Poll: What are your prime hacking hours?

[mace]

I am mostly a night hacker (most productive around 10PM-2AM), but I am thinking of changing my routine.

Non-engineers too have hours in which they are most productive. Anecdotally, these hours are when they are not forced to sit comatosed in meetings or at their desks.

So, what period of day do you get the most work done?

[justin_vanw]

The best most productive schedule I've ever been on usually came about around finals time in college.

I would wake up around 8AM, then fall asleep at 4PM, wake up again at 8PM and fall asleep again at 4AM. I was awake during all the necessary "business hours" to go to school, but I also had 8 uninterrupted hours in the middle of the night to study or read or whatever.

The best part was, whenever 4 came around I would get tired and fall asleep very rapidly, and snap awake fully energized at 8. Since I was never awake more than 8 hours at a stretch I was always refreshed right up to the time I would fall asleep. Meanwhile, unlike the hoax uberman or other sleep schedules, I was getting a full 8 hours of quality sleep per day, so I was never tired.

[tkahn6]

Did you have a roommate?

[michaelleland]

There's a few of them: 0200,0300,0500,0700,1100,1700,1900, and 2300. Of course, if you include minutes, please see the list here: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=list+of+primes+to+2400

[cobbal]

I'm not sure about you, but I also find 1:00 PM to be a great hour for hacking.

[narrator]

When I used to do contracts in my 20s I would wake up at about 8pm, go out to nightclubs, not drink, come home about 3am then work on code until 11 am and then talk to clients. I would then fall asleep around noon. It was really great because I was really fresh and happy when I went out clubbing and the most annoying part of my day, talking to clients, happened when I was about to fall asleep.

[pirateking]

This is the schedule I naturally tend to as well.

I usually wake up at around 4 pm, then spend the remainder of the day just hanging out, doing some chores and wasting time on the internet. In the evening I go out to dinner or a bar, and then hang out and play games with friends. I head home once the night is over - usually it is around midnight to 2 am. At this point I am usually bored of distraction, and entering the peak of my waking period. In the quiet solitude of the night, I find myself naturally gravitating into the Zone. On a good night, I can continue invincibly into the afternoon. At this point, I get any necessary email and administrative work out of the way, make sure my work is committed, and fall asleep.

If during a night session, I find myself falling out of the Zone, I simply just go to sleep early. However, this has the unfortunate side effect of shifting my schedule unpredictably for while.

[SatvikBeri]

I have noticed very little correlation between time of day and prime hacking hours. For me, it's whenever I can ensure a 4 hour (or more) chunk of time without meetings/interruptions, which tends to be either early in the day or late at night.

[devs1010]

Yes, this is definitely true.. the main thing I've noticed is I like to not be a in an environment where its really brightly lit, so time of day isn't important, just if its during day time, I need to be somewhere not right by a window, etc, I find the office I work in currently has a great lighting scheme that seems to keep me where I need to be regardless of time of day

[p4lto]

Same deal for me, usually after work is when I don't interruptions but there are days that work is slow and I can get a couple hours of hacking in. Yeah, having a day job sucks in some ways, my sleep schedule is pretty average right now though.

[Edootjuh]

My peak is when I have to go to bed and the next day I have something very important to do, for which I have to be well-rested.

[kadabra9]

I am the EXACT same way.

I'll literally be preparing to go to bed when suddenly an idea pops in my head for a fix/improvement on a project I've been working on.

Four hours and a few git branches later, I kick back with a smug sense of accomplishment and...realize I have to be up in two hours.

Meanwhile, I can block out literally an entire saturday afternoon to work on projects, but usually I just can't seem to catch that same random spark that only seems to strike at like 1am on a Wednesday. I get things done, but am not nearly as razor focused. Maybe its because I planned it out, maybe I just work better late at night, who knows.

I want to capture that spark and place it in a bottle right next to my desk.

[j45]

I'm a night hacker but liking the morning hacking more and more. Lately I'm exhausted by 10:30 pm, go to sleep and wake up at 5 no problem.

I get the same solitude as night time, but with a full, fresh head of energy and a clear mind. Instead of attacking my own projects with whats "left over" in the tank after a day, I get to put my most creative and best effort, first thing in the day, into my own stuff.

For those who work answer this: Do you get paid for your best and creative energy and effort every day, or more your attention to detail and reliability?

The answer to that question will help you decide where you put that best energy for best result.

