It comes in bursts. But it averages out to a lowish number. The flip side is that the rest of the time is also work and it includes some important work even. In

It comes in bursts. But it averages out to a lowish number. The flip side is that the rest of the time is also work and it includes some important work even. In order to be effective as a programmer, you have to understand what you are building and why. I do a lot of thinking and decision making before I start coding. When I work in a long burst, it's usually after days or weeks of pondering how I'm going to do it. Programmers that do this too much sometimes get stuck not doing anything. This is often called analysis paralysis. A good way to break through that is to start doing stuff. Any stuff. Even if it might be the wrong stuff. Sometimes I solve stuff in my sleep even. I go to bed not knowing a solution to a problem after having worked hours on it. And wake up with a working solution that I can knock out in minutes. So, do I code for six hours a day? No, but work occupies most of my day. I do both management and coding; so I can see both sides of the equation. Keeping your team motivated and stimulated with interesting work is hard. A lot of work just is drudgery. I know it is because I dread doing these things myself. And then end up doing them anyway. Drudgery is demotivating. Demotivated people drag their feet, especially when drudgery just leads to more drudgery. Often management is simply a matter of getting people to see results coming from their hard work. Break it down, celebrate the progress, do some more. Short feedback loops are a key tool. Even the drudgery gets dealt with when you do that.