• Good night’s sleep (8-9 hours)
• Clearly defined requirements.
• A fun challenge to solve.
• An idea of how to begin.
• Music! Something fast paced and/or harsh. I find soft tunes, good lyrics, etc. are usually very distracting.
• Deadlines help, too, even if they make me stressed out and work too much.
• No political BS / hateful and intolerant political comments from my coworkers within the past day or two, as being called a horrible, racist nazi by association absolutely kills my desire to do any work for them. Going two days without something like this happening is exceedingly rare.
• Being left alone, *especially* in the morning before work! The more distractions, the harder it is focus, even if i have peace and quiet later on.

Having requirements would be nice for a change.

1. Yes. Not as much when I was younger, but having shit sleep makes looking at code almost literally painful.

2. For me, it's more of a "okay, this next step is specifically what I'm doing now" instead of a nebulous "this next project is what I'm doing now". Before I start on a single step, I mentally make sure I can finish it before I have to/want to take a break. That's been the key to my productivity lately.

3. Yes, 100%. I have several going at once usually, which allows me to switch between them if one becomes too stale.

4. Yes, though this is also part of the fun (the planning aspect).

5. Agreed. Jump up DnB is a good option, as is hardstyle. https://youtube.com/user/...

6. Deadlines simply don't work for me. I either cut corners or get stressed out and thus demotivated.

7. Yep, this is why I left SF. I also try to avoid any sort of news around the time I'm coding. HN anti-procrastination settings are annoying but definitely help.

8. Yes. Entirely.

so on a near daily basis you have coworkers labeling you a nazi as if you were caught etching swastikas on a Jewish colleague’s desk or some other heinous thing? Assholes should leave you alone, but they won’t (sadly).

Mornings are dogshit. Everyone that could have a problem does all at the same time and none of them are reasonable, and I am somehow infuriated by each one!

Sorry you are a nazi by proxy or whatever

I enjoy your posts dude :)

"8-9 hours of sleep" - those were some good days back then, when that was possible

Oh and ditto on sleep. I can barely do shit without it. And no, coffee does NOT make up for poor sleep

Clearly defined requirements. ??? Is this even Possible