What gets you in the zone?

[Praesdynamite]

So I recently started coding in glua and I have never seemed to find a way to get in the "zone". Ya know when you are super concentrated and moving your fingers faster then you can imagine and you just can't stop coding? I have hit these points once in a while but I can't really seem to find a way to keep them going. I have mainly tried music but I am not sure if the dubs and the wubs is a good choice. Perhaps turning the lights down low and lighting some scented candles, or wrapping in a blanket with some nice warm tea? So, what do you do to get in the so-called "zone"?

[IMG]http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608020155069237154&pid=1.7[/IMG]

[AnonTakesOver]

Pandora.com + drink + night time + idea.
Basically, plan something out, doesn't have to be fully planned, just a base, grab a drink, load up pandora, set ya playlist then bam coding like a monster. Works best at night time.

[Newbrict]

starting

[Declivity]

I use my head good fast

[G😹nz😻]

Coffe cup + Coca cola + Portal 2 Soundtrack = Reliable Code

[mastersrp]

Night time, some good drink, chilli nuts maybe, and then either Frozen Synapse soundtrack, or Uplink soundtrack.

[Хум]

Idea + Drink + Music
And optional night time

[Minteh Fresh]

[video=youtube;PNA_oV40QRw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNA_oV40QRw[/video]

The play-count for that song is beyond 5,000 on my computer by now, surely. Music is always what gets me in the mood, personally talking to peers on steam / skype / teamspeak / ventrilo / mumble / all other voips / the other other voips etc gets me out of the mood to code / gets me out of my creativity zone ( That could just be my extremely low attention span )

Copy and paste all your favourite genres of music / all your favourite songs into 1 file, or however you make your playlists etc ( I don't use itunes ) and don't skip it, let them all just play on shuffle ( or in order. ) You'll know when you're in your zone because you won't think about skipping specific songs etc.

Not only does that ( for me at least ) get me into my zone, but it also helps me warm up to certain songs that I might not listen to due to preference over other songs in the album.

[SeriousLion]

[QUOTE=Minteh Fresh;45715165]good music[/QUOTE]
maybe a bit away from the topic but do you have more such music I love it (maybe a playlist) thx anyway
on topic nighttime a good idea maybe a writing of how you will manage everything a whiteboard and a lot of food and drinks that really works for me

[Mista Tea]

Pretty much the same routine as AnonTakesOver.

I've been having a lot of fun with the Caravan Palace station on Pandora. It eventually lead me to H.U.V.A. Network which is some of the most chillout/in-the-zone music I've ever listened to. I've been writing a lot while listening to this particular album.

Give it a try:

[video=youtube;SPv7_G_Uj9k]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPv7_G_Uj9k[/video]

[Scott]

Usually when I notice I've been putting something off for weeks on end. Then a friend of mine will subtly hint that he hasn't seen x that I have been working on. Then I cry, put on some music and suddenly have so much work done.
Strangely enough I get more into it when there is someone on skype/ts3 who is also coding and talking about technical shit, that does it more than music for me. And coffee

[Cyberuben]

Some good Deep House always puts me in the mood to code.

Well, almost always, haven't been able to get myself to code the last 3 weeks.

Tip: Oliver Heldens

[LauScript]

What the fuck is this thread rofl

[Хум]

[QUOTE=scottd564;45715448]Usually when I notice I've been putting something off for weeks on end. Then a friend of mine will subtly hint that he hasn't seen x that I have been working on. Then I cry, put on some music and suddenly have so much work done.[/QUOTE]

Same here. Just last week I had a job for someone to fix a few models that I've been putting off in favor of BL2. Then the guy contacts me and kindly reminds me that I need to get work done :D

[xav]

Waking up before everyone at 4 am after working out and taking a shower, window open to let the fresh air and the sunlight in, music through speakers instead of headset and a clean desk with nobody to talk to and get distracted. That's how I find I am the most productive, but jeez that only happens once or twice a year ha.

[Kogitsune]

Getting an idea after 10PM when I have to get up for work at 6AM the next morning. Next thing I know, it's 3AM...

