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8 Productivity hacks for Software Engineers

Published on July 23rd, 2019 By zooboole Published on July 23rd, 2019 By zooboole

One day I asked software developers in the slack group of DevCongress what they do to remain healthy. Of course, many answers came in and each one specific to every developer and their own experience. But my main concern that day wasn't just the health of the developer, but our longevity.

It takes a tremendous amount of time to become a software engineer, and it takes another huge amount of time to come up with solutions that can be viewed as viable or useful. In this new world, software engineers empower almost every single business and human life. We have become the engine fuel for modern life.

The life of a software engineer is precious and they deserve to live as long as possible, or at least, we need to come up with solutions that could help us do much more work even in a short period of a lifetime.

As far as increasing life span is concerned, I believe we just need to focus on living a healthy life by eating well and exercising. There is no math in that. Concerning the second option, a lot can be done. I have been experimenting in my own life and daily routines to find a great pattern that could help me be (more) productive.

It all started with very strong responsibility. Programming is hard and can be discouraging. If you don't have a very strong motivation for doing it, it will be almost impossible to keep up. My mantra for that is to think of the end, then we get moved to it.

I would like to share with you some of the things I do to remain active and motivated, and especially to be productive. Let's start:

1- Always get a good sleep

This is about good sleep, not enough sleep. A good sleep liberates and doesn't necessarily have to be long. Make your sleep happy any time it contacts you. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing. Besides, do not force to sleep when you are not sleepy, because this could make you more tired. I have also realized during my experiments that even five seconds of good sleep can give me the sensation of having slept for a whole day. After such good sleep moments, your brain seems to be rebooted and becomes empty, and quiet, hence increasing your productivity. Establish a sleeping cycle and never break it, because it would affect your other schedules in a fractal.

2- Find your joy points(stimulus)

Remember I mentioned above that you need to be motivated to keep up. Well, finding your joy points can help you a lot. Joy points are moments or events that provide you with a smooth and peaceful inner joy. Some people would call it excitement. You need to find what excites you. But, be careful here, this excitement shouldn't be coming from drugs or any chemicals whatsoever. I even discourage those things, and the reason is simply that, they will overexcite you which will prevent you from thinking right, and they consume a huge amount of energy in you that when you come back to the normal you are already broken down.

In my personal experience, listening to a piece of music, or even thinking of an interesting project I am going to work on, or looking how a few people enjoy my work, motivates me so much and defies any type of laziness. Sometimes thinking of you my readers, who are out there expecting to read from me, motivates me a considerably. Those cases are some of my joy points. Yours could be a job, a girl, a dream to travel, financial satisfaction, or thinking of another developer, etc. You just need to learn how to notice them.

3 - Find the right doses of your moods

While this one is very subtle, it makes perfect sense that you need to control the dosages of your moods. When I mentioned joy above, it's not all joys that could be productive. Remember I rejected the drugs because they overexcite. We need a contained mood. The same way, a sad day or moment could become a good productive time. An insult, denigration, termination of a contract, lack of money, or even losing a loved one can take you to a state of full mindfulness and consciousness. These moments are so good to work in. Nothing outside could disturb your attention.

The idea is to have full control of the mood while it's the only feeling that drives you at that moment.

4 - Find or build the right environment

We are talking of focus. You would agree with me that your environment is so important in determining the right mood to work. Right now I am pretty sure that you might be thinking of the office space only or even the household. Yes, these are the basic geographical positions we need. But, other elements partaking in the determination of a good environment for a software developer are:

Food: Can you easily reach food without losing focus or deploying an important amount of energy and time. Does the food offer you great taste and pleasure? What about snacks? Do you have them from time to time?

Naps: Are you allowed to doze quickly or get some naps from time to time. Remember the first point - get a good sleep and sleep when you need. If you resist you will mess your brain and consequently your day. Sleeping only once in a day is not good. The length doesn't matter much, but the quality.

Urinate: Can you easily go to the small corner and ease yourself? You need to go there at any moment you feel like going. Do not hold it. plus, every time you are there, you meet a very quiet and "private" moment. It can very refreshing too from time to time and allow you to smash those crazy bugs.

Colleagues: Are they like you? Or at least, do they understand you? When they understand all those nuances of your work, it's easy for them to know when you can chat or not and when to leave you alone.

etc

5 - Music

Well, we can't omit this for anything in the world. Music is our first class on the journey. Apart from its sauce of motivation, it can be a good tool of isolation in a vociferous place. In an environment where you have no control over your colleagues or the surrounding noise, you could just increase your volume and eliminate the outside world. Use noisy music in a noisy environment, and calm music in cool places.

While this works in most cases, it's not appropriate in certain situations. In the night, for example, I have realized that calm music and a very low volume are useful. It makes the music anonymous, which means you are not too connected to it and it only assists you from afar. In those moments you could even avoid using the headsets. Do not let it interfere with your thoughts.

6 - Right equipment

Obvious. You need a healthy set. Good batteries, some SOS power banks, good headsets, good Android or/and iProducts, good Internet connection, etc. Good equipment kills stress and makes you respond promptly. The advantages of good equipment are uncountable.

7 - Body Fitness & Health

In general, everyone (seems) to know what is healthy for them. Nonetheless, take some time from now to observe how your lifestyle affects your moods. Find out what foods make you sleep well or a lot. What foods make you diggest well or not. What are the ones making you go to the toilet most often and how easy is it once there. Also take into consideration that what you eat is what you are, because it takes about thirty-five days for the food you eat to become part of your blood.

In addition to good alimentation, start doing some physical activities to keep your body strong. When you are usually seated, with fewer body activities, your muscles and body joints loosen weakening your entire body architecture. Then you start to feel more fatigues even with a little work. Your back start to bend easily causing a bad blood flow in your body. And bad blood flow is the source of most headaches and cramps. At that moment you start to realize that there is something wrong and you need to do something about it. You decide to do some workouts but to find out that you feel lazy to do it. Right, that's the immediate consequence of bad body structure: laziness. Chinese Monks have these saying "Hard Is Dead". Check around the world. When most things die, they become hard. And the inverse is also valid. So, you need to fight laziness and break the phenomena. Yeah! I am not a doctor. Consult the right doctor to make sure of things.

8 - A good timetable

To conclude the whole thing establish yourself a wonderful time table to which you are "also" faithful. Define at what time your day starts and when it ends. Avoid missing those moments. Especially early in the morning and in the evening. FOr example, I write in the morning between 5:10 AM and 7:00 AM. It's a moment I need full focus to make sure what I write is not influenced by external noises. After writing I will eat a bit and try to get some sleep for about thirty minutes. When I wake up I regain some freshness, then I can move to my clients' work. I have those routines set which I follow every day. In the end, you will notice that ou work a lot even in a short period.

Bottom Line

I am not a professional nutritionist nor I am a doctor. What I mentioned here are based on my personal experience of my own body and life. Find your own habits and practices that fit most of your challenges and lifestyle.

I believe my own experience could serve you as a guide or a proof that there are a few people out there just like you looking for a good pattern to follow to be productive.

Good programming. Like, share, and comment with your opinion.