19 replies to this topic

[Cezet]

What best methods to improve your productivity do you know?

Is there any software designed for improving or maintaining high productivity levels?

[DarkLordofthePenguins]

Stay off porn. Don't abuse and overuse the internet. Don't eat junk food.

I've mostly eliminated a lot of time-wasting habits from my life, and am more productive now due to the amount of time I've freed up. I believe people would be a lot more productive in general if they would all realize that 95% of the things they do on their free time are a waste of time and have no real value in the long run.

[rocketboy9000]

Don't use the internet while working for any purpose that is not directly related to the current task (porn is a big one here).
Assuming you are a programmer:
Use the highest possible warning settings on your compiler/interpreter.
Test each function/class/method/subroutine separately before making it integral to the rest of the code.
Make sure you have paper ready to diagram stuff, do algebra etc.
If you get stuck, first google it, then ask a fellow student/colleague for his 2 cents, before asking the forum or a professor or senior employee.
Focus on only one program. I find it impossible to write fast while thinking about something else.
Use a debugger and a profiler. Use versioning and ideally a automatic build system for daily builds. Make sure your code compiles before you stop coding, so you don't have extra work later.

Edited by rocketboy9000, 22 March 2011 - 09:30 PM.
add some more

[Cezet]

Thank you very much for your suggestions. And I wonder if you`ve heard about these methods designed espacially to increase overall productivity:

- GTD (Getting Things Done)
- Pomodoro
- 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

What do you think of them? Would you consider trying if there would be software available designed to help you start using these methods?

[WingedPanther]

Many of the answers will depend a lot on what you're doing. I've read several books from the Pragmatic Programmer series, which contain many useful tips to help productivity. For me, a major one is "Get a good night's sleep". It's amazing how being a little drowsy in the morning can kill my productivity.

Another important thing is to be clear on what you mean by productivity. In programming, some people try to define it in how many lines of code you produce (a meaningless measure in a world of RAD development), how many features you added, etc. To me, part of being productive is producing bug-free code. If I do my job well, the QA department should not have to send my code back for fixing. That is very different from producing tons of code/features that don't work well.

[Cezet]

Good night sleep is a major factor for me too, mostly because my drowsiness lasts really long when I sleep very little.

And by "productivity" I mean overall, general productivity. Before a person needs to focus on programmer-specific productivity hints, he (or she) needs to focus on a project, work, the thing that has to be done. It is described in books I mentioned in my previous post. But of course programming hints are also very welcome :)

I have two main reasons asking these questions:
1. I`ve got major productivity/motivation issues for some time.

2. I`m considering designing and developing software which will be designed to deal with that problem. And I wonder if it`s possible to write something for general poductivity or maybe I should focus on something more programming/project specific. But that would be more like project management software and there are many of these.

It doesn`t have to be original, I need that for my studies and not for work purposes, but It sounds like fun and I`m out of ideas for now. What do you think?

[eafkuor]

Frequent interruptions kill your productivity. An hour of work without interruptions equals 5 hours of interrupted work. Turn off your phone, close any chatting application, use your browser just to check the API you're working with.

[Cezet]

eafkuor said:

Frequent interruptions kill your productivity. An hour of work without interruptions equals 5 hours of interrupted work. Turn off your phone, close any chatting application, use your browser just to check the API you're working with.

On the other hand there are methods that say you have do do your work exactly the opposite way: by taking short breaks every hour or so, and if you work on a computer it`s even good for your health to rest for a while. I personally, after even a short interruption when I`m fully concentrated, have a lot of trouble to focus on my task as well as before.

[eafkuor]

Cezet said:

On the other hand there are methods that say you have do do your work exactly the opposite way: by taking short breaks every hour or so, and if you work on a computer it`s even good for your health to rest for a while. I personally, after even a short interruption when I`m fully concentrated, have a lot of trouble to focus on my task as well as before.

I was talking exactly about that. An hour/hour and a half of uninterrupted work.

[Cezet]

Oh, now I see that, sorry, I didn`t take your "hour of work" literally. So we agree about that, that`s a start.
And what do you think about that?

[eafkuor]

I honestly don't know what else to add. No interruptions, good sleep, being in the right room. That's it.

[wim DC]

Here, i saw this guy on devoxx. Maybe he has useful info :)
Movie --> Neal Ford - The Productive Programmer