Detailed Notes
In this episode of Building Better Developers with AI, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche revisit one of their most popular topics: developer performance. Originally discussed in “Supercharge Your Focus and Productivity – Expert Tips for Success,” this updated conversation explores how developers can:
✅ Use the Pomodoro Remix for deep work ✅ Build digital fences to block distractions ✅ Map energy cycles for peak coding hours ✅ Apply micro-deadlines to maintain momentum ✅ Prevent burnout with the 90% rule and rest strategies
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by Slack pings, constant context switching, or burnout from long coding sessions, these performance hacks will help you work smarter, not harder.
👉 Try one of these developer performance tips this week and see the difference in your output.
🔔 Subscribe for more insights from the Building Better Developers podcast!
*Follow-us on:* * https://develpreneur.com/ * https://www.youtube.com/@develpreneur * https://facebook.com/Develpreneur * https://x.com/develpreneur * https://www.linkedin.com/company/develpreneur/
💬 Thanks for watching! Here are the timestamps so you can jump around 👇
0:00 – Pre-Show Bonus 🎤 2:00 – Behind the Scenes 5:00 – Casual Chat 10:00 – Bonus Content 15:00 – Transition to Episode 16:00 – Intro: Developer Performance 18:00 – Pomodoro Remix 21:00 – Digital Fences 25:00 – Energy Mapping 28:00 – Micro-Deadlines 32:00 – Burnout Prevention 36:00 – The 90% Rule 39:00 – Final Takeaways 41:30 – Outro
#developerperformance #codingproductivity #burnoutprevention #softwaredevelopment #buildingbetterdevelopers
Transcript Text
It looks better. >> Yeah, we've done a lot on the site. Um, we've got like the meet our team. So now we've gone to to we went and got um we used AI for so we could get some professional images. Uh some of them the guys the original stuff that was generated was not good because they they didn't provide like they like Wes did not provide any pictures of him smiling and so he looked either like some like hitman or somebody that was trying to be like some uh Adonis model or something. it was always like this really serious look that was sort of a you know looks like some sort of muscly pose or something. But um yeah, so we've been we've been building out on all of that stuff. Um sort of like probably we'll do a I guess a soft launch of uh some of that stuff in the very near future. probably like this week I'm going to actually send you some stuff and say, "Hey, I want you to take a look at this um and do and uh Natalie and a couple others uh to get some feedback." But yeah, so I've been like but those things I need the I need to focus especially if I'm using AI. That is one of the things. Did I hit record? >> Yeah, you did. >> Okay. So, hello everybody. Sorry. Like I was totally I said I should record and then I forgot to say hello. So, uh, ola everybody. Uh, >> so what, uh, AI tool did you use? >> I've been using I haven't I've been using, uh, Chat GPT and I've been bouncing around between five and four mini and then or 4.5. I can't remember. There's like two or three of them I bounced around with. And I've basically gotten really good stuff for what I want because uh from the coding side because it's really um I know the code and so it's basically and I know like in detail what I want. So I can sit there and say take this like if you're looking at the RB site I will take any one of the actually let me just share this because then I'm like people are like well hey I've never gone to the RB site. You guys should you guys should have it memorized by now. I mean, let's face it. Um, let's see. So, if I share this out, where's Zoom again? And I'm gonna share it. Well, this is all new. I don't think we've shared stuff very often here. So, now uh Whoops. I should hit the share button. Okay. Okay. So, if I go to this guy. So, this is the app I was telling you about that's like granted I knew what I was doing but cranked out this little survey app in like you know not a lot of time and have done a lot of most of that time has been like tweaking stuff and things like that to make it look better. But um in the way I've been oops that's not the one I want. I want to go back to this one so I can go to the site. So for example like I took this as a section. I took the section of code and I said, "Okay, and I had to play with a little bit because there's so many because I've got all these past projects. I've got too much content." But I basically do is say, "All right, take this description, which was something I had in a completely different format." I said, "I want to do it. I want to take this. I want it to be, you know, described. It needs to be professional. I want it to be in a carousel. I want it to use uh I said, "Go ahead and make it a modern look and feel." And I it's like so used tailwind as the as the main you know style and then went through a couple iterations and got to it. And I've been able to do it with like um all of these as well where it's like hey you know give me give me something that is like like you know in a card format um you know or even like this one I just took all the text I said okay well give me something I want the image on the right and then give me the text on the left uh you know give me some decent buttons I'm like all this stuff it's like I'll just take it as a section and so it's not huge it's not something that blows up chat GPT and then you know it can give me something back that then I can basically go in and plug it into my page and then you know check it out and if I like it great if I don't then I can make some tweaks or I'll I'll send it back sometimes and I'll be like hey take this and because it's easier to do it that way than it is for me to crawl through the code sometimes. So be things like, okay, take this, but I want you to, you know, change up the font, make this a little darker, you know, add some u some highlights to stuff. So things like the menu or it's just like, you know, highlight the menu items a little bit better. Um, you know, those kinds of things like move this over here, move that over there. Those things, it's just like it'll just crank through them for me. I've become more and more a fan of using AI with development for this stuff, particularly these kinds of things because it's just like it's one of those I was I started everything you because I've used Bootstrap for so long. I was using Bootstrap for all this and I said you know what actually when I built the you know the assessment tool um originally I was like I want to build a node React um application. I've built a couple but I was like I want to go ahead and do that. And then the more I thought about it, that's when I was and so I built some I built it out and had like four or five pages and some stuff had some basic stuff. And then I'm like, you know what? I've done a node app. I've done a React app. I want to change this around because I was doing it for something else. I was like, okay, make it Flask and and then I was like started playing around with that. I was like, Flask and straight HTML. And then I was like, Flask and Bootstrap. And I'm like, Flask and let's do Tailwind. And I started liking what I was doing with seeing with the Tailwind. So I was like, cool. Let's just go ahead and do that. And then I can take stuff like the content just say take this content and make it flow with this style so that I don't have to go through and do all of the, you know, the line feeds and the divs and all that kind of stuff as I can like and I pulled it out. Some of the stuff I've pulled off of the especially the RB site. This is the this is bonus material everybody. Sorry I'm getting it in for him. I took the website that is the RB website that was all the WordPress stuff because everything was a page or a post in WordPress before and I started grabbing those pages and I could pull the source out of that and say take this and clean it up like get the WordPress crap out of it and give me just a sleeker design that's roughly this you know layout. It didn't get usually gave me something that was a very vanilla layout, but the nice thing is is it could just go through and take the content, have a general layout, blow away all the extra crap that WordPress had for all of its styles and all of its stuff. And now suddenly I've got, you know, essentially an ht html file that now I can work with and I can put wherever I want to put it. So, you know, this is the stuff where I'm like, all right, I'm gonna embrace and it's it makes mistakes. I will guarantee like I constantly have to go back and like okay I think I've got roughly it now I got to look back at what it generated because it will do all kinds of weird stuff. The the app itself was really tough because it would just periodically because I was like here's the API or essentially here's all of the endpoints and here's what I want to do and periodically it would rewrite links in the page to it was like oh you probably want this different API name. So it would just do that and I'd be sitting there I'm like I never did that. don't change. I'd be like, change only this and it doesn't pay attention. So, is my bonus for today. >> I'll tell you a trick on fixing that because I've run into that a few times. What I'll do is I'll take the last good page and I'll say let's reset to this page and it resets the memory to that. And typically, I won't have that particular problem again probably for the rest of that session. I've had that a couple times where I'll say I did like I did this earlier is I said take this menu and make it look like this menu in this style because I want them to be and it's like cool because I knew there was a lot of just crap to do. So it spit something out. I'm like okay pretty good. And then later I took it and I said because I was making some changes to it. So I took the menu that I'd been doing and I took that and I dropped it in there and I said take this and do whatever the the conversions were that I wanted to do with it. and it kicked it back and it rewrote all of the menu items to some prior menu and I was like you gave it to me right the first time why are you giving me this thing with all of these menu items changed and it was just like so that's AI u but uh yeah like focus like being able to sit there uh particularly now that I'm doing some of it like you know getting back into some of this stuff and using like an AI thing or something so it's very much in that context and I'm I'm sitting in that mindset of I can throw something over and like chat GPT. Um like I said, it's done pretty good, but I think I'm going to I want to get myself and go play around with Gemini for a while and do that one and just see how much because that's supposed to be a little better for code. Um but just have that open so I can be sitting there and it's I know that like all of these other tools are out there to do that kind of stuff to sit there and guide you with them. Um