Productivity

Systems, habits, workflows, and personal optimization

  • Investing in your Productivity

    This week in discussion with the rest of my team it became apparent that there was a lack of investment in creating tools to help with the productivity of the team. There are four distinct areas you can focus on to improve your productivity as a software developer. Focus Software development requires a lot of time to…

  • Meditation

    Many years ago when I was younger I had a clarity of thought and an ability to focus for a very long time without distraction.  These days it is very difficult to avoid getting distracted. The ability to focus on a singular thing for long enough to really dig into it is a real skill…

  • Meditation For Programmers

    Programmers have one of the most intensive intellectual jobs.  It requires great focus and concentration to write software productively. If you measure the productivity of a programmer you might be surprised at the range. At the bottom there are software developers that actually create negative productivity; every line of code they write is one that…

  • Creating Feedback Loops

    A feedback loop for success is anything that looks at your past or current state and if you have fallen off the tracks does something to get you back on them. That’s kind of vague. So here are some examples of feedback loops: For a weight lifter – keeping a log of past lifts encourages…

  • Distraction Free Writing

    I have just discovered a feature in wordpress to do full-screen distraction free writing. The idea is to remove all visual distractions from the computer so that the only thing you can focus on is your writing. Managing distractions is something that I have always done at work. I turn of notifications for emails and…

  • Racing to 10% BF

    In the spirit of friendly competition, Colum and I are battling to be the first to reach 10% BF.  10%BF is a lofty goal that is difficult to achieve without serious commitment.  Winning will take everything I know and doing it all at once and staying committed to a lot of exercise as well as…

  • Exercise for Programmers

    Staying on top of your game is best accomplished by continuously learning and by ensuring you are mentally and physically at your best.  As a desk jokey it can be difficult to get enough exercise in a day so you have to be pro-active about staying in shape outside the office. For several years I…

  • Andromeda’s Savior v1.1

    A late night of coding produced the first update to Andromeda’s Savior submitted to iTunes. This new version brings a health bar, a bunch of new enemies to shoot, and much improved Game Center integration.  It also includes a check to prevent people from cracking the game and getting free upgrades.  To date there are…

  • Great App Challenge of 2013

    This year myself and a friend have taken up the challenge of releasing a new iPhone/iPad game every 2 weeks to hopefully have 20-25 finished games by the end of the year. The strategy is to build upon 3 different game platforms for all the games.  Each game will add one new feature to the…

  • The Great App Challenge of 2013

    UFO Invader version 2.0 is submitted to the iTunes App Store for review.  It should be published in about a week. That marks the first app for what I’m calling the Great App Challenge of 2013.  The goal is to release 20-25 Apps this year between myself and Colum.  That’s one app every 2 weeks!…