As an early senior, life was a bit simpler… Plan one project, and deliver it on time. It quickly became endless meetings, 3 projects at once, and lots of mentoring. I struggled to get work done...
Hi Caleb, Great topic and wonderful writing! I am exactly in same boat where kept losing time instead of making progress! Glass/Rubber balls analogy is so perfect! I have started creating "Floating Focused Coding Time (FFCT)" and focusing on moving needle in right direction! Simple but efficient!
Scheduling focus time is a great skills! Lately I've been trying to implement time blocking and, although I don't follow it by heart because life happens, it helps me get things done
I always had a dev day, typically Wednesdays, however, recently realized its not working. With my recent growth, I have been part of large scope discussions and meetings which are hard to avoid or setup while respecting everyone’s dev day. My dev day started to turn into half meetings day.
That’s when I switched to 100% dev hours, focused time slots couple of days a week, that can be moved around easily depending on priority. This works smoothly, gives me an option to say No or move my slot accordingly.
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I’ve found the same for myself, and that’s why I wrote this article!
Hi Caleb, Great topic and wonderful writing! I am exactly in same boat where kept losing time instead of making progress! Glass/Rubber balls analogy is so perfect! I have started creating "Floating Focused Coding Time (FFCT)" and focusing on moving needle in right direction! Simple but efficient!
My friend, Irina who writes https://www.thecaringtechie.com/ newsletter shared that analogy with me recently - it’s been so helpful!
Wow that’s awesome - let me know how that goes for you over the next month or so!
Scheduling focus time is a great skills! Lately I've been trying to implement time blocking and, although I don't follow it by heart because life happens, it helps me get things done
Love that Sara. Yeah, things come up, but even if you follow 50% of your time blocks, you’ll get way more done than if you didn’t block the time!
That it's very true. I feel like, with time blocking, my day seems longer and more productive.
Learn how to Prioritize ruthlessly is one of the best skill SWEs can have.
Totally agree! It’s a skill that will serve you throughout your career across any company and team.
Good one.
On focus times, got something similar, dev day vs dev hours: https://www.junaideffendi.com/p/dev-day-vs-dev-hours
Love the learning you shared in that article ->
⚠️Dev Day does not work for me anymore!
I always had a dev day, typically Wednesdays, however, recently realized its not working. With my recent growth, I have been part of large scope discussions and meetings which are hard to avoid or setup while respecting everyone’s dev day. My dev day started to turn into half meetings day.
That’s when I switched to 100% dev hours, focused time slots couple of days a week, that can be moved around easily depending on priority. This works smoothly, gives me an option to say No or move my slot accordingly.
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I’ve found the same for myself, and that’s why I wrote this article!
great work