Yet Another Productivity Hack…

…from a not-always-productive software engineer

Disclaimer: This post is heavily inspired by Devoxx Belgium 2019 presentation.

Recently I was participating at the Devoxx Belgium conference, and among many fascinating presentations, one particularly grabbed my attention. I’ve learned about a specific yet very simple technique/toolset, which started to help me to be more focused during the learning process, and that’s why I wanted to share it with you.

Expert, no expert?

So, first of all, let’s assume that people generally fall into several types of expertise levels:

Imagine that an Expert could be a data scientist, or a web security professional who has very specific knowledge as a target.

The T-profile type of personality is the one who has very strong knowledge in one discipline and also general knowledge on several other topics. For example, it can be a front-end developer from your company who also used to work with agile teams, and also, as a hobby, he creates Android apps.

M-profile — specialists who have expertise in 2 main disciplines and general knowledge about other spheres (pretty much like T-profiles). This could be a Backend developer who is also the DevOps guy of a specific project.

Generalists are the “jacks of all trades” — they have an understanding of a wide spectrum of subjects but don’t have deep knowledge of any of them. There was a time when I was a Generalist myself! Yes! I liked to know nothing and everything at the same time.

Me as a generalist

It usually takes some time and effort to decide what should be your top priority as a field of expertise. And if you are a generalist, my dear reader, please make up your mind and go change yourself today. Immediately. Right after this paragraph. Just stop. Think for a while. And come back already changed. Thanks!

Well, in fact, it’s important to understand what you want to achieve. That way, you will be able to create a meaningful roadmap of actions to take in order to achieve your goal.

In my case, eventually, I’ve landed on 2 main fields of expertise that interest me in the first place: Java programming & Software architecture. For the sake of this discussion let’s assume that you also chose the M-profile because, honestly, it allows the most painless transition if you are a generalist.

Next, we’ve got two handy tools — Pocket and IFTTT.

Firstly, you will need to install the Pocket plugin for your browser. This extension allows you to read any useful article later by putting it into your pocket with the desired tags for easy categorization.

You REALLY don’t want to get distracted each time when you see a good article in the middle of learning something or during work. So just hit the Pocket button and save the piece for a later read.

And with IFTTT, you can connect all major social platforms to Pocket, thus whenever you’ll like something on YouTube or upvote on Reddit, it will automatically appear in your Pocket app.

This is what my IFTTT applets look like

So far so good, but it’s not enough to get the full view of how to proceed with collected data. And by data, I mean the learning resources at hand that you have collected through Pocket and IFTTT.

The MindMeister application is a powerful tool that helps you draw a map of your interests. Even with a free version, you can draw a full map of related topics, mark them as done, draw relations between tasks/resources and have a very handy plan of your achievements. The free version will keep you more focused on what you really need to map. This is what my map looks like:

A screenshot of my own map

As an M type, I’ve decided to deep dive into 2 main categories:

1. Java programming
2. Software architecture

I also have a lot of stuff I’m interested in, like movies and music, and also computer gaming. As you can see, the map has a very simple hierarchy. It should be easy enough so you can focus on certain tasks in the most efficient way. This should be the high-level goal map of your 6–12 months’ achievements at most.

To recap, there are several simple tools the combination and constant usage of which may dramatically enhance your focus. If you go and watch the conference talk shared above, you’ll learn about more advanced tools and techniques for boosting your productivity (But I thought putting them in this article could make you leave it half-read :) ) .

So, this is the starting pack. It is for those who seek ways of increasing their focus and developing new skills. As one such person, I can assure you that these tools helped me a lot.

Thanks!

Should you decide to try out any or all of these tools, let me know how it’s going.

My LinkedIn.

Check out our open roles at https://sflpro.com/job/.

Let’s talk!

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