Detailed Notes
As we near the end of the Building Better Developers season on habits, hosts Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche take a moment to reflect on the journey so far. Throughout this season, they have introduced nearly 30 different habits and challenges, each designed to help developers grow both professionally and personally. In this episode, they review key takeaways, discuss the impact of these habits, and explore how to maintain long-term progress in their habit review for developers.
*The Power of Habit Review for Developers*
The core message of this season has been clear: habits are crucial for continuous self-improvement. Small, consistent changes add up over time, whether in development, business, or life. However, the sheer number of habits discussed can feel overwhelming. The hosts emphasize that the key is not to implement all of them at once but to focus on a few at a time, gradually integrating them into daily routines. This habit review for developers helps break down which habits have the most significant impact.
Read more: https://develpreneur.com/habit-review-for-developers-boost-productivity-and-build-better-workflows/
*Stay Connected: Join the Develpreneur Community*
We invite you to join our community and share your coding journey with us. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting, there’s always room to learn and grow together. Contact us at [email protected] with your questions, feedback, or suggestions for future episodes. Together, let’s continue exploring the exciting world of software development.
*Additional Resources*
* Security Awareness: Protect Your Code, Your Career, and Your Future (https://develpreneur.com/security-awareness-protect-your-code-your-career-and-your-future/) * Pomodoro Technique: Boost Your Focus and Productivity with Time-Blocking (https://develpreneur.com/pomodoro-technique-boost-your-focus-and-productivity-with-time-blocking/) * Planning and Scheduling: Essential Habits for Building Better Developers (https://develpreneur.com/planning-and-scheduling-essential-habits-for-building-better-developers/) * Managing Anxiety and Stress: Insights and Strategies for Daily Life (https://develpreneur.com/managing-anxiety-and-stress-insights-and-strategies-for-daily-life/)
*Follow-us on:*
* https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOuFN_LhczvGyT2KSItH_g/featured * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://twitter.com/develpreneur * http://linkedin.com/develpreneur
Transcript Text
[Music] and we will get started so um actually we're so we're getting sort of towards the end and I'm thinking we've got like sort of last one we were talking about like breaking up open up conversations and listening listening skills so trying to remember how much we went into we did have a topic in slack um we threw out there uh breaking up yeah breaking up and opening up conversations and listening listening skills yep so yeah uh we could do listing skills for this one and then the uh one right after this is kind of our wrap up so that one we don't have to make super long but well I think we'll probably wait and do that next one oh okay um I guess we could or we could just sort of wrap it up so I sort of thinking doing a two-parter for the wrap up talking a little bit about habits and sort of moving forward and stuff like that so that would actually work well um if we want to do that is sort of like um so probably the first one would be more like a don't get overwhelmed because we've just given you 30 some odd you know challenges and habits and stuff like that um and then sort of how to go moving forward how to go with that yeah kind of like that the other thing I was thinking too is uh maybe end it with why habits matter you know we kind of started out with habits and the importance of habits but maybe kind of reinforce that in kind of the sendoff you know what I mean yeah I like that I think that's a good I think that's a good sendoff so we will get starting with our three two well hello and welcome back we are continuing and getting close to the end of our season of building better habits we are building better developers we are developing or I am Rob Broadhead one of the founders of developing or building better developers but also a founder of RB Consulting and that is a boutique as they call it Consulting Group where we help you leverage technology we take all of the stuff that's out there your technology sprawl we talk to you about your specific needs and we build uh essentially we build a create a custom recipe for you for your business with the tools that you need how to use them whether it's through integration simplification automation Innovation all of those shuns that are out there in a good way we take a look at all of those things and we find a way to help you do a better job with technology and and help it be sort of like your you know something riding shotgun with you instead of something holding a a gun to your head now good things bad things I'm going to do this one this will be a nice simple one uh because lately my wife is Ed working with me enough said good thing and a bad thing there is good and bad out of both of the out of that and so whenever you're dealing with like family members close friends stuff like that and work think all of you guys can understand and GS can understand that there are some good things involved with that but there can also be some extra challenges so it is definitely a un unique relationship to have both from your personal side because of however you personally relate to them and then of course from your professional side because of however you relate to them professionally habits since we're getting towards the end I just want to say that the this has been actually very beneficial to me across the board the habits that we have brought up the things that we have done the the challenges that we have had uh and I think particularly because it it did go over the holiday period so it allowed some extra time for