I have been a working programmer since the turn of the century and I have always been fascinated by the open source world. I have wanted to contribute to these projects but I find it difficult to find the time that I think these projects would require.
I find professional software development to be a huge time sink. Almost every project I have worked on has a familiar litany inflexible deadlines and inevitable round the clock last minute pushes that eat up your nights and weekends and everything else in sight. Even in the project that don’t have this – the typical work day is 10 to 12 hours and after that one has errands and chores, reading up on the latest stuff, etc…
Since this happens with a fair amount of regularity – I am hesitant to join projects since I can’t promise to devote a regular number of hours every week.
My question is how do you people do it?
Do you work at open source companies? Am I exaggerating the amount of time I need to spend (I am thinking a couple of hours everyday)? Am I way off base and simply not managing my time efficiently? How do you manage your time?
If you’re spending 12 hour days at work then there’s something very wrong with your company and their approach to development time. We work on the principle of 7 hour days, but with a in-office time of 8 – 9. This allows for developers to attend meetings, eat, help each other, etc. The client then can have a more realistic deadline, a 70 hour project will take 10 days to complete, not 8.5 days.
This then leaves time to work on external projects. For doing that I will spend 3 – 5 nights a week on my open source projects.
Try setting yourself goals and deadlines as well. This means you know where you’re trying to go and when you should get there.
I also try and take a day or two a month off to work on my own projects.