Hey people. I’ve noticed that some of the engineers I mentor are having a really hard time adjusting to worling from home. With a career entirely built starting companies from scratch, I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to WFH productively. With the rumor is that Google is going to take it well into 2021 and many companies coming into the office optional permanently, I thought I would share some of the techniques for managing yourself and your time and you don’t have an office for others around you to enforce the best habits. 1. Use the Pomodoro Technique whenever someone asks me for something simple that I changed about my life that made me radically more productive I tell them about the Pomodoro technique and then they say just ignore it. I did the same thing for years. But I wish I had started sooner. The technique consist of grabbing a physical timer, a notepad, and a pencil. Start by writing down your goals for the work session. Set a timer for 25 minutes. And do nothing but thise goals until the time runs out. Getting a call? Side button them. Got a slack from the boss, it can wait the remaining 17 minutes. Got a million things you’re realizing; really just genius ideas? Thats what the notepad is for. Write them down, then get bavk to work. After 25 minutes, give yourself 5 minutes to deal with the “emergencies” that came up. You’ll find a lot of them resolved themselves. Like magic. Repeat this 4 times, then take a long break. You’ll not only be more profuctive, You’ll become more reliable and have more self knowledge about how long it takes you to complete each task. And what is measured, improves. 2. Make space for working Its fine to hang out in your bed or couch and jam for a bit. But if you’re habing trouble being productive and we’re all going to be doing this for months potentially longer, then we need to create offices for ourselves. There’s a pretty strong psychological effect that comes with using the space for the same activity over and over. It primes you to think about it as a workplace. So set aside an area that is deficated to working. 3. Schedule your productivity Whats on your calendar right now? Probably looks like a 2003 Mazda commercial (Zoom Zoom). But I bet you actually make it to every one of thise meetings. When it’s on your calendar, you make time for it. Block off time for the tasks you hate but you have to get done. Over time, it will work like the Pomodoros — you’ll get familiar with how ling things actually take. Which your manager will love. alright—stay sane people. #wfh
Thanks. Good post. Bookmarking for later. Now I need to figure out how to stop procrastinating.
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Nice blob of text... TC?
Goodness. Get over the TC madness. OP is making strong points. Personally, I have benefited tremendously from the Pomodoro technique after WFH started