3 11pm replies boss email after his boss finished taking care of boss's kids Between 1.15am - 2am sleep
Mine's almost like his, got to reply his emails at all times after he got bombarded by boss's, but I generally get home by 8-10pm and wakes up at 7am to catch the company's shuttle bus.
Here is my colleague's:
6.00 Am wakeup brush and shower 6.30 catch a train 7.45 eat breakfast 8.15 reach office 8.15 - 9 reply email 9-12.30 work 12.30-1 lunch 1-1.15 read news 1.15 -7 work/meeting 7-9pm reply email/work on crunching stuff 10pm reach home 10 - 11pm plays dota/Diablo3 11pm replies boss email after his boss finished taking care of boss's kids Between 1.15am - 2am sleep
Mine's almost like his, got to reply his emails at all times after he got bombarded by boss's, but I generally get home by 8-10pm and wakes up at 7am to catch the company's shuttle bus.
Loved reading these stories! Inspired me to create this in the last 2 hours, I love hearing about the nitty gritty details of how other peoples' lives go http://whatdyoudoyesterday.com/
Based on my more recent schedule:
7:30 Wake up
7:50 Get on my bike and ride to school (or bus if I had a rough night)
8:00 Go to class (occasionally an hr break b/w class which I use to enjoy a book)
11:00 Finish class; walk/ride home
12:30 Make lunch
1:00 Start doing problems for Systems Programming class
< Many hours of frustration, confusion, 30 min. breaks, and cries of success ensue >
12:00 Go to bed.
7:30 Wake up
7:50 Get on my bike and ride to school (or bus if I had a rough night)
8:00 Go to class (occasionally an hr break b/w class which I use to enjoy a book)
11:00 Finish class; walk/ride home
12:30 Make lunch
1:00 Start doing problems for Systems Programming class
< Many hours of frustration, confusion, 30 min. breaks, and cries of success ensue >
12:00 Go to bed.
"A life in a day of a startup CEO": http://doublestealth.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-life-in-day-of...
Are you the author of that blog post?
Totally off topic, I didn't really expect to see you up on HN at midnight on a Friday. Hopefully no fires in CloudFlareLand to put out.
Totally off topic, I didn't really expect to see you up on HN at midnight on a Friday. Hopefully no fires in CloudFlareLand to put out.
Yes. I wrote the whole "Double Stealth" parody blog. Someday I'll get back to it.
It's perhaps midnight on Friday in SF, but it's 0813 in London :-)
It's perhaps midnight on Friday in SF, but it's 0813 in London :-)
Thanks a lot OP. This is exactly something I wanted to ask. Of late I have been feeling like wasting lot of time. I was looking for some kind of inspiration to bring some order to my life.
This is a fun concept.
07.30 am → Alarm goes off.
08.00 am → Wake up.
08.15 am → Summon energy to make eggs, shower, etc.
08.45 am → Listen to hypem and read personal emails/HN.
09.00 am → Walk to work.
09.15 am → Arrive at work. Check to see if someone brought in Top Pot.
09.16 am → Brush donut crumbs off shirt. Grab coffee; check metrics dashboards, ticket queue, and internal news.
09.30 am → Grab more coffee. Go through work emails and code reviews.
10.30 am → Morning stand-up meeting.
10.45 am → Code and achieve some pedestrian level of zen.
11.30 am → Check to see if Tacos el Tajin (taco truck) is here and if the line is short.
11.35 am → Head somewhere else for lunch because the line for Tacos el Tajin is never short.
11.45 am → Eat lunch at desk, watching an internal presentation or Coursera video.
12.15 pm → Resume pedestrian level of zen.
02.00 pm → Roll a d6. If >3, continue programming. Otherwise, attending meetings for the next ninety minutes.
02.19 pm → Grab more coffee.
03.30 pm → Roll a d6. If >4, continue programming. Otherwise, attend meetings for the next ninety minutes.
05.00 pm → Wrap up for the day; make sure I didn't miss any emails while I only had one cup of coffee in my system; check to see if there are any new CRs; follow up with anyone who I told myself I should follow up with.
05.10 pm → Head home.
05.18 pm → Pass by Chipotle and have a meaningful and slightly existential struggle about whether or not I want a burrito bowl.
05.25 pm → Arrive home. Make dinner or eat aforementioned burrito bowl.
06.00 pm → Engage in requisite amount of physical exertion; I try and run and lift twice a week each.
06.45 pm → Watch an unhealthy amount of television (right now: The Wire) while doing something else similarly mindless (likely Threes or Desert Golfing.)
08.45 pm → Take a bath. Seriously, if you have access to a bathtub and you're not taking a regular bath, you're missing out.
09.15 pm → Head to Uptown Espresso and do something vaguely intellectual: this is generally either OSS, writing a blog post, or reading (right now: Big Sur).
