I'm worried about my mental health, but I'm also worrying - and I feel like I'm not alone - that I am not doing enough.
We were all sold the idea that we should be productivity machines, working all hours and building the future. However, we forget to take care of our mental health in this process. Hours that should be labeled 'me time' becomes 'learning time' and we find it very hard to make that distinction.
I work 8 hours of my day and I want to make the most of it. So, what do you guys do to stay productive and always on top of your game, without sacrificing 'me time'?
Top comments (7)
Shut everything that beeps off, Slap on some good headphones, and grind away. I prefer instrumental/lofi music as it's better for focusing.
Make a todo list every day and start with the easiest thing. This gets the ball rolling and it's much easier to just keep working at that point.
Thank you for your tips, will start applying it today!
As a followup: Do you stay updated and study in company time?
That's definitely going to depend on your company and boss.
I'm constantly learning how to solve new problems and stuff while working and I do spend some time keeping up to date on Marketing and Web Dev trends since that directly relates to my job.
Your mileage may vary.
You do not need to be constantly productive - just consistently effective.
I create, every morning, 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks) - these 3 tasks are the ones where if all I do today is get these 3 items done, then it was a decent day. If a get more, its definitely better. But just 3 MITs for a successful day, and I focus on each one at a time, no multi tasking.
So true -- being effective is much more important than being productive. There's no point being productive if you're producing the wrong thing.
Reach a checkpoint (commit) / small goal (< daily) / big goal (culmination of small ones of course!) and make a point of stepping away from the machine - get a tea, take a walk, go home early - on the company time - you've just earned it!
Measure only yourself, not others, and measure the right thing - how you are improving through practice and pacing - tired devs make lots more bugs (researchgate.net/publication/25978...)
Find the joy in what you do every day.. it's in there somewhere!
I make my mental and physical health a priority. I have a system that makes it easy for me to make good decisions about my health and become aware enough of my life to troubleshoot it and see what I could change to make it better.
In other words, I use Scrum for my personal life. Well, an adapted version of it.