[mikekchar]

Second the off-peak suggestion. The other thing you can do is to experiment with alternative ways of working. I have a 13" laptop that I do all my programming on. No other monitors. It fits in my man-purse and I can program virtually anywhere. As I am a remote developer and like to be around people sometimes, I really do program anywhere. The bus and train have actually become one of my most productive places, and sometimes I wish I could afford to program on the train all day.

I find it helpful to use a text-only interface and use tmux along with a tiling window manager. But basically, learn how to use your computer without a mouse. It takes a long time to get comfortable with this setup, but it pays incredible dividends when you finally do (well... for example 2 hours of your life back every day).

With the off-peak thing, one suggestion would be to get to bed super early and take the first bus/train in. This tends to be the least susceptible to problems. It's also easier to sell the boss on the idea of starting at 6 am rather than 11 am. The trick is to have the internal fortitude to leave at 3 pm. Assuming you work in the city and live further out, this should allow you space on the bus/train to work.

[wapz]

Thanks for the great suggestions. When I get home and after finishing the home tasks, I go to my desktop (standing desk) and full-sized keyboard, large monitor, etc. That's probably why the times I've tried to code on the train have been quite unproductive. Our company doesn't allow flex hours so unfortunately that's currently not an option. I'll try out a larger laptop and see if it works (and if I can do all my work on it so I'm used to it).

[keithpeter]

Disclaimer: I'm not a computer programmer.

Suggestion which may not be practical: get up 1 hour earlier? So move the sleep time forward so you get some but can do some personal work.