Programming Warm Ups?

ResHippie asks: "No athlete or musician would think about just diving in to the day's activity without doing some series of warm ups first. Aside from starting most computing sessions with checking email and the like, I pretty much try to dive right in to the task at hand. It usually takes me a while to get going, though. Does anyone have any routines they go through before coding (or any other work-like activity) that helps?"

Comments

The usual

[adamy]

Drink Coffee
Read Email
Read Slashdot

Actually, the best way I've found to get into the zone is to leave a compiltation error from the previous day. It is the mental equivalent of a stack pointer from which you can pop all of your registers, reinitialize the idle process, and start cranking.

example //Working here, trying to get the right objects from iterator
BadObject b = iterator.next();

Yes, I work in Java. Compiler will shout about bad object types, and I'm off.

Exercise

[LadyLucky]

OK, so maybe I'm lucky and I have a work subsidized gym membership at the gym which is on the otherside of the carpark, but I find there's nothing quite like a bit of exercise (swimming is my cardio of choice) to get the blood pumping, gives you some alone time in the zone to toss around those ideas for sexy code.

That, or coffee.

Re:The Obvious

[Glonoinha]

Actually, the obvious (if I want to get some serious work done) is to NOT load /.

My routine when I really, really need to bust out some hardcore code is :
Get caffeine in my system. A big glass of ice tea consumed while I am fixing myself the second, bigger glass that I will drink on at the keyboard.
Fire up the computer.
While that is firing up, rinse my face in the bathroom sink, hot water - really hot. As my face warms up, make it hotter. With the face oils on my hands, run them under water that is as hot as I can stand without pulling them out. Two or three minutes between face and hands.
Log into my system.
Put in my ear plugs.

(Here is the important part) ... open some code, any code, in the editor and hit compile. Watch it compile while I sip some tea, and when it finishes compiling start looking through the code for something to document. I don't need to actually change any code, just get my brain in code reading mode and commenting some uncommented code does this for me, not to mention gets the code documented.

Don't start a browser session.
Don't open my email client.
Don't sign in to instant messenger.
Don't check voicemail.
Don't start the Kazaa client.

No slashdot, no hotmail, no work related emails, no fark.com, no cnn.com, no tom's hardware, no ebay, no techbargains ... no nothing. Just me, the compiler and editor IDE, and the task at hand.

If you follow that formula, the inertia will be to get into the zone and stay in the zone (no distractions via phone, email, IM, whatever.) In fact if success isn't optional, I have been known to unplug my machine from the network, insuring that I couldn't fire up and of the distractions 'just for a second' even if so inclined. Get some serious work done, though.