Get Shit Done: 25 tips to focus, get work done and become a better developer
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Ramon WielemanFollow
May. 15, 2019•0 likes•416 views
Get Shit Done: 25 tips to focus, get work done and become a better developer
May. 15, 2019•0 likes•416 views
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With the uprise of smartphones, social media and IoT, our day-to-day life is so much different than 10 years ago. We receive hundreds of notifications per day, our email inbox is getting filled on evenings and weekends and we only see successful people on our social media timelines. Also our working environments changed, since a lot of offices have an open-space strategy with flexible workspaces. In this new reality, it’s getting harder and harder to focus and concentrate on difficult tasks that demand dedication and commitment. We live by the minute, search for instant gratification and getting our inbox and tasklist to zero is a goal on itself. In this session we will present you with 25 practical tips and tricks to change your daily lifestyle and get more shit done as a developer. We give tips about changing your daily tasks, create priorities to advance in your career and personal life and provide you with review tools to measure the set goals. With these tips and tricks you will experience less stress so that you can focus on your overall goals and things that actually matter. This session isn’t the holy grail, but it’s just our vision on how we get work done. We believe this can be insightful for a lot of developers, who are facing the same problems. Feel free to share you productivity tips and tricks with us with #TNgetshitdone
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Get Shit Done: 25 tips to focus, get work done and become a better developer
- 1. Get Shit Done 25 tips to focus, get work done and become a better developer Artem Makarov & Ramon Wieleman #teqnation2019
- 2. Disclaimer and explanation Tips and tricks are only our best practices and don’t always apply to your personal situation!
- 3. About us Ramon Wieleman Founder / Director at Code Nomads AmsterdamJUG board member Obsessed with productivity improvements Artem Makarov Senior Software Developer at Code Nomads DIY Electronics Enthusiast Loves life hacks
- 4. Share your tips! ● #TNgetshitdone ● Best tip gets rewarded with one of our favorite books
- 5. Overview of today’s presentation Why this talk? Current situation / problems Our 25 Productivity Tips & Tricks Your tips? #TNgetshitdone Questions?
- 6. In school you learn to work in a certain profession or industry… but… nobody teaches you how to work
- 7. How did we get here? Our lives as juniors: • “I can focus, work hard and remember everything!” • “Getting my inbox to zero is a good day” • “I’m a multi-tasker” • No focus on important tasks, but only on urgent tasks • Live and work by the minute • Stay awake at night from all work tasks that I needed to do
- 8. Our approach for change • Read books and literature • Lived by those rules • Totally changed our way of working
- 9. Information overload • 28% of working population in the Netherlands experiences information overload Source: https://www.monitorarbeid.tno.nl/nieuws/nea- persbericht-2018-informatieovervloed
- 10. Burn-outs Source of data: https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2018/46/meer-psychische-vermoeidheid-ervaren-door-werk
- 11. Screens are everywhere
- 12. Number of tasks per day
- 13. Tips and Tricks • General tips • Avoiding distractions • Your working environment • Tools and apps • Reach for your goals
- 14. General tips
- 15. 1. Urgency vs importance: Eisenhower Matrix
- 16. 2. Set your priorities: working order Calendar Task list E-mail Social media
- 17. 3. Set up a solid calendar • Calendar is leading! Always! • Schedule non-urgent important tasks • Schedule time for learning new things • A meeting is more than “just a meeting” • Fill in location & send calendar invites • Communicate in a pro- active way
- 18. 4. Set up a good task list • Choose your ideal task list • Transform task into action • The “someday” and “anytime” folder • Bundle multiple actions • Make labels • Create “pending” label
- 19. 5. Your “second brain” • Add tasks to your task list that keep you awake at night • Let your task list remember it instead of you • Be descriptive when writing tasks • Tools: Things 3, Omnifocus
- 20. 6. Don’t get distracted by email • Email is distracting • Email is never urgent • Pause your inbox • Schedule 3 x 30 minutes a day in your agenda • Apply this configuration on all devices • Don’t cheat!
- 21. 7. Processing email? Is there a deadline for to take action? 05 ● Yes -> schedule time in your agenda ● No -> Add to task list Can you process this email within 2 minutes? 04 ● No -> Go to Step 5 ● Yes -> Do it right away Is any action required?03 ● No -> Archive ● Yes -> Go to Step 4 Do you need/want something with this email? 02 ● No -> Reject ● Yes -> Go to Step 3 Read the e-mail01
- 22. 8. Filter and sort your email
- 23. 9. The 2-minute rule Does the task takes more than 2 minutes? 02 ● Schedule time in your calendar ● Add to task list Can a task/action be done in 2 minutes? 01 Do it right away!
