Archetypal Days

There are several archetypal days I'll have over the course of four months on the road. Some types of days are more conducive than others for coding.

I need large blocks of time since it's difficult to context switch while deep diving into difficult problems while programming. Focused time just won't happen if I only have an hour here, 15 minutes there, to work. See Paul Graham's essay Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule for the clearest explanation of why large blocks of uninterrupted time are so critical in software development. Some days that won't be possible, so I'll just keep that in mind as I'm planning what to do.

Below is a list of archetypical days will look like over the course of my trip.

  1. Travel days

8am to 10am. Run or workout. Shower, get dressed, have something to eat.

10am to anywhere from 3pm to 8pm. Hit the open road. I've spaced out the driving time between cities to five to ten hours at most. Ten hours of driving by myself won't be much fun but it's still manageable within a single day.

Late afternoon to evening. Arrive at destination. Check in or meet up with a friend. Explore surroundings to get my bearings. Get to bed early after a long day of travel.

  1. Coding days

7am to 830-9am. Run or workout. Shower, get dressed, have something to eat.

9am through the evening. Find a coffee shop, library, cool restaurant, bar (or several of them to move throughout the day). Code! Eat when hungry. Walk when I need a break or to stretch out.

  1. Meeting days

Meeting days I plan to break into two chunks - one in the morning, one in the late afternoon. That way I have two large blocks of time. I can use one or both chunks to meet with people, code, or explore the city.

Morning Meet up with a start up team, software developer, or someone involved in a city's local entrepreneurship scene and find out what they're working on and what makes their city unique.

Evening Same as the morning or use the time for writing blog posts on what I learned that morning or to do programming.

  1. Tourist days

830am to 11am. Run or workout. Shower, get dressed, have something to eat.

11am through the evening. Explore the city, take pictures, and write blog posts.