[veb]

Interesting comment, "start your day as a producer". I've seen this around before, but I'm not sure what it means.

How would it work? Would you wake up, and have _one_ hour to produce something? Would it be related to your project? Writing a blog post about your project? Or is that beating around the bush, and actually not producing anything worthwhile?

Does the thing that you produce, have to mean anything? Or does it only have to mean something to you?

I only ask, because I'm exactly like this guy, and I only want to better myself.

[fab1an]

The first things you do in the morning seem to 'set the tone' for the rest of the day. E. g., have you ever noticed how the first song you listen to often sticks with you for hours? So instead of firing up HN or Reddit right after you woke up, start your day with something that requires your output - this doesn't have to be an essay, but could be as quick as:

- writing that uncomfortable email that's been lingering on your todo list - begin to write your next blog post - not a coder myself, but I would assume that this all applies to writing code / fixing/finding bugs, too.

On a related note, the last thing you do before you sleep can also have a very positive effect on your next day's productivity. I find that going to through / defining the top 3 goals for the day after helps me structure my work and be more motivated to pick up directly on those todos right after I get up.

[mozami]

From the reddit thread where I first came across this: "Start every day as a producer, not a consumer" - http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/pbjk1/what_are_the_...

[sachingulaya]

No, what you produce doesn't have to mean anything. I remember one week I decided I wanted to write real-time tic tac toe in using socket.io and node.js. I did it. It was those small projects that let me start tackling bigger and bigger projects.

After a while, when you can see that you're making clear progress towards a goal its easier to slip in to the producer mindset.

What's hard to get past in the beginning of learning to program is that you're going to spend 80% of your time googling, 15% debugging code, and 5% writing code. It can feel really unsatisfying to spend 2 hours googling a problem you're having and the solution taking 3 minutes to implement.

[Mumbles]

It doesn't really matter what you start producing, it's that it (hopefully) sets the tone for the rest of the day. If you can do something that relates to your project, that's even better.

[mrtron]

I find I have two modes. Producer or consumer.

Producer mode is tougher to get into, breaking the ice with an easy task in the morning is quite useful.