a little burn in a little bit a little bit of you know baking in some of those habits it really has been a a refreshing season for me hopefully it's something for you guys as well that you have experienced some of these challenges that you have developed maybe some habits and maybe even learned a little bit about yourself now it's time for you to learn a little bit about Michael who is on the other side go ahead and introduce yourself hey everyone my name is Michael M I'm one of the co-founders of developer building better businesses I'm also the founder of Envision QA where we help small to midsize businesses uh Medical Offices essentially revisit what their software does for them you know is their business software really helping them do their job is it a helpful uh process or a hindrance one of the best advantages that we can come and bring to your table is we can help streamline your processes and even introduce software or customize software for you that really streamlines your whole business we can almost not necessarily completely automate everything but we can help streamline the process so the moment the your employees sit down they're actually ready to work not looking for work trying to find things on their computer they basically know what they need to get done and they just go through their tasks and get it done so by the end of the day you know what's been done what's been completed and what's ready for tomorrow uh good thing bad thing uh good thing uh wife made it back safely from California Cloud firers did not get her uh bad thing uh while she was out there she had a head cold which you brought back and thankfully I did not get it uh habits so this season of habits has been wonderful for me it's helped me really refocus and stay on tax for a lot of things uh we've talked a whole lot about the Pomodoro Technique uh I unfortunately unlike Rob am not able to really stick to that as much as I like uh unfortunately life and things keep pivoting me but my lists really really help keep being a list of what I really need to get done the important things I need to get done in the day I make sure I do those first as soon as I can get them done because you know life happens and then I'm not struggling and stressing at the end of the day that I didn't get the critical things done even if I don't want to do it it gets done and then it's off my plate and I'm not stressing anymore which also leads to kind of that helpful um taking the time to be mindful you know stepping aside work on my anxiety uh work through the what if and get those off my plate again those lists really help you write it down and then you focus on how do you get it you know how do you make it not a problem is it really a problem you know you just work through it and get it out of the way and I will pass it back over D Rob uncomfortable pause there for a second I was actually I was looking at our list cuz I want to go back and in this episode we want to recap a little bit and I was looking at the list of things it goes back actually a couple of months now and was just thinking like sort of a little bit of a revisiting some of the topics that we've talked about because for one we have just gone through we've basically thrown out roughly 30 habits and challenges over the last few months that can feel a little bit overwhelming trust me I'm I'm with you with that because I've been going through these as well I've been working on these I've been trying to particularly as they start to stack up remember it's like oh yeah I'm working on this habit as well as that habit and that habit and that habit first off if you're if you've even gotten close to that if you've gotten even a third of them you know go in and give yourself a little high five because you have made progress even just a handful just a couple of habits if you have developed these habits probably are going to make you a better developer maybe a better person uh you know better professionally and things like that I do want to highlight like hit on some revisit a couple of them that I think are worth revisiting uh for various reasons and the first I want to talk about is actually where we started we talked about security awareness way way way way back it seems like way way back anyways it was just a few months ago but we talked about that and developing a security awareness habit of just doing a regular check-in to make sure that your systems are secure that you are keeping up with what are the latest you know hacking techniques and stuff like that and I want to you know make sure that we that is one of those that we should do on a regular basis so just to remind you like if you haven't thought about it since that week it's probably a good time you know maybe do a quarterly checkup or something along those lines the Pomodoro Technique as Michael mentioned is something I cannot U it was actually episode two we started talking about that I cannot emphasize enough how much more effective that has been for me in trying to do just initially one and then you know two or three pomodoros a day as opposed to entirely switching my schedule over to that doing a sort of half tomato you know half a a smaller bite of doing the Pomodoro Technique much like many other things we've talked about simplifying it and cutting it down to something instead of doing the whole thing but taking little bites has turned out to be very very effective for me uh I also found that has been a great excuse for me to utilize some of the uh the focus apps and things like that so I'll put my headphones on get one of those like nice little focus music things going played around with that a little bit the the app that I use is one that has you know varying uh types of focus so it's like are you trying to be creative are you trying to just get some work done is it light work is it hard work is it artistic work is it for memory blah blah blah all these little things and I've been playing around with those as well to really even more so heighten those pomodoros