Hi, I’m a junior developer. Since I started as a developer, I used to spend a lot of time finding the best way to manage my time to increase my performance because one of my main objectives is to try to be a proficient developer and have a good life-work balance.
Which methodology?
When I started to look for productivity methodologies, Pomodoro was one of the first ones to rise to the top of the list. However, it is not the best method for developers, and one of the foremost reasons is that the mind of the developer works differently than others. Pomodoro establishes that a person can’t spend more than 30 minutes of full focus on one specific task. When we are working on something, we cannot just stop working because we are problem solvers, so we don't stop until we finish, so we are in the process of thinking of solutions, and breaking that flow can't directly affect our results.
Working by periods works, but the time is defined by ourselves, and we have to identify when we are stuck on something and, at that moment, we have to take a break and do something different: take a walk, go for coffee, or just go to the couch and rest for a moment, then go back to work.
This method allows us to work efficiently instead of being stuck at the computer all day on one thing that can be solved in a couple of hours.
Which tools?
Nowadays, we have a lot of tools that we can choose from, and I tried a lot of them, and it's easy to overload ourselves by using multiple apps at the same time just because we think that helps us have better productivity. Certainly, there is a fact that I learned after overloading myself by using a lot of apps at the same time, and that fact is that keeping everything simple leads to better productivity.
Therefore, to keep everything simple, I currently just use two apps: Google Calendar and Notion.
Block time
One of the first things that I do is block time instead of having a long list of to-do’s, so I use Google Calendar to block times to have an overview of what I have to do in a day. I don’t include work tasks on my personal calendar because I have the calendar they provide me, so I just block the working hours, and when I’m working, I just open the work calendar where I have the meetings and a list of to-do’s.
On my personal calendar, I include just all that concerns my personal life, so I add routine tasks like sleep time, wake-up time, feeding time, etc. I also add recurrent tasks, like payments or things that I do every month. I also have a to-do list, for which I use Google Tasks, which is included in Google Calendar. On this list, I have a list of things that don't need a schedule date, but when I know that I’m going to do that task, I just drag and drop it on the calendar.
All of this give me have time for every thing and separate work and life is a key to not overload of work so on my calendar just have all time spaces and having a list of to-do give me a reminder list and not forget anything that I have to do and separate the work with my personal life.
Avoid distractions
All this blocking time doesn’t work if we don’t have self-discipline, avoid distractions when we are focused on some task, unless we are stuck; otherwise, it will interfere with whatever work we are doing. I use my phone's features to block social media apps during work hours, unless I require a break.
I remove social media apps from my phone's main screen to avoid being tempted to open them alongside work apps when I have free time to clear off any work overload and always be fresh during working hours.
Our brain creates ideas instead of save it
All my time schedule is on a calendar but all of us we have more than tasks to do there are dreams and projects that we want to achieve, so there is a place that I use to keep all my ideas and goals, That place is notion, the place that I'm using to write this post. With this app, I create a space to keep my ideas on it, so on this place are my short and long term goals, habits that need to change or create new ones.
Besides dreams and goals, I use this app to keep notes of new things that I'm learning, meeting notes for work, a diary, etc. This tool helps us store everything that is on our minds, even the shopping list.
Conclusion
Blocking time and having a list of things to do give me focus on work and my personal life, giving me the freedom to take advantage of focused time on work and do my work efficiently without overloading myself. Everyone works differently, so what is your productivity system?
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