Photo by Jon Tyson

Welcome.

This is where to get started improving your productivity in writing software. It’s the first of four pages explaining how and why this method works.

1. Start Here (this page)

2. Development

3. Operations

4. Why? (coming soon)

What is It?

You can think of the Productive Coder Method as just these two statements:

1. You need to find what works for you. (Development.)

2. You need to do it. (Operations.)

It really isn’t important what worked for the author of the latest productivity book. What is important is what helps YOU be more productive NOW. I can’t give you answers beyond universal things like “get enough sleep”, but I can give you the process to figure out what will make you more productive. This is sort of like developing software. First, you need to understand the requirements and the approach to solve the problem.

Once you discover the techniques to become more productive comes the hard part: you need to use them. Think of this like ongoing operations. You need to keep on top of your running system, monitor, fix bugs, and perform maintenance.

Think of this as a simplified DevOps loop. At any one time, you’re either finding and improving your tactics or making sure they are being used the right way.

This is simpler than many of the DevOps or agile process loops you’ve seen. This simplicity is necessary because a simple system will take less of your time and will be easier to jump back in if you ever get off track. Also, it’s good to keep in mind that this is a never-ending process of improvement.

Next:

Photo by 2H Media

Operations is the second of two pillars of our system. The first pillar, Development, describes how we find the tactics that help us be more productive. Operations is how we ensure the tactics are used consistently to get real work done.

The key concepts we use to ensure we do what works are the following:

• Periodization: define the cycles (including nested cycles).

• Plan before each cycle

• Review after each cycle

• Check in as necessary

• Fitting yourself to your current task

• Developing awareness

Periodization

Starting with the USSR’s first Olympic appearance in 1952, international sport became a proxy for the Cold War. Like the space race, sports became a way for the superpowers (the USA and the USSR) to compete without resorting to global war. Winning Olympic medals was essential and the Eastern Bloc nations developed extensive state-sponsored sports training systems.

One key training methodology from this era that I learned when I started training for mountain biking was periodization. It’s a lot more than cycles within cycles, but that was one of the concepts that stayed with me long after I stopped training.

What are the periods of time that apply to writing code?

• Lifetime or career

• Year

• Project

• Season

• Month

• Week

• Day

• Session or pomodoro (usually 30 minutes to 2 hours)

Here are the day and session cycles of a potential week. You don’t have to have five sessions a day. You probably wouldn’t even plan them out in advance. Be flexible.

In addition to the sessions named above, there’s also the unstated time frame of now, which is the only time over which you have real control. We’ll consider more about that when we explore awareness.

Plan and Review

Plan and review for each cycle? That sounds like the opposite of an agile process, doesn’t it? Let me make my case.

Let’s look at two of the four values in the Agile Manifesto. The first states:

“Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.”

A later value says:

“Responding to change over following a plan.”

The manifesto specifically states there is value to plans, processes, and tools, but there is more value to the first part of each statement. Clearly if we care about planning and reviewing, that doesn’t make us anti-agile. As always, you should test your approach to planning. If it doesn’t work, find something better.

My belief is that we should try to get the benefits of planning and process, but we need to make it as lightweight as possible. Humans are very good at adding process and ceremony and you must strongly resist that urge.

Planning One Day

I believe that you almost certainly should have a written or digital plan for the day. Having a plan written down removes some of the cognitive load of tracking your priorities. This frees up your mind to focus on your work and creativity.

In the Development section, you may have identified a tactic you wish to trial. You’ll probably want to record a few notes at the beginning and end of the day to decide if this is a good tactic for you.

To get started, here’s a reasonable set of questions. You can change the list as you become more comfortable with the process. I’ve included an optional space for recording notes on any tactic you’re testing.

Planning Questions

Answer these questions at the beginning of each day.

1. What is the one thing that would make today a win?

2. What might get in my way, and how will I handle it?

3. What do I need to record for any tactic I’m testing? (Optional)

Review Questions

Answer these questions at the end of each day.

1. Did I complete my win? If not, what happened?

2. What’s my priority for tomorrow?

3. What will I do differently tomorrow based on today?

4. What results do I need to record for any tactic I’m testing? (Optional)

A solid day plan/review usually hits four things: priorities, constraints, state (energy/attention), and learning. This list covers these areas and should only take a few minutes out of your day.

Don’t make this too time-consuming. Keep a template in a markdown document, or just some predefined squares in a journal where you can jot a few notes.

I like to keep a record of my daily reviews, so that I can look over them at the end of the week. It’s then you’ll start seeing patterns emerge.

When you’re ready to try some different planning questions, I’ll be sharing a list, or you can think up some of your own.

Planning a Session or Pomodoro

Do you have to write out a plan for every little thing you do? I don’t recommend it. For a quick 30-minute pomodoro, a quick mental plan and review should be enough. To make sure you do the mental plan and review, try writing a letter “P” and a letter “R”, or just check marks.

Since you may be doing this several times a day, keep the question dead simple and spend only a few seconds on the process.