I just haven't embraced all of them yet. I'm I'm trying to figure out what I like and what I don't like. So, I'm going to give them some burn-in times. But, this has worked well in um being focused so I can sit there and I can like focus on be not multitasking, write my code, working on my app, working on my functionality, and then I've got, you know, AI will be sitting there. So, I'll just be like, "Hey, take this and do that. Hey, take this and do that." And then I get myself to a stopping point, too, which is very key is that like then it's like, "Okay, stopping point. commit my changes, do my updates, whatever I need to do. Uh, this is really important with like some of the stuff you and I have been working on is there's been too many times that I would do it, get pulled away, and then come back later and think I'd gotten something done, but I hadn't done it. And then you go back and you look at it and you're like, I thought I did that. It's like, oh, I guess I didn't finish that out or I had it commented. It's just focus, focus, focus. Uh, that's my rant. And now >> I will throw one little tidbit in and we'll skip the bonus at the end of this one because we kind of went long on this one, but uh codew weavers is one I've been playing around with uh with Chase and it works really well with Intelligj and I think it works with Visual Code. Um it's as good but it's actually been a little bit better at times than what I've seen for Chat GPT and um Claude. So, it might be another one to kind of look at that is already apparently integrated in with Intelligj. >> Yeah, they I think that's the one they've they've I'm not sure if that's the same one they did with uh PyCharm. Uh I played around with it for a little bit and I can't remember. I think that is the one because I think it was all of the uh Jet Brain tools. They did that and I just wasn't I was getting better results and I think it's because of some of how I've set up my context. I was getting better results in chat GPT with than I was with that. And it's because it's mostly because it was giving me too many options. It's like, well, you could do this, you could do this, you do this, or here's the different ways you can do it. And I was just like, no, I had a very specific thing. And I don't know how much of it was me getting used to talking to that AI. Uh, Whisper was doing pretty good for a while, but it would because it would suggest, but uh there was too many times that it would oversuggest and I'd accidentally like hit a tab and all of a sudden, boom, I've got 400 lines of code. would have been great if that's what I wanted, but that's not what I wanted. So, um, yeah, I but this is all, you know, I think a lot of it's going to be a personal thing just like, you know, people like Bing versus Google versus Internet Explorer or Yahoo back in the day or all the different search engines. I think we're going to run through the same thing with the the AI tools. So, let me go to did I have the old >> and I don't know if you saw the news, but AOL dialup is finally dead. >> Is it dead yet? I think they I thought they set the date was like coming up here that they're going to finally kill dialup, which is amazing because I'm I know there's got to be people still using it, but it's just amazing to think that they are. Maybe it is. Maybe there's only like three people actually affected by that. So, okay. So for the developneur building better developers and if you could share it like you did last time that was helpful. Uh, let's see. Building better developers podcast suggest a uh let's do something like a fun and lively yet educational uh episode with this topic. I'm going to get a little different this time and the topic is focus and productivity expert. Wow, this is Jeez. Supercharge your focus and productivity expert tips for success. Wow, this is what this was perfect bonus material. This exactly how we came into it. All right, so let's see. It's a thinking and this is on What am I on? Am I on I think I'm on the GPT5 right now. Wow, it's thinking a lot on this one. If I had been a little bit slower than the four, >> that wouldn't be too surprising. Yeah, Natalie's been playing around with a lot. She's done a lot. She actually had Chat GPT tell her how to do a better job of like giving her images and stuff like that. So, she was getting a lot. Okay, so this is gonna Wow, this is taking its time. Okay, we're going to do is we're going to ahead and get started and then we'll come back and I will throw it into Slack because let's see. Let me get myself set up. Got this here. I got Oh, let me get water. I'm waiting for this. I'm going to get by. Okay, let's see. Did it actually finish while I was doing Oh, it did. Okay. So, let's take Where is that? There we go. I've skipped the whole thing. I throw that over here. Here, I'm going to throw this at you personally so it doesn't get into our other >> perfect >> bunch of crap. Now, I need to get back over here. Okay. Uh, let me get that. Let me do it this way. Let me move him over here so I can even read him better. Adjust my extern. Let's do this. Yeah, I'm tall enough. There we go. Can you hear me? Okay. Is this all good uh audio-wise? >> Yeah, I'm maxed. So, it should be fine. >> Okay. I just want to make sure because yeah, I can switch to other stuff. But if this works and it's not, you know, there's no problems, then I will do this. Let's see. I'll get this center my head properly. My big fat head. And we're going to do the t dos uno. Well, hello and welcome back. We are continuing our season where we are talking about actually past topics. We're going to do it with AI. So, we're going to throw it back through chat GPT basically say, "Hey, tell us what we should have done and then we're basically going to assess whether AI does a better job than we do or we're going to allow you to do so." Uh, first off, I need to introduce myself. My name is Rob Broadhead. Have I actually introduced the P? I don't think I said the name of the podcast. Let me get back to that. We'll rerun. This is developer building better developers. This is season I don't know what it is. Lost track of the number of episodes. Now we can go forward to me. My name is Rob Broadat. I'm one of the founders of developing orb. Also the founder of RB Consulting where we help you do technology better. We sit down with you walk through your your business, your organization. Talk about where you're at, where you want to go, and then what is your technology path to get there. We're going to help you do a technology assessment. We're going to get out there with you and help you build a uh technology roadmap. We can help you implement it. We can let you implement it. Uh there's a lot of different ways things can be you can work with you. You can have existing technology or you may need some new stuff. So we may need to simplify, we may need to integrate, we need may need to automate, we may need to innovate. All of those are totally accessible to you wherever your organization is. I think that's one of the biggest messages we need to have is as long as you sit down and and understand your processes, there are tools that will help you get those done faster and better and they are affordable. You can find stuff that works within your budget. You don't have to spend a billion dollars to have a a really good technology footprint that meets uh the needs of your business. Good things and bad things. Let's see. Um, bad thing. I'll start with the bad thing. I guess there's a good side of this, too. Bad thing is I went to I had a dental appointment. I was going to go to the dentist. I ended up 10 minutes late. They were they sat there and like had me sit there for 10 more minutes. And the next thing I know, they're like, "Oh, it's too late. We can't take you today. I need you to reschedule." So, the bad thing is I wasted probably an hour of time going back and forth to the dentist to only have to make sure I get there much earlier next time around. The good news is I had too much crap to do anyways. So, I really did not need to lose the extra. Yeah, I probably would have lost another hour and a half or two hours if I had dealt with the dentist. So, there's a, you know, there is a little uh silver cloud or silver lining to that big black storm cloud. The other silver lining is that I've got somebody on the other side that's going to introduce himself. Michael, go for it. >> Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malashsh. I'm one of the co-founders of building better developers, also known as developer. I'm also the founder and owner of Envision QA, where we help startups and growing companies build better software faster and with fewer problems. Our services cover software development, quality assurance, test automation, and release support. Companies come to us when they want to avoid delays, reduce bugs, and launch with confidence. Whether you're building your first MVP or scaling a live project, we help make sure that your software is reliable, efficient, and ready for growth. You can learn more about us at envisionqa.com. Let's see. Good thing, bad thing. Had a whole lot of bad and a little bit of good. Uh bad just compounded this week. So, uh, at our other house, we go out and we're there for an hour and all of a sudden we go from having water pressure to no water pressure. Wife thinks I didn't pay the water bill, which can happen cuz it's on autopay and sometimes it doesn't go through. No, we had a busted water line under the ground somewhere and had no water getting into the house. Uh, waited for the plumber to come out. They couldn't come out that day, so we had to reschedule the next day. Next day, they came out. They found the leak, fixed it. Next day, oops, another leak. So, long story short, we had to replace all the lines from the street to the house. So, after fixing paying for a leak fix, we had to pay for new lines. So, that was very costly, painful, and frustrating. On top of that, we lost our uh AC at the other house the night before they came out to replace the lines. So, that was a lot of fun having to be at two different places at once with housing issues. You know, being a house owner just is fun. Good news, it's all fixed. Knock on wood. Everything's working good. Air's back. Water's running well. So, things are happy again. And I pray it's going to be good and quiet for a while. So able to focus and get back to work. >> So we're going to focus now on, which is funny enough, our title that we've brought from uh a couple seasons back. The original title was Supercharge Your Focus and Productivity, the develop the dev's guide to getting stuff done without Wait, is that I'm sorry. Original one was Supercharge Your Focus and Productivity: Expert Tips for Success. This one just jumped right in and said, "Here you go." and it redid our title and it says supercharge your focus and productivity the dev's guide to getting stuff done without burning out. So, it add a little bit. Opening