Jeffery Scott
As a C++ programmer, my schedule is actually kind of weird:
• 4:50 a.m.: Still sleeping
• 5:50 a.m.: Wake-up, shower, dress
• 7:00 a.m.: Leave for work
• 7:15 a.m.: Arrive at work, go over yesterday’s work and set’s target for the day
• 7:40 a.m.: Meet with team and discuss target
• 8:00 a.m.: Code, code, code
• 11:00 or noon: Eat lunch at desk while reading Internet or talking to wife on the phone
• 12:30: Code, code, code
• 3:00 p.m.: Check on the entire team and round up for the day
• 4:30 p.m.: Close of work, leaves for home
• 4:45 p.m.: Arrive at home, kiss wife, hug children
• 5:00 p.m.: Dinner with family
• 6:00 p.m.: Jog for 2 miles
• 7:30 p.m.: Brief rest and eat veggies
• 8:30 p.m.: Spend time with family, get children into bed, bedtime stories
• 10:00 p.m.: Chit-chat with wife
• 10:30 p.m.: Sleep
I don’t keep the rule religiously though. But this is roughly how I spend my days. On Sundays we go on family trips to the beach maybe or a cinema or watch movies at home.
Maxim Andreev
My $0.02
I did my undergrad in finance and worked on Bay Street for about 5 years before transitioning into web development. I’m self taught and have spent a far greater amount of hours learning how to code than finance. I’ve been a freelancer for about a year now, but programming for considerably longer. In fact I used programming to further my career in finance.
Currently I am in Bali hugging mine and my girlfriend’s surfboard while being driven to a new hotel because we got bored of the last one so I have a few moments to spare. You guessed it, I am a digital nomad.
I work on projects originating in Canada and the US. My hours are all but standard, it is not unusual for me to be up at 4am chatting with a client or sleeping till noon. On average I try to work 6–8 hours a day, however sometimes it can be as much as 12–14 or none at all. After I finish working on a project for the day I spend some time learning something new. I love it, for me work is no longer work but play. The Internet has so much good content on virtually anything you want to learn and it’s only getting better.
I love my life, I hit the gym daily, try to surf as much as I can, and fly to different countries on a whim. Indonesia is the 7th country I have been to this year. We are planning to go to Hong Kong next month.
Image Credit: Maxim Andreev
Sometimes it can be hard to find a solid work environment, especially if you are in a third world country. Working on the bed can get very tiresome.
Life is good right now, but it can also be very stressful. Being a freelancer you’ve got to really know your stuff and be good at problem solving. I’ve had some very stressful times where the client’s request seemed impossible to complete but you just gotta do it. I’m lucky that I have a very supportive girlfriend who knows when to just let me code because I hit that “zone” or whatever you want to call it. But also supports me when I have a mini panic attack haha. I am one of those people that cannot stop thinking about a problem until it is solved, so it can be hard to turn it off sometimes and just live in the moment.
My main stack/tools/whatever I am working with as of right now are:
Angular2 (update: I’ve since switched to Vue.js and haven’t looked back)
Django + DRF
PSQL
Ubuntu
Nginx
Pycharm & Webstorm
13″ MacBook Pro
Obviously python, sass, js, typescript, git, bash etc..
To prepare for the future I am currently working on getting better with ML and taking a few courses online.
Via Quora