To start a session, ask: “What am I planning to do and is there anything that might get in my way?”. This is really just to focus your attention on the work.

At the end of the session, ask: “How did it go?”. That should be it unless you identify something to keep in mind for next time. If anything comes up, write a quick reminder.

Planning and Reviewing Longer Periods

For the longer time periods, you should take time to make similar plans at the start and reviews at the end. It depends on your work, but for a week you should have a good idea of what you need to get done. For longer periods like a year, you might focus more on education and professional development goals.

Checking In

Anyone can get distracted or go off course in the middle of doing something. It’s a stereotype that older people will walk to another room and forget what they came for. I’ve been doing that since I was a kid. A habit of checking in can be very valuable especially if you’re one of us who is easily distracted.

Mid-session Check-ins

Some days you’ll find yourself “in the zone”, or in a flow state where you have perfect focus and you complete one task after another. If this is what every day is like for you, congratulations. Stop reading and go do some work. For everyone else, developing greater awareness will help you get into a flow state and recognize more quickly when something is distracting you.

We’ll explore other ways to increase this awareness, but the most straightforward is to schedule check-ins during each time period. For example, if you’ve blocked off two hours to work on a problem, you can plan to check in a couple of times to confirm that you’re still on track. Just make a quick mental check asking, “How’s it going?”

Throughout longer time periods you should check in as well. For example, you should check in a few times during a week to confirm that you are on track for that period. It’s only once you’ve become aware that you can take corrective action.

Fitting the Task to You

We usually don’t feel the same day after day. You likely have different levels of energy, focus, and motivation, not to mention physical feelings like pain, stiffness, or fatigue. You probably notice things change throughout the day. The after-lunch slump is all too familiar for me.

Consider how you feel at the moment and what the next task will demand of you. Some tasks, say designing the architecture of some component using an unfamiliar library, will require deep focus. Others might be more automatic. Try to be aware of how you feel and choose a task that fits your mental and physical state. Learn whether you can do your most intense work in the morning, or if you are sharpest later on after you’ve warmed up your brain.

Fitting Yourself to the Task

You don’t always get a choice on what to do next. If a tricky bug is discovered this morning that’s breaking production, you can’t say, “I’m more of an afternoon person.” You have to find and fix the bug.

When your mind and body aren’t aligning with the work you need to do, you need some help. Fortunately, in the Development phase you’ve discovered a bunch of tactics through your personal experimentation. These will help you to do the work now, rather than when you feel up to it later.

Power Level and Loadout

Think of it like a video game. You have a power level that measures your readiness for a task. Think of a fighting game where you have a health bar at the top showing your remaining hit points. Instead of hit points, it’s energy or focus you need to do the job.

(AI-generated image)

Your power level may vary, but fortunately you can change your loadout. Like a video game where you need special armour for a mission, you can choose the best tactics to help you with your current work.

When we explored tactics earlier you might have been thinking, “great, I’ll do these all the time and be super good.” It can actually be exhausting to do all these habits all the time. Some things you might always do (like sleep), but you’ll probably find it better to become aware of what you need in the current situation and do just that.

Awareness

As you actively work to assess your current state, you’ll begin to develop awareness. You’ll spend less time zoned out, and will better know what you need or don’t need at any time. In essence, this is mindfulness.

“Mindfulness means to remember to observe how mind’s attention moves from one thing to another.”

- Bhante Vimalaramsi

This is the best definition I’ve seen of mindfulness. This doesn’t mean you have to study meditation, although meditation is one of the tactics I recommend experimenting with.

By experimenting and discovering tactics, monitoring, and checking in regularly you’ll develop many of the same skills as meditation.

Also note that when I discuss meditation, I’m sticking only to developing skills of attention and awareness. Different meditation traditions may also incorporate aspects of philosophy, spirituality, or religion. That part is up to you to navigate.

Combining Development and Operations

This article mentions the Development phase frequently. Both the pillars, Development and Operations, are closely integrated.

The tactics you refine in the Development phase aren’t useful unless you use them in the Operations phase. Some of the tactics you test in Development may even be primarily Operations-focused. Done right, it will be a cycle where one phase strengthens the other.

Photo by Louis Reed

Definition – A tactic is a repeatable method you apply to improve your productivity.

You want to be productive, but how do you know what works for you? You’ve been running experiments all your life.

“The glowing red thing looks really interesting, I wonder what it feels like?” And so you learned not to touch the hot stove.

To become a more productive coder, we’re going to run some more intentional (and less dangerous) experiments.

1. Choose one tactic to test.

2. Run a trial and record the results. Test with real work.

3. Evaluate the data.

4. Decide: keep/eliminate/modify.

5. Repeat.

Let’s look at these in a little more detail:

Choose One Tactic

You should choose one tactic so that you know for sure what is affecting your performance. If you tried two tactics at once, you wouldn’t know which makes you more productive.