hook. Ever feel like your coding day disappears into meetings, slack pings, and random rabbit holes? Yes. Today, we're putting your productivity on performance-enhancing code without the side effects. That's a little bit different, but okay. I don't like their wording, but hey, it's AI episode flow, setting the stage. First one, two to three minutes. Relatable dev life scenario, jumping between bug fixes, PR reviews, trying to learn a new framework, all while email notifications keep chiming. Why focus is harder now than ever. Context switching costs, remote work distractions, dopamine traps from social media. Um, let's jump into this is right on our text. So, we're going to go right into the second one. Expert tips for laser focus. The Pomodoro Remix 25 minute sprints with a developer twist. Breaks for code refactor notes, tech reading, or even a quick GitHub browse. Digital fences using tools tools like cold turkey, focus at will, or even do not disturb mode for uninterrupted blocks. Morning energy mapping. Tackle your most challenging code problems during your peak brain hours. These three I want to they really work together. I'm just going to start with that. The Pomodoro remix it talks about I have really gotten just fallen in love with a Pomodoro technique that I use. I've I've shifted it so I usually do 45 minutes. I have uh brain FM that I will set for 45 minutes depending on what my task is. So I will put the headphones on and I will let it give me its nice little you know thought prodducing music and I have found that it is very very very productive to do. So I can take 45 minutes of that and probably get done what it would normally take me two hours to do. uh just and a lot of it goes to the other thing is like those digital is the distractions because part of what I've gotten that I've done to do and when going through these things is I will sit down and I will shut off all I will turn off everything turn off notifications I've gotten so I don't I make sure mail is not up notifications so Slack doesn't hit me now when I turn them back on yes I get blown up sometimes with stuff but during that time I can be very effective uh one of the things that I'm playing around with actually uh in the next little bit is uh just checking my productivity bio rhythm is I' I've got a certain schedule that I use but I'm going to start playing around with that a little bit probably from week to week and so go test it for a week and see how I feel and test it slightly different because I'm trying to figure out like really where are my peak peak and then where are like my mid-range peaks and then I sort of know where I typically drop off but I'm thinking as I've been making some adjustments and able to uh have more control over my schedule and what I'm working on and when. Uh definitely something worth playing around with and I recommend that to everybody is I think that that that laser focus that they said at the top of this section is I think the key to your greatest success. What about you Michael? >> Yeah. So you know you're a big fan of the Pomodoro. I I work well with it, but I tend to work a little bit better in longer kind of sprints of time. Um, so I typically go to the note approach. So I'll write down the tasks I want to get done, or I kind of preload my calendar for here, I want to get this done, this done, this done within those time frames. But with like you, I keep all the other notifications turned off so I'm not getting emails or distractions. Uh, unless it's like emergency. I think that's the only thing that comes in. Uh it's like if it's certain family members can get in unless they beg me too much and then they get blocked. Um but what I've really been focusing on a lot uh especially since the last GLS summit is the morning energy mapping or mapping like finding that peak time of the day when you're mentally focused. For me, ironically, it used to be late in the evening. Like I would do really well first thing in the morning and then like about I'd say five six o'clock at night till whenever in the AM I would be wired. I would be going great and then the next morning like I would have no energy. Um but lately I found that I have really strong energy in the morning and then it's more about the about midday um is when I start to taper a little bit and then at night it I could still have a peak or valley. just kind of depends on how the workday went. So, with that, I've been playing around with getting up earlier. So, like today, and I don't recommend this for everyone, but um I had fallen a little bit behind this week because of the said bad things that happened kind of set off my schedule this week. So, I got up at 3:00 this morning. I'm like, let's see how well I really do if I cut my sleep time a little short. Not ideal, but let's really try to reset my day. And from like 3:00 to 8:00, I was just hyperfocused. No distractions, no noise. I mean, it was just peace of quiet. Uh, nighttime. I got a whole lot done. And then once day started, I started getting all those calls and meetings. And then like my energy just tapered off. And then it started coming back up again about hour or two ago. But it it's kind of going through those waves and it's listening to your body. But sometimes you have to force your body into a different routine. So if you do see yourself doing better in the morning, wake up a little bit earlier. Maybe go to bed a little bit earlier or go to bed a little bit later. Adjust a little bit. You may have a couple days where you're a little bit of a fog or you kind of jet light a little bit, but I recommend it. Um, might be better to try it on a weekend to get yourself reset, but give it a shot cuz I've really found that you don't know and it does change. Like there will be times where I am definitely a night person. Like my mornings, it's like no, I I need a pot of coffee before I can get going. So that's my thoughts. >> I agree. I think it's something that like I know that I was same way for a long time. My my peak period was 10 p.m. till about 300 a.m. something like that. Um, and then there was also like an, you know, I think like late morning maybe. It's still sort of a a early to midm morning, but then I sort of like, yeah, I sort of valley out and then I'll come back up in the the late afternoon. Um, it's something that changed over time. So, definitely, you know, take a look at and and like you, like Michael said, you got to give yourself give it time to settle in because if you just do it for like two days, your body is not going to adjust and it's it's not going to help. You've got to give it, you know, several days to do it. Moving along. Productivity hacks you haven't tried yet. Um, single tab coding. One browser tab, one task. No quick stack overflow detours unless truly stuck. Micro deadlines. Break stories into tiny deliverables that keep momentum high. Code music playlist using rhythm and tempo to match your task type. Fast beats for debugging. Lowfi for deep architecture work. This is uh I'll go backwards on that. So the code music playlist that is exactly why I found brain and has worked really well. Um there is different uh focus types and stuff like that. I think one is like there's a motivation, there's a artistic, there's a deep thought, there's all these different playlists that they've got and I have found that I play around with them a little bit like what I play when. But have definitely found that they are useful to me. Again, it's it helps block out other stuff, but helps keep me sort of like in a little bit of a rhythm and a little bit of like especially it's just like it it breaks the monotony of of stuff. Um I love micro deadlines. Um I I didn't know that that's what they were, but I really do like sitting down and saying, "Okay, this is my schedule for today during this block. This is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm going to focus on." Uh it's a little bit as you mentioned about having that list is it's basically like okay this is what I'm going to do. All right and I'll do it. I'll like I'll write out here's my list of stuff I got to do today. Here's the time I want to put sort of to each of them because now I'm trying I'm having to account for that stuff and make sure that I'm balancing stuff out. And then beside all those then I'll go back and be like okay you know I got a half hour for this so this is the you know my key focus or I've got an hour for this so this is my key focus. So that gives me these little like micro, you know, these milestones or deadlines. The bonus with those is if I get one done faster than whatever that time allotment is is then I can usually I can either if I need to I can have a little bit of a break, but usually what's going to happen is instead I'm going to save that. I'm going to be able to put that to something that I'm more worried about. And if I get as I get towards the end of the day, one of my like midday breaks that I'll have is I'll say like, okay, if I've got plenty of space left, then I can add stuff onto my list. And if not, then it's like, okay, well, I'll just, you know, somewhere along the way, maybe I get one thing done sooner, but then I can shift a little bit of time to something else, you know, later. So, it does allow me to sort of keep in my my rhythm while still getting some stuff done. Your thoughts on that? >> Yeah. So, I liked how you started with the music, the code music playlist. I've got a couple different things I use. Um, one, once I turn off the notifications, you and you kind of get it quiet, you start to hear other noises going on around you. Um, interestingly enough, with the Mac, they added something um, one or two updates back, you can actually uh, turn on background noise. So, if you hit the little button, it'll turn on like white noise or like rain or fire or just kind of enough of a white noise to block out all the other noises that are around you, which is kind of cool. But sometimes you need a little bit more than that. So I'll like use like code focus uh on like Microsoft or not m uh Mac music uh Apple Music to just uh like do focus like classical music or sometimes they have white noise or like spa music. Spa music I find is actually good but it can be too relaxing and can put you to sleep. So, you got to find the right tempo uh of music or white noise to listen to that doesn't put you to sleep, but can at least block out or keep you focused on what you're working on. Uh, single tab coding is probably one of my biggest favorites and probably one of my biggest pet peeves about the way modern IDE have gone. Uh, I'm calling you out, Intelligj. Uh, I don't like the fact that you have to open up multiple windows for multiple projects and you can't have one project window with a uh like a file manager where you can just open up your one file for this project. Instead, I have to go manage all these multiple IDEs to go to this tab to do code. I like one thing simple. Give me one IDE. Yes, maybe a couple