A lot of the time I am not writing code, but I am working all the time. My job is not to write code, but rather to come up with solutions, do research. A lot of the job is just thinking things through.
It varies but on average I’d guess between 3-5, although when there are big projects I can put in 8+. I basically work whenever I’m needed and don’t feel badly about giving myself a little time back, considering I will work on the weekend or late into the night if there’s a reason to, which is rare.
<i>Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that
for probably another hour after lunch, too. I'd say in a given week I
probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.</i> -- Office
Space, 1999.
A lot of people fooling themselves here.<p>Look, no one likes to feel like they're wasting their time, but with modern jobs, with the common "butts-in-seats for 8 hours" rule, we do waste a lot of time - much of that time is spent not working. It's dishonest to say that it's all spent working and I believe it does damage to a potential future where the "butts-in-seats for 8 hours" rule ceases to exist. If we value our time, let's start being honest, because then maybe that silly 8 hour rule can go away some day.
I'm a mid level developer and probably about 5 or 6 on any given day. I do a lot of designing/coding and by the time 3pm rolls around the part of my brain that can think in that way just starts to shut down. Having upcoming deadlines invigorates me and can help me push the number of hours worked up, but it's very much "borrowing from my future self". I try to maintain a steady pace throughout a sprint and 9/10 times it works and allows me to work those 5 or 6 hours a day. I'm still available/at my desk for those remaining 2-3 hours though.
It depends on the phase of the project and how much I hate what I should be doing.<p>Over the last couple of months, probably about 6 hours. The two hours are breaks where I need to rest my head, but napping is not allowed. Or going for water / restroom. Idle chatting is probably around 15 minutes a day.
Emails are work, meetings are work, discussions are work. I'm not a developer anymore, when I was I did maybe 2-3hrs a day of coding and testing. Now I might do a couple of hours a week.<p>Assuming these are work, I do maybe 7-8.5hrs/ day