Tips:

• Isolate the tactic—choose only one thing to test at a time.

• Keep the rest of your work as consistent as possible.

Run a Trial

Decide on two things at the beginning of your trial: how long you’ll test your tactic and what data you’ll record.

The duration depends on the tactic. With some things like a note taking technique, you should be able to figure out in a week or two whether it works for you. Others, for example nutrition or supplements, will take longer for you to be sure. You can always cut it short if the results are clear or even extend the time if you’re not sure yet how well a tactic is working.

Tracking Data

The data you record is categorized as qualitative (descriptive/feeling) or quantitative (numerical).

You should focus mainly on qualitative data and maybe some simple quantitative data when you start. Qualitative data is more subjective, but it’s quicker to track. Your trial needs to be as lightweight as possible, or you risk slowing yourself down. Don’t make the tracking so time-consuming that it becomes a burden.

To record the data, the simplest method is to make a note for each work period. If you sit down for an hour to work on a task, take a quick measurement of how you feel going in and coming out of the hour. It can be a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, a numerical rating, or a few words. Do the same for longer periods like your day and your week.

There’s no need for a spreadsheet tracking detailed data, but if that works for you, go right ahead. I know someone who once kept a spreadsheet logging the tastiness of different combinations of sugar, milk, and cream in their coffee. By cross-referencing with the nutritional data for each combination, they found the optimal beverage.

Evaluate the Data

I usually find that just reading over the data gives me a good idea if a tactic works. Maybe I’ll calculate a mean value if I’m recording numerical data. If this is not enough, be my guest to script up a detailed statistical analysis with Python.

NOTE: As far as getting more advanced in analyzing the data, I haven’t tried using AI. I’m curious whether this can provide better insights without taking a lot of time.

You don’t need to wait until the last day of your trial to read over the data. You may see some patterns emerge before you reach the end.

The key thing is to get an answer quickly so that you can adopt the tactics that work. Iterate on a new tactic or try a variation on a previous one. You won’t be perfect, but you’ll explore more combinations to find what works for you more quickly.

Decide: Keep, Reject, or Modify

In most cases, it should be clear fairly quickly whether you should adopt a new tactic or not. When deciding, do a simple cost-benefit analysis. Is there a benefit and is the required effort worth it for what you gain?

Some tactics may provide a benefit, but are too time consuming to be a net positive. Some may be just too inconvenient or impractical. Maybe you saw a benefit to standing on your head once an hour, but you feel silly in an open-concept office, not to mention that it is impractical when wearing in certain outfits.

When there’s not a clear keep or reject signal, take a moment to think whether you can modify the tactic to increase the benefit or reduce the cost. In that case, try modifying the trial and do it again.

For example, your coworker insists a creatine supplement provides a mental boost. (There actually is some evidence supporting this.) You try creatine, but don’t notice any improvement. You could modify your trial by trying a larger dose, or maybe extending the trial to see if it takes longer to have an effect.

Repeat

This is an essential step. If you run one trial and find a productivity boost that’s great, but on its own it may not make a big difference. It’s when you combine and stack these tactics that you’ll see real gains.

It’s a little like compound interest where you make maybe 5 or 10% each year. That isn’t a lot, but over time it stacks and builds on itself.

With this compounding mindset, pick a new tactic to try and begin a new trial as soon as possible. As your process evolves, you might find that certain old tactics no longer serve you. You can run a trial to see if eliminating a tactic improves things for you.

Adopt this mindset of continuous improvement and you will find the mix of tactics that works for you.

Next:

Data centre in the Netherlands

Like many others, I’ve been frustrated when I find low-quality results obviously generated by AI. Cloudflare has warned that AI-generated content could outpace human-generated content by 1,000 times in 5 years. I have no intention to add to that.

I do, however, use AI as a research tool—more of an expanded web search rather than generating the text you read. Occasionally, I’ll ask an AI chat to proofread something I’ve written for consistency, but never to rewrite it.

Let me make this official:

• Anything you read here was personally written by me.

• I have used the em dash for decades before generative AI and will continue to use it. You can confirm some of my writing history yourself, if you search a little.

• Same goes for the Oxford comma.

• I won’t intentionally avoid something I feel makes for good writing just so people don’t accuse me of using AI.

• I might use AI to proofread some of the content. (I didn’t for this.)

• I might use AI to research or to help me clarify concepts, but I don’t directly copy the output.

• I use real photography, or diagrams I’ve created myself. In cases when I do use an AI-generated image, I’ll label it as such.

The goal is to write something that is clear, concise, and genuinely useful. If I just repeat the output of an AI chat, I won’t be achieving that goal. Maybe it’s clear. It’s rarely concise. Most of all, it won’t be useful if I just publish something that you could do yourself in a few seconds.

Finally, if I ever use AI beyond what I’m declaring here, I’ll put the specific details in the article.

AI use for this article: No, I did not use AI for any part of this article. Yes, I added an em dash because I can. The photo is a drone shot and I paid for the rights.