tabs, but you're only working one tab at a time. And then, okay, you can jump to the code you need to go to. And if the browsers or the tools you have allow you to seamlessly follow your flow of what you're working on, perfect. Go with it. Because it's going to keep you from getting too distracted of, oh, what's this? If you can like hit control, click what you're going and it jumps you to the next place of code, you're on that path. You're, you know, working through the that logic. You're following that bug. You're on task. But if you're having to go uh control shift R look for a word, you're going down the rabbit hole because you could be in many different places, you don't know where you're going. So by keeping you consolidated to one browser, one task, uh it helps you avoid that multitasking. It may also help your system performance and then you know you're going to get more work done. I think that yeah, I will just say that yeah, I don't think the purpose is to have multiple projects in one thing anyway. So, you're supposed to be like focused on your one project, but uh I agree 100%. It's like it's it if you start having to click around to find what you're working on, that's definitely going to to slow you down. So, uh next one, preventing burnout while staying productive. How rest improves code quality. The 90% rule, leave a little juice in the tank each day so tomorrow isn't a struggle. uh the role of hobbies and side projects in keeping your brain fresh. Uh and we're actually gonna get through all of them this time, I think. So, I want to roll those into something that I found that is um very useful. It goes back to a little bit of scheduling your time is schedule breaks is schedule things that get you away from what you're doing. Now, um, if you're like me and you're trying to avoid checking your mail, like when you get to the end of a break, checking your mail or going off and, you know, reading some site for a little bit or something like that during your breaks, especially because I do I'll do a, you know, a little bit of a longer break. Instead of doing like little five minute breaks, I'll do a 15-minute break, which is easily enough time to get yourself lost in some rabbit hole. find a secondary thing that you want to work on. Whether it's things like um you get to your break and you're going to like, you know, go pay some bills or you're going to like I have I have these secondary these little like side projects that I'm working on. It's like, okay, I'm working on this, but now I'm going to go work on this thing or I'm going to write a maybe I'm writing a blog article or I'm writing some content for something or I'm going to go, you know, review something somebody else did. So, it's that change of mentality, that change of your focus, and it also allows you to just like reset a little bit. But then I think during the day, one of the things I've gotten away from, but worked best for me in the past was have a set like lunch break. Uh, at the time it was like I would work until because of how my rhythms worked. I'd work till 11:00 a.m. and I'd basically kick kick back in at 1 pm. So I'd have like this twohour lunch break u where I would eat. I could go exercise uh depending on the day of the week. Almost every day I would spend 10 or 15 minutes reading something that was not fiction but um I would always do something that was educational. It would be like you know biography of somebody or how to be you know better as a leader or a manager or something like that. you self-improvement kind of books or like you know we've mentioned many times like 4-hour work week or those kinds of books um because it just shifted allowed me to really shift gears. It allowed me to rest doing like a walk or exercise something like that got me away. It helped me from a healthy point of view from a and it helped me come back more recharged. So definitely think about those kinds of things. We've talked so many times about if you get stuck, stand up, walk away. But I think we need to make sure that we pace ourselves with that as well. It's too easy to say, "All right, I'm going to go bam. I'm going to go four hours straight." And that's not the most productive way to do things. You you need to make sure that you're cutting those putting those breaks in there so that you can recharge. Even if you don't, and this is that 90% rule, basically, it's just like sports. If you go hard and now you're done, you go to 100%. That means you have nothing left. So, if you're going to do all that, then what you want to do instead is have a little bit left in the tank, use that, recharge, and now you can come back even stronger. Thoughts on that one? >> Yeah. So, this one brings to mind I think something someone said at the GLS, but um if you are running into situations where you're work, you're not following the Pomodoro, you're constantly focusing on one task, you're giving it that 100%. Look at one, kick back to 90%, but two, look at what your day looks like. Look at not just your tasks, but what are you doing during the day? Because one of the biggest indicators that I found that this was a great example of was I would start my day off. I would get my coffee. I would uh open up my digital newspaper and I would read some of the daily headlines, which lately has been all negative. So, you kind of start your day off with that mindset and then you go into work. Oh, now you read your work emails and those could put you in a different mindset. Watch your mindset because if you're finding out that the tasks you're doing are basically very negative or very repetitive in a way that is putting you off on being productive. Shift that around. Change up that uh your way of doing things. The other thing is, you know, preventing burnout is is hard. You have to also check yourself mentally and just see where you're at. Um, you got apps for that. There are things you can do where uh or just set reminders at certain times of the day. Check yourself. How do I feel right now? What have I done since I started my day? And what is good and what is bad? And then the other thing at the end of the day, you know, people talk about journaling and things like that, but write down at the end of the day, what is the most pressing thing that is still to be done that you need to do first thing tomorrow? So, basically start your day for tomorrow, set yourself up for success so that when you start the day, the next day, you're not like, what am I working? Nope, I need to get this done, get this off my plate, get it done, and start fresh. Um just these few little tricks here will help you avoid the mindset. And the biggest one, turn your phone off when you are done working for the day. Lock it up. Put your technology away. If you find yourself pacing and you are touching that phone at least once or twice an hour, put it in another room. Um, I I I I admit um I've caught myself doing that and I'm trying to do the digital fast when I check out at night and just do something else. But I will tell you it is hard being developers. I touch that phone probably two to three times every half hour after I check out. Sometimes more if I'm playing games, but it's a crutch. Turn it off. Walk away from it. Take those walks. Do something else. and just make sure that what you're doing isn't in that same uh kind of avenue so you take a break from what is stressing you and do something that is not the same thing just doing something else. >> It's very freeing once you can get past that. It is but it's like it's we've talked so much about like you making the most of your time. So it's very easy to be sitting there where you've got two or three minutes of dead time or something where you're waiting on something you're just like oh I'm going to check my mail. Getting out of that habit will help you immensely. And it'll be tougher in this modern world because if you're like me, you'll sit there and you're like, you'll go to a restaurant and you don't have your phone with you or you're not pulling it out. Everybody else has their phone out. It's like you're sitting there waiting for, you know, the food to come and everybody else is pulling out their phone and there's just like that, hey, why don't you join the crowd? It's like don't fight it. Trust me, it is worth it. Um, and this is from I'm still struggling with it. So, it's not like I've mastered this, but I have had moments where it's worked and I've been very happy. So, uh, want to keep, you know, keep working on that just like I let you guys know every single episode. Shoot us an email at [email protected]. Actually had a great conversation today with somebody. He's like, "Hey, how's the best way to get a hold of you?" It's like, you know what, [email protected]. That is the best place to get a hold of us. Uh you can also leave us leave us a review anywhere you see it whether it's out on the developer channel on you on YouTube uh out wherever you're getting this podcast if you're listening to podcast developer.com itself you can go out there you can leave feedback on any of our articles you can contact us we've got a form there you can check out our developer page on Facebook you name it uh out on xdevelopure shoot something out there you've you know send something with that and we will find it and we will be more than happy to say thank you and and respond if you have any questions or anything like that. We're always looking for feedback because you're the reason we're doing this. That being said, it's time to wrap this one up. So, we're going to get back on our our little merry AI way. You do the same. Go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. No bonus this time. So, we're just going to wrap this sucker up. Uh you guys, we will be back soon enough. before you know it. For us, it's literally going to be before we know it, basically. So, have a good one.
Transcript Segments
It looks better.
>> Yeah, we've done a lot on the site. Um,
we've got like the meet our team. So now
we've gone to to we went and got um we
used AI for so we could get some
professional images. Uh some of them the
guys the original stuff that was
generated was not good because they they
didn't provide like they like Wes did
not provide any pictures of him smiling
and so he looked either like some like
hitman or somebody that was trying to be
like some uh Adonis model or something.
it was always like this really serious
look that was sort of a you know looks
like some sort of muscly pose or
something. But um yeah, so we've been
we've been building out on all of that
stuff. Um sort of like
probably we'll do a I guess a soft
launch of uh some of that stuff in the
very near future. probably like this
week I'm going to actually send you some
stuff and say, "Hey, I want you to take
a look at this um and do and uh Natalie
and a couple others uh to get some
feedback." But yeah, so I've been like
but those things I need the I need to
focus especially if I'm using AI. That
is one of the things. Did I hit record?
