Building Software While Working Outdoors: What Changes

I quit the Walmart deli job in June 2026. Now I do tree service work with a client I also built a website for. Both are physical jobs. The experience of sitting down to build SocialMate after eight hours of one versus the other is different in ways I did not expect.

The deli Standing on concrete for eight hours. Repetitive motion. Cold, loud, fluorescent. The mental state after a deli shift is dulled — not exhausted in a satisfying way, just worn down. Sitting down to code after that felt like trying to start a car in cold weather.

Tree work Physical in a different way. You are outside. The work changes constantly. You are problem-solving in three dimensions — how does this branch come down, what is the safest angle, where does the crane need to be. At the end of a tree service day I am physically tired but mentally clear in a way I never was after the deli.

I did not expect that difference. I thought physical exhaustion was physical exhaustion. It is not.

What this means for building The best work I do on SocialMate happens on tree service days. I come home tired but not drained. I can focus. The problems that felt impossible after a deli shift are manageable after working outside.

I am not recommending everyone go cut trees. I am noting that the type of day job you have shapes the quality of the work you do on your actual work in the hours that remain. Choose accordingly when you have the choice.

The deeper lesson I built SocialMate from zero during one of the harder periods of my life. The deli job was draining. The nights were short. The progress was slow. The fact that it shipped at all is proof that the environment matters less than the commitment to not quit. But when the environment changes for the better, you notice it immediately in what you can produce.