A Time to Code

A friend of mine recently posted a link to this article on the best and worst times to do things during your workday and on the last D&G show, Dave and Gunnar talked about Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst’s excellent productivity tips and the ways that they structure their own days.

Since having a kid, my day has definitely been shaken up. I am a morning person by nature but I almost never get out of the house into the office as early as I’d like to (read: hours before everyone else). By the time I get going the office is full and there is chitter chatter and lots of emails and IRC pings already flying, not to mention my phone ringing or messages to reply to. I also work 40% of the week from home and 60% at our office, which makes it hard to hold fast to a consistent schedule. Some things like getting my kid up in the morning are probably not going to budge any time soon, but I’d like to continue think about how I could better structure my days to make the most of the day and have time for more of what I *say* I’d like to do.

I am an Inbox Zero kind of person and I do tend to let my inbox rule my day/guide my To Do list. Maybe I should set times to shut off IRC and email and just be heads down during the week? I also can go down rabbit holes if I have a random thought or question and sometimes I can just pivot in a whole different direction if I’m distracted by a tap on the shoulder or a particularly insightful or humorous tweet. Is there a way to build in flexibility for tangents during the day and still feel like you are getting *enough* done? I am also the world’s best/worst multitasker.

In the midst of all this thinking, I just attended a NYC PyLadies Python Intro Course last week that reminded me that I’d love to get back to studying Python (I took a Python Intro course through Coursera a year and a half ago). “Learn to Code” events and workshops are great, but as most of you already know, truly learning to code requires lots of independent, quiet concentration. Is it feasible that I could squeeze in a few hours a week for this? I think if I were disciplined I could. Would love to hear your thoughts on these topics. Ya know, when you have the time….