that I'm trying to you know pick up along the way on a regular basis so that one has turned out to be I think a highly useful habit another one that I think I think the the getting thing done getting things done kind of uh challenges and habits that are out there I think are going to be very effective for you for example as Michael mentioned you know building a creating a list uh doing things like you know the eat the eat the Frog is making sure that you take on your the things that you don't want to do sooner rather than later uh automation is something there's like all these things that any one of them is an incredibly valuable habit and I just want to sort of reiterate that even if as a whole this seems like too much go ahead and just you know sort of like browse back through some of the topics that we've covered and some of the habits and the challenges and maybe go back and you know listen to one again or you know go back and and just listen you know sort of go like oh yeah I didn't really tackle that challenge why don't I give that one a shot because I think you will find that that will make that will improve you uh just as it would have then it will help you now and it's one of the things that it may be too much as you've been going through you know a couple of challenges a week but now that we've spread out maybe it's time that you go back and pick up a couple of those habits and see where those take you so your thoughts on this season Mike so yeah this season I like you said in the beginning you know I think one of the best things and we didn't intend for this to happen was for this season really to run through the holidays we came up with you know for those of you that watch the Youtube videos we kind of come up with some of our topics pre meeting we flush out kind of the ideas for what we want to do for the season and we came up with the idea so we went through the behind the scenes last season and this season we wanted to focus on the next step as developers what can we do to improve ourselves so we came up with habits and a lot of the things we've walked through this season aren't just habits that we ourselves always use because as you've heard you know it's like oh we didn't think about that or we didn't do that it's always good to kind of reset where we're at in life where we're at in our businesses or where we're at in Even in our um our growth through being an employee or just through work or life uh a lot of the habits that we talked about um like automation you know that is critical today you know as we move into this world of AI really understanding automation getting things done becomes more important because we we are now kind of kind of under that microscope of what other Industries have been for years of automation so AI is going to help speed up that automation process so you're going to need to really start focusing on automation but in the same token by automating things we're removing the redundancy and that is helping us look at other habits to improve our other process improve ourselves improve our life and that is really the goal of this season is to take these habits and embrace them find what works for you and put them together in a way that you can structure your days your weeks your years and continue on that development journey to become a better person um so some of the things you know this season we've talked about that were really a couple episodes back which were really dear to me was you know managing anxiety and stress throughout life we have things that come up that makes us anxious and stressful but if you don't know how to address that or identify that you are going to struggle um and that's where a lot of the things we cover here this season I think are very helpful and that if you have missed any of these go back through and revisit past episodes because you know Breaking Bad Habits you know that are anti-habsburg you're going to get there it's not something you just do overnight that I mean we're some 30 episodes in I mean this is not something that I mean that's uh what 15 hours of habits that took time to even cover that but then you add the challenges so this is not something like a quick fad diet you can't just you know chug a couple and hey I've got it no it's something you do have to work at but you can pick three or four of these habits and enforce them by doing them every day and you're going to find that hey at the end of a week you will see some improvements you're going to see small incremental improvements over time and then suddenly you're going to be like wow 6 months ago I was here now I'm here and a year or two from now you might be here but you will have stumbling blocks along the way it's just like a diet you're going to have cheat days you're going to have skip days but try not to go too far off the Habit train and just you know stick with it I think that's the key is the stick with it piece I mean that's really what it's really what a habit is all about it is about doing it and it goes back to we've talked about this many times about the idea of incremental Improvement and how that you can just like you know it's the whole a journey of a Thousand Miles starts with a single step but then you take another step and another step and that's how the habits are as well is that you just build on it it's a little bit each day I don't know how many of these habits are minutes out of a day but doing that day after day after day does build up quite a bit of distance into you know development and into whatever that thing is that you're trying to tackle and it's amazing what that stuff can do over time and so it's just a I think this is a good point to just sort of give yourself a pat on the back and say hey if you've taken on any one of these challenges then even if it didn't work for you at least you've learned what doesn't work for you I think that is probably one of the greatest Lessons Learned for me in the last I don't know really probably throughout my career uh but definitely in the