The Mindful Developer (PHP North West 2017)

Slide 1

Slide 1 text

The Mindful Developer Be More Productive & Less Busy

Slide 2

Slide 2 text

David McKay ★ Scottish ★ Productivity Nerd ★ Aspiring Stoic @rawkode

Slide 3

Slide 3 text

Me: ➔ Software Consultant ➔ OpenSource Contributor Pets: ➔ Bichon Frise ➔ Ferret ➔ 3 Degus ➔ 5 Chinchillas ➔ 2 Russian Dwarf Hamsters Organiser of: ➔ Cloud Native Glasgow ➔ Docker Glasgow ➔ DevOps Glasgow ➔ Pair Programming Glasgow ➔ MongoDB Glasgow ➔ ScotlandPHP Volunteer: ➔ Technical Lead TEDx Glasgow

Slide 4

Slide 4 text

Chinchilla?

Slide 5

Slide 5 text

Your brain is a liar!

Slide 6

Slide 6 text

No content

Slide 7

Slide 7 text

No content

Slide 8

Slide 8 text

Bat & Ball ➔ A bat and ball cost £1.10 ➔ The bat is £1 more than the ball ➔ How much does the ball cost?

Slide 9

Slide 9 text

Pretzels ➔ It takes 5 machines, 5 minutes, to make 5 pretzels ➔ How many minutes does it take 100 machines to make 100 pretzels?

Slide 10

Slide 10 text

No content

Slide 11

Slide 11 text

System 1 Fast / Automatic aka “The Chimp” ➔ Fast Response ➔ Unconscious ➔ Effortless / Automatic ➔ Dumb and Gullible

Slide 12

Slide 12 text

System 2 Slow / Pragmatic ➔ Deliberate / Conscious ➔ Effortful ➔ Controlled Mental Process ➔ Logical and Skeptical

Slide 13

Slide 13 text

Which brain would you rather use each day?

Slide 14

Slide 14 text

Mindfulness

Slide 15

Slide 15 text

Eight Weeks of Mindfulness ➔ 27 Minutes Per Day ➔ Major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus ➔ Decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala (a mig dala) ➔ None of these changes were seen in the control group http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/

Slide 16

Slide 16 text

One Mindful Breath

Slide 17

Slide 17 text

Getting Things Done

Slide 18

Slide 18 text

➔ Capture ➔ Clarify ➔ Organise ➔ Reflect ➔ Engage

Slide 19

Slide 19 text

“Our mind is for having ideas, not holding them David Allen

Slide 20

Slide 20 text

Capture ANYTHING that needs your attention ➔ An email you need to respond to ➔ An article you want to read later ➔ Tickets to the Chevelle gig just announced ➔ The warranty on your new TV Fill that inbox!

Slide 21

Slide 21 text

Your brain needs to trust the system.

Slide 22

Slide 22 text

Clarify ➔ Is this an action or reference? ➔ If it’s an action, will it take less than 5 minutes? ➔ Is there a next action?

Slide 23

Slide 23 text

Organise ➔ Lists ◆ Work ◆ Relationship ◆ OSS Project ◆ Someday / Maybe ➔ Contexts

Slide 24

Slide 24 text

➔ Some tasks are people based #David ➔ Some tasks are location based #Home #Office #Phone #Laptop ➔ Some tasks are blocked #Waiting Not all tasks are created equal.

Slide 25

Slide 25 text

Reflect You don’t know if you’re on the right track, if you don’t know where you’ve been

Slide 26

Slide 26 text

➔ Did I make progress on each of my lists? ➔ Can you chase up anything that is #Waiting? ➔ Triage your inbox ➔ Archive completed projects The Weekly Review

Slide 27

Slide 27 text

“If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves David Allen

Slide 28

Slide 28 text

Time is the only commodity that matters Randy Pausch YouTube: The Last Lecture

Slide 29

Slide 29 text

Efficiency Effectiveness

Slide 30

Slide 30 text

Goals

Slide 31

Slide 31 text

Goals What do you want from life? 1. Career / Education 2. Financial 3. Family 4. Artistic 5. Attitude 6. Physical 7. Pleasure 8. Public Service

