How to get stuff done when your brain says no
I'm a very goal orientated person, and I have a lot of hobbies. Having an eight month old hasn't really changed much, except my beautiful daughter is basically the boss of me now. I still want to do some blacksmithing to make a carving hatchet so that I can carve a really great wooden spatula and use it while cooking a delicious meal to share with some friends. But now I have less time that is truly my own. This means I need to be smarter with how I use the limited time that I have for myself.
I've not figured this out completely, but I'm trying to get better. There are days where it seems to be so easy, and then there are days like today…
Today has been a day of distractions and interruptions. The strangest part is that I've been on my own in the house. I'll write a sentence here and there and then need to go back and edit something a few words back. Easy enough to fix, just use alt + left arrow to jump back word by word and then change it. Oh my alt key has stopped working. I'll need to stop everything and diagnose that. Hmm seems to be a problem with the keyboard I have plugged in. It's quite old now and it always bothers me that the sides of the keys are a bit grubby. I should go get something to clean that. NO! Focus! You need to go buy a new keyboard because the alt key doesn't work. Right? That's what I was doing wasn't it? I'm hungry. Or thirsty. Or just bored. Let's go to the kitchen. What was I doing again? Oh right, this blog on how to be productive…
A little theatrical, but the point is that I'm no expert on this. This is something that I can do well some days, and I'm trying to figure out how to do it well other days. Here's some things I've found that work for me:
Write a list
Sometimes it feels like you have a lot to do, but once you write it down on paper there's often not as much there as you thought there was in your mind. The simple act of writing it down seems to do make your brain a lot less cluttered and more focused. Spend as little time as possible here and move on to the next step.
Figure out which item on your list is the most important
There are various ways to determine importance, and it could be that you'll just know when you look at your list. These are some questions I use when trying to figure out if a task is important:
- Is there a deadline?
- Will it help me achieve one of the other items?
- Do I have the time/space/resources that I need to do this right now?
- Will I have the time/space/resources to do it later?
(The last two questions are particularly relevant for me when I'm thinking about baby unfriendly activities like hitting hot pieces of metal with a hammer)
It's also worth highlighting some quick wins here. If it will take about five minutes to complete, put a mark next to it.
Do it
Easier said than done sometimes. If you're finding it difficult to start, try doing one of the five minute tasks on your list to get a hit of endorphins from completing something.
Keep your list handy so you can add to it
On the days that you're not so laser focused, you'll probably have random tasks jumping into your head that you need to do. Simple solution is to just add them to the list and come back to them later.
Avoid external distractions
Put your phone on “do not disturb”. Turn off notifications for emails, instant messaging, social media. Lock your doors and barricade the windows. That may be going a bit far actually…
If you're afraid that you'll miss something important, there's a few things that you can do:
- Set your loved one(s) up as priority contacts on your phone so that if they need you they can still reach you even though you're on “do not disturb”
- Set a regular timer to take a quick break to check if there's any crucial messages. I've just started using a standing desk so I'm using a thirty minute timer to alternate between sitting and standing and I'll check if there's anything urgent then. Keep your list handy as you'll likely need to jot down some tasks to get back to later.
Be comfortable with “good enough”
Determining when something is done is one of the most difficult parts of many disciplines. As a software engineer I've had far too many discussions about what “done” means when it comes to a piece of work, to the point which the expression done-done has been introduced to make things even more confusing.
This could be a whole other topic to talk about, but simply put, you just need to ask the question “Will what I have done satisfy my initial goal?”
With that last point in mind, I think it's time for me to go look for a new keyboard…
Other stories about Working Practices:
5 simple tips to speed up your development environment
I'm pretty lazy, but lazy in a productive way, so I spend a little extra time and effort once so I can be lazy in the future.
7 reasons why video calls are so tiring and what to do about it.
Everyone feels it — be the one to do something about it.
How two babies and a toddler made me a better mentor.
You don't need to be an expert to be a mentor
Six things that will make you a better developer
Whether you're new to software engineering, or you've been doing it for years, these six things will make you better
Take your stand-up to the next level
Make your daily stand-up quicker and more efficient with this simple method
Richard Bell
Self taught software developer with 12 years experience excelling at JavaScript/Typescript, React, Node and AWS.
I love learning and teaching and have mentored several junior developers over my career. I find teaching is one of the best ways to solidify your own learning, so in the past few years I've been maintaining a technical blog where I write about some things that I've been learning.
I'm passionate about building a teams culture and processes to make it efficient and satisfying to work in. In many roles I have improved the quality and reliability of the code base by introducing or improving the continuous integration pipeline to include quality gates.