"Once there I’d get my Chai tea, open up my laptop and set my alarm for one hour, I worked diligently for at least one hour each day, I could go longer but at a minimum I had to put in one hour of thesis work each day."
I like this rule. I think that having a whole day off doesn't make as much sense for knowledge workers as it did for factory or farm workers. I think working an eight hour day is extremely exhausting for a programmer, unless we're really enjoying what we're doing. On the other hand, problems tend to simmer in our heads on weekends and sometimes are forgotten by the time Monday rolls around. For me, a little work each day beats trying to work a full day five days a week.
Edit: Oh, and if I didn't have to commute 45 minutes each way, 8 hours might be easier. That's a whole other issue, though.
Yeah, I find it draining when working too long on the same thing and get distracted. I can (and do) work for long periods of time, but I feel it after and it makes me less efficient overall. I think working for many short bursts throughout the day lets me get a lot more done (and this is how I work on my own projects, eg during weekends: work for 1 to 4 hours (depending on the task), 1-3 hours off, 1-4 hours on etc and at the end of the day, I'll have racked up 5 or 6 hours of good, highly productive, efficient work. If I do 8 hours straight, I'm guessing only about 2 are actually efficient. When I was in uni, I often leave my assignments until the last day (BUT think about them before hand) and then sit down for maybe four blocks of 1.5 hours and get them done in 6 hours of work - compared to people trying to sit down for full days and spending a lot lot longer on them..
I agree - commuting means I'm tired before I even start. (Being a night person means I'm tired when I get up for the day job in the morning too, but thats another matter).
The full day off is important to me, but probably a lot less if I didn't get drained from doing 8 hour days.
PS: forgive my bad comment structure, its Friday, long and busy week, I'm pretty drained right now.. see above..
I like this rule. I think that having a whole day off doesn't make as much sense for knowledge workers as it did for factory or farm workers. I think working an eight hour day is extremely exhausting for a programmer, unless we're really enjoying what we're doing. On the other hand, problems tend to simmer in our heads on weekends and sometimes are forgotten by the time Monday rolls around. For me, a little work each day beats trying to work a full day five days a week.
Edit: Oh, and if I didn't have to commute 45 minutes each way, 8 hours might be easier. That's a whole other issue, though.