I often listen to the Developer Tea podcast on my way to the office. Today Johnathan shared this quote from Annie Dillard:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living.” ―Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

You can listen to the episode about the quote on the Developer Tea page. I found this quote to be incredibly inspiring and at the same time a bit horrifying.

I don’t think this quote is meant to do tell somebody to quit their job and do whatever they want. I think we need to focus on making better choices and doing things that have some value to us. Sitting at home and watching hours of television isn’t valuable for our life, instead going outside and exploring the world would have a lot more value.

As Jonathan mentions, changing things up can provide inspiration to us and make us think. As a developer, it can be so easy to get stuck into a rut and always do things in the same way. What if there was a much more efficient way of doing things, but you just don’t know about it?