I just wish articles like this would lead with a tiny bit of research. The web is flooded with "here's how I think you can work better" articles, but very few go beyond personal anecdotes. As such, many of them are just not that useful.<p>Here are few things that would've been beneficial in giving a better foundation to this article - it would've been a much better starting point for actually taking action, for one thing.<p>BRAC/ultradian rhythm cover the basic idea of a cyclical nature of focus.<p>Basic neurological effects of caffeine and withdrawal cover the idea that caffeine is a zero-sum game.<p>The Hawthorne effect[1] covers the idea of "Macro-caffeine"<p>There are quite a few case studies[2] to support the idea that stress reduction improves productivity.<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Preventing-Stress-Improving-Productivity-Case-Studies-ebook/dp/B000PWQMJQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389827676&sr=8-1&keywords=Preventing+Stress%2C+Improving+Productivity%3A+European+Case+Studies+in+the" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Preventing-Stress-Improving-Productivi...</a>
Nice work! In order to balance my project and school I ended up taking 2 hour naps around 6pm (right after school) to refresh my brain for coding between 8pm and 4am, then napping again till 8am for the 9am till 5pm cycle. The good news was that the project I was building allowed me to post all of my side projects for others to be able to contribute to and see all cool projects done around me ( <a href="http://doerhub.com" rel="nofollow">http://doerhub.com</a> ) , so now that both helps me jump back on the bandwagon faster and energizes my new cycle of work.
The coolest thing about caffeine is that it does actually help with mental agility and various cognitive tasks. But surprisingly few cognitive tasks. It actually only increases your working memory and positively influences your ability to concentrate on a task. That's it.<p>More interestingly still, it doesn't have any cognitive effects at all unless you're sleep deprived. It also doesn't have any cognitive effects in the morning. So that coffee people drink in the morning to wake up, that's just a placebo (unless they slept less than 6 hours, then it helps a bit).<p>But it does have a bunch of physical effects. Like increased blood flow to the brain, which helps with various things regardless of the fact that blocking adenosine receptors is doing jack shit. It also increases your stamina and physical strength. Which can be useful. Also why a lot of sports bars and most flu medicine contain a bunch of caffeine.<p>I write about this a lot in my book about Why programmers work at night: <a href="https://leanpub.com/nightowls" rel="nofollow">https://leanpub.com/nightowls</a> (shameless plug :))
I am a big fan of these ideas. I've long since concluded that caffeine is a tool best used sparingly.<p>As for the macro productivity cycles, I totally agree that they exist and I very much think that burn out is essentially a case of ignoring those cycles. Sometimes you just need to ease off and coast the downtrend.<p>I'm hoping to, at some point in the near future, experiment with working/traveling across hemispheres in order to see if I can induce highs in productivity by abruptly placing myself in nicer weather. I have a hunch that your typical seasonal depression has a manic phase and I want to see if I can exploit that.
"I’ll hop off my projects with deadlines and build something that I know probably won’t ever even get finished, but that I’m just excited to build."<p>That's sooo me... I always tell myself and my wife that these keep me sane.<p>PS: I don't drink coffee or mt dew though...
I have stopped paying attention (well, obviously not entirely) to all the coffee stories, because I realized how tiny the effect of coffee is compared to other things.<p>Trying to solve a tricky problem that I already know well (that is I don't have to read tons of background material first) keeps me very focused regardless of time of day. Same thing with some kinds of debates I have with people. Time of day only makes a difference when I'm not focused to begin with, and that difference is huge.<p>The other thing is that standing up and moving around is orders of magnitude more effective than any substance. It works instantly.
When I read one of these Lifehackery blogs with a section that is entitled 'The Nap Month' it makes me feel that the author was procrastinating and trying to justify behaviour they felt guilty about.<p>I have zero caffeine in my diet, try to sleep between 7 and 10 hours a night - the latter is preferred when I am learning new concepts as it gives my brain a chance to rewire. Walking will stop my sedentary work from leading to constipation more than high-fibre alone.<p>Really, the secret to productivity is understanding the nature of the problem you are working on. All too often you can think it is all about solving X when in fact it is more about Z. No one really sets aside sufficient time to take stock and review the trajectory of their work so that they smooth the path that lies ahead with proper insight into what constitutes the essential aspects of the solution. As a designer it is vital for me to list every feature I aspire to include and then rank them mercilessly in order of most essential constraining and ultimately eliminating subsequent dilemmas of choice further down the list towards those aspects that would be nice to have but are not essential should you run out of time.<p>Even if you don't know enough about a highly ranked feature in this list its position in the list should not be influenced by your ignorance of it. It merely represents an area of on the job training that you need to budget for (or realise that you have no time to learn about, in which case you should probably ditch the whole endeavour and pick a project more suited to your skill set, don't pretend that you can reshape your design without it as it will just remind you of its compromised state each time you test it and make you unhappy with your craft).
Intentionally inducing manic depressive swings seems like a bad idea. The first-order problem is that you're self-administering, causing changes to your mental state while you have to make decisions about your mental state. But even if you have a physician on standby trying to optimize your state you're still only human.<p>The theme in the post that resonated with me is that we're subject to waves in the day, the year, etc.. This jibes with my experience. We're only so effective at any given time, and certain times we're far more effective than others.<p>Rather than trying to create more of those times, I've come to the conclusion that I already get plenty of those times. I just don't always see it. Realizing this, life becomes more like surfing: sharpen awareness of opportunity, be ready when the opportunity comes, and then ride it to see where it takes you.
Enjoyed the read, but not so sure that "caffeine is a zero-sum game." - <a href="http://www.futurity.org/caffeine-stimulates-long-term-memory/" rel="nofollow">http://www.futurity.org/caffeine-stimulates-long-term-memory...</a>
<i>I can’t help but lead with “ego” and “legacy” because the entire ability to create something from nothing (programming) and to get disproportionally rewarded for doing so (programming salaries) comes along with more than a touch of blind privilege.</i><p>#Fail<p><a href="http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/software-engineer-salaries-arent-inflated-at-least-not-for-the-99/" rel="nofollow">http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/software-engi...</a><p>Programmers are well-compensated compared to most people outside of the 1%, but this idea that we're this overpaid class of people is ludicrous. Look at the Bay Area: there's immense value being created entirely by some of the world's top programmers, most of whom can't even afford to buy a house there.<p>We make enough money that no one should pity us, but the general payoff we get is on the low side of fair, especially in VC-istan where the upside is mostly hogged while the downside risks (damaged careers, sudden firings, constant reorgs, rapid obsolescence of skills) are externalized to the engineers, who are almost <i>trained</i> to personalize their failures amid the dysfunctional institutional miasma (marginal, poorly-managed companies) the VCs have created.<p>Even if it were true, it would be against our interest to say that we're an overpaid, entitled class. The fact that it's not true makes it even more ridiculous when I hear people say it.
These "optimizations", assuming they are correct and will work, would give some 5% "improvement" as so many optimizations do.)<p>Another thing is all linked to this very meaningless term "creativity", and, perhaps, caffeine could somehow boost it, but in context of real craftsmanship we probably should talk about artistic sense and inspirations, insights, "flow" and "aha-moments" which, it seems, follow much more complex and subtle patterns than just sleep, routine, glucose and caffeine. This will definitely work for sports, but programming is not a sport, it is an art. And for an artist a Muse is required, not a military routine.<p>Of course, routines and rituals has tremendous power - entire religions are still standing on nothing but them, but this quite another subject.