You Got 10 Shots at Focus Work - How to Use Them All
As a developer, a lot of the success in daily work comes from the ability to do focused work.
Flow, zone, deep work or maker's schedule call it whatever you want. For me, focus means being able to work for 2-3 hours straight without interruptions.
Looking at a regular week, there are 10 such opportunities - 2 per day, divided by lunch.
What to do to gain focus
There's tons of advice on what to do to help you achieve focus.
- Pomorodo technique
- Focus apps
- Blocking focus time on the calendar
They are all great - but they are all about tactics.
More important is what NOT to do
This idea comes from the book Not Doing Lits by Alexander Bant. This book is all about not doing things and helping you find out which ones NOT TO DO.
How you spend your time is more important than how you spend your money. It's about mistakes that can be corrected vs. those that can't.
Here are some guiding questions that you can ask yourself on a daily/weekly basis in order to find what not to do - creating more opportunities for focused work.
1. Do I feel better now, having done that?
You can apply it to
- tasks
- meetings
- individual people
Some of these things recharge your energy and others drain it. Try to optimize for recharge and minimize drain.
2. Did it help me with my goals?
It can be your long-term goals or the bug you're currently working on.
The best is to get a clear yes or no answer.
- Yes? Keep doing it.
- No? Try everything you can to stop doing it.
If you are unsure what those goals are, dig deeper and address this. Get clarity first.
3. Did I take this meeting just to look busy?
Especially when working from home, I feel the threshold for accepting meetings got lower. It's an opportunity to see other people and also show up and show that you're there.
On the other hand, it's often an opportunity to try and multitask, leaving the meeting in the background.
It doesn't provide any value!
- You're not there listening,
- You're not there doing what you wanted fully.
Instead, rewatch the recording later (maybe at 2x speed) and get up to speed.
Not All Or Nothing
The above questions are just guidelines.
Trying out a new color scheme might recharge my energy but not bring me closer to my goals.
Decide what's currently the most important to you. Sometimes I just need that energy.
Do It Now
Pick your last meeting or task you spent time on in the last hour. Ask the questions above. Take it from there.
You already know what (NOT) to do.
That's all for this One on One. 1 tip at a time to Level Up as a developer.
See you again next week.
Whenever you're ready, I'd like to help you Level Up personally:
Cheers,
Ilya