Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 012 How Do I Manage My Time? Developer Time Management

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012 How Do I Manage My Time? Developer Time Management · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: How do I manage my time as a developer?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: How do I keep on top of all these different new technologies that are coming out every day?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I've learned a lot about time management over the years, but I'm not perfect.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start off with the very simple answer of how do I get everything done in a day?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: The answer is I don't.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's something that I think that people often miss.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: When they look at people, they look at the outward appearance, they look at what they can see, and then you fill the gaps in and fill those in with what you think is happening.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where the disconnect comes in.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Is people look at me or look at other developers and say, man, they just have so much more time in the day.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Or somehow they just learn so much faster than I do, and they get depressed, they feel bad about themselves because they're not as good as we are.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk through how do I manage my time.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Time management is hard, it really is.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I found that one of the key ways to improve your time management is to treat it like money.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're bad with money, it's gonna be hard because what you have to do is tell your time what you're gonna do with it.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you just say, I'm gonna get work done today, and you have this eight-hour block of time for work, then you're gonna find at the end of the day that you weren't terribly successful.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe some days you are, but other days it feels like nothing got done.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of doing that, actually budget out your time and say, I'm gonna spend this much time on this and this much time on that.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that's helped me is what's called the Pomodoro technique.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the idea that you take a set amount of time, usually about 15 minutes, and you say, I'm gonna work for this 15 or 25-minute sprint.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna focus on just this one task.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot more to the technique, but essentially you pick one thing and you say, I'm gonna do this one thing for this amount of time.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then you don't do anything else, no distractions.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Your phone is on Do Not Disturb.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have other websites open, you don't have pop-ups open, you just have that one thing and you work on it for a set amount of time.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: But when the timer rings, you spend five minutes doing something relaxing, whether that's getting up and walking around, which is helpful, or whether it is checking Facebook or checking your email or those things that kind of distract you, if you put those in a time bucket, that helps.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you find that you can do three, four, five of these, even just in a day, three or four or five sprints where you're doing one task and focus on it for a set amount of time, then you'll find you going a lot farther in your activity, whatever that is, you're moving a lot farther forward than if you just randomly said, I'm going to work.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Which this brings us to C sharp training in general.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Often people say to me, How do I learn C sharp?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And part of it is watching tutorials, watching videos, um, practicing what you learn.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, those are big parts of it.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: But part of it is being intentional about your progress.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so I tell people often, I have a system that I walk them through of how to really train.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when you learn something in C sharp, don't just learn it.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: Create two to five practice projects and then from there try and incorporate it into a larger project.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, all of that takes time and it can feel like it slows you down.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: But some of that intentionality up front, it allows you to be methodically moving towards an end goal.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's the the Taurus and the hare uh analogy where you know the rabbit or the hare runs out of the gate and just sprints.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's sometimes what we feel, I feel like people do when they try and learn C sharp is they sprint, where you know you'll watch and they've they've gone through 18, 20 different tutorials in a matter of two or three days because they're enthusiastic about starting.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then real life comes into play and start to drag down that enthusiasm.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And before you know it, they've let that sit for a month or two months.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that sounds like something you've done.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, schedule time, and that's again telling your time what you're gonna spend it on instead of just randomly spending time.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Say, I have a budget of this many hours of training every week, and then put that on the calendar, be intentional, have a meeting that's blocked off, that no one can disturb you, that says, This is the time that I will study.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: Try and make it an hour if you can.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm saying all of this, and this is all perfect world stuff.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: So please hear me.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: If you are working from home, if you have small children at home, if you have a busy work environment, if you have other things going on in your life, this can be very, very difficult.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: You may hear me say, block off an hour of time with no interruptions and laugh, because that's just not your point in life.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's totally understandable.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you're gonna have that.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: There may have to be a balance though of saying, I am going to find that time or I'm gonna do my the best I can, 20 minutes, 30 minutes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to get up early in the morning.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's not for me really.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do well in the morning, but I stay up late.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I sometimes block off time between midnight and 2 a.m.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's rough.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Even though I'm a late night person, going to bed at 2 a.m.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: means that I'm gonna feel lousy the next day, probably.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have a hard time getting out of bed and doing what I need to do during the day.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes that's important.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: When I was working as an IT director, worked for there about seven years, and during that time, um, I wanted to maintain or improve my resume.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that was lacking was I had no degree.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And even though I didn't need the training the degree gave me, I felt like I needed that piece of paper to say, yes, I have a degree.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: So while I was working 50 plus hours a week, 50 to 60 hours a week as an IT director, I also had two young boys and a wife.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I had all of that going on.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I felt like I had no time.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: But then I took on work or going to school full time.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to school online and I would block off from 10 p.m.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: to 2 a.m.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that was my school time.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: So 10 p.m.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: to 2 a.m.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: I get up at 7 the next morning and do it all over again.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: That was very, very difficult.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was not something I can do long term.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: And by long term, I did do it for about three years.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: But it was that that sprint where I said, I know for these three years, I have to get through this.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of it, I will have achieved my goal and I can relax.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: I found the time to do it, but it was difficult.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I still had time to spend my family.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: I still had time to do my job because I sacrificed my sleep.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a long-term solution, but for short term, it worked for me.