At the moment I’m working 4 days a week as a web developer + freelance work + creating a project for myself in my spare time. To keep sane I make sure I do other things that I’m interested in as well. I make sure I watch my favorite TV shows, go to the beach. Play the sports I enjoy (football/soccer).
A few months ago I saw a friend programming while watching a TV show in the corner of his monitor. At the time I just thought that this would be unproductive and not useful at all. Since then i’ve tried it a few times and it actually works well when you’re not in a mood to do any work. You don’t code particularly quickly or anything, although having something there to keep you preoccupied spices it up and you can take regular breaks to watch the video.
Last time I did this, I was watching “The Big Bang Theory”, one of my favorite sitcoms, and some lady made a big fuss out of it. Ok first of all, I’m the only person in this plant that does what I do. Second of all, I have NO social interaction at all all day long, I talk to no one, no one talks to me. I get all my specifications sent in emails and I eat lunch in front of my computer. Third, wtf lady you try doing what I do and see if you could actually spend 8 straight hours coding. I find that when I was able to watch TV I was cruising through work. Whereas now I’m slow and I’m like peter from office space, 15 minutes of real work a day.