All my life I’ve written code wrong.
I thought it was enough to just sit down at the table, open my laptop, select a task from my to-do list, and code until I get tired.
But in reality, this style of work was killing my productivity level after 2-4 hours of coding. I felt so tired that I didn’t want anything other than other low-energy tasks (like code review).
After 62 books on self-development, dozens of articles and research on productivity, my own trial and error, I created a productivity system that helps me code, write, create and live as much as possible without procrastination, fatigue and fog in my head.
Schedule
It all starts with a schedule. What, where and when will I do.
I’ve always ignored graph creation.
“I know what and when I have to do!” I said to myself.
But in fact, I constantly forgot to do my daily tasks or did too many of them (even with the habit of doing them).
For example, when I woke up at 7:00 in the morning, I knew that I had one free hour before work. At this hour, I wanted to find time for the morning ritual (food, stretching, shower, breathing exercises) and read for 30 minutes. But very often I could eat breakfast for an hour, forgetting to leave time for reading. Even if I remembered that every morning I have to read for 30 minutes. I overdid it with one activity (breakfast) and wasted time with another activity (reading).
I also noticed that without a schedule, it takes a lot of time to choose what to do next. I could finish my workout in the afternoon, take a shower, sit down at the table, open my laptop, and then for ten minutes decide which task to choose next. If you count how many times a day I made the same decisions, then 10 minutes turns into 60 minutes. A whole hour! This is a lot of time.
In addition, in the process of choosing what to do next, an angel and a demon always sat on my shoulders, “helping” me decide whether to work on things that are important to me, or to do some easier work, or even take a break to rest. Without a schedule, I often had to force myself to do the “right” things by willpower.
“If you waste resources deciding when or where to work, you interfere with your ability to do the work.” – Guardian
When I created the graph, these problems disappeared.
Now I always have time for what I have planned.
I always know what I need to do next.
I don’t need to use willpower to force myself to do the necessary things.
The graph puts my decision-making process on autopilot.
