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How I stopped my procrastination: Insights into developer mindset

Eshaan on July 05, 2024

You’ve been at your job for years, you know how to write code good enough to get you by comfortably, yet every now and then there’s a ticket, a tic...
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Kris Thom White

There’s also the “no matter which task I’m working on, I’m stressing thinking of the other 10 tasks I’m not working on” problem.

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Eshaan

Of course, THAT! The angst that comes with switching tasks and having a multi-threaded computer in your own brain definitely affects my productivity.

Even though I created To-do lists, if I don't sort that list by priority, I fall into the anxiety-trap of "did i finish that?"

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Samad Yar Khan

After 30mins of coding, I often find myself in on reddit. Engineering is a super challenging job at times, your brains finds ways to put in the least effort. This article is super helpful 🙌🙌🙌. Glad I am not the only one

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Johannes Millan

What helps me quite a lot every day is the to-do app I wrote:
github.com/johannesjo/super-produc...

It helps me to break down tasks into smaller bits and it helps me to stay focused. And if I'm struggling it helps me understand why this might be the case

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Hridoy Mozumder

This is awesome. Thank you for this awesome tool.

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Esteban Krauwezuk

I don't remember how I found your app, but I have been using it since I started working, 5 years ago. Thank you.

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salman

I wasn’t aware of this app before, but I’ve been searching for something like this for a long time. I’m genuinely shocked—I never imagined I’d find such a productive tool through a random blog post. Thank you so much for your effort in creating and sharing it here. The ideas and features you’ve built into the app are truly unique and impressive, and having both web and mobile versions is fantastic. It’s really a great initiative!

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Marc LP

Wow this is an excellent tool ! Great work!

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Amrin

Thanks for writing this.
Somedays I get bored and delay the task then I realize I just have to break the task into doable parts.
That way I convince myself to start the work and eventually finish it.
I point I am taking away from this article is "practice on monkey type start the flow"

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Eshaan • Edited

Exactly! We just feel uneasy about what we can't understand. Make them bite-sized and it's easy to consume.

And yes, monkey-type just worked like a charm for me. Hope it does for you too!

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Jayant Bhawal

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This is a GREAT damn gif for this section. 🤣

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RobertLassiter

This article applies to so many things in life, not just code development. It’s always nice to learn from the perspectives of others. Thank you.

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Eshaan

It feels amazing that I was able to speak the hearts out for so many developers, glad it helped!

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Eshaan

Thanks! Glad you found it relatable beyond just coding. Appreciate it!

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Ibrahim Bah

After diving deep into code for 30 minutes, I often find myself on Reddit. Engineering is a thrilling challenge, and sometimes our minds crave a break. This article has been a game-changer! It's comforting to know others experience the same!"

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Jayant Bhawal

We tend to use the foosball table at our office for that. I think moving away from the screen for a bit helps a lot!

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Stanley Awuzie

It was all about my intuition, I faced many challenges in a lot of ways, but in all I saw it as a process.
And it was hard to rely on anyone.
I just know it was something extraordinary. Thank to everyone that makes it possible.

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Sidali Assoul • Edited

Great article!
Totally can relate to opening monkeytype to hit my first 80 wpm in the day.
was doing that from a while got my typing speed increased from 45-50 to 80-85 wpm.

That really help to get in the mood, before starting any kind of work.

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Eshaan

Haha, great to know someone else also found monkeytype more than just game for developers!

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Jayant Bhawal

I'm not an early stage Dev anymore... So why does this still feel relatable? 😅😅

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Eshaan

We are humans before developers, haha!

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Suvesh K

I will read this blog tomorrow for sure👍

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Eshaan

Haha! Reminding you just in case.

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Michael Atolwa

This article has really explained a lot about what I've been experiencing on a project I'm working on. You're God- sent 🙌🙌🙌

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Eshaan

It feels amazing that I was able to speak the hearts out for so many developers, glad it helped!

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Kat

Great read, a good breakdown of a familiar issue and some great suggestions to tackle it! :)

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Eshaan

It's weirdly comforting to know that so many people share the same reality, glad to know you liked it!

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Gracious Kingsley

Straight and inspiring 💯

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Eshaan

Good to know it's reaching the right audience, thanks!

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Jam Straw

It's always good to learn from others' perspectives. This article applies to many aspects of life, not just code development. Thank you.

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Eshaan

Totally agreed, happy that you found it inspiring enough. Thanks!

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Mr. Mayank Arora

Keep writing, you are doing good.

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Eshaan

It feels good that people like you are appreciating this, thanks!

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Martin Baun

Great post! The only thing that has ever worked for me is to trick myself into doing the thing I need to do, haha :)

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Eshaan

It's okay to reward yourself for your tasks, we are wired that way! If your tasks don't provide you with enough rewarding feeling, manufacture them by eating a brownie, haha!

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Aqib Shakil

Amazing very useful🕺

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Eshaan

Glad to know that it helped!

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Mohammad Mahdi Bahrami

Hey bro! Cool & useful post. I'm gonna test it tomorrow when I go to work. Tnx

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Eshaan

Haha, glad to know!

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Shivam Chhuneja

I've recently jumped into ML and projects that are relatively code heavy and this fits spot on lol...a lot of things are like a rabbit hole in tech🤣

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Eshaan • Edited

Haha, glad you found it relatable! All the best for your endeavours!

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Ofek Shilon

Thank you for this.

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Eshaan

Glad you liked it!

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András Tóth

I am afraid to mention the elephant in the room, which is neurodiversity. I do believe that it is the rarity to be entirely neurotypical and be an excellent developer at the same time. The reason is the ability to hyperfocus: in this deep flow we are "one with the problem".

But it has terrible side-effects: hyperfocus is its own animal, it decides what to chase and not you. You can have many tricks to make it happen more often, like you can make a cat chase a fast moving object. But in reality, if you find something boring, tedious, then you can only rely on executive function.

Now in many spectrum disorders (autism, ADHD and friends) executive function is the weakest link. There are also emotional states that mimic attention problems, namely anxiety and depression. If you don't feel well, then, well... you will find yourself in one of these platforms, whom, by the way, make a ton of money from procrastinators and whom have many many years of work to tweak their algorithm to be very effective in prolonging time being spent there.

Therefore I highly suggest that getting familiar what the heck are the symptoms of anxiety, depression, autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder and so on. In case you have none of them you will still understand and appreciate many of your colleagues (like I finally understand the ex-colleague who could speak hours about his adventures in Shadow Warrior; not realizing that most of us have left the room).

Also I find it eery that much of the tricks and tips for performance seem to match exactly the tricks to overcome some effects of ADHD.

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Jayant Bhawal

Thank you to writing that. :)
There are MANY folks that have no idea they are neurodiverse simply because they live among people who haven't been exposed to the idea of neurodiversity.

Since you clearly seem aware and interested in this subject, perhaps you could share a link or write something about identifying certain common signs, or something like that.

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Vishal Yadav
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saint
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gotdamnski

i like to use the pomodoro technic. it's really help me to avoid procrastination

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Dev Advait

Well as i newbie dev, trying to learn, build and apply(for jobs), how the hell should i do it?
I learned a stack, but have no idea what to do after it.

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