>> Yeah, you did.
>> Okay. So, hello everybody. Sorry. Like I
was totally I said I should record and
then I forgot to say hello. So, uh, ola
everybody. Uh,
>> so what, uh, AI tool did you use?
>> I've been using I haven't I've been
using, uh, Chat GPT and I've been
bouncing around between five and four
mini and then or 4.5. I can't remember.
There's like two or three of them I
bounced around with. And I've basically
gotten really good stuff for what I want
because uh from the coding side because
it's really
um I know the code and so it's basically
and I know like in detail what I want.
So I can sit there and say take this
like if you're looking at the RB site I
will take any one of the actually let me
just share this because then I'm like
people are like well hey I've never gone
to the RB site. You guys should you guys
should have it memorized by now. I mean,
let's face it. Um, let's see. So, if I
share this out, where's Zoom again? And
I'm gonna share it. Well, this is all
new. I don't think we've shared stuff
very often here. So, now uh Whoops. I
should hit the share button. Okay. Okay.
So, if I go to this guy. So, this is the
app I was telling you about that's like
granted I knew what I was doing but
cranked out this little survey app in
like you know not a lot of time and have
done a lot of most of that time has been
like tweaking stuff and things like that
to make it look better. But um in the
way I've been oops that's not the one I
want. I want to go back to this one so I
can go to the site. So for example
like I took this
as a section. I took the section of code
and I said, "Okay, and I had to play
with a little bit because there's so
many because I've got all these past
projects. I've got too much content."
But I basically do is say, "All right,
take this description, which was
something I had in a completely
different format." I said, "I want to do
it. I want to take this. I want it to
be, you know, described. It needs to be
professional. I want it to be in a
carousel. I want it to use uh I said,
"Go ahead and make it a modern look and
feel." And I it's like so used tailwind
as the as the main you know style and
then went through a couple iterations
and got to it. And I've been able to do
it with like um all of these as well
where it's like hey you know give me
give me something that is like like you
know in a card format um you know or
even like this one I just took all the
text I said okay well give me something
I want the image on the right and then
give me the text on the left uh you know
give me some decent buttons I'm like all
this stuff it's like I'll just take it
as a section and so it's not huge
it's not something that blows up chat
GPT and then you know it can give me
something back that then I can basically
go in and plug it into my page and then
you know check it out and if I like it
great if I don't then I can make some
tweaks or I'll I'll send it back
sometimes and I'll be like hey take this
and because it's easier to do it that
way than it is for me to crawl through
the code sometimes. So be things like,
okay, take this, but I want you to, you
know, change up the font, make this a
little darker, you know, add some u some
highlights to stuff. So things like the
menu or it's just like, you know,
highlight the menu items a little bit
better. Um, you know, those kinds of
things like move this over here, move
that over there. Those things, it's just
like it'll just crank through them for
me. I've become more and more a fan of
using AI with development for this
stuff, particularly these kinds of
things because it's just like
it's one of those I was I started
everything you because I've used
Bootstrap for so long. I was using
Bootstrap for all this and I said you
know what actually when I built the you
know the assessment tool um originally I
was like I want to build a node React um
application. I've built a couple but I
was like I want to go ahead and do that.
And then the more I thought about it,
that's when I was and so I built some I
built it out and had like four or five
pages and some stuff had some basic
stuff. And then I'm like, you know what?
I've done a node app. I've done a React
app. I want to change this around
because I was doing it for something
else. I was like, okay, make it Flask
and and then I was like started playing
around with that. I was like, Flask and
straight HTML. And then I was like,
Flask and Bootstrap. And I'm like, Flask
and let's do Tailwind. And I started
liking what I was doing with seeing with
the Tailwind. So I was like, cool. Let's
just go ahead and do that. And then I
can take stuff like the content just say
take this content and make it flow with
this style so that I don't have to go
through and do all of the, you know, the
line feeds and the divs and all that
kind of stuff as I can like and I pulled
it out. Some of the stuff I've pulled
off of the especially the RB site. This
is the this is bonus material everybody.
Sorry I'm getting it in for him. I took
the website that is the RB website that
was all the WordPress stuff because
everything was a page or a post in
WordPress before and I started grabbing
those pages and I could pull the source
out of that and say take this and clean
it up like get the WordPress crap out of
it and give me just a sleeker design
that's roughly this you know layout. It
didn't get usually gave me something
that was a very vanilla layout, but the
nice thing is is it could just go
through and take the content, have a
general layout, blow away all the extra
crap that WordPress had for all of its
styles and all of its stuff. And now
suddenly I've got, you know, essentially
an ht html file that now I can work with
and I can put wherever I want to put it.
So, you know, this is the stuff where
I'm like, all right, I'm gonna embrace
and it's it makes mistakes. I will
guarantee like I constantly have to go
back and like okay I think I've got
roughly it now I got to look back at
what it generated because it will do all
kinds of weird stuff. The the app itself
was really tough because it would just
periodically because I was like here's
the API or essentially here's all of the
endpoints and here's what I want to do
and periodically it would rewrite links
in the page to it was like oh you
probably want this different API name.
So it would just do that and I'd be
sitting there I'm like I never did that.
don't change. I'd be like, change only
this and it doesn't pay attention. So,
is my bonus for today.
>> I'll tell you a trick on fixing that
because I've run into that a few times.
What I'll do is I'll take the last good
page and I'll say let's reset to this
page and it resets the memory to that.
And typically, I won't have that
particular problem again probably for
the rest of that session. I've had that
a couple times where I'll say I did like
I did this earlier is I said take this
menu and make it look like this menu in
this style because I want them to be and
it's like cool because I knew there was
a lot of just crap to do. So it spit
something out. I'm like okay pretty
good.
And then later I took it and I said
because I was making some changes to it.
So I took the menu that I'd been doing
and I took that and I dropped it in
there and I said take this and do
whatever the the conversions were that I
wanted to do with it. and it kicked it
back and it rewrote all of the menu
items to some prior menu and I was like
you gave it to me right the first time
why are you giving me this thing with
all of these menu items changed and it
was just like so that's AI u but
uh yeah like focus like being able to
sit there uh particularly now that I'm
doing some of it like you know getting
back into some of this stuff and using
like an AI thing or something so it's
very much in that context and I'm I'm
sitting in that mindset of I can throw
something over and like chat GPT. Um
like I said, it's done pretty good, but
I think I'm going to I want to get
myself and go play around with Gemini
for a while and do that one and just see
how much because that's supposed to be a
little better for code. Um but just have
that open so I can be sitting there and
it's I know that like
all of these other tools are out there
to do that kind of stuff to sit there
and guide you with them. Um I just
haven't embraced all of them yet. I'm
I'm trying to figure out what I like and
what I don't like. So, I'm going to give
them some burn-in times. But, this has
worked well in um being focused so I can
sit there and I can like focus on be not
multitasking, write my code, working on
my app, working on my functionality, and
then I've got, you know, AI will be
sitting there. So, I'll just be like,
"Hey, take this and do that. Hey, take
this and do that." And then I get myself
to a stopping point, too, which is very
key is that like then it's like, "Okay,
stopping point. commit my changes, do my
updates, whatever I need to do. Uh, this
is really important with like some of
the stuff you and I have been working on
is there's been too many times that I
would do it, get pulled away, and then
come back later and think I'd gotten
something done, but I hadn't done it.
And then you go back and you look at it
and you're like, I thought I did that.
It's like, oh, I guess I didn't finish
that out or I had it commented. It's
just focus, focus, focus. Uh, that's my
rant. And now
>> I will throw one little tidbit in and
we'll skip the bonus at the end of this
one because we kind of went long on this
one, but uh codew weavers is one I've
been playing around with uh with Chase
and it works really well with Intelligj
and I think it works with Visual Code.
Um it's as good but it's actually been a
little bit better at times than what
I've seen for Chat GPT and um Claude.
So, it might be another one to kind of
look at that is already apparently
integrated in with Intelligj.
