Personal productivity (only proven approaches)
Good day, dear Habrayuzver. I'll be brief. Some metrics: over the past three years I have increased my income 10 times and have not turned into a wild workaholic, but rather, on the contrary, I began to travel more; at the same time, the number of projects that I successfully started and brought to the end has tripled - I’m not talking about purely working projects, maybe you are familiar with my Java courses , which I successfully continue to develop during off-hours. The key to all this consists of three parts:
In this post I will touch on the first aspect (the most key aspect). No abstract theory, only personal cases that I have accumulated over the years and run in my own skin, and most importantly all for free, without SMS and registration, on Megamind. If you like the article, then I will write about other aspects.
TLDR:
Many are obsessed in our time on time management, but in fact, not time is a critical resource, but its quality. Every hour of your productivity is different, in the theory of time management it turns out that if you don’t sleep at all, you will have a lot of time to keep up, which is itself far from reality. The quality of your time is the most important resource. The quality of time can be raised artificially (for example, by drinking coffee), but it works for short periods and is fraught with a deterioration in its quality in the long term.
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Coffee (or other stimulants) can be used only if the body has the strength for the desired level of efficiency, but has not yet entered the desired working rhythm. For example, early in the morning after 8 hours of sleep, when you still feel sleepy, but you need to get to work and the body is ready.
I sleep in the office during lunch and / or every time my efficiency drops below a certain level. If the office does not have this place, I lean on the table or look for a “quiet” room in which I simply lay down on the floor =).
After the second active segment (usually after the end of the working day) I sleep in transport. After sleep, it is very important to go to the gym to invigorate before the third final stretch. Without sport in the evening, you will be a “vegetable”, not capable of making a single useful movement except for the effort spent on what is vital: cleaning / children / etc. Only by bringing the body to tone you will have the third stage of evening work.
TLDR:
Each “quantum” can have its own, but almost everyone has 25 minutes. At these 25 minutes of time, the focus should remain on only one task. At the same time, you should always have a list of non-working projects of interest to you that can distract your brain at the time of procrastination. Read the article about the new Kubernetes, play around with AWS ECS, or what's interesting for you ... it's all much better than scrolling through Twitter, browsing the news on the site, searching for new interesting publications.
Abstract tasks without exhaust need to be left for breaks between quanta, in which I would recommend walking around the office, with the phone in hand and reading the habr tape =)
By myself I notice that it helps to work very easy discomfort. No, it’s not like being hit with a hammer, but still light. To get this effect, I started working while standing up, and just recently started using FluidStance (as Burntfaceman correctly noted: “I recommend to get acquainted with balance boards, it doesn’t matter which brand”).
To measure quanta any pomodoro timer will do. I would recommend to get a smart watch and put the timer directly on them, plus be able to switch the phone to “do not disturb” mode before turning on the timer.
What is Pomodoro technique? It boils down to the fact that you need to focus for 25 minutes and do one task. And in fact - no matter what. For 25 minutes you turn on pomodoro, choose a task for 25 minutes. Even if you are lazy and you want to read the news, okay, 25 minutes you read the news. Just reading - you forbid yourself to change activities, jump from one activity to another. After that you should have a short break, 5-10 minutes. I usually take a 5 minute break. I have 5-6 quanta before lunch and 6-8 such quanta after lunch.
TLDR:
During the quantum you have to WORK! That means All your projects should be with clear objectives and their priorities. There should not be two projects with priority # 1. However, if the current task in project # 1 is paused, then you switch to project # 2, but not otherwise.
The task should not imply thinking out! For example, “Answer Vasya Pupkin” can be a very bad task if the “answer” requires a lot of work. If there is even the slightest chance that a task can be delayed - make it a project with one task to start with: “Re-read the request from Vasya and write out the questions to which I need to answer in the document”, “Based on the document, create further tasks”.
After these tasks are completed, the project can grow into new tasks, for example: “Find out when you finish the module M”, “Unsubscribe from the results of module M”, “Find out who can help Vasya at the moment and give him contacts” ...