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: That might be what you have to do to get out of a situation you're currently in.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's difficult, it's frustrating, but you can do it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So take that time, whatever time you find, whether it's Saturdays, whether it's uh, you know, a lunch break during the middle of the week, something.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: You pick that time and say, you know what?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I will eat while I train, or I am going to skip breakfast and eat it in the car in order to get this little bit of time.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, you pick that time, you put it on the calendar, and then you're intentional about it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now that you have an intentional time, also be intentional about what you're training on.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: I can encourage students to create a list.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Here's all the things I want to learn.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes, when you're learning things, you see new things, whether it is a new technique that you've never seen before or it's a new shiny object over somewhere else.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of getting distracted and going looking at that new thing, instead go and put that on the list and say, I will learn about this, but here's where I feel it fits in the priority list.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you put that in that list wherever you feel like it fits for your priorities, and then keep training on what you were training on.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Keep focused on that one spot.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: So you you don't just abandon or ignore those cool things that you're seeing.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: You just say, here is my priority on this, this is where it fits.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I encourage you to do is have those priorities, have that list, have your intentional time to train, and then you'll have focused time with unfocused topics.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: That will start to move you forward.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the third thing is give it time.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not going to be something you do overnight.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: You may read books that say, you know, learn C sharp in, and it gives you a time frame: 21 days, seven days, four days, 60 minutes, five minutes, they can't ridiculous anymore.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how you learn C sharp.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how you learn pretty much anything.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: It takes time.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: But if you start to see that added up time, 20 minutes a day, uh three hours a week, whatever it is, you start building that up, you start to see a hundred hours, two hundred hours, three hundred hours of training dedicated, focused, and intentional, you will see a much better result rather than saying, I have eight hours on Saturday, I'm just gonna crush all of this and learn it all.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you have the eight hours, that's that's great, but still have that focus.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna take this long haul, step-by-step plotting rather than a sprint once or twice.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that's that's how I manage my time.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a lot more to it, a lot more we can talk about.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things I want to do come back to though, is I don't do everything.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are things that I just I let the ball drop.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned last week about the book finish.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that talks about in that book is the idea of it's okay to let the ball drop.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Pick something you're gonna fail at because you have to focus on something else.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, I intentionally fail at different topics during different seasons of my day, my week, and my month.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: When I am teaching a course, I will let pretty much everything else drop.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: You will notice I don't respond to YouTube comments as much.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't respond to emails as much.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: I my YouTube videos might be pre-recorded.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'll do other things that just takes away every other distraction possible.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: My family knows that for these nights, I will be recording and not out in the pool or out doing something else.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be focused on these things.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: I get my best time for recording in usually after 10 p.m.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll also schedule from 10 p.m.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: to about 3 a.m.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: for recording.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll do that for a few nights, and because of my schedule and the way I can work things, I don't get up until 10 a.m.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'll sleep in to compensate so I'm not a disaster the next day.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: And my family knows, okay, dad's sleeping in and we'll see him for lunch and for dinner, but then he's gone after 10 p.m.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have that balance where I focus on one thing if I can.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And there's other times where I say, you know what, my email inbox is just out of control.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna focus on that for a day.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you've sent me two or three emails, you might get two or three responses within an hour or so because I'm focused on respond to all the emails.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I get a lot of emails and I appreciate the emails.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: And if you email me and don't get a response, don't please don't be offended.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just haven't had time to get to it yet.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'll get to it when I'm going through a sprint of emails.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then the YouTube comments, it's the same way.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't respond to a YouTube comment here and a YouTube comment there.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: I try and batch my responses so I can respond to a couple hundred at a time.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the the alternative to that, or the the other way I do that is I can respond to some comments on my phone.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Not all comments, but the ones where you say, Hey, that was an awesome video.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: I can say thank you.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: Saying thank you isn't a lot to type in my with my thumbs.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if I'm you know sitting at a grocery store waiting for my wife to come out, or if I'm you know in line somewhere waiting to go to the cashier, I'll sit and respond to those kind of comments on my phone because I have a little bit of time where it's not downtime, but it's not really time to do anything else.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll take that time and do what I can with it, make the most of that time so that later, when I have whatever time, I can use that for more difficult or more comprehensive things than just saying you're welcome or thank you.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So there's things like that you can do to kind of you know uh use time more effectively, but in general, I have found if I spend my time intentionally, I get better results, I get more uh outcome for the time that I spend.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: So the more time that I spend intentionally, the more results I see over the long term.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so that's my thoughts.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, when you look at someone, don't fill in the gaps with positive for them and negative for you.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, we're all imperfect.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: So just don't get discouraged when you look at others and think they're doing better than you.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: We all have areas to work on, okay?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my take on time management.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you have more questions about time management, you want me to answer, you don't think I've filled in the gaps enough, leave a comment down below or let me know in the form on my website.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd love to kind of continue this conversation on how do we better manage our time.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because the more you manage your time well, the quicker you become a better C sharp developer.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's my goal for you.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: I hope this was a useful topic to cover.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd love to hear your thoughts on other topics we should cover in the Dev Questions series.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: All right, my name is Tim Corey, and thanks for listening.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like to help make more content like this possible, please like, subscribe, rate, and share Dev Questions.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can also send your questions to questions at Iamtimcorey.com.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to imtimcore.com and enroll in a course.