Sitting in front of screens for hours trying to fix a bug is a kind of lifestyle any developer would be very familiar with. Being one of them, I relate to the struggle more than anything. I used to be too exhausted to even go to the kitchen to cook myself a quick meal after work, and my body and brain refused to cooperate with anything at the end of the day. However, just when I was about to normalize the messy lifestyle as a developer, exercising stopped me.
It all came to an end the day I started spending an hour or two every other day on training, running and of course, meditating. Until I started exercising, I thought I was too busy for that, but in fact, not only did it never take long to train or go for a jog, exercising also changed my lifestyle, mentality and boosted my productivity on any kind of programming I wish to do.
Instead of waking up at noon and eat whatever left in the fridge as the first meal of the day. I started to set up my alarm at 8:30 and go for a jog. When I come back, the breakfast will be a freshly made smoothie with mixed fruits, hemp seeds, protein powder and almond milk. After all that, it’s not even 10 yet. I can’t even begin to explain how much better I feel with the new morning routine. After 5-7 km of jogging, old me would assume that my body will be too tired for the heavy workload, but the reality proved that wrong. The work I was able to conduct during the same period was twice the amount or more, and on top of that, I’m not exhausted anymore.
Once the work out pattern became a routine, I started to figure out what to do to fix it when I feel off. For example, meditation. Sleeping has always been very important to me however I usually couldn’t get a good sleep after intense programming. Result to that would be the next day I wouldn’t be able to work either because of the bad sleep. However, meditation ended the struggle, not because I don’t get bad sleep anymore but that even if I did, a 45min meditation session will be a homie here and fix it so I won’t feel off at all after.
Moral of the story! There is no “typical” way of living as a developer and it’s never too late to adapt a healthy, balanced lifestyle by starting mental and physical exercises. Surprises will come along the way.