[fshaun]

A great point. I'm actually the opposite. I can do detail-oriented things best early in the day (8am-noon) but I'm often at my creative after dinner and into the evening (6pm-10pm) when there tend to be fewer distractions.

This can make multitasking harder or easier. If tasks mesh well you can work on whichever you're better suited to at the time.

[oskarth]

Considering the similarities between hacking and writing - highly skilled, solitary, large "page size" - and I think the following excerpt could be enlightening.

From chapter 22, "Professional Writing Expertise" (Ronald T. Kellog), in the excellent Cambridge Handbook Of Expertise and Expert Performance:

...the converging point are that ... all of the idiosyncratic habits of professional writers

(1) focus attention inward by eliminating distractions,

(2) may alter consciousness to facilitate entry in a flow state, and

(3) help regulate the writer's emotional state to keep at the task.

...

Many choose to write at the same time each working day, but individuals differ from morning, afternoon, evening, late night, to early morning preferences. Work sessions of one to two hours correlate with productivity in scientific writing, but the relationship is weak (r=.22) and the variability is large, with some individuals writing four or more hours at a time. Successful poets also typically write for one or two hours, whereas most novelists typically report longer sessions of two to three or even four to six hours. Running or walking help some writers think through problems while away from the writing table. Others use meditation, coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs to alter consciousness in the service of writing.

Now, writing isn't the same as hacking, but as a process it seems to have many things in common with hacking. I seem to remember reading somewhere (couldn't find the page) that most experts in general practise in the morning when energy is at its highest, but this doesn't seem to be the case with hacking. I found this rather curious. My guess is that the page size is typically bigger, which requires longer periods of time to enter flow, compared with say, chess, where 30 minutes is often effective. That still doesn't explain why there aren't as many novelists writing at night as there are hackers. So another, less scientifically backed up, idea is that hacking is less of an expertise and more of a "production task", meaning we often do things we already know perfectly well how to do, something that would require less energy. Computer science is an extremely new field, so it wouldn't be too surprising if we would see hackers that are experts at a whole other level 50 years hence. It could also be a cultural thing, since a lot of hackers start as teenagers when they are still in school. What are your thoughts, HN?

[mturmon]

Un-interrupted time is important. But I think you're getting at something else I've noticed, that I have to already know what to do in the un-interrupted time. Just having a chunk of time is not enough for high productivity.

Already-knowing-what-to-do can come from moments of insight in the shower or walking the dog, or can come from state dumps -- written to-do notes -- made after I've loaded sufficient state on an earlier day.

Sometimes both knowing-what-to-do and the time to do it can occur in the same session. This tends to be smaller stuff. And sometimes, after taking that shower the next day, it turns out to be the wrong stuff.

[hkarthik]

Anecdotally, I've heard most hackers do best at 10PM-3:00AM. I've heard of many switching to an early riser schedule after having families.

These guys go to bed early and do a 4AM wakeup to get in a couple hours of hacking prior to their families waking up. I'm considering making that switch.

[sceaj]

I do best between 10PM-3AM because that's when I get the most uninterrupted time. After the wife and kids go to bed, I'll crawl back out for some hacking. I'd prefer getting up at 4am, but if I do, it's not long before my wife notices I'm gone and then she can't get back to sleep.

However, I've got the sort of job where I have to be there by around 9-10am. Staying up until 2-3am takes its tolls, and many nights I can't stay up much past 9pm due to only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before. If I were able to sleep later, I'd prefer the 10pm-3am shift. I feel and think better after getting up at 4am than when I stay up until 3am, fighting the desire to just fall asleep on my laptop.

TMUX is very nice to have on those nights I have to fight sleep. I almost always end when I'm at the point that I'm too tired to write logical thoughts any longer. I just shut the laptop lid and go to bed, ignoring the fact that I've still got 3 files open in vim and an active ssh connection...

[doki_pen]

I've done it. Ruins the sex life. Of course, everything in moderation. Maybe dedicating a couple of days a week to 4am wake ups would work. But sleep isn't something of a habit and it's hard to keep sleeping at different times.

[sbov]

I marked 10:00pm - 2:00am.

More generally, I feel sleepy all day until around 11pm, which is when I feel the most awake. I've always been this way, even as a kid before I did any programming.

[oacgnol]

At my day job, I code on a medium to large codebase with business requirements and meetings and whatnot, less of what I'd consider "hacking".

