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Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

nickjanetakis.com

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Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#31

Post by fefifofu »

hinkley wrote: post #29
M4v3R wrote: post #7

> It’s easy to fall into habits like slacking off with Youtube, HackerNews and other social platforms – but have you ever stepped back to think how destructive it is? > I call it the “social loop of death” where you make your rounds on various sites and before you know it, 3.5 hours have past and you haven’t gotten anything done. > You end up getting 60 minutes worth of actual work done in an 8 hour day. I feel like…

Pomodoro. It trains you to stay on task for 25 minutes at a time, and evaluate how you did during the last cycle, both from a distraction standpoint and a chasing-your-tail standpoint. Over time you build up to 4.5-6 hours of solid, head-down coding a day.

The pomodoro technique helped me enormously. I don't follow it strictly, I just set the timer and focused on one task until timer is done. I never worked the duration up, I still just do 25 minutes or less. I even put websurfing in a 25 min bucket, then stop.

I ended up learning how infrequent real emergencies pop up. Which in turn, got me to stop looking at my phone at red lights.

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#33

Post by grawlinson »

Raphmedia wrote: post #9
M4v3R wrote: post #7

> It’s easy to fall into habits like slacking off with Youtube, HackerNews and other social platforms – but have you ever stepped back to think how destructive it is? > I call it the “social loop of death” where you make your rounds on various sites and before you know it, 3.5 hours have past and you haven’t gotten anything done. > You end up getting 60 minutes worth of actual work done in an 8 hour day. I feel like…

I added 0.0.0.0 www.facebook.com 0.0.0.0 www.gizmodo.com 0.0.0.0 gizmodo.com 0.0.0.0 www.drudgereport.com 0.0.0.0 www.reddit.com 0.0.0.0 news.ycombinator.com 0.0.0.0 lobste.rs to my hostfiles. Sure, I can remove them if I want, but the extra effort keeps me from doing it. I left messenger.facebook.com open so that I can talk with people.

I recently found out about messenger.com and I've been using it over facebook.com.

Result? I don't use facebook anymore, it's just a colossal waste of time.

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#35

Post by mayoff »

M4v3R wrote: post #7

> It’s easy to fall into habits like slacking off with Youtube, HackerNews and other social platforms – but have you ever stepped back to think how destructive it is? > I call it the “social loop of death” where you make your rounds on various sites and before you know it, 3.5 hours have past and you haven’t gotten anything done. > You end up getting 60 minutes worth of actual work done in an 8 hour day. I feel like…

If you don't have to work from home, pair programming or just working next to someone with an agreement to keep each other honest could help a lot. Also (again if you're in an office with others), put your back to the door so passers-by can see your screen and tell when you're slacking off. Make your shame/guilt work for you.

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#36

Post by nickjj »

nickjj wrote: post #11
drawnwren wrote: post #5

I liked the general idea of this post, but for it to feel a little bit more impactful to me - it would have been great to expand on what you mean by 'schedule your days.' Maybe an example of how you are currently scheduling your life or even just a picture of a schedule that you have followed.

Hi (author here), I have a separate post on the "how to" aspect of it scheduled to be released later this week.

On second thought, I've added a PDF to the bottom of the post which contains a detailed guide on how to create a schedule.

Kind of wish I added this initially, but live and learn!

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#37

Post by whiteandnerdy »

Jenkins2000 wrote: post #14

I recently started scheduling my days using a paper and pen but this time with the 'bullet journal' system. I've tried many todo lists online that never stick and I've got stacks of notepads that I scribble notes in but never read again. With my bullet journal I now have a system for reviewing tasks that, so far, actually seems to work for me.

Thanks for the recommendation - I'm trying out bullet journalling in the workplace as a result. Feels like it's a good system thus far, although I'll have to wait until the honeymoon period dies off to really know.

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#38

Post by surrealvortex »

lj3 wrote: post #17
surrealvortex wrote: post #13

I have a standing desk. So my monitor is visible to everyone in the area. Discourages me from doing anything other than work when I'm at work. It's not like someone is going to comment that I've been looking at Facebook at work, but it helps trick me into not doing anything unproductive.

How do you stand people walking behind you all day? That would drive me nuts. Also, I work remotely, but I have been thinking about live streaming my desktop as a similar discouragement from slacking during work hours.

You get used to working in a dense workspace after a while. I think companies mainly like dense workspaces because it costs less, while justifying it as increasing collaboration. I don't need much collaboration at my job.

Working remotely takes a lot of discipline that I don't think I have. I do work from home once in a while, but it's a lot tougher to motivate yourself everyday.

Re: Become a 10x Programmer by Managing Your Time Better

#39

Post by hinkley »

rpazyaquian wrote: post #30
hinkley wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pomodoro. It trains you to stay on task for 25 minutes at a time, and evaluate how you did during the last cycle, both from a distraction standpoint and a chasing-your-tail standpoint. Over time you build up to 4.5-6 hours of solid, head-down coding a day.

I gotta admit, this sounds awful. Adding more mental overhead to your everyday habits sounds like it'd just make things worse.

on the contrary, you just point at the countdown timer and half your problems go away, literally.
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