10.00 pm → Head home. Clean up my apartment and finish up vaguely intellectual activity.
11.00 pm → Make a Manhattan (or have a Dogfish Brown Ale) and listen to jazz.
11.30 pm → Nightly ritual jank; brush teeth, wash face, wear sweatpants. Set alarm for 7.30am.
12.00 am → Go to bed.
12.02 am → Guiltily browse Twitter on my phone for what seems like hours.
12.15 am → Drift to sleep.
All in all: I get to walk to work, spent eight hours doing something I care about, and generally enjoy myself (as long as I don't look at how much I spend at Chipotle each month.) Life isn't too complicated.
07.30 am → Alarm goes off.
08.00 am → Wake up.
08.15 am → Summon energy to make eggs, shower, etc.
08.45 am → Listen to hypem and read personal emails/HN.
09.00 am → Walk to work.
09.15 am → Arrive at work. Check to see if someone brought in Top Pot.
09.16 am → Brush donut crumbs off shirt. Grab coffee; check metrics dashboards, ticket queue, and internal news.
09.30 am → Grab more coffee. Go through work emails and code reviews.
10.30 am → Morning stand-up meeting.
10.45 am → Code and achieve some pedestrian level of zen.
11.30 am → Check to see if Tacos el Tajin (taco truck) is here and if the line is short.
11.35 am → Head somewhere else for lunch because the line for Tacos el Tajin is never short.
11.45 am → Eat lunch at desk, watching an internal presentation or Coursera video.
12.15 pm → Resume pedestrian level of zen.
02.00 pm → Roll a d6. If >3, continue programming. Otherwise, attending meetings for the next ninety minutes.
02.19 pm → Grab more coffee.
03.30 pm → Roll a d6. If >4, continue programming. Otherwise, attend meetings for the next ninety minutes.
05.00 pm → Wrap up for the day; make sure I didn't miss any emails while I only had one cup of coffee in my system; check to see if there are any new CRs; follow up with anyone who I told myself I should follow up with.
05.10 pm → Head home.
05.18 pm → Pass by Chipotle and have a meaningful and slightly existential struggle about whether or not I want a burrito bowl.
05.25 pm → Arrive home. Make dinner or eat aforementioned burrito bowl.
06.00 pm → Engage in requisite amount of physical exertion; I try and run and lift twice a week each.
06.45 pm → Watch an unhealthy amount of television (right now: The Wire) while doing something else similarly mindless (likely Threes or Desert Golfing.)
08.45 pm → Take a bath. Seriously, if you have access to a bathtub and you're not taking a regular bath, you're missing out.
09.15 pm → Head to Uptown Espresso and do something vaguely intellectual: this is generally either OSS, writing a blog post, or reading (right now: Big Sur).
10.00 pm → Head home. Clean up my apartment and finish up vaguely intellectual activity.
11.00 pm → Make a Manhattan (or have a Dogfish Brown Ale) and listen to jazz.
11.30 pm → Nightly ritual jank; brush teeth, wash face, wear sweatpants. Set alarm for 7.30am.
12.00 am → Go to bed.
12.02 am → Guiltily browse Twitter on my phone for what seems like hours.
12.15 am → Drift to sleep.
All in all: I get to walk to work, spent eight hours doing something I care about, and generally enjoy myself (as long as I don't look at how much I spend at Chipotle each month.) Life isn't too complicated.
This made me chuckle :D Thanks for sharing!
Let's say today is Monday, because Fridays and Saturdays are boring.
Wake up at 9:00am.
Go in the shower, if I didn't shower the night before
Grudgingly go to the EVK dining hall and eat a doughnut, some sort of potato, and maybe something with protein in it.
Walk through campus to class. If I'm feeling in the right mood I'll listen to music on the way. Maybe something by The Strokes.
10:00: Use my RFID-enabled ID to enter my classroom. My first class of the day on Mondays is "Case Studies in Innovation." As the name implies, we study innovative companies. It's only the second week, but I love this class. It's interactive and discussion based.
11:40: After class is over, I quickly grab a bite to eat. I'll either get Panda Express from the cafeteria downstairs, an Acai bowl from Nektor in the arts school, or eat at the Parkside dining hall with my classmates.
I don't have much time to eat, because my next class, EE566 (Fourier Optics) starts at 12:30. This is my most challenging class, because its a much more advanced level than I should be taking. Today we're reviewing how to do two dimensional Fourier transforms.
After EE566 ends at 1:50, I have three hours of free time that I'll use to either work on homework, work on a group project, browse Hacker News, or do my laundry. I usually spend this time in the "Garage," which is the special private workspace for academy students. The Garage has five 3D printers, two classrooms, a woodshop, and a laser printer.
