Personal Productivity for Developers

Personal Productivity for Developers

Elmer ThomasHacker in Residence@thinkingserious

The Goal

SummaryFrameworks Techniques

ToolsReferences

Frameworks: RPM

Specific and Measurable Results

Motivate yourself with Purpose

Create a Massive action plan with specific actions

Frameworks: GTD

Main Elements of GTD Projects Next Actions Contexts

GTD Workflow

GTD Natural Planning TechniquePurpose / Guiding Principles Why are we doing this?

Mission / Vision / Goals / Successful Outcome What does success look, sound or feel like?

Brainstorming How will we accomplish it?

Organizing When will we do these things?

Next Actions Where do we start?

GTD Weekly ReviewCaptured, but unprocessed items

Review projects & next actions

Review calendar

Review checklists

Review someday/maybe lists

GTD High Level Analysis

Areas of Responsibility1 - 2 year goals3 - 5 year vision

Life purpose

Frameworks: Getting

Results the Agile Way

3 outcomes for the year

the monththe weekthe day

Agile Work/Life BalanceDefine Hotspots e.g. Career, Family, Health, Personal Growth

Set minimums for each Hotspots e.g. 3 hours of exercise time per week

Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection

Frameworks: 18 MinutesDay Begins: (5 Minutes)

Set Plan for the DayThroughout: (1 Minute / Hour)

RefocusDay Ends: (5 Minutes) Review

Techniques: Pomodoro

decide on the task to be done & estimate the # of Pomodorosset the pomodoro (timer) to 25 minuteswork on the task until the timer rings; record with an xtake a short break (5 minutes)every four "pomodoros" take a longer break (15–20 minutes)

Techniques: Digital Truth Dashboard

It’s the Dashboard to rule all Dashboards

Central point of all your “stuff”

Either link to resources or describe where they are

This dashboard should be easy to use and available most anywhere

Automate it if possible using RSS & APIs

Techniques: ZoneHideouts

Schedule appointments with yourself

Noise canceling headphones + music

Signage

The “Hacker Brow”

Growl and/or grunt

Not this zone!

Techniques: Checklists

Daily routines (morning/night)

Weekly routines

Monthly routines

Anything you will do more than once

Create checklists as you work

Techniques: Templates

New Projects

Think scaffolds

Perfect, then automate

Techniques: Outsourcing

99Designs.com / LogoBids.com

eLance.com / Guru.com / oDesk.com / Workana.com

CraigsList.com

TemplateMonster.com / Genesis Themes

4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss

Jack Bicer - http://www.septium.com/10tips.pdf

Techniques: Hackathons

Find partners / Barter services

Upgrade your skills

Practice and sharpen existing skills

Directories: HackerLeague.org/hackathons TechZulu.com/events SoCalTech.com/calendar SiliconBeachLA.com/events-2/calendar SDTechScene.org

ToolsAlternativeTo.net

Tools: Feedly

News/Information Filter

Sync with apps (Reeder)

Not just for blogs

Use folders to segregate & focus

Tools: Email

GMail FiltersSendGrid Incoming Parsing Event triggers

Tools: Mind Maps

MindNode Pro / XMind mind mapping brainstorming

Tools: Screen Capture

Jing / SnagitSkitch

Tools: Text Snippets

TextExpander / Active Words avoid typing common items faster than a clipboard or text file

Tools: Google Appsdocs for quick collaborative sharingsites for a centralized dashboardcalendar for shared time managementgoogle hangouts for quick video meetingsgoogle talk for IMgmail for easy implementation of inbox zero

Tools: Social Media

filtered news via listsalternative to RSSnetworking

Tools: Social Bookmarking

Delicious / Pinboard global bookmarking crowd validated reference

Tools: Readers

Instapaper / Readit Later / Pocket defer your reading, offlineKindle / iBooks / GoodReader / Audible / Downcast read or listen on the go

Tools: Notes

Evernote / Onebox / OneNote everything box across all platforms multimedia notes + OCR offline access

Tools: Storage

Dropbox / Box.net / Google Drive easy synchronized storage keep your larger files at bay automated backup email large attachments

Tools: Security1Password / RoboForm / Keepass / LastPass save time and be secure don’t use the same password everywhere

Tools: Launchers

Launchbar / AppRocketfast application launcher and file finderstop dealing with clicking icons

Tools: MeetingsJoin.me / Google Hangouts / OpenTok + Twilio API free and easy screen sharing and conference calls save commute time

Tools: Todos/TasksOmnifocus / Toodledo GTD implementation See what you want, when you wantPivotal Tracker / Assembla / Asana Agile implementation A structure for practicing agile Great for collaboration

Tools: HardwareLaptop / Desktop Mac out your SSD & RAM Keyboard / Input DeviceTabletSmart Phone

Continued Learningthinkingserious.comasianefficiency.comtimemanagementninja.comlifehack.orgnews.ycombinator.comdzone.comstackoverflow.comgithub.com

Continued LearningGetting Things Done, Ready for Anything, Making it All Work18 Minutes: Find Your FocusReWork, Getting RealDo the Work, The War of ArtUpgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better

Creating Flow with OmniFocusSafari Bookshelf Online

Continued LearningBack to WorkThe Big Web ShowMac Power UsersMixergyGTD Study Group*iTunes UYour Niche

Key Takeaways

Be action oriented towards measurable specific goals

Find how to achieve zone time more often

Move towards balance

Create a custom system and iterate often

“You can have it all.You just can’t have it all at once.”

- Oprah Winfrey

Thanks!

If you have any questions,reach out, I’m happy to help!

elmer.thomas@sendgrid.com@thinkingserious