- 24. 10. Celebrate victories
- 25. 11. Take a walk
- 26. 12. Tomato/tomato
- 27. 13. Break it down
- 28. 14. Life is a game
- 29. Avoiding distractions
- 30. 15. Turn off notifications • Do not disturb mode • Screen time statistics (this is insane!) • Turn off notifications • Reduce use of instant messaging
- 31. 16. Screen limits • Set limits per app • Do not disturb between 20:00 and 07:00 • No social media! • Less social media • Real addicts: use a dedicated social media device (iPad only)
- 32. Your working environment
- 33. 17. Set team rules
- 34. 18. More screens - more productivity?
- 35. 19. Pair programming
- 36. 20. Working from home discipline
- 37. Reach for your goals
- 38. 21. Set your goals What things am I good at? Skills What do I like? Passion What’s important to me? Mission Formulate plans Turn plans into actions 2. Get into action About your mission, passion, skills 1. Think Execute your actions 3. Experience it
- 39. 22. Review your goals • Periodically review your goals (week, quarter, year) • Look back on the goals you set • Where do you want to be with your goals? • At which point are you now? • Seeing your progress is very rewarding!
- 40. 23. Stay healthy • Stay hydrated • Coffee: short-term boost, but long-term downer • Walk to the coffee corner • Sleep well • Alcohol is no friend to your sleep • No devices in the bedroom • Buy an alarm clock (20 euro’s)
- 41. 24. Meditation & mindfullness • Learn to deal with stress & information overload • Calm down your brain by breathing • 5 minutes is enough • App: Headspace
- 42. 25. Use tools and apps • Boomerang – Inbox Pause • Adios – Gmail Inbox Pause • Things – Task list • Omnifocus – Task list • PlainTasks (Sublime Plugin) – Task list • Trello – Colloboration platform • Headspace - Mindfullness
- 43. References • Burnout Assessment tool - https://www.psynip.nl/actueel/nieuws/2019/burn-out-assessment-tool- gelanceerd-en-te-gebruiken/ • Basic rest-activity cycle - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_rest–activity_cycle • Dual-screen productivity study from Dell - https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/monitors/en/dual_monitors_boost_productivity_whitepa per.pdf • Microproductivity study from Microsoft - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/chi15-micro.pdf
- 44. Your tips #TNgetshitdone Live Twitter feed
- 45. #teqnation2019 Thanks for your attention! Don’t forget to rate our session in the events app
Editor's Notes
- Presented by: Ramon Some open doors will be kicked in. Some tips might be pretty obvious… but do you actually do it? We’ll go really fast in this session All slides will be available on Slideshare
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon
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- Presented by: Artem people who experience information overload usually want to leave their company It happens equally among genders Highest information overload for managers (46%) and IT (38%) Managers in IT (60%)
- Presented by: Artem Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Huge increase in female population in the last few years
- Presented by: Artem 9% of people between 18-25 years spends between 5-10 hours per day on social media 29% of youth say they are “addicted” to social media On average: we spend 3 hours and 15 minutes per day on our phone. 20% of smartphone users exceeds daily screen time of 4.5 hours Most people check their phones 58 times a day 4 out of 10 say that social media has a negative impact on their sleep quality
- Presented by: Artem Just think of how many tasks modern developers are facing each day. There are so many kinds of tasks actual coding debugging meetings using IMs documenting code browsing internet for answers emails editing tasks/tickets code review
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon The Eisenhower Matrix Example: Email, whatsapp is urgent and non-important Have a top-priority list (urgent AND important) and schedule it Non-urgent and non-important should be eliminated Focus on important, but non-urgent stuff. It’s usually long-term goals/tasks that bring you further
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon Meeting preparations: Book time for: preparing traveling processing notes create action list
- Presented by: Ramon Requirements: Digital available on all your devices Overview Fast Task into action! Task: leaky roof Action: Call plumber to fix the roof -> Ask neighbour about plumber how fixed his roof last year Labels: Energy level Location Persons
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon Email is distracting Email is not a communication channel for urgent matters. If it something is really urgent, people will call you I receive email 3 times a day and schedule it in my agenda (30 minutes) 08:30 - 13:00 - 16:30 Inbox pause with Boomerang or Adios Apply this configuration on all devices Don’t cheat!