Late at night, however, that's when I become more alive and I feel like I'm hacking out things on solo projects.

[sudonim]

I find night time to contain the quietness I need to let my brain out. I've often wondered if that's artificial and just because everyone else is asleep and not bothering me? Or if it's because Im more creative at night? Or if there's something else going on.

[balakk]

I'm most productive before the deadline hour, day or night. I hope I'm not the only one..

However I voted morning; starting at 5:00AM is fun. I feel extremely positive/optimistic when I wake up, that counts for something I guess.

[grayrest]

I get absolutely nothing done between noon and 3PM or so. I try to schedule all meetings/interactions in those hours to compensate.

I write the best code when I first wake up. Combined with the above, it means my ideal work day starts around 6AM and I can get 3 90 minute sessions in before lunch and early afternoon lethargy sets in.

[karpathy]

10pm-2am, by far. There are so few distractions, and the entire internet goes quite. I don't get 10 new RSS items per minute anymore, people aren't @ messaging me on Twitter, tagging me on Facebook, emailing me about things, knocking on the door of my office to ask a quick question, asking me to come out for dinner, texting me a question, etc etc etc....

[kephra]

Hacking for over 30 years has ruined my schedule completely.

I have 3 basic schedules and often switch them in weekly random manner:

- Wake up 4am to 5am, hack 4 to 5 hours, do something outside, and go to bed early at sundown.

- Wake up 4pm to 5pm, hack through the night, and go to bed at sunrise.

- Wake up sometimes, breakfast, hack 4 to 6 hours, eat, sleep 3 to 4 hours - rinse repeat twice a day.

[ChuckMcM]

Interesting, Midnight to 3AM has always been a sweet spot for me.It was better before Netflix and Hulu made watching interesting TV possible at all hours and there was a natural lull as broadcasters said good bye to the late owls and waited for the early risers, but I still find just the quiet of the environment persists.

[redthrowaway]

I'm a late-night hacker, but I think it's due more to a lack of distractions and a sense of true solitude than any sort of cognitive advantage granted by its placement in my sleep cycle. In fact, any serious hacking session has the unfortunate side effect of completely borking my sleep schedule for the rest of the week.

[lucb1e]

Theoretically it can be any time of day. I don't think there is a particular time at which we are most productive hackers, it's whenever the mindset is right and the circumstances work.

Most of the time I hack in the night, that's between 11PM and 3 or 4AM. But I also have my moments in the train (30 minutes trip, starting at 17:34). And once even at school (1:30PM or so), that was the best coding experience I ever had at school and also the only time I hacked together with someone in real life.

There isn't really anything that keeps you from hacking at any particular time of day I think, to me there seem to be two prerequisites: You need to have a clear goal (which is something out of the ordinary and not like "get this css done for a client"), and you need to know that nobody will disturb you doing it.

[stevear]

Is the preference for late night because 1) there are less distractions at night or 2) hackers are genetically prone to being night owls?

Personally when left to my own ways will migrate my schedule naturally to be nocturnal. Wake up at 2PM and go to bed at 6AM. I feel happier and am way more productive.

[pavel_lishin]

I believe that I'm a night owl, but there is most definitely something to be said about knowing with a 99% certainty that you won't be interrupted for the next eight hours.

It would be interesting to move eight hours in either direction, but keep working remotely - would I get my hacking done at night, but when my coworkers and friends are awake and online, or early in the morning, when most people I know are asleep or not online?

[MatthewPhillips]

Not I, in bed by 10:30pm, enjoy programming at 6:30am.

[pavanky]

I'd like to think I have two different peak periods depending on the kind of work I am doing.

- 2:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Usually great for bug fixing and such. - 10:00 p.m.- 2:00 a.m. Usually when I am working on big, solo, projects.

EDIT : Adding am/pm once I realized that the numbers were not unique.

[secoif]

For some reason during the day and early evening, my mind wanders and I find it incredibly difficult to discipline myself into focusing on the task at hand… unless I'm in an environment like a library. I'm taking these two data points and suggesting that perhaps it's the reduced amount of ambient noise.

Another thought: perhaps as children we're conditioned to be "out doing things" during the day, and as a result the brain desires to be constantly externally stimulated during the day. There's less predefined behaviour for what should occur at night, and as such the brain is at your mercy to utilise as you see fit. Perhaps.