Developers should be encouraged to shower

This is not a dig at programmer hygiene, rather a reminder that our best thinking often occurs when we are not engaged in the task at hand.

I am a shower day-dreamer, my average shower time is in the region of 15 minutes. I can’t help it. Being doused in steaming hot water sends me into an irresistable coma. And yet this time is well spent; my best ideas have all come out of this most productive of semi-slumbers.

Showers in the workplace

Should every developer-shop be furnished with fully serviced bathroom facilities? Perhaps. Faced with that data migration nightmare that you’ve been wrangling with for the past half hour, should your co-workers encourage you to “go take a shower [you don’t stink]”? Quite possibly. Certainly, if you work from home, taking a shower when you feel that you’re not in the zone can be a real catalyst.

What other techniques do you use, or what other accidental circumstances help you, to get in that relaxed state where ideas flow most freely?