Time And Habits Blog

Friday 9 February 2018

What's The Time?

Which timebox and habits techniques did you try?

One timebox technique I experimented with was hard focused work for one hour followed by a 10-minute break. For myself personally, I found an hour too long for me to stay completely concentrated on the task. I researched using the Git resources about the Pomodoro technique of focused work for 25 minutes followed by a short interval and then repeat the process. I found a lot more success with this method as I could give more attention to the task at hand rather than slacking off as my mind started to fatigue. It was also better to have a quick reflection/recap of my work at 25 minutes instead of 60 minutes. This was because it allowed me to identify whether or not I was being accurate and using my time wisely.

What did you find interesting?

A Git resource I found interesting was GJ Fogg's TEDx Talk "Forget Big Change, Start With A Tiny Habit". During this presentation, he talked about how instead of waiting for ourselves to be motivated to change our behaviour on a large scale, we should start with using our existing habits as a basis to trigger our new behaviour. This is interesting to me because every time I've looked to change my behaviour (example - exercising, studying), I have always look from a motivational perspective. I can definitely see myself applying this method to my study with EDA. A possible example of this being once I've finished work for the day, getting into bed and mentally reflecting on everything I had learnt that day.

What worked for you?

Finding my flow is really important to me, once I find it I feel as though I can not be stopped! To find one's workflow I first needed to understand myself and my body in terms of when I feel at my creative best. Over this week I've assessed when during the day I feel at my most creative. I have found that during the morning between the hours of 8am-12pm and in the evening 8pm-12am I am at my creative best and can find my flow easy. During midday and the afternoon, however, I just feel as though I lack that energized focus and enjoyment that I feel in the morning and evening (Wikipedia - Flow Psychology). I feel that being able to understand myself and knowing where my strengths and weaknesses lie are extremely important traits to have as an aspiring web developer.

Which will you experiment further with?

Something that I would like to experiment with would be meditation. Reading through the resource "The Power of Meditation" and seeing the research conducted baffled me. My previous understanding of meditation was that it was used to reduce stress and anxiety. I was amazed to learn that meditating can actually help you improve your focus, creativity and memory! I feel as though all of these outcomes are essential to becoming a great web developer. Being able to focus and block out distractions, being open-minded and creative, having the great memory to remember code shortcuts and other key information.