last I don't know 20 years of me trying to as I've really focused on becoming a better developer becoming better at what I do is figuring out what I don't do well and figure out what doesn't work well for me because you can go out and you can hear a lot of different recommendations you can there's all kinds of you know starting your day early start your day late eat this drink that do this do that all these things that you can do and they all have some level of value because they will work for some of us some of the time and some you know maybe all of us occasionally and you know maybe none of us not very often or however you want to mix that but it is about finding out what works for you and you there may be things that we do that we're like hey this has worked really like for example the Pomodoro Technique is it has worked really well for me it hasn't worked well for Michael because of just where we're at now this a couple of things I will just say is that like there may be something that didn't work for you 5 years ago that will work for you now and there may be something that you know has worked for you but now no longer does CU sometimes we get into get into a rut or something like that where we just it doesn't fit where we are right now and so don't let that uh discourage you but instead just sort of you know realize that okay well that's something that doesn't work for me or doesn't work for me now and you know you can always revisit it later but the the key is like find the things that do work for you the things that do help you become a better developer and embrace those and as you get better at those as those become essentially second nature to you then you can add on other habits and you can try to grow in other ways you don't have to grow into a you know a mighty Oak tomorrow it takes time and that's okay if you're you know testing your way along there that's if you would like look at some of the most effective people out there they did not just you know pick something and go they have almost always had several failures and several things that they tested along the way to make sure what works for them and what doesn't and a lot of times they will even caution you and say well this yeah this works for me but it's it didn't initially or it only works for me because I had to combine this other thing or you know whatever it is sort of you know take everything essentially with a grain of salt take a look at how it may help you and if it doesn't work for you feel free to throw it out that's the I think the beauty of the way we've set up these challenges is it really like it's just seven days it's not it probably isn't going to in seven days you're not going to build an actual habit you're going to usually need more like you know a month or two of doing it but at least it gives you going through the motion for a short period of time and figure out does that work for you or does it not the again I will just hit one more time as we wrap this one up is I think a good example for me was the Pomodoro we started out with just one a day and I realized that that was very helpful to me and then actually went to two and that sort of like two to three is probably like my sweet spot is there's like a couple of things that like it allows me to focus on a couple things I really want to focus on it actually sort of hits on the do the things you know getting things done each day sort of like it's not necessarily the things I don't want to do it's not necessarily eating the Frog but it may be and it's a way to spend you know a focused time and do the thing that I don't want to do closing thoughts before we wrap this one up so I'll throw out kind of a personal Journey example with this kind of as a partying thought for those of you just starting out on your journey be in development be in your career whatever you're going to need to kind of look at everything you may have to drink from the fire hose for a while so it can be overwhelming habits are like that as well there's a lot of things out there that you can do to make improvements the thing is unless you go look and at least try everything you don't have to consume the whole cake but just take a bite out of everything find out what you like what you don't like and then you can pair them up and kind of build the tool Suite you need to become a better developer or whatever it is that you do in your job the same goes with habits if you try each one of the tips and habits that we talked about find out what works for you find out what doesn't work and then the question is ask yourself why doesn't it work is it just not the right tool for me now and then maybe make a list and go through it again in 6 months in a year habits are not something that you just start and forget about habits are something that you continuously review continuously grow and you do have to revisit from time to time because sometimes life your job may make it so that certain habits just cannot work you may be in a particular position or job where you are stuck in meetings from 8 to 5: or 9 to 6 you just may not have a choice but you can make small tweaks in other ways to improve your daily lives through habits so I think that's a good point for us to spot for us to wrap this one up we're going to come back around and do one more episode and we're going to sort of recap and talk a little bit about where we're going and and a little bit more revisit the habits and why we do them and then talk maybe a little bit about where we're going in the next season because we still haven't quite figured that one out that being said we are very welcome we're always very happy to get any kind of feedback from you guys so email at info uh info@ developer.com email us there uh you go out to developer.com site you can lead us leave us any sort of on the contact us form you can lead us feedback on any of the the podcast episodes YouTube episodes out the develop andur Channel on YouTube you can shoot us something on X develop andur uh Facebook page the