Coding after dark

What is it about the night that helps my mind sort out issues that have been blocking me during the day? I recently had an issue at work that involved our ecommerce platform. I’m not going to go heavy into the details, but I needed to migrate one service to another and I could not map the updated data for our reporting.

I know, you would think this kind of problem is so thrilling that I couldn’t set it down until the problem was solved. Mainly, I kept getting distracted by other tasks that were perhaps a bit easier to check off the list. Things like this always lurk in the back of my mind until I come to a solution, or determine it is not worth the effort.

One evening, dinner was over, dishes were washed, dogs had been outside and gone to bed, and the solution just popped into my head. I debated taking some notes and waiting until the next morning when I got to work. I know myself, however, so I cracked open my computer. Not only did I complete the task I needed, but I was was energized by the progress and I began tackling some personal projects. One of which was adding an RSS feed to my Ripples. This is not needed, nobody is going to care, but I wanted to give it a try and I have it all set up now. Another tool I can add to my back pocket.

As the late night hours turned to early morning, I felt accomplished and shut down my machine. Why does this kind of productivity always come to me after the sun goes down? I’m sure the combination of minimal distractions and my general tendency to be a night owl. But don’t be surprised if my light is on late at night.