>> Yeah, they I think that's the one
they've they've I'm not sure if that's
the same one they did with uh PyCharm.
Uh I played around with it for a little
bit and I can't remember. I think that
is the one because I think it was all of
the uh Jet Brain tools. They did that
and I just wasn't
I was getting better results and I think
it's because of some of how I've set up
my context. I was getting better results
in chat GPT with than I was with that.
And it's because it's mostly because it
was giving me too many options. It's
like, well, you could do this, you could
do this, you do this, or here's the
different ways you can do it. And I was
just like, no, I had a very specific
thing. And I don't know how much of it
was me getting used to talking to that
AI. Uh, Whisper was doing pretty good
for a while, but it would because it
would suggest, but uh there was too many
times that it would oversuggest and I'd
accidentally like hit a tab and all of a
sudden, boom, I've got 400 lines of
code. would have been great if that's
what I wanted, but that's not what I
wanted. So, um, yeah, I but this is all,
you know, I think a lot of it's going to
be a personal thing just like, you know,
people like Bing versus Google versus
Internet Explorer or Yahoo back in the
day or all the different search engines.
I think we're going to run through the
same thing with the the AI tools. So,
let me go to did I have the old
>> and I don't know if you saw the news,
but AOL dialup is finally dead.
>> Is it dead yet? I think they I thought
they set the date was like coming up
here that they're going to finally kill
dialup, which is amazing because I'm I
know there's got to be people still
using it, but it's just amazing to think
that they are.
Maybe it is. Maybe there's only like
three people actually affected by that.
So, okay. So for the developneur
building better developers
and if you could share it like you did
last time that was helpful. Uh, let's
see. Building better developers podcast
suggest
a uh let's do something like a fun
and lively yet educational
uh episode with this topic. I'm going to
get a little different this time and the
topic is focus and productivity expert.
Wow, this is Jeez. Supercharge your
focus and productivity expert tips for
success. Wow, this is what this was
perfect bonus material. This exactly how
we came into it. All right, so let's
see. It's a thinking
and this is on What am I on? Am I on I
think I'm on the GPT5 right now. Wow,
it's thinking a lot on this one.
If I had been a little bit slower than
the four,
>> that wouldn't be too surprising. Yeah,
Natalie's been playing around with a
lot. She's done a lot. She actually had
Chat GPT tell her how to do a better job
of like giving her images and stuff like
that. So, she was getting a lot. Okay,
so this is gonna Wow, this is taking its
time. Okay, we're going to do is we're
going to ahead and get started and then
we'll come back and I will throw it into
Slack because let's see. Let me get
myself set up. Got this here. I got Oh,
let me get water. I'm waiting for this.
I'm going to get by.
Okay, let's see. Did it actually finish
while I was doing
Oh, it did. Okay. So, let's take
Where is that?
There we go. I've skipped the whole
thing. I throw that over here. Here, I'm
going to throw this at you personally so
it doesn't get into our other
>> perfect
>> bunch of crap. Now, I need to get back
over here. Okay.
Uh, let me get that. Let me do it this
way. Let me move him over here so I can
even read him better.
Adjust my extern. Let's do this.
Yeah, I'm tall enough. There we go.
Can you hear me? Okay. Is this all good
uh audio-wise?
>> Yeah, I'm maxed. So, it should be fine.
>> Okay. I just want to make sure because
yeah, I can switch to other stuff. But
if this works and it's not, you know,
there's no problems, then I will do
this. Let's see. I'll get this center my
head properly. My big fat head. And
we're going to do the t dos uno.
Well, hello and welcome back. We are
continuing our season where we are
talking about actually past topics.
We're going to do it with AI. So, we're
going to throw it back through chat GPT
basically say, "Hey, tell us what we
should have done and then we're
basically going to assess whether AI
does a better job than we do or we're
going to allow you to do so." Uh, first
off, I need to introduce myself. My name
is Rob Broadhead. Have I actually
introduced the P? I don't think I said
the name of the podcast. Let me get back
to that. We'll rerun. This is developer
building better developers. This is
season I don't know what it is. Lost
track of the number of episodes. Now we
can go forward to me. My name is Rob
Broadat. I'm one of the founders of
developing orb. Also the founder of RB
Consulting where we help you do
technology better. We sit down with you
walk through your your business, your
organization. Talk about where you're
at, where you want to go, and then what
is your technology path to get there.
We're going to help you do a technology
assessment. We're going to get out there
with you and help you build a uh
technology roadmap. We can help you
implement it. We can let you implement
it. Uh there's a lot of different ways
things can be you can work with you. You
can have existing technology or you may
need some new stuff. So we may need to
simplify, we may need to integrate, we
need may need to automate, we may need
to innovate. All of those are totally
accessible to you wherever your
organization is. I think that's one of
the biggest messages we need to have is
as long as you sit down and and
understand your processes, there are
tools that will help you get those done
faster and better and they are
affordable. You can find stuff that
works within your budget. You don't have
to spend a billion dollars to have a a
really good technology footprint that
meets uh the needs of your business.
Good things and bad things. Let's see.
Um,
bad thing. I'll start with the bad
thing. I guess there's a good side of
this, too. Bad thing is I went to I had
a dental appointment. I was going to go
to the dentist. I ended up 10 minutes
late. They were they sat there and like
had me sit there for 10 more minutes.
And the next thing I know, they're like,
"Oh, it's too late. We can't take you
today. I need you to reschedule." So,
the bad thing is I wasted probably an
hour of time going back and forth to the
dentist to only have to make sure I get
there much earlier next time around. The
good news is I had too much crap to do
anyways. So, I really did not need to
lose the extra. Yeah, I probably would
have lost another hour and a half or two
hours if I had dealt with the dentist.
So, there's a, you know, there is a
little uh silver cloud or silver lining
to that big black storm cloud. The other
silver lining is that I've got somebody
on the other side that's going to
introduce himself. Michael, go for it.
>> Hey everyone, my name is Michael
Malashsh. I'm one of the co-founders of
building better developers, also known
as developer. I'm also the founder and
owner of Envision QA, where we help
startups and growing companies build
better software faster and with fewer
problems. Our services cover software
development, quality assurance, test
automation, and release support.
Companies come to us when they want to
avoid delays, reduce bugs, and launch
with confidence. Whether you're building
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Let's see. Good thing, bad thing. Had a
whole lot of bad and a little bit of
good. Uh bad just compounded this week.
So, uh, at our other house, we go out
and
we're there for an hour and all of a
sudden we go from having water pressure
to no water pressure. Wife thinks I
didn't pay the water bill, which can
happen cuz it's on autopay and sometimes
it doesn't go through. No, we had a
busted water line under the ground
somewhere and had no water getting into
the house.
Uh, waited for the plumber to come out.
They couldn't come out that day, so we
had to reschedule the next day. Next
day, they came out. They found the leak,
fixed it.
Next day, oops, another leak. So, long
story short, we had to replace all the
lines from the street to the house. So,
after fixing paying for a leak fix, we
had to pay for new lines. So, that was
very costly, painful, and frustrating.
On top of that, we lost our uh AC at the
other house the night before they came
out to replace the lines. So, that was a
lot of fun having to be at two different
places at once with housing issues. You
know, being a house owner just is fun.
Good news, it's all fixed. Knock on
wood. Everything's working good. Air's
back. Water's running well. So, things
are happy again. And I pray it's going
to be good and quiet for a while. So
able to focus and get back to work.
>> So we're going to focus now on, which is
funny enough, our title that we've
brought from uh a couple seasons back.
The original title was Supercharge Your
Focus and Productivity, the develop the
dev's guide to getting stuff done
without Wait, is that
I'm sorry. Original one was Supercharge
Your Focus and Productivity: Expert Tips
for Success.
This one just jumped right in and said,
"Here you go." and it redid our title
and it says supercharge your focus and
productivity the dev's guide to getting
stuff done without burning out. So, it
add a little bit. Opening hook. Ever
feel like your coding day disappears
into meetings, slack pings, and random
rabbit holes? Yes. Today, we're putting
your productivity on
performance-enhancing code without the
side effects.
That's a little bit different, but okay.
I don't like their wording, but hey,
it's AI episode flow, setting the stage.
First one, two to three minutes.