developer page there however you get us feedback we're happy to hear it and any recommendations suggestions that you have as we move forward that being said we will wrap this one up and let you get back to your day so go out there and have yourself a great great day a great week and we will talk to you next time uh bonus material uh so for this one it's not so much bonus but I just want to call out for those of you on YouTube that have been leaving comments and messages we do hear you I have not responded to a couple of you just yet because I am still trying to find the answers to your questions uh one person asked where the karate and rest assured code was it was there at one point but through moving of our servers uh of our site we lost it uh I have it backed up somewhere I will find it soon and we will get it out there for you so just bear with us please all right well I think we'll wrap this one up because we are ready to dive into our next episode so if you guys just uh as always feedback from you is welcome as well and uh we'll dive into this next episode shortly uh for ourselves may take a day or two for you guys and go out there and have yourself a great day and we will talk to you next time [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
and we will get started so
um actually we're so we're getting sort
of towards the end and I'm
thinking we've got like sort of last one
we were talking about like breaking up
open up conversations and listening
listening skills so trying to remember
how much we went
into we did have a topic in
slack um we threw out
there
uh breaking up yeah breaking up and
opening up conversations and listening
listening skills yep so yeah uh we could
do listing skills for this one and then
the uh one right after this is kind of
our wrap
up so that one we don't have to make
super long
but well I think we'll probably wait and
do that next one oh okay um I guess we
could or we could just sort of wrap it
up so I sort of thinking doing a
two-parter for the wrap up
talking a little bit about habits and
sort of moving forward and stuff like
that so that would actually work
well um if we want to do that is sort of
like um so probably the first one would
be more like
a don't get overwhelmed because we've
just given you 30 some odd you know
challenges and habits and stuff like
that um and then sort of how to go
moving forward how to go with
that yeah kind of like that the other
thing I was thinking too is uh maybe end
it with why habits matter you know we
kind of started out with habits and the
importance of habits but maybe kind of
reinforce that in kind of the sendoff
you know what I mean yeah I like that I
think that's a
good I think that's a good sendoff so we
will get starting with our three two
well hello and welcome back we are
continuing and getting close to the end
of our season of building better habits
we are building better developers we are
developing or I am Rob Broadhead one of
the founders of developing or building
better developers but also a founder of
RB
Consulting and that is a boutique as
they call it Consulting Group where we
help you leverage technology we take all
of the stuff that's out there your
technology sprawl we talk to you about
your specific needs and we build uh
essentially we build a create a custom
recipe for you for your business with
the tools that you need how to use them
whether it's through
integration simplification automation
Innovation all of those shuns that are
out there in a good way we take a look
at all of those things and we find a way
to help you do a better job with
technology and and help it be sort of
like your you know something riding
shotgun with you instead of something
holding a a gun to your head now good
things bad things I'm going to do this
one this will be a nice simple one uh
because lately my wife is Ed working
with
me enough said good thing and a bad
thing there is good and bad out of both
of the out of that and so whenever
you're dealing with like family members
close friends stuff like that and work
think all of you guys can understand and
GS can understand that there are some
good things involved with that but there
can also be some extra challenges so it
is definitely a un unique relationship
to have both from your personal side
because of however you personally relate
to them and then of course from your
professional side because of however you
relate to them
professionally habits since we're
getting towards the end I just want to
say that the this has been actually very
beneficial to me across the board the
habits that we have brought up the
things that we have done the the
challenges that we have had uh and I
think particularly because it it did go
over the holiday period so it allowed
some extra time for a little burn in a
little bit a little bit of you know
baking in some of those habits it really
has been a a refreshing season for me
hopefully it's something for you guys as
well that you have experienced some of
these challenges that you have developed
maybe some habits and maybe even learned
a little bit about yourself now it's
time for you to learn a little bit about
Michael who is on the other side go
ahead and introduce yourself hey
everyone my name is Michael M I'm one of
the co-founders of developer building
better businesses I'm also the founder
of Envision QA where we help small to
midsize businesses uh Medical Offices
essentially
revisit what their software does for
them you know is their business software
really helping them do their job is it a
helpful uh process or a
hindrance one of the best advantages
that we can come and bring to your table
is we can help streamline your processes
and even introduce software or customize
software for you that really streamlines
your whole business we can almost not
necessarily completely automate
everything but we can help streamline
the process so the moment the your
employees sit down they're actually
ready to work not looking for work
trying to find things on their computer
they basically know what they need to
