Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to code full-time.
It’s not about disliking it - I really enjoy learning and building things - but I often struggle to stay focused for such long stretches.
My productivity usually peaks in the morning, but that’s also when most meetings happen. Like, right in the middle of my flow. By the time they’re done, my brain’s already half drained.
After lunch, my focus drops even more. I try to push through, but I’m not as sharp anymore.
There are topics I’d love to explore more deeply, but once the official workday ends, my energy is gone. So they just pile up.
I’m really curious how others deal with this.
If you’re a full-time dev:
How do you manage breaks and still get your hours in?
And what do you do when your brain just refuses to cooperate anymore?
Miriam
Posted on
Balancing Focus and Fatigue as a Full-Time Developer
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Top comments (2)
Honestly, sometimes you just can’t. Meetings, technical glitches, production issues, helping colleagues — or being the one who needs help — all eat into your time. The best you can do is factor all of that into your planning and stay flexible.
A coffee or tea break usually helps, or just getting up and walking around for a few minutes. After that, I use the Pomodoro method to get back on track. If that doesn’t work, I take a longer break. When I’m working from home, I’ll take the dog for a walk. If I’m at the office, I’ll cycle home — sometimes I call it a day, other times I’ll pick things up again in the evening.
Thank you for the detailed answer, it makes me feel less bad about myself. I know I can be strict with myself and all the other devs are in homeoffice (currently I am too) so I can't use them as a reference and see how others are doing. I also love cycling by the way, cyclingDev :)