# A day's journey

Discuss productivity for developers and how programming can be exhausting. Discuss the myth of always being on as a developer and the need for downtime and rest.

## Riding until dawn

Programmers are always trying to find new ways to be productive. Different editors, scripts, compilation tweaks, automation; the list goes on and on for how  programmers want to maximize their time coding. We also tend to add that to the rest of our lives, thinking that we should always be on, coding. Any moment not coding is a moment that our projects get behind. And that can lead to other problems: missed deadlines, others getting to market before us, collisions with others work because they made a breaking change before we could smooth it out. We're constantly worrying that we're not doing enough. We've heard the stories: developers waking up at their computers to the strange sound of beeping because the keyboard auto repeat can't handle anymore input with their face resting on the keys.

I think there's this tendency that because we work with machines that are tireless and ready for more work that we need to be the same way; we need to constantly utilize these resources. We become like the machine, and the better we get the better we'd better get (because our boss or colleagues will notice that we've completed something and more work will come our way).

The problem is that if we feel we always need to be "on" we don't allow ourselves the opportunity to be "off". We create a pattern where we don't allow ourselves the moments to sit and reflect on what it is we're doing. We don't allow our brains to recharge. We don't allow for our minds to sit with what we've learned and sweep that into our long-term storage.

Instead we create a feeling of constant panic where we spend most of our time worrying that we're not doing enough while at the same time pushing our minds to exhaustion.  It's a vicious feedback loop, and one that can lead to burnout, depression, and a desire to leave programming for good.

So how do we balance these feelings of wanting to be on all the time while allowing ourselves to relax and reflect on what we're doing?

## Lights out

First we need to acknowledge that we can't be on all the time. You may know this intuitively and think "yes, of course" but acknowledging that you need to have a period where you are not programming, not thinking about programming, and not being a programmer is vital to your well-being. You need to have moments where you can turn off the programmer part of your being.

This can be tricky if you constantly feel like you're falling behind in your learning. When are you supposed to learn all of the new things happening daily? When are you supposed to catch up on all of that technical debt you've been accruing over the years? When are you going to have time to learn the ins-and-outs of whatever technology that is no longer part of your day-to-day work but is still interesting to you?

This constant feeling that there's more to do and we need to spend every waking moment doing it or we're somehow less of a developer isn't helped by folks who look super-productive; the folks whom you can suggest something in the morning and they have a working prototype in the afternoon while still figuring out their normal work routine.

We can acknowledge that we have this feeling; that we feel the constant need to somehow push ourselves to keep learning and doing. We can see ourselves in the moment with the thoughts of "just one more line of code before bed" or "I  can read a few more articles or blog posts or [insert favorite way to consume more information here]". We need to see our feelings and understand where they come from.

These feelings usually stem from a sense of inadequacy. We feel like we're not measuring up to whatever ideals we have, whether that's an ideal that is externally driven or one that we made ourselves. This comes from us comparing ourselves to other programmers and seeing their work. It also comes from us comparing ourselves to our own mythical idea of what the perfect programmer is.

What we need to realize is that those ideas of what a perfect programmer is and is doing right now are fantasies. They don't exist in the real world. True, there are programmers out there who seem to wake up with a keyboard in their hands, spend the day coding, and go to sleep only to dream in more code. But those folks are not us, and we need to understand where our bodies and minds can take us and when they need rest.

Our bodies require down-time in order to be most effective. We need to step away from the keyboard and allow ourselves to come down and relax. Our minds are not designed for constant work, especially at the levels that computer programming requires. We need to step back and realize that we need breaks throughout the day in order to recharge ourselves.

## Taking a break

Taking a break is more than just flipping to another application. I know my tendency for taking a break is to start checking email or head to one of the various chat programs I have in order to catch up on what's happened since I last took a break. But this is not really taking a break as it is trying ti multi-task at my desk. Real breaks require getting up from the computer. It doesn't have to be a large break;  taking a break can be as simple as standing up and walking from your workspace into another room or area. But you you need to stand up from your computer from time to time and get a "context switch" (where your mind can feel like it isn't in the same place as it was earlier).  It gives your mind the ability to completely switch out the context of the area you're in and allows it to focus on the new context and new input.

This can be tricky in an office situation where the expectation is that one must be at their desks in order to be productive. And there are only so many "bio-breaks" someone can take in such situations. How can you give yourself the context switch your mind needs in such situations?

You might be able to achieve the same sort of context-switch by looking away from the computer display for a few moments. It's a good idea to look away from the screen every now-and-again to give your eyes a rest. Giving your mind a rest while you give your eyes a rest can give you the incentive to do both.

Standing up can also be a good context switch where you give yourself more of a context-switch from the physical location of the computer. Telling yourself that there's two contexts around your desk: the context of sitting at the desk, and the context of standing at the desk you might be able to use that as the context switch and rest that your mind needs.

If you have a culture in your workplace that allows you to step away from your desk and walk around that would be a great context switch. Adding a physical component (as much as you can) to your context switch can help your mind to relax and recharge.

You'll have to experiment with a few of these and see what works. At the bare minimum you'll want your mind to feel as though it doesn't have to be on all the time. You want your mind to cool down between coding sessions so it can flush it out of "cache" and into longer-term storage. Then when you get back to your coding session you'll be more likely to remember what was going on.

## Productive thinking

Next we need to realize that productivity is not a constant. There are days where we will find ourselves generating remarkable levels of code and code quality and days where we'll be lucky if we can string together a coherent comment string. We have varying levels of energy and mental focus available to us per day. It's up to us to look at these levels and understand what our productivity might look like for the day.