Some context: My day-to-day activities are related to the JavaScript environment. My work involves researching/designing/implementing new features, improving existing ones, or solving particular bugs.

My software engineering thinking starts every day at 8:09 in the morning — just when I hop on the train for a 50-minute ride to Ghent, where I work as a software engineer for content marketing workspace StoryChief.io.

During that time, I repeatedly do only one of the three following things:

1. Read Medium articles about JavaScript, good coding patterns, or updates for specific tools. I tend to not go broader than these three main topics because being focused on a small, concrete, and cherry-picked set of topics allows me to achieve a sense of control.
2. Jump-start the day by already writing a couple of lines for the corresponding feature/bug that I was previously working on. This way, by the time I open my laptop at the office, I’m already in the right mindset and test environment. I see this as a warm-up before the game, just as athletes do.
3. Last but not least, occasionally I sleep with one eye open! I’m a father of one, and once in a while, the nights are not so smooth.

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