Task lists — a cure for productivity minimums
I’m a software developer and I have problems with productivity more often than I would like to admit. It’s a problem I am dealing with for a few years now, or at least I am conscious of it for that long.
Shit — this sounds like I am starting an Alcoholics Anonymous session :>
Anyway, I have read or heard a lot of suggestions through the years how to increase productivity, but just a few days back I had noticed exactly when the lack of productivity strikes me the most. And when that lack of productivity strikes I always go into the unconscious pattern of opening Facebook (which I have deleted weeks ago), checking out Reddit, checking my phone or just trying to start a chat with somebody.
Let’s get back to my realization. The lack of productivity, or that feeling when I’m unfocused and having trouble with getting stuff done, strikes me in the moment when I have too many options in my mind. In terms of software development that happens when there is a lot to do and a lot of options how to do it and in what order to do them. If I don’t intervene and do something in that point in time I can lose hours. It’s a bad feeling for a guy like me who likes to get shit done.
The solution for this — a daily task list.
This concept is nothing new, but I want to share how it helps me do better.
It’s especially useful when working on projects as a lone developer. When you are your own manager and you are the one who needs to get things done. The project I’m currently doing is a perfect example of this. We were hired to build a component for a big company which they would use inside their Angular app. After I have had an understanding of what needs to be done and after I did the research I built a prototype to validate my implementation idea. The prototype itself was working, but it was far from the end product. I found myself staring at my screen thinking about all of the things that I need to do to make it shine. I would even start with one thing and get distracted by something else, or start doing test implementations for some features of the component. A few hours passed by and I had not moved from initial prototype, it just got more messy. Enter the Task list!
Instead of starting to code right away what I would do is go through the project and write down all of the things which need to be done. The granularity of the list item for me is usually one commit. After I invest one hour in creating the task list what happens is that I momentarily lose the mental burden of having to think about all those things. And I can focus on one specific item on the list, while ignoring everything else. When that item is done I cross the item from the list and go to the next. Rinse and repeat. Every time I cross off an item I would get a good feeling and further motivation.
One important thing is if I encounter another issue while doing a task list item I will just write it down as a new item on the list and continue with the task at hand.
For task lists I use a dedicated tool where the communication is made with other project stakeholders. Sometimes it’s Trello, Productive, Jira or a Google Doc, but if it’s only for my benefit I love to use task lists written on paper. There is something special for me when I physically cross out an item.
Even if there is already a designated project management tool on the project I still see and like to use the benefit of the daily task list written on paper. Alongside documented tasks it can be used to break down a task in to smaller parts to untangle the thing in the mind. And it can be used to write down more development oriented tasks which have little or no value to other team members or project documentation.