Relatable dev life scenario, jumping
between bug fixes, PR reviews, trying to
learn a new framework, all while email
notifications keep chiming. Why focus is
harder now than ever. Context switching
costs, remote work distractions,
dopamine traps from social media. Um,
let's jump into this is right on our
text. So, we're going to go right into
the second one. Expert tips for laser
focus. The Pomodoro Remix 25 minute
sprints with a developer twist. Breaks
for code refactor notes, tech reading,
or even a quick GitHub browse. Digital
fences using tools tools like cold
turkey, focus at will, or even do not
disturb mode for uninterrupted blocks.
Morning energy mapping. Tackle your most
challenging code problems during your
peak brain hours. These three
I want to
they really work together. I'm just
going to start with that. The Pomodoro
remix it talks about I have really
gotten just fallen in love with a
Pomodoro technique that I use. I've I've
shifted it so I usually do 45 minutes. I
have uh brain FM that I will set for 45
minutes depending on what my task is. So
I will put the headphones on and I will
let it give me its nice little you know
thought prodducing music and I have
found that it is very very very
productive to do. So I can take 45
minutes of that and probably get done
what it would normally take me two hours
to do. uh just and a lot of it goes to
the other thing is like those digital is
the distractions because part of what
I've gotten that I've done to do and
when going through these things is I
will sit down and I will shut off all I
will turn off everything turn off
notifications I've gotten so I don't I
make sure mail is not up notifications
so Slack doesn't hit me now when I turn
them back on yes I get blown up
sometimes with stuff but during that
time I can be very effective uh one of
the things that
I'm playing around with actually uh in
the next little bit is uh just checking
my productivity bio rhythm is I' I've
got a certain schedule that I use but
I'm going to start playing around with
that a little bit probably from week to
week and so go test it for a week and
see how I feel and test it slightly
different because I'm trying to figure
out like really where are my peak peak
and then where are like my mid-range
peaks and then I sort of know where I
typically drop off but I'm thinking as
I've been making some adjustments and
able to uh have more control over my
schedule and what I'm working on and
when. Uh definitely something worth
playing around with and I recommend that
to everybody is I think that that that
laser focus that they said at the top of
this section is I think the key to your
greatest success. What about you
Michael?
>> Yeah. So
you know you're a big fan of the
Pomodoro. I I work well with it, but I
tend to work a little bit better in
longer kind of sprints of time. Um, so I
typically go to the note approach. So
I'll write down the tasks I want to get
done, or I kind of preload my calendar
for here, I want to get this done, this
done, this done within those time
frames. But with like you, I keep all
the other notifications turned off so
I'm not getting emails or distractions.
Uh, unless it's like emergency. I think
that's the only thing that comes in. Uh
it's like if it's certain family members
can get in unless they beg me too much
and then they get blocked. Um
but what I've really been focusing on a
lot uh especially since the last GLS
summit is the morning energy mapping or
mapping like finding that peak time of
the day when you're mentally focused.
For me, ironically, it used to be late
in the evening. Like I would do really
well first thing in the morning and then
like about I'd say five six o'clock at
night till whenever in the AM I would be
wired. I would be going great and then
the next morning like I would have no
energy. Um but lately I found that I
have really strong energy in the morning
and then it's more about the about
midday um is when I start to taper a
little bit and then at night it I could
still have a peak or valley. just kind
of depends on how the workday went.
So, with that, I've been playing around
with getting up earlier. So, like today,
and I don't recommend this for everyone,
but um I had fallen a little bit behind
this week because of the said bad things
that happened kind of set off my
schedule this week. So, I got up at 3:00
this morning. I'm like, let's see how
well I really do if I cut my sleep time
a little short. Not ideal, but let's
really try to reset my day. And from
like 3:00 to 8:00,
I was just hyperfocused. No
distractions, no noise. I mean, it was
just peace of quiet. Uh, nighttime. I
got a whole lot done. And then once day
started, I started getting all those
calls and meetings. And then like my
energy just tapered off. And then it
started coming back up again about hour
or two ago. But it it's kind of going
through those waves and it's listening
to your body. But sometimes you have to
force your body into a different
routine. So if you do see yourself doing
better in the morning, wake up a little
bit earlier. Maybe go to bed a little
bit earlier or go to bed a little bit
later. Adjust a little bit. You may have
a couple days where you're a little bit
of a fog or you kind of jet light a
little bit, but I recommend it. Um,
might be better to try it on a weekend
to get yourself reset, but give it a
shot cuz I've really found that you
don't know and it does change. Like
there will be times where I am
definitely a night person. Like my
mornings, it's like no, I I need a pot
of coffee before I can get going. So
that's my thoughts.
>> I agree. I think it's something that
like I know that I was same way for a
long time. My my peak period was 10 p.m.
till about 300 a.m. something like that.
Um, and then there was also like an, you
know, I think like late morning maybe.
It's still sort of a a early to midm
morning, but then I sort of like, yeah,
I sort of valley out and then I'll come
back up in the the late afternoon. Um,
it's something that changed over time.
So, definitely, you know, take a look at
and and like you, like Michael said, you
got to give yourself give it time to
settle in because if you just do it for
like two days, your body is not going to
adjust and it's it's not going to help.
You've got to give it, you know, several
days to do it. Moving along.
Productivity hacks you haven't tried
yet.
Um, single tab coding. One browser tab,
one task. No quick stack overflow
detours unless truly stuck. Micro
deadlines. Break stories into tiny
deliverables that keep momentum high.
Code music playlist using rhythm and
tempo to match your task type. Fast
beats for debugging. Lowfi for deep
architecture work. This is uh I'll go
backwards on that. So the code music
playlist that is exactly why I found
brain and has worked really well. Um
there is different uh focus types and
stuff like that. I think one is like
there's a motivation, there's a
artistic, there's a deep thought,
there's all these different playlists
that they've got and I have found that I
play around with them a little bit like
what I play when. But have definitely
found that they are useful to me. Again,
it's it helps block out other stuff, but
helps keep me sort of like in a little
bit of a rhythm and a little bit of like
especially it's just like it it breaks
the monotony of of stuff. Um I love
micro deadlines. Um
I I didn't know that that's what they
were, but I really do like sitting down
and saying, "Okay, this is my schedule
for today during this block. This is
what I'm going to do. This is what I'm
going to focus on." Uh it's a little bit
as you mentioned about having that list
is it's basically like okay this is what
I'm going to do. All right and I'll do
it. I'll like I'll write out here's my
list of stuff I got to do today. Here's
the time I want to put sort of to each
of them because now I'm trying I'm
having to account for that stuff and
make sure that I'm balancing stuff out.
And then beside all those then I'll go
back and be like okay you know I got a
half hour for this so this is the you
know my key focus or I've got an hour
for this so this is my key focus. So
that gives me these little like micro,
you know, these milestones or deadlines.
The bonus with those is if I get one
done faster than whatever that time
allotment is is then I can usually I can
either if I need to I can have a little
bit of a break, but usually what's going
to happen is instead I'm going to save
that. I'm going to be able to put that
to something that I'm more worried
about. And if I get as I get towards the
end of the day, one of my like midday
breaks that I'll have is I'll say like,
okay, if I've got plenty of space left,
then I can add stuff onto my list. And
if not, then it's like, okay, well, I'll
just, you know, somewhere along the way,
maybe I get one thing done sooner, but
then I can shift a little bit of time to
something else, you know, later. So, it
does allow me to sort of keep in my my
rhythm while still getting some stuff
done. Your thoughts on that?
>> Yeah. So, I liked how you started with
the music, the code music playlist. I've
got a couple different things I use. Um,
one, once I turn off the notifications,
you and you kind of get it quiet, you
start to hear other noises going on
around you. Um, interestingly enough,
with the Mac, they added something um,
one or two updates back, you can
actually uh, turn on background noise.
