What I Learned by Going It Alone
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What I Learned by Going It Alone
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Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#2Great stuff, Ian. Im going it alone too, and you actually reminded me that I have to go update blossom and try to use it before writing any line of code.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#3Be Persistent and Keep On Starting
From personal experience, this is the most important thing. There will be days you will keep asking yourself what significance a little thing that you're doing that particular moment has on the grand scheme of things. The reality is that such little things compound over time. The most important thing is to keep persisting. Early on, you will feel like quitting and jumping onto the next big idea/thing, but only with persistence any of them will become fruitful. After you work on a few projects you will be able to interpret the early positive and negative signs better.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#4Has anyone else had experience with the Pomodoro Technique? It feels like a way for the website to just sell you books/timers/etc.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#5Has anyone else had experience with the Pomodoro Technique? It feels like a way for the website to just sell you books/timers/etc.
I use Pomodoro quite regularly. It works really well in most use cases for me - except when I'm deep into writing some code. I can't get myself to stop after 25 minutes - and then I'm suddenly thrown off my schedule and not managing time anymore.
I haven't really experimented with getting my work pomodoro for more than 25 minutes yet - I think that something like a 45 minute pomodoro may help me for the coding sprints.
You can get a lot done in 25 minutes if you turn off all other distractions and also you know that you will be back with them (email, phone, HN, Twitter etc) after a few minutes.
As far as books/timers etc go, I just use a kitchen timer or my phone or a webapp like Tomatoes[1] and I haven't read any books on it other than the wikipedia article.
[1] - http://tomato.es/
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#6Has anyone else had experience with the Pomodoro Technique? It feels like a way for the website to just sell you books/timers/etc.
The book is a free PDF on their site and you can use any old egg timer (or any of the number of free pomodoro apps).
It's a fine technique if you're working in an environment where you're free from external interruption, worked very well for me.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#7Be Persistent and Keep On Starting From personal experience, this is the most important thing. There will be days you will keep asking yourself what significance a little thing that you're doing that particular moment has on the grand scheme of things. The reality is that such little things compound over time. The most important thing is to keep persisting. Early on, you will feel like quitting and jumping onto the n…
Here, here. Last night I checked my commit history for my side-project and noticed I started it over six months ago. There were frequent gaps of up to three weeks with no commits. It was my New Year's resolution to ship stuff, instead of jumping into learning something new every two weeks. Each of those long periods of time could've been a great time to start something new. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I owe it to myself to keep pushing.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#8Really useful post, thankyou.
Specifically for me, the part about wrestling with focus... I tried Pomodoro a while back but assumed it was something you just either 'got' or didn't - it didn't seem like something anyone without ADD would have to work for. So when it didn't quickly work for me, i just threw in the towel. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#9Thanks Ian - this is a very useful post.
I find Pomodoro to be particularly useful, too. Especially when you're on your own. It's hard to tell people to leave you alone because you're pomodoroing in an office where you may be needed for others things, but at home it's just a matter of making yourself work for just another 20, 15, 10 minutes...
Re: What I Learned by Going It Alone
#10Has anyone else had experience with the Pomodoro Technique? It feels like a way for the website to just sell you books/timers/etc.
I use it frequently, and I haven't had to spend a penny on it. http://e.ggtimer.com/pomodoro is good to help. There's very little technique to it, just work 25 mins, break 5 mins, work 25, break 5, etc. As long as you like.