"That’s the the thing about schedules: once you have one everyone else needs to, too, preferably as close to yours as possible."
Quick schedule hack: run your schedule a half hour earlier than everyone else's. Show up for lunch at 11:30 instead of 12. Get to the restaurant at 5:30 instead of 6. View an earlier movie. Get to work a little early.
You'll always get preferred seating, preferred parking, and you'll never wait for a meal again :). You may beat traffic in some locales, but I've yet to benefit just from a 30 minute shift.
Sounds like a good hack (as long as you like to wake up early)
A bit off-topic, but... you dine at 5:30 or 6 p.m.? Over here (Uruguay) the earliest people dine is 7:30 p.m., and sometime between 8 and 10 p.m. is the usual.
You probably won't find many restaurants open for dinner at that time!
I've seen that in other countries, Austria for example, people have dinner much earlier, but it also gets dark earlier in winter. Sounds healthier as well. Do you keep coding after dinner?
It's hard to pinpoint an average eating time for Americans, but restaurants start to get crowded around 6:00. If I'm not eating out, my dinner is typically much later, since I run after work and before dinner.
"Do you keep coding after dinner?"
Yes; I work on personal projects at night. But I take a long dinner break for cooking, cleanup, watching some TV with my girlfriend, and any other needed relaxation. I usually "work" for another 2 hours in the PM.
Once went out with some people in Austria, and we stopped for what my wife and I thought would be an afternoon snack at 16:30. They ordered dinner, though!
Quick schedule hack: run your schedule a half hour earlier than everyone else's. Show up for lunch at 11:30 instead of 12. Get to the restaurant at 5:30 instead of 6. View an earlier movie. Get to work a little early.
You'll always get preferred seating, preferred parking, and you'll never wait for a meal again :). You may beat traffic in some locales, but I've yet to benefit just from a 30 minute shift.