So, if you hit the little button, it'll
turn on like white noise or like rain or
fire or just kind of enough of a white
noise to block out all the other noises
that are around you, which is kind of
cool. But sometimes you need a little
bit more than that. So I'll like use
like code focus uh on like Microsoft or
not m uh Mac music uh Apple Music to
just uh like do focus like classical
music or sometimes they have white noise
or like spa music. Spa music I find is
actually good but it can be too relaxing
and can put you to sleep. So, you got to
find the right tempo uh of music or
white noise to listen to that doesn't
put you to sleep, but can at least block
out or keep you focused on what you're
working on. Uh, single tab coding is
probably one of my biggest favorites and
probably one of my biggest pet peeves
about the way modern IDE have gone. Uh,
I'm calling you out, Intelligj. Uh, I
don't like the fact that you have to
open up multiple windows for multiple
projects and you can't have one project
window with a uh like a file manager
where you can just open up your one file
for this project. Instead, I have to go
manage all these multiple IDEs to go to
this tab to do code. I like one thing
simple. Give me one IDE. Yes, maybe a
couple tabs, but you're only working one
tab at a time. And then, okay, you can
jump to the code you need to go to. And
if the browsers or the tools you have
allow you to seamlessly follow your flow
of what you're working on, perfect. Go
with it. Because it's going to keep you
from getting too distracted of, oh,
what's this? If you can like hit
control, click what you're going and it
jumps you to the next place of code,
you're on that path. You're, you know,
working through the that logic. You're
following that bug. You're on task. But
if you're having to go uh control shift
R
look for a word, you're going down the
rabbit hole because you could be in many
different places, you don't know where
you're going. So by keeping you
consolidated to one browser, one task,
uh it helps you avoid that multitasking.
It may also help your system performance
and then you know you're going to get
more work done.
I think that yeah, I will just say that
yeah, I don't think the purpose is to
have multiple projects in one thing
anyway. So, you're supposed to be like
focused on your one project, but uh I
agree 100%. It's like it's it if you
start having to click around to find
what you're working on, that's
definitely going to to slow you down.
So, uh next one, preventing burnout
while staying productive. How rest
improves code quality. The 90% rule,
leave a little juice in the tank each
day so tomorrow isn't a struggle. uh the
role of hobbies and side projects in
keeping your brain fresh.
Uh and we're actually gonna get through
all of them this time, I think. So, I
want to roll those into something that I
found that is um very useful. It goes
back to a little bit of scheduling your
time is schedule breaks is schedule
things that get you away from what
you're doing. Now,
um, if you're like me and you're trying
to avoid checking your mail, like when
you get to the end of a break, checking
your mail or going off and, you know,
reading some site for a little bit or
something like that during your breaks,
especially because I do I'll do a, you
know, a little bit of a longer break.
Instead of doing like little five minute
breaks, I'll do a 15-minute break, which
is easily enough time to get yourself
lost in some rabbit hole. find a
secondary thing that you want to work
on. Whether it's things like um you get
to your break and you're going to like,
you know, go pay some bills or you're
going to like I have I have these
secondary these little like side
projects that I'm working on. It's like,
okay, I'm working on this, but now I'm
going to go work on this thing or I'm
going to write a maybe I'm writing a
blog article or I'm writing some content
for something or I'm going to go, you
know, review something somebody else
did. So, it's that change of mentality,
that change of your focus, and it also
allows you to just like reset a little
bit. But then I think during the day,
one of the things I've gotten away from,
but worked best for me in the past was
have a set like lunch break. Uh, at the
time it was like I would work until
because of how my rhythms worked. I'd
work till 11:00 a.m. and I'd basically
kick kick back in at 1 pm. So I'd have
like this twohour lunch break u where I
would eat. I could go exercise uh
depending on the day of the week. Almost
every day I would spend 10 or 15 minutes
reading something that was not fiction
but um I would always do something that
was educational. It would be like you
know biography of somebody or how to be
you know better as a leader or a manager
or something like that. you
self-improvement kind of books or like
you know we've mentioned many times like
4-hour work week or those kinds of books
um because it just shifted allowed me to
really shift gears. It allowed me to
rest doing like a walk or exercise
something like that got me away. It
helped me from a healthy point of view
from a and it helped me come back more
recharged. So definitely think about
those kinds of things. We've talked so
many times about if you get stuck, stand
up, walk away. But I think we need to
make sure that we pace ourselves with
that as well. It's too easy to say, "All
right, I'm going to go bam. I'm going to
go four hours straight." And that's not
the most productive way to do things.
You you need to make sure that you're
cutting those putting those breaks in
there so that you can recharge. Even if
you don't, and this is that 90% rule,
basically, it's just like sports. If you
go hard and now you're done, you go to
100%. That means you have nothing left.
So, if you're going to do all that, then
what you want to do instead is have a
little bit left in the tank, use that,
recharge, and now you can come back even
stronger. Thoughts on that one?
>> Yeah. So, this one brings to mind I
think something someone said at the GLS,
but um if you are running into
situations where
you're work, you're not following the
Pomodoro, you're constantly focusing on
one task, you're giving it that 100%.
Look at one, kick back to 90%, but two,
look at what your day looks like. Look
at not just your tasks, but what are you
doing during the day? Because one of the
biggest indicators that I found that
this was a great example of was I would
start my day off. I would get my coffee.
I would uh open up my digital newspaper
and I would read some of the daily
headlines, which lately has been all
negative. So, you kind of start your day
off with that mindset and then you go
into work. Oh, now you read your work
emails and those could put you in a
different mindset.
Watch your mindset because if you're
finding out that the tasks you're doing
are basically very negative or very
repetitive in a way that is putting you
off on being productive.
Shift that around. Change up that uh
your way of doing things. The other
thing is, you know, preventing burnout
is is hard. You have to also check
yourself mentally and just see where
you're at. Um, you got apps for that.
There are things you can do where uh or
just set reminders at certain times of
the day. Check yourself. How do I feel
right now? What have I done since I
started my day? And what is good and
what is bad? And then the other thing at
the end of the day, you know, people
talk about journaling and things like
that, but write down at the end of the
day, what is the most pressing thing
that is still to be done that you need
to do first thing tomorrow? So,
basically start your day for tomorrow,
set yourself up for success so that when
you start the day, the next day, you're
not like, what am I working? Nope, I
need to get this done, get this off my
plate, get it done, and start fresh. Um
just these few little tricks here will
help you avoid the mindset. And the
biggest one,
turn your phone off when you are done
working for the day. Lock it up. Put
your technology away. If you find
yourself pacing and you are touching
that phone at least once or twice an
hour, put it in another room. Um, I I I
I admit um I've caught myself doing that
and I'm trying to do the digital fast
when I check out at night and just do
something else. But I will tell you it
is hard being developers. I touch that
phone probably two to three times every
half hour after I check out. Sometimes
more if I'm playing games, but it's a
crutch. Turn it off. Walk away from it.
Take those walks. Do something else. and
just make sure that what you're doing
isn't in that same uh kind of avenue so
you take a break from what is stressing
you and do something that is not the
same thing just doing something else.
>> It's very freeing once you can get past
that. It is but it's like it's we've
talked so much about like you making the
most of your time. So it's very easy to
be sitting there where you've got two or
three minutes of dead time or something
where you're waiting on something you're
just like oh I'm going to check my mail.
Getting out of that habit will help you
immensely. And it'll be tougher in this
modern world because if you're like me,
you'll sit there and you're like, you'll
go to a restaurant and you don't have
your phone with you or you're not
pulling it out. Everybody else has their
phone out. It's like you're sitting
there waiting for, you know, the food to
come and everybody else is pulling out
their phone and there's just like that,
hey, why don't you join the crowd? It's
like don't fight it. Trust me, it is
worth it. Um, and this is from I'm still
struggling with it. So, it's not like
I've mastered this, but I have had
moments where it's worked and I've been
very happy. So, uh, want to keep, you
know, keep working on that just like I
let you guys know every single episode.
Shoot us an email at [email protected].
Actually had a great conversation today
with somebody. He's like, "Hey, how's
the best way to get a hold of you?" It's
like, you know what, [email protected].
That is the best place to get a hold of
us. Uh you can also leave us leave us a
review anywhere you see it whether it's
out on the developer channel on you on
YouTube uh out wherever you're getting
this podcast if you're listening to
podcast developer.com itself you can go
out there you can leave feedback on any
of our articles you can contact us we've
got a form there you can check out our
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uh out on xdevelopure
shoot something out there you've you
know send something with that and we
will find it and we will be more than
happy to say thank you and and respond
if you have any questions or anything
like that. We're always looking for
feedback because you're the reason we're
doing this. That being said, it's time
to wrap this one up. So, we're going to
get back on our our little merry AI way.
You do the same. Go out there and have
yourself a great day, a great week, and
we will talk to you next time.
No bonus this time. So, we're just going
to wrap this sucker up. Uh you guys, we
will be back soon enough. before you
know it. For us, it's literally going to
be before we know it, basically. So,
have a good one.