get done and they just go through their
tasks and get it done so by the end of
the day you know what's been done what's
been completed and what's ready for
tomorrow uh good thing bad thing uh good
thing uh wife made it back safely from
California Cloud firers did not get her
uh bad thing uh while she was out there
she had a head cold which you brought
back and thankfully I did not get it uh
habits so this season of habits has been
wonderful for me it's helped me really
refocus and stay on tax for a lot of
things uh we've talked a whole lot about
the Pomodoro Technique uh I
unfortunately unlike Rob am not able to
really stick to that as much as I like
uh unfortunately life and things keep
pivoting me but my lists really really
help keep being a list of what I really
need to get done the important things I
need to get done in the day I make sure
I do those first as soon as I can get
them done because you know life happens
and then I'm not struggling and
stressing at the end of the day that I
didn't get the critical things done even
if I don't want to do it it gets done
and then it's off my plate and I'm not
stressing anymore which also leads to
kind of that helpful um taking the time
to be mindful you know stepping aside
work on my anxiety uh work through the
what if and get those off my plate again
those lists really help you write it
down and then you focus on how do you
get it you know how do you make it not a
problem is it really a problem you know
you just work through it and get it out
of the
way and I will pass it back over D
Rob uncomfortable pause there for a
second I was actually I was looking at
our list cuz I want to go back and in
this episode we want to recap a little
bit
and I was looking at the list of things
it goes back actually a couple of months
now and was just thinking like sort of a
little bit of a revisiting some of the
topics that we've talked
about because for one we have just gone
through we've basically thrown out
roughly 30 habits and challenges over
the last few months that can feel a
little bit overwhelming trust me I'm I'm
with you with that because I've been
going through these as well I've been
working on these I've been trying to
particularly as they start to stack up
remember it's like oh yeah I'm working
on this habit as well as that habit and
that habit and that habit first off if
you're if you've even gotten close to
that if you've gotten even a third of
them you know go in and give yourself a
little high five
because you have made progress even just
a handful just a couple of habits if you
have developed these habits probably are
going to make you a better developer
maybe a better person uh you know better
professionally and things like that
I do want to highlight like hit on
some revisit a couple of them that I
think are worth revisiting uh for
various reasons and the first I want to
talk about is actually where we started
we talked about security awareness way
way way way back it seems like way way
back anyways it was just a few months
ago but we talked about that and
developing a security awareness habit of
just doing a regular check-in to make
sure that your systems are secure that
you are keeping up with what are the
latest you know hacking techniques and
stuff like that and I want to you know
make sure that we that is one of those
that we should do on a regular basis so
just to remind you like if you haven't
thought about it since that week it's
probably a good time you know maybe do a
quarterly checkup or something along
those lines the Pomodoro Technique as
Michael mentioned is something I cannot
U it was actually episode two we started
talking about that I cannot emphasize
enough how much more effective that has
been for me in trying to do just
initially one and then you know two or
three pomodoros a day as opposed to
entirely switching my schedule over to
that doing a sort of half tomato you
know half a a smaller bite of doing the
Pomodoro Technique much like many other
things we've talked about simplifying it
and cutting it down to something instead
of doing the whole thing but taking
little bites has turned out to be very
very effective for me uh I also found
that has been a great excuse for me to
utilize some of the uh the focus apps
and things like that so I'll put my
headphones on get one of those like nice
little focus music things going played
around with that a little bit the the
app that I use is one that has you know
varying uh types of focus so it's like
are you trying to be creative are you
trying to just get some work done is it
light work is it hard work is it
artistic work is it for memory blah blah
blah all these little things and I've
been playing around with those as well
to really even more so heighten those
pomodoros that I'm trying to you know
pick up along the way on a regular basis
so that one has turned out to be I think
a highly useful
habit another one that I think I think
the the getting thing done getting
things done kind
of uh challenges and habits that are out
there I think are going to be very
effective for you for example as Michael
mentioned you know building a creating a
list uh doing things like you know the
eat the eat the Frog is making sure that
you take on your the things that you
don't want to do sooner rather than
later uh automation is something there's
like all these things that any one of
them is an incredibly valuable habit and
I just want to sort of reiterate that
even if as a whole this seems like too
much go ahead and just you know sort of
like browse back through some of the
topics that we've covered and some of
the habits and the challenges and maybe
go back and you know listen to one again
or you know go back and and just listen
you know sort of go like oh yeah I
didn't really tackle that challenge why
don't I give that one a shot because I
think you will find that that will make
that will improve you uh just as it
would have then it will help you now and
it's one of the things that it may be
too much as you've been going through
