I find myself lost in problem solving even though I can't do anything about it (and shouldn't). How do you go about shutting it off and picking it up again Monday morning?
Ben Halpern
Posted on
If it's Saturday and you won't be coding again until Monday, how do you get your mind off your current work?
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Oldest comments (62)
I have a wife, a son, and another son on the way. Family keeps me pretty preoccupied on the weekends 😁
Ha! My thoughts exactly! 😂
What works best for me is either practicing sports, arts or going out with friends that do not care at all about computers. Leaving the weekend and go to countryside helps a lot too. I found it that disconnect during the weekend makes a great good to my programmer journey. It's also important that my body quit the sitting at a desk position so I always try to be active during weekend. I struggle with the problem solving noise during the week after the working day when I have to go to sleep. I found out that having a break after the working day and do something else totally different helps a lot. That's why I do sports 5 times a week and practice music as a way to let my mind flow. Ofc, all that give me less time to study to learn and to contribute to OSS but I do think it will pay in the long run. I already spend so much time during the week dedicated to programming so it's kind of a balance. That's what works for me anyway. Enjoy your weekend !
Currently ruining my roommate’s save file in RDR2
That is pure evil.
The game is GREAT, though. What a masterpiece. I place all my bets on RDR2 to be the Game of the Year.
waiting for the MP to come out and totally ruin my life. I know it's a big ask but I feel like this would've been an amazing game for co-op (particularly local).
I listen to music/podcasts on long walks/hikes.
I play Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends.
I read books at coffee shops.
I shut down my work computer until Monday morning. My phone doesn't have work email or Slack set up by choice.
Same here - it works.
As a religious Jew, once we light the candles on Friday night, we don't touch our phones or computers until havdallah Saturday night (barring emergencies, like the time I delivered our youngest Saturday morning at 4am, but I digress).
Instead of social media, we socialize. Instead of feeds, we feast. Instead of merge conflicts, we discuss the great makhlokos (legal and philosophical differences of opinion) in Jewish scholarship.
In short, it's a day for being instead of doing.
I love this. We're a society that has lost sight of the importance of simply being.
Yeah it's good times. I mean, I don't want to make it seem like all you have to do is keep shabbos and allofasudden you're some spiritual luminary or anything. But I certainly think that the opportunity to engage the soul is greater when your family, your community, etc, set the day aside for such things.
I'm not religious myself, but I'm certainly gonna try this. Especially the makhlokos. I believe we all need to have discussions regarding our difference of opinion in healthy ways, otherwise, we never grow as individuals.
You don't have to be religious to try something 😁. Any positive step you take or small commitment you make in life is worthwhile if it helps you grow.
It's like refactoring. Even if you don't finish the entire file, if you make one method a drop more readable or efficient it was probably worth it. 🤓
Sir please throughout your experience, does taking a break for a day or two during the weekends help ?, I mean when you come back on Mondays, do you feel sharper or like you forgot some things?. As a junior developer, did you take weekend breaks when you were learning to code or before you had your first job?. What are the best practices for high productivity in programming?.
Please Sirs I would appreciate your comments, with your weekly coding or working program, or what you think can make one grow better and be very productive in programming.
If my mind needs to program, I program. I just make sure it's on a project that I find interesting and not doing volunteer work for my employer if it's a weekend or evening.
College football and video games. 😂
Watching netflix, house of card, season 6..
I always try to finish things before the end of Friday, or get it into a stable state. If there is still time left on Friday I will simply do other things which can I also wrap up before the end of day. So I try not to get "stuck" with a problem on Friday at the end of my working day.
The things I do to "wind down" on Friday afternoon include cleaning up code/documentation, or reading unrelated technical articles. Whatever you read should be unrelated to the problems you were solving, otherwise you might get inspiration for the problem you were working on.
Once it is actually gets weekend my mind is at ease concerning the work problem and I'm free to do whatever in the weekend.
Keep problem solving, just about non-work. For example, auto mechanics, welding, crafting, reading, etc. This, I feel, it part of the whole work/life balance. Keep you mind engage by all means, but engaged in non-work related tasks.
Ever rebuild a food disposal? Sounds like an interesting weekend task. Ever pull a car engine? Thats a weekend task.
That sounds like an awful weekend.
I just code but on a personal project :D
Reading, playing videogames and going out helps shutting my mind off about work perfectly!