It is necessary to think only at the time of decision making on projects and tasks. At the moment of a quantum, if you have driven yourself into a corner, then you spend a quantum of time on making a decision instead of productive work. This is the result of poor planning! Plan better =) For all this, I recommend using OmniFocus2 or Things.
Imagine that you have amnesia and, as soon as you switch the context, you immediately forget what was happening on the current project (with the current task). This is the way to work on any task. I remember the wonderful film Memento, if someone has not seen, I recommend to watch.
At the beginning of each day, review the upcoming day; set the tasks for the day to be completed. If it so happens that at the input there are more tasks than quanta, transfer tasks to other days. Recycling can be allowed only in rare cases, otherwise productivity decreases within each quantum (work slows down).
At the end of each day, analyze the past day. Answer the questions: what is done and what is not. If you need to notify someone that the task is not completed, do it.
If we consider time from the point of view of investing it, then you have personal time of a certain quality. This quality can be suitable for monotonous work or for active mental activity. The task of “todo” sheets is to collect for you different types of tasks in which you could invest your time. For example, you want to do a monotonous task now and in the “todo” sheet there should be a task that suits you for this type of time. Solve it right now and as a result the task will advance the project 20% ahead. If this project is not there, then you may feel that you are wasting time.
In this way I manage my time and its quality. For each person, the elements of the scheme may differ, but the general essence will remain the same. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, but the most necessary. It is also important how you prioritize tasks and which tasks fall into the list, and which ones are deleted forever. That is what distinguishes those who complete critical projects and those who do not complete their projects; those who are constantly growing above themselves and are learning something new and those who remain in the quagmire of similar tasks. We will talk about this another time, as this is a story about self-organization at a different level.
PS: at the time of writing this article , a podcast was just released , about what things, in my opinion, young developers should pay attention to in order to become successful in their work.
- effective time quality management;
- effective resource and project management;
- effective and continuous self-study.
In this post I will touch on the first aspect (the most key aspect). No abstract theory, only personal cases that I have accumulated over the years and run in my own skin, and most importantly all for free, without SMS and registration, on Megamind. If you like the article, then I will write about other aspects.
"Sweet dream, soul captor ..."
TLDR:
- Sleep at least 8 hours a day;
- Divide the day into three sections of 4-5 hours each (preferably 4-5-4);
- After each segment, sleep for at least 20-30 minutes;
- After the second stretch, run for 20 minutes;
- On weekends, if you are tired of the regime, spend time as you like;
Many are obsessed in our time on time management, but in fact, not time is a critical resource, but its quality. Every hour of your productivity is different, in the theory of time management it turns out that if you don’t sleep at all, you will have a lot of time to keep up, which is itself far from reality. The quality of your time is the most important resource. The quality of time can be raised artificially (for example, by drinking coffee), but it works for short periods and is fraught with a deterioration in its quality in the long term.
')
Coffee (or other stimulants) can be used only if the body has the strength for the desired level of efficiency, but has not yet entered the desired working rhythm. For example, early in the morning after 8 hours of sleep, when you still feel sleepy, but you need to get to work and the body is ready.
I sleep in the office during lunch and / or every time my efficiency drops below a certain level. If the office does not have this place, I lean on the table or look for a “quiet” room in which I simply lay down on the floor =).
After the second active segment (usually after the end of the working day) I sleep in transport. After sleep, it is very important to go to the gym to invigorate before the third final stretch. Without sport in the evening, you will be a “vegetable”, not capable of making a single useful movement except for the effort spent on what is vital: cleaning / children / etc. Only by bringing the body to tone you will have the third stage of evening work.
"Why do today what can be postponed until tomorrow?"
TLDR:
- Break the 4-5 hour working period into "quanta" for 25-30 minutes;
- After each quantum break for 5 minutes;
- Each time slice stay focused on one task;
- If you want to prograstirovat - have a list of tasks that will entice you to the "quantum" and benefit;
Each “quantum” can have its own, but almost everyone has 25 minutes. At these 25 minutes of time, the focus should remain on only one task. At the same time, you should always have a list of non-working projects of interest to you that can distract your brain at the time of procrastination. Read the article about the new Kubernetes, play around with AWS ECS, or what's interesting for you ... it's all much better than scrolling through Twitter, browsing the news on the site, searching for new interesting publications.
