Productivity
Sometimes I get distracted at work. I know it happens to everyone, but I want to find ways to maintain my productivity so that I can feel good about a hard days work.
There are a few things that I’ve noticed ruin my flow:
- When I wait for terminals to run commands, I switch to my personal desktop and start browsing
- I get distracted by something on the internet, then never go back to work
- When I don’t know what to do, I spend a ton of time deciding what to do
I’ll try and address each of these in small sections.
1. Terminal Commands
When I run a terraform plan or kick off a build, I turn to my personal desktop and start browsing. I think that we should have a different pattern here. Instead of getting distracted by moving stocks, my Amazon cart, or Hulu, I should do something work related that uses a totally different context.
If I expected a command to take less than 2 minutes, then just tail the logs and watch them fly by. If not, then we’ll do the following:
- Check email
- Check Slack
- Check Jira
- Read an engineering blog
As long as I’m not shopping, I think that this is a much better use of my time. When I worked in an office, I had the pressure of knowing someone could creep up behind me and find me looking at some random website. Since being WFH, I obviously don’t have that pressure anymore, and my productivity consequentially suffers.
2. Distractions
Small distractions for me can turn into a huge bitch for my productivity. A short walk with my dog turns into a longer walk, a trip to the bathroom becomes a bathroom cleaning session, and making a quick snack turns into a 2 course lunch. I think that I need to put a timer on my breaks, or I need to schedule them. A good break idea would be a timed walk with Iroh.
Don’t alt-tab. If I have Code open, then switch tabs, that starts the path to unproductivity. That really messes me up. I just need to keep the app that I’m working in open and in sight.
3. Decision Paralysis
“Hey Google, set a 15 minute timer.” needs to be my new favorite phrase. When I work on tasks, I can get caught thinking to myself about what to do. I’ll take a really long time to make a trivial decision. I think what I should do is set a timer. First, I’ll assess how big the decision I need to make is, then based on how big it is, set a timer and force myself to have a decision by the end of it.