My next class, Innovator's Forum, starts at 5:00. To enter the class, I use a special attendance card that I had to pick up on the other side of campus. I wonder why they can't just take attendance by scanning our ID's. Today's guest speaker is Craig Hanna, who designs amusement parks for a living. If you aren't familiar with his work, he designed the Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. [I can't really tell you what happens in this class, because it hasn't actually happened yet]
After Innovator's Forum, the Academy kids (31 out of the 100 kids in the Innovator's Forum lecture) go to The Garage for Innovator's Roundtable. In this class, the tables are flipped (no pun intended). Instead of the guest speaker presenting to us, we present to the guest speaker. This week, we are presenting our observations of an experience. My group was assigned the DMV, and we have an interactive skit where classmates have to go through the process as if they were going to apply for a California driver's license.
After each group presents and we get feedback from the guest speaker, most of us will head to the Parkside Dining Hall for a group dinner. I don't love the food at Parkside, but it's a great opportunity to socialize with my classmates. Depending on how interesting the guest speaker is, we may or may not discuss the presentation during this dinner.
What happens next depends on how much work I have. If I'm really busy, I'll go back to my dorm to complete my assignments. If I don't have any work, I may head over to one of my classmate's/friend's house to party.
If I'm smart, I'll go to bed by 1:00, so I'm nice and rested for my 11:00am Excel class on Tuesday. Else, I'll stay up late reading a David Foster Wallace novel or watching Twin Peaks.
Wake up at 9:00am.
Go in the shower, if I didn't shower the night before
Grudgingly go to the EVK dining hall and eat a doughnut, some sort of potato, and maybe something with protein in it.
Walk through campus to class. If I'm feeling in the right mood I'll listen to music on the way. Maybe something by The Strokes.
10:00: Use my RFID-enabled ID to enter my classroom. My first class of the day on Mondays is "Case Studies in Innovation." As the name implies, we study innovative companies. It's only the second week, but I love this class. It's interactive and discussion based.
11:40: After class is over, I quickly grab a bite to eat. I'll either get Panda Express from the cafeteria downstairs, an Acai bowl from Nektor in the arts school, or eat at the Parkside dining hall with my classmates.
I don't have much time to eat, because my next class, EE566 (Fourier Optics) starts at 12:30. This is my most challenging class, because its a much more advanced level than I should be taking. Today we're reviewing how to do two dimensional Fourier transforms.
After EE566 ends at 1:50, I have three hours of free time that I'll use to either work on homework, work on a group project, browse Hacker News, or do my laundry. I usually spend this time in the "Garage," which is the special private workspace for academy students. The Garage has five 3D printers, two classrooms, a woodshop, and a laser printer.
My next class, Innovator's Forum, starts at 5:00. To enter the class, I use a special attendance card that I had to pick up on the other side of campus. I wonder why they can't just take attendance by scanning our ID's. Today's guest speaker is Craig Hanna, who designs amusement parks for a living. If you aren't familiar with his work, he designed the Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. [I can't really tell you what happens in this class, because it hasn't actually happened yet]
After Innovator's Forum, the Academy kids (31 out of the 100 kids in the Innovator's Forum lecture) go to The Garage for Innovator's Roundtable. In this class, the tables are flipped (no pun intended). Instead of the guest speaker presenting to us, we present to the guest speaker. This week, we are presenting our observations of an experience. My group was assigned the DMV, and we have an interactive skit where classmates have to go through the process as if they were going to apply for a California driver's license.
After each group presents and we get feedback from the guest speaker, most of us will head to the Parkside Dining Hall for a group dinner. I don't love the food at Parkside, but it's a great opportunity to socialize with my classmates. Depending on how interesting the guest speaker is, we may or may not discuss the presentation during this dinner.
What happens next depends on how much work I have. If I'm really busy, I'll go back to my dorm to complete my assignments. If I don't have any work, I may head over to one of my classmate's/friend's house to party.
If I'm smart, I'll go to bed by 1:00, so I'm nice and rested for my 11:00am Excel class on Tuesday. Else, I'll stay up late reading a David Foster Wallace novel or watching Twin Peaks.
[deleted]
I wake up some time in between 10 and 2.
The majority of my day is spent alternating between playing guitar, playing Super Smash Bros., programming (work), learning (physics lately), and cooking. Besides on occasion, I don't have the best ability to sit down and do one thing for more than an hour at a time.
On most days, I walk downtown (about 40 minutes of walking daily) to eat, shop, or just relax. Lately I've been packing lunch, getting high, and walking to the park a few blocks away. It has a really awesome man-made pond that is home to plenty of critters.
On some days, I lift weights or bodyweight train at home.
I work freelance (iOS/web dev) so I can pay rent.
I'm building a B2B web app with two other people who live across the country. We have an hour long Skype call once a week.
I quit my bullshit 10am to 8pm startup job 10 months ago. I'm not making much money yet, but as a 23-year-old with no kids I don't care. I'm healthy.
That was therapeutic!