Slide 32

Slide 32 text

Goals ➔ Goals don’t need to be large ➔ Goals must be SMART ➔ Be honest with yourself ➔ Macro & Micro Goals

Slide 33

Slide 33 text

Goals If there’s an item on your to-do list that doesn’t help you reach one of your goals: ➔ Why are you doing it? ➔ Have you identified a missing goal? ➔ Delete it

Slide 34

Slide 34 text

Goals Weekly Review’s are your best way to monitor your goals ➔ Did I make progress on all of my goals? ➔ What one thing can I do in the next week to help my goals? ➔ Are my goals still relevant?

Slide 35

Slide 35 text

Building a system takes time and it can be frustrating

Slide 36

Slide 36 text

Habits

Slide 37

Slide 37 text

No content

Slide 38

Slide 38 text

“What we found was that it takes 66 days on average for people in our study to acquire a habit Professor Jane Wardle

Slide 39

Slide 39 text

Why are habits important?

Slide 40

Slide 40 text

No content

Slide 41

Slide 41 text

No content

Slide 42

Slide 42 text

No content

Slide 43

Slide 43 text

You’re a rat

Slide 44

Slide 44 text

Keystone Habits ➔ Wake up at 5:30am ➔ Meditation ➔ Exercise ➔ Check your email only twice a day ➔ Your working clothes

Slide 45

Slide 45 text

It’s all Cookies and Radishes http://faculty.washington.edu/jdb/345/345%20Articles/Baumeister%20et%20al.%20%281998%29.pdf

Slide 46

Slide 46 text

How I Work

Slide 47

Slide 47 text

Becoming a Morning Person 5am is amazing … but it’s not easy I use a Light Alarm Clock

Slide 48

Slide 48 text

Effective - Don’t look at your phone in the morning and try to avoid it during the day - Identify rabbit holes … Wikipedia!

Slide 49

Slide 49 text

You’re welcome

Slide 50

Slide 50 text

Stoicism Become Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

Slide 51

Slide 51 text

Not to feel exasperated, or defeated, or despondent because your days aren’t packed with wise and moral actions. But to get back up when you fail, to celebrate behaving like a human–however imperfectly–and fully embrace the pursuit that you’ve embarked on Marcus Aurelius

Slide 52

Slide 52 text

Start with a cold shower

Slide 53

Slide 53 text

Meditation Meditation is a great way to remind yourself to be a bit more present We’re always rushing through life; take a moment to stop and really experience where you are and who you’re with

Slide 54

Slide 54 text

Tasks ➔ Digital & Physical ◆ Todoist / TickTick ◆ Code & Quill Notebook ◆ Fountain Pens ◆ Rapid Logging ◆ Migration

Slide 55

Slide 55 text

Rapid Logging ? Question - Note Task > Migrated ¿ Make up your own!

Slide 56

Slide 56 text

No content

Slide 57

Slide 57 text

Schedule ➔ Only put it in your calendar if it’s immutable ➔ Don’t try and “schedule” time for yourself ◆ Instead “Theme” your days

Slide 58

Slide 58 text

Eat the Frog

Slide 59

Slide 59 text

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day Mark Twain

Slide 60

Slide 60 text

The Rule of Three Applying Pareto’s Principle to your to-do list

Slide 61

Slide 61 text

Pomodoro Work in time-boxes of 25 minutes Take a 5 minute break Every 4 pomodoro’s, take a 25 minute break

Slide 62

Slide 62 text

#NoEstimates

Slide 63

Slide 63 text

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" C. Northcote Parkinson

Slide 64

Slide 64 text

Deep Work / Flow

Slide 65

Slide 65 text

“Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. Cal Newport

Slide 66

Slide 66 text

Deep Work 1. Important 2. Fun 3. Within your skill set

Slide 67

Slide 67 text

Deep Work Foster the ability to perform Deep Work: ➔ Drown out office noise with headphones ➔ Ensure you have no distractions ◆ Close Slack, Twitter, etc ➔ Build a habit out of your Deep Work cycles ➔ Stop working at 5:30pm. Let your brain recharge