Hm! I find that I have to fight to find time to program.

Something like 80% of my time is spent explaining existing systems, reading bug reports, going to meetings, talking through API designs and database modeling, answering email, etc.

I would love to take a day where I did nothing but program.

Sounds like you work for a BigCorp

I work for what would probably be classed as a BigCorp. As a developer I get to spend my days programming. There are departments which handle all of the marketing, customer support, ... By the time tickets reach developers most information for debugging has been handled by the intermediate layers (occasionally you find it is inadequate of course).

The structure a large companies provides can, if done well, handle the things that get in the way and let you get on with developing. Of course you generally get a prescribed set of tasks so you don't have much flexibility with what you need to get done.

I work for a successful startup. The previous startup I worked at was much the same.

Huh - well my apologies for making an assumption. I suppose it depends on the role/size of company

I fully agree. If you're a bootstrapping technical founder I'd even suggest going further and doing alternating code sprints and "other" sprints.

Last week I finally switched gears to marketing, design and biz-dev after coding core functionality for three months and it was by far the most productive week ever. I didn't touch code (other than a few bugfixes) all week and started doing press work, coming up with a distribution strategy, hiring interns etc. I should have done this much sooner and it's amazing. I'll try doing the same thing the next two weeks, I doubt not coming out with a new feature every few days is as bad as some of us engineers might think ;)

I really liked this post for a couple of reasons.

First is that I know I sometimes lose sight of the end goal of a project when I start coding for weeks on end. I'll get sucked into a bug or a feature that I think is necessary and my vision for the future of the product becomes clouded.

I also relate this to the design of a product. Without taking a day to step back and try to examine your product from a different perspective, I don't think you'll ever be able to properly analyze and iterate on anything you create.

This all stems from my feelings that every engineer should also furiously work to be a good designer as well.

I do think this is a great idea, and I actually subscribe to it (although definitely don't do it). I think the higher-order problem that you touch on is that when we have a million things to do, we tend to de-prioritise those that are outside our comfort zone, regardless of how much value they could add.

I generally use Friday for all business related task. No programming allowed unless it's a critical bug.

I'd actually come to enjoy spending most of the day doing my finances, answering emails, cleaning out the inbox etc. All in a relaxed manner - and the weekend then takes of with a good conscience.

I highly recommend it.

Good post. One thing I like to do is take a bit of my time each week and sit down with a person who has never used my product. In fact, ideally they've never even heard of it. Shut off the programming-mindset and just watch an average person do their thing with your product. Some amazing insight there.

Neat idea - we were looking at doing http://www.usertesting.com/ for helping out with this

Totally agree. As valuable as engineering resources are, it's the little things that make people love your product.

The point is, it's not just engineering resources that are valuable!

I've noticed that as well; it's frequently easier and more enjoyable to dig into code (or, for that matter, read things here) than to do some of the actual important work necessary for business.

How about a day without work? Times two. Make it consecutive. Oh now you have a "weekend." Keep trying and one day you'll shed the addiction.

I don't think you responded to the right thread. And if you did, could you please expound on what you said, because it doesn't look like you groked the article

Deserved. I was trying to reach, perhaps intuitive or anticipate what is echoed in:

"One thing I like to do is take a bit of my time each week and sit down with a person who has never used my product."

What does "a day without coding" entail? Can one actually go without coding? Sure, it is one of _those_ philosophical questions. I am sure most developers code under a social routine as well. Does a "day without coding" involve changing that routine? Can one's mind compartmentalize one's projects so dynamically? What happens when an impromptu conversation turns into a user test?

But deserved. My thoughts were not quite so lucid for that post.

losethos? Is that you man?

Not so.