Finding My Rhythm: Coding, Time Changes, and Watching the World Cup at Odd Hours

Finding My Rhythm

Been busy building for the past two weeks. Mostly my 9 to 5, plus a few side projects fighting for whatever energy is left.

I work best in the morning. That is when my brain is sharp and ready to solve real problems. Lately though, meetings and standups have been eating into that window. Nothing against standups, they matter, but sometimes I just want to open my editor and go before my brain remembers it has a calendar.

When things get tough, I can lock in hard. Deliver a feature, skip lunch, forget the world exists. It feels great in the moment, like main character energy. But I know this is not sustainable. Skipping meals to chase a deadline is a fast track to burnout, and burnout does not care how good your last sprint was.

So I have been trying to find balance.

Most evenings I either hit the gym or play football. Football has taken over lately and it is honestly a lot of fun. Only downside is it has started eating into weight I worked hard to gain. So now I am out here building software during the day and slowly losing gym gains at night. The irony is not lost on me.

After the game or gym, I shower, cook, eat, then go back to my machine for another two to three hours. This part I enjoy the most. Mind is clear, food is settling, and bugs that looked impossible in the afternoon suddenly show themselves in full 3D. It is the best time to close PRs and actually feel like a developer again.

The only tricky part with working late is when frontend depends on backend and the backend guy has already logged off for the day. Then you either wait until morning, work with assumptions and hope for the best, or just note the issue and report it the next day. If it is a small service and I already have access, I will just go in and fix it myself. But everyone has their own deliveries, so most times you just do your part and let the next person do theirs.

On top of all this, the World Cup happened and my schedule went out the window completely. I am a football fan first, developer second, so the big games were non negotiable. Did not matter what time they were showing or how tired I was, if it was a big match I was watching. There were nights I sat there fighting sleep with my eyes half closed, still trying to catch every minute of the game like it owed me money.

Kudos to Spain though. Well deserved. Got a lamine.yaml file.

That is the season I am in right now. Building, balancing, watching football at odd hours, and trying not to lose too much weight to it in the process.

Happy Life.