Developer Productive Hours

I've discovered 10 hours/day is the most you can handle without being counterproductive - that is creating more problems than you're solving. You can do half a day on Saturday - but really, you need the downtime to avoid counter-productivity. That means you get about 55 hours per week max and even that's not sustainable week after week after week after week. You need downtime to avoid counter-productivity.

I don't believe that this should ever go to zero. I think the heart of this question is : how do you maximize long term productivity? For me, if I work more than 70-77 hours a week for an extended period, my productivity drops. I can flirt with 90 hours in a pinch, but once I break 70 hours I start to make mistakes. I don't know about you, but my experience in writing software is that it is like poker in the sense that a single mistake can end up costing a lot. So, that translates to an optimal

To me 3 hours isnt enough, i need at least an hour to warm up before jumping into the zone. Im thinking what would work out for me: 4 hour work days with the ability to squeeze 2 days in one and being able to do 2.5 days of 8 hours a week, no more no less. I’d be as productive as I am now, maybe even more. During the time off I’d still have work ideas popping up in my mind while doing things like being with family, playing with my kid, etc.. Currently thats what i do in terms of productivity but

I've already seen that 3-4hrs/day is much more productive than 8. For me. I guess it seems impossible to management people. Sadly it's hard to find employer with this dose of trust. But relax. You go to work, do your job, put 8 in time sheet, quit and enjoy your free afternoon. It works for me (probably for any skilled engineer). Just think about it, who's gonna fire you for good results? I wouldn't like to work with this kind of fools, so who cares?

Aim higher - 8 hours a day is way too long :) Many devs can get away with 3-4 hours of good, uninterrupted work. True masters can do less than that.

I personally have less than 40 hours of week of good code in me. I've tried programming more than that many times, and I can do it for a few days but then I burn out and and less productive. So by encouraging me to not think about work outside of work hours they get more out of me when I'm at work.

Why only 4 hours? I'm sure you're working on interesting or hard problems more than 10% of the time

10 to 14 hours a dayHOWEVERA) Around 4 hours of this is on 'must do and not very productive work'B) So in effect there is just 6 to 10 hours of work a day on vital stuff

Spend more time away from the computer and work related! Increase your rates, so that we you do work you earn more. Through empiric studies on myself, from working 10-15 hours/day 7 times a week I found out that I actually get more done if I just work 8 hours per day and take the weekends off.

Great input, I feel relieved to read that my 4:30 (of pure coding work) is good, according a profile like yours.Personally I'm kinda afraid that some developers out there might be pulling actual 8 hours of overhead-free progress, unlike me. Doing that daily would certainly drain me.