I’ve been coding wrong my whole life.
I was thinking that its okay to sit down at my desk, Open laptop and start coding until i fill tired.
but this type of approach killed my productivity.
Productivity system stays on 3 main pillars:
1. Schedule.
2. To-do for tomorrow.
3. System 69 (!)
1. Schedule
Everything starts with a schedule. What, where, and when I do.
My schedule looks like this:
I’m using a whiteboard to constantly remind myself of what I should do at the exact moment.
I always neglected to create a schedule.
“I know what and when I should do!” I told myself.
But in reality, I always forget to do or overdo my daily activities (even with a habit to do them).
For example, when I woke up at 7:00 in the morning I knew that I had 1 free hour before my work. In that hour I wanted to have time to do a morning ritual (eating, stretching, showering, breathing) and to read for 30 minutes. But many times I could have breakfast in the morning for an hour, forgetting to take the time to read. Even if I kept in mind that I have to read for 30 minutes every morning. I overdone my activity (breakfast) and stole my time from another activity (reading).
I have also noticed that without a schedule it takes a lot of time to decide what I should do next. I could finish the workout in the afternoon, take shower, sit at my desk, open laptop, and then decide which task I should pick next within 10 minutes. If we count how much the same decisions I made during the day, 10 minutes becomes 60 minutes. One hour! It’s a lot of time.
The other thing is that in the process of deciding what I should do next, there is always an angel and a demon sitting on my shoulders and “helping” me decide whether I should work on the essential things to me or do some light work, or even take a break to relax. I often had to use willpower to force myself to do the “right” things without a schedule.
When I made the schedule, these problems disappeared.
Now, I always have time to do what I have planned.
I always know what I should do next.
I don’t need to use willpower to force myself to do essential things.
Schedule puts my decision-making process on autopilot.
To-Do For Tomorrow
If the schedule helps me decide what, where and when I should do, the to-do list helps me decide exactly what I should do next.
I could spend the “perfectly planned” day, but not do what is essential to me.
For example, when I opened my schedule and saw a “Deep Work” block from 08.00 to 09.30, I could do deep work, but it didn’t guarantee that I would be doing important things during it and not some light work.
Our brain is always trying to spend less energy and will do everything to convince you not to waste energy.
That’s where the to-do list comes in.
It helps me even more to put the decision-making process on autopilot and spend less time and cognitive resources on it.
It guarantees that I will do only essential things (most of the time).
My to-do list is simple, I use a plain paper notebook to make it and Notion as a digital copy (I use Notion for everything, but that’s for another article)
When I create my to-do list I create it in the evening for tomorrow day.
System 69
The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method when you break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. For example, 25-minute coding and a 5-minute break after. And divide the entire workday into such breaks.
25 minute coding
5 minute break
25 minute coding
5 minute break
25 minute coding
etc. until the end of the working day.
I tried it and it worked, but not as great as I imagined. I definitely became more productive, but for an additional hour. And I found the 25-minute work intervals are too short for me (It took me 5–10 minutes to activate the flow state, so I couldn’t perform a “deep work” for more than 15 minutes with such intervals).
So I went further.
I found the 52 + 17 rule.
What’s this?
52-minute of work and a 17-minute break. Similar to the Pomodoro Technique.
I tested it and it worked better for me than 25+5 intervals. Now I could work productively for two more hours, but I still felt like crap after a workday.
So I didn’t stop on the 52 + 17 rule.
I started researching more about productivity and motivation and learned about effective breaks.
When most people hear the word “break” the first association is “doing anything except work.” Like scrolling Instagram feed, chatting with friends, or watching Youtube.
Technically these are all breaks, but not effective ones.
The main sign of an effective break is that it gives you energy, not takes it away.
Example of my effective breaks:
Stretching.
Hydrating.
Light workout.
Walking (without the headphones).
Breathing (box breathing, Wim Hof method).
After I learned about effective breaks, my workday became almost perfect — 52 minutes of work (45 minutes often in a flow state, because I need 10 minutes to reach it) and 17 minutes of an effective break that gives me energy.
Some good advice from dev to user(user comment)
listen to yourself
adapt your workrflow on how you feel
be organized:
use some kind of board to prepare your tasks
don't work on many tasks at the same time
finish your tasks (you need to have accomplishment feeling for your brain to not burnout)
have a good life higiene :
sleep well,
go to bed a the same hour ( don't mess with your biology clock)
do some sports,
eat at predictive hours
eat ealthy
Top comments (6)
To be honest, i think there is no Universal rule.
Everyone should try and experiment before finding the right equation.
And also, you are not a machine. Everyone should acknowledge that you'll feel tired, less productive sometimes.
So one bit of advice i can give that work well for me:
Yes there is no Universal rule.
be organized:, this should also include your environment. Your sitting posture, ligting, air, and all that may affects you productivity. Essentially be conscious of yourself. Notice moments when you are so much into what you are doing, your breathing rate falls from the normal (you breath slowly you you are focused). There is a lot of processing going on: your brain is reading, processing and trying to make sense of things, mapping things out. You'd get a migraine.🔥
True
Adding your points to my main post
Nice! I think I have also overdone activities now these days, I should also make a plan again to boost my productivity.
🔥