you know a couple of challenges a week
but now that we've spread out maybe it's
time that you go back and pick up a
couple of those habits and see where
those take you so your thoughts on this
season Mike
so yeah this
season I like you said in the beginning
you know I think one of the best things
and we didn't intend for this to happen
was for this season really to run
through the holidays we came up with you
know for those of you that watch the
Youtube videos we kind of come up with
some of our topics pre meeting we flush
out kind of the ideas for what we want
to do for the season and we came up with
the idea so we went through the behind
the scenes last season and this season
we wanted to focus on the next step as
developers what can we do to improve
ourselves so we came up with habits and
a lot of the things we've walked through
this season aren't just habits that we
ourselves always use because as you've
heard you know it's like oh we didn't
think about that or we didn't do that
it's always good to kind of
reset where we're at in life where we're
at in our businesses or where we're at
in Even in our um our growth through
being an employee or just through work
or life uh a lot of the habits that we
talked about um like automation you know
that is critical today you know as we
move into this world of
AI really understanding automation
getting things done becomes more
important because we we are now kind of
kind of under that
microscope of what other Industries have
been for years of automation so AI is
going to help speed up that automation
process so you're going to need to
really start focusing on
automation but in the same
token by automating things we're
removing the
redundancy and that is helping us look
at other habits to improve our other
process improve ourselves improve our
life and that is really the goal of this
season is to take these
habits and embrace them find what works
for
you and put them together in a way that
you can structure your days your weeks
your years and continue on that
development journey to become a better
person um
so some of the things you know this
season we've talked about that
were really a couple episodes back which
were really dear to me was you know
managing anxiety and stress throughout
life we have things that come up that
makes us anxious and stressful but if
you don't know how to address that or
identify that you are going to struggle
um and that's where a lot of the things
we cover here this season I think are
very helpful and that if you have missed
any of these go back through and revisit
past episodes because you know Breaking
Bad Habits you know that are
anti-habsburg
you're going to get there it's not
something you just do overnight that I
mean we're some 30 episodes in I mean
this is not something that I mean that's
uh what 15 hours of
habits that took time to even cover that
but then you add the challenges so this
is not something like a quick fad diet
you can't just you know chug a couple
and hey I've got it no it's something
you do have to work at but you can pick
three or four of these habits and
enforce them by doing them every day and
you're going to find that hey at the end
of a week you will see some improvements
you're going to see small incremental
improvements over time and then suddenly
you're going to be like wow 6 months ago
I was here now I'm here and a year or
two from now you might be here but you
will have stumbling blocks along the way
it's just like a diet you're going to
have cheat days you're going to have
skip days but try not to go too far
off the Habit train and just you know
stick with
it I think that's the key is the stick
with it piece I mean that's really what
it's really what a habit is all about it
is about doing it and it goes back to
we've talked about this many times about
the idea of incremental Improvement and
how that you can just like you know it's
the whole a journey of a Thousand Miles
starts with a single step but then you
take another step and another step and
that's how the habits are as well is
that you just build on it it's a little
bit each day
I don't know how many of these habits
are minutes out of a day but doing that
day after day after day does build up
quite a bit of distance into you know
development and into whatever that thing
is that you're trying to tackle and it's
amazing what that stuff can do over time
and so it's just a I think this is a
good point to just sort of give yourself
a pat on the back and say hey if you've
taken on any one of these challenges
then even if it didn't work for you at
least you've learned what doesn't work
for you I think that is probably one of
the greatest Lessons Learned for me in
the last I don't know really probably
throughout my career uh but definitely
in the last I don't know 20 years of me
trying to as I've really focused on
becoming a better developer becoming
better at what I do is figuring out what
I don't do well and figure out what
doesn't work well for me because you can
go out and you can hear a lot of
different recommendations you can
there's all kinds of you know starting
your day early start your day late eat
this drink that do this do that all
these things that you can do and they
all have some level of value because
they will work for some of us some of
the time and some you know maybe all of
us occasionally and you know maybe none
of us not very often or however you want
to mix
that but it is about finding out what
works for you and you there may be
things that we do that we're like hey
this has worked really like for example
the Pomodoro Technique is it has worked
really well for me it hasn't worked well
for Michael because of just where we're
at now this a couple of things I will
just say is that like there may be
something that didn't work for you 5
years ago that will work for you now and
there may be something that you know has
worked for you but now no longer does CU
sometimes we get into get into a rut or
something like that where we just it
doesn't fit where we are right now and
