Let’s face it, software development is a hard enough game just in terms of writing good code. We have a number of enemies that can affect our output. If you want to increase your productivity, you need to look at the problem area first. I’ve broken down my content into the following areas to get you off to a quick start.
Increase your output by improving focus.
The quickest way to increase your productivity straight away. It doesn’t require as much upfront thinking.
- If you’re interested in understanding why we procrastinate, look no further.
- If you’d like to avoid the perils of context switching then you should at least understand the pomodoro technique. Lifehacker will do for this simple heads up.
- An article on how you can use your scripting skills and CI tools like Bamboo to automate away some of these perils.
- If you use Slack, I think a simple technique using just a text file will help you a lot.
- An article I did on productivity and energy levels here.
Gatekeeping lets you do more.
If you want to protect your time, avoid meetings that disrupt your flow. With so many of us working remotely, leverage the ability to record meetings for huge gains.
Have a productivity system.
- If you wonder why you might need one, check out some advantages here.
- If you are wondering more about GTD (a specific productivity system) you can read a bit about why it will help developers and also get an understanding of how GTD works at a high level.
- If you want to know how to incorporate GTD into your sprint, that’s here.
- Finally, I have released an audio course on Listenable that gives you heaps of tips and strategies, don’t forget your discount code of “jamesbowen” for 30% off.
Estimating lets you see how you over-commit.
If you can plan better, than you can avoid nasty surprises that over commit you. It’s never perfect but here’s an example of using the Pomodoro technique to give you an estimated vs actual view of your day.
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