Abstract tasks without exhaust need to be left for breaks between quanta, in which I would recommend walking around the office, with the phone in hand and reading the habr tape =)
By myself I notice that it helps to work very easy discomfort. No, it’s not like being hit with a hammer, but still light. To get this effect, I started working while standing up, and just recently started using FluidStance (as Burntfaceman correctly noted: “I recommend to get acquainted with balance boards, it doesn’t matter which brand”).
To measure quanta any pomodoro timer will do. I would recommend to get a smart watch and put the timer directly on them, plus be able to switch the phone to “do not disturb” mode before turning on the timer.
What is Pomodoro technique? It boils down to the fact that you need to focus for 25 minutes and do one task. And in fact - no matter what. For 25 minutes you turn on pomodoro, choose a task for 25 minutes. Even if you are lazy and you want to read the news, okay, 25 minutes you read the news. Just reading - you forbid yourself to change activities, jump from one activity to another. After that you should have a short break, 5-10 minutes. I usually take a 5 minute break. I have 5-6 quanta before lunch and 6-8 such quanta after lunch.
“Announce the entire list, please.”
TLDR:
- All long-term tasks should be broken down into projects (or at least include one project);
- A project always has a SMART goal;
- The project includes at least one short-term task, which is painted so clearly that you can take it and not hesitate to start performing;
- The short-term task should be feasible at one time quantum maximum;
- If during the quantum any external stimulus appears, it should be described as a task and sent to the incoming ones;
During the quantum you have to WORK! That means All your projects should be with clear objectives and their priorities. There should not be two projects with priority # 1. However, if the current task in project # 1 is paused, then you switch to project # 2, but not otherwise.
The task should not imply thinking out! For example, “Answer Vasya Pupkin” can be a very bad task if the “answer” requires a lot of work. If there is even the slightest chance that a task can be delayed - make it a project with one task to start with: “Re-read the request from Vasya and write out the questions to which I need to answer in the document”, “Based on the document, create further tasks”.
After these tasks are completed, the project can grow into new tasks, for example: “Find out when you finish the module M”, “Unsubscribe from the results of module M”, “Find out who can help Vasya at the moment and give him contacts” ...
It is necessary to think only at the time of decision making on projects and tasks. At the moment of a quantum, if you have driven yourself into a corner, then you spend a quantum of time on making a decision instead of productive work. This is the result of poor planning! Plan better =) For all this, I recommend using OmniFocus2 or Things.
Imagine that you have amnesia and, as soon as you switch the context, you immediately forget what was happening on the current project (with the current task). This is the way to work on any task. I remember the wonderful film Memento, if someone has not seen, I recommend to watch.
At the beginning of each day, review the upcoming day; set the tasks for the day to be completed. If it so happens that at the input there are more tasks than quanta, transfer tasks to other days. Recycling can be allowed only in rare cases, otherwise productivity decreases within each quantum (work slows down).
At the end of each day, analyze the past day. Answer the questions: what is done and what is not. If you need to notify someone that the task is not completed, do it.
If we consider time from the point of view of investing it, then you have personal time of a certain quality. This quality can be suitable for monotonous work or for active mental activity. The task of “todo” sheets is to collect for you different types of tasks in which you could invest your time. For example, you want to do a monotonous task now and in the “todo” sheet there should be a task that suits you for this type of time. Solve it right now and as a result the task will advance the project 20% ahead. If this project is not there, then you may feel that you are wasting time.
Afterword
In this way I manage my time and its quality. For each person, the elements of the scheme may differ, but the general essence will remain the same. And this is only the tip of the iceberg, but the most necessary. It is also important how you prioritize tasks and which tasks fall into the list, and which ones are deleted forever. That is what distinguishes those who complete critical projects and those who do not complete their projects; those who are constantly growing above themselves and are learning something new and those who remain in the quagmire of similar tasks. We will talk about this another time, as this is a story about self-organization at a different level.
PS: at the time of writing this article , a podcast was just released , about what things, in my opinion, young developers should pay attention to in order to become successful in their work.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299844/
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