[Praesdynamite]

Didn't expect this lol

[nazer1290]

I violently masturbate to pigeon porn, have a cup of tea, and then I'm, ready to go.

[Mitsudigi]

A joint + cup of coffee. Seriously, that combo has never failed for me.

[xav]

[QUOTE=Cyberuben;45715691]haven't been able to get myself to code the last 3 weeks[/QUOTE]

We're in the same boat, motivation seems to have faded away :'-(

[mastersrp]

If you code all day all night long then your energy and motivation dies out slowly. Code in bursts, and then take it easy.

It is true that some weeks can go by without any real code going through, and then a day with a weeks worth of code getting pushed through.

[_Entity]

A joint, Mountain Dew and some music through earphones tends to make me code whatever I can think of. Only problem with me is a few hours later my recycling bin has a new folder. I can't complete shit :v: should really focus more

[Declivity]

You guys should really look into the gamers against weed movement.

[Netheous]

[QUOTE=gonzalolog;45714780]Coffe cup + Coca cola + Portal 2 Soundtrack = Reliable Code[/QUOTE]
And diabetes I bet.

All you need is a very quiet ambient music (google ambient space mix, they are always 2-6 hours long), a comfy chair that will get you straight whole time so your back and neck doesn't get tired quickly and most of all - second screen to speed up testing and coding.
Altho that is my way, there isn't one, ultimate setup.

[PortalGod]

for me all it takes is a clear idea of what I'm doing, sometimes drawing stuff out on paper/a whiteboard helps if it's really confusing me. taking a shower would probably help clear my head, but usually I'm too lazy to do that :v:

[circuitbawx]

Coffee, TV in background, some sort of food, nicotine, and the PC angled about 22.5 deg to the right.

[kpjVideo]

autozone
I know, :suicide:

[Kamshak]

I listen to very repetitive electronic music (minimal etc), need something to aid the flow. The relaxing ambient music just annoys the fuck out of me. Other than that a good cup of coffee, an open window and a clean desk helps me a lot. To really get into the flow i also need a completely clean mind, that means doing all chores, preparing everything for the next day already and having a good look at the calendar before starting to code.

Then taking 5 minute breaks every hour and after complex parts to relax the mind again is important to me.

[edgarasf123]

Monster energy drinks + night time. Also I listen to videos such as TED talks because music distract me.

[mastersrp]

[QUOTE=Netheous;45723405]And diabetes I bet.

All you need is a very quiet ambient music (google ambient space mix, they are always 2-6 hours long), a comfy chair that will get you straight whole time so your back and neck doesn't get tired quickly and most of all - second screen to speed up testing and coding.
Altho that is my way, there isn't one, ultimate setup.[/QUOTE]

I do believe this is a great way to do things, however "second screen" doesn't have to mean a second monitor. For me, it means "multiple environments". For instance, on my netbook I am using SliTaz, a Linux distribution (or BusyBox/Linux distro for the nerds), and I have Awesome WM installed. It does tiling. It also does floating window management. As such, I have 3 primary "environments" I can switch between, the first being "work":
[t]http://i.imgur.com/ZYaUpV9.png[/t]

And as pictured above, the second and third being "apps" and "monitor", respectively.
Apps contain applications that I run from time to time, such as Firefox, Skype, uTox, file explorer applications, whatever. The third, monitor, contains monitoring applications, such as "htop" which monitors RAM usage, process usage, CPU usages, uptime, so on so forth.
Then, pressing only "Super" (WinKey) and the numbers 1-9, I can switch between any of the layouts (environments), with 1-3 being "work", "apps", "monitor" respectively.

I sometimes do hook up another monitor as well, increasing my layouts from 1-9 to (1-9)*2, meaning that I have two monitors each with 9 possible environments.
That's a stock configuration, and I can increase/decrease the amount of layouts as crazy as I want. If I wanted 50, I could just add 50, although that would be retarded.

So yeah, case in point:

[b]*[/b] Multiple environments is good for doing multiple things
[b]*[/b] The utilization of a second monitor can improve your environments, but only if you don't have the option of multiple environments on a single monitor.
[b]*[/b] Multiple monitors is great for doing comparisons, but that is usually about it (?).