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.
Choose one tactic to test.
Run a trial and record the results. Test with real work.
Evaluate the data.
Decide: keep/eliminate/modify.
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.