so don't let that uh discourage you but
instead just sort of you know realize
that okay well that's something that
doesn't work for me or doesn't work for
me now and you know you can always
revisit it later but the the key is like
find the things that do work for you the
things that do help you become a better
developer and embrace those and as you
get better at those as those become
essentially second nature to you then
you can add on other habits and you can
try to grow in other ways you don't have
to grow into a you know a mighty Oak
tomorrow it takes time and that's okay
if you're you know testing your way
along there that's if you would like
look at some of the most effective
people out there they did not just you
know pick something and go they have
almost always had several failures and
several things that they tested along
the way to make sure what works for them
and what doesn't and a lot of times they
will even caution you and say well this
yeah this works for me but it's it
didn't initially or it only works for me
because I had to combine this other
thing or you know whatever it
is sort of you know take everything
essentially with a grain of salt take a
look at how it may help you and if it
doesn't work for you feel free to throw
it out that's the I think the beauty of
the way we've set up these challenges is
it really like it's just seven days it's
not it probably isn't going to in seven
days you're not going to build an actual
habit you're going to usually need more
like you know a month or two of doing it
but at least it gives you going through
the motion for a short period of time
and figure out does that work for you or
does it not the again I will just hit
one more time as we wrap this one up is
I think a good example for me was the
Pomodoro we started out with just one a
day and I realized that that was very
helpful to me and then actually went to
two and that sort of like two to three
is probably like my sweet spot is
there's like a couple of things that
like it allows me to focus on a couple
things I really want to focus on it
actually sort of hits on the do the
things you know getting things done each
day sort of like it's not necessarily
the things I don't want to do it's not
necessarily eating the Frog but it may
be and it's a way to spend you know a
focused time and do the thing that I
don't want to do closing thoughts before
we wrap this one up so I'll throw out
kind
of a personal Journey example with this
kind of as a partying thought for those
of you just starting out on your journey
be in development be in your career
whatever you're going to need to kind of
look at everything you may have to drink
from the fire hose for a while so it can
be
overwhelming habits are like that as
well there's a lot of things out there
that you can do to make improvements the
thing is unless you go look and at least
try everything you don't have to consume
the whole cake but just take a bite out
of everything find out what you like
what you don't like and then you can
pair them up and kind of build the tool
Suite you need to become a better
developer or whatever it is that you do
in your job the same goes with habits if
you try each one of the tips and habits
that we talked about find out what works
for you find out what doesn't work and
then the question is ask yourself why
doesn't it work is it just not the right
tool for me now and then maybe make a
list and go through it again in 6 months
in a year habits are not something that
you just start and forget about habits
are something that you continuously
review continuously grow and you do have
to revisit from time to time because
sometimes life your job may make it so
that certain habits just cannot work you
may be in a particular position or job
where you are stuck in meetings from 8
to 5: or 9 to 6 you just may not have a
choice but you can make small tweaks in
other ways to improve your daily lives
through habits
so I think that's a good point for us to
spot for us to wrap this one up we're
going to come back around and do one
more episode and we're going to sort of
recap and talk a little bit about where
we're going and and a little bit more
revisit the habits and why we do them
and then talk maybe a little bit about
where we're going in the next season
because we still haven't quite figured
that one out that being said we are very
welcome we're always very happy to get
any kind of feedback from you guys so
email at info uh info@ developer.com
email us there uh you go out to
developer.com site you can lead us leave
us any sort of on the contact us form
you can lead us feedback on any of the
the podcast episodes YouTube episodes
out the develop andur Channel on YouTube
you can shoot us something on X develop
andur uh Facebook page the developer
page there however you get us feedback
we're happy to hear it and any
recommendations suggestions that you
have as we move forward that being said
we will wrap this one up and let you get
back to your day so go out there and
have yourself a great great day a great
week and we will talk to you next
time uh bonus
material uh so for this one it's not so
much bonus but I just want to call out
for those of you on YouTube that have
been leaving comments and messages we do
hear you I have not responded to a
couple of you just yet because I am
still trying to find the answers to your
questions uh one person asked where the
karate and rest assured code was it was
there at one point but through moving of
our servers uh of our site we lost it uh
I have it backed up somewhere I will
find it soon and we will get it out
there for you so just bear with us
please all right well I think we'll wrap
this one up because we are ready to dive
into our next episode so if you guys
just uh as always feedback from you is
welcome as well and uh we'll dive into
this next episode shortly uh for
ourselves may take a day or two for you
guys and go out there and have yourself
a great day and we will talk to you next
time
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