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Artem move high-volume email notifications (git/jira) into separate folders away from inbox also create CC folder
- Presented by: Artem
- Presented by: Artem Celebrate to keep the motivation high! buy a cake for the team after releasing a new big feature propose to have a team activity drink beers also celebrate that you are working together for x year(s)
- Presented by: Artem spend some time away from the desk to refresh your mind walk to a coffee corner can be enough to accomplish this
- Presented by: Artem Pomodoro technique Ask audience about whether they know about this technique what it is and why it can work for you? It’s a time-management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 80s Works is broken down into 25 minute intervals with breaks in between. Intervals are enforced by setting a timer You can use an app Technique helps to reduce impact of interruptions on focus and flow by introducing a small timebox with high commitment. Advanced pomodoro techniques There’s debate whether 25 minute is actually sensible interval, so most advanced techniques propose longer intervals Certain scientific evidence suggests that humans follow ultradian cycle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_rest–activity_cycle) of roughly 90-120 minutes long. Our alertness and cognitive function peaks during approximately half of this cycle, lowering at the end to allow body to prepare for the next iteration. All in all, YMMV, so try both and see what actually works for you.
- Presented by: Artem Feeling “I don’t know where to begin”, procrastinating or simply Solution: break down your goals into smaller bite-sized tasks You are less likely to become anxious because of uncertainty You make your goals more attainable and clear Our brains can’t remember everything, so reduced scope of each task will help to achieve better focus Small tasks are more resilient to interruptions It’s easier to access your progress with smaller tasks This will help to avoid procrastination and feeling of “I don’t know where to begin” Microsoft had done some research on this concept, which they called “Microproductivity” https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/chi15-micro.pdf Research looks into benefits of microtasks in crowdsourcing. Their conclusion is that microtasks can result in longer completion times, but exhibit higher quality outcomes. do live example of task-tracking and breaking down in Sublime?
- Presented by: Ramon think about a small reward for after completing the task rewarding yourself is simple, it can be a small experience like cooking workshop or getting your favourite snack or even going to the spa gamification https://habitica.com/static/home funny example of a tool It’s kind of like Getting Things Done RPG Splits tasks into three categories: Habits, Dailies and Tasks. By completing tasks you get XP and chance to get different items Can compete with your friends.
- Presented by: Ramon (Whatsapp/slack/skype/hipchat) It requires you to always be “up to date” and highly available turn down group notifications for Whatsapp for example how can you actually reduce it? treat it like email, so you read it not instantly, but at allocated times if it’s important, you’ll get called anyway
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Artem Headset = do not disturb Time limit on meetings Also learn to discern and avoid useless meetings altogether Meeting has no agenda - probably useless Maybe if your office allows, it’s a wise idea to even find some secret remote workspace where you can work undisturbed Communication limits (slack/hipchat/whatever IM you use at work)
- Presented by: Artem Most research proves benefits of two-screen setup with only varying performance gains. How you make use of this setup is also important. It’s definitely beneficial if you use your second screen to display some documentation alongside your IDE (there’s less window switching) If you use your second screen to watch cat videos on youtube or new GoT episode, your work won’t finish itself faster. A lot of research on the benefits of dual-monitor setup is funded by screen manufacturers, which allows for a conspiracy theory joke. (e.g.https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/monitors/en/dual_monitors_boost_productivity_whitepaper.pdf)
- Presented by: Artem Pair programming Surely, everyone has heard about Two (surprise) people behind one computer. One is writing the code, the other is reviewing it as they go Works best when there’s skill disparity (i.e. mentor-apprentice kind of thing) Mobbing Think of rally car only where the whole team is in the car There’s one driver that is only following the navigator’s instructions and not allowed to act on his/her own Everyone else is a navigator that are coming up with ideas, discussing them and presenting them to the driver for action. People in the mob should frequently rotate (every 20 minutes or so) so nobody gets bored and tired. Benefits: more ideas, discussion on the go, better code quality, all the code has already been seen by two people, so code review can be skipped. Mobbing allows for the whole team to be engaged and learn about each others abilities. Maybe someone knows reactive approach, someone knows about CSS and someone else knows all the flags for curl Disadvantages: it’s expensive on account of two people doing the task at the same time
- Presented by: Ramon don’t mix work and home stuff, “don’t work in your pyjamas” create a place that’s “work only” home is a minefield of distractions, so stay focused
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Ramon
- Presented by: Artem
- Presented by: both