Being Productive in IT

Being Productive in I.T.

By Tim Daniell

Presented by

Penny Cookson & Scott Wesley

Being Productive in I.T.

1. Understand your brain

2. Understand your tools

3. Controlling your day

Being Productive in I.T.

1. Understand your brain

2. Understand your tools

3. Controlling your day

Your (Dual Core) Brain LEFT Right

verbal linear logical analytical

mathematical geometric

statistical symbolic

problem

solving

rational detail

Holistic makes connections

emotional

intuition images non-verbal

creative ponders...

Core 1 Core 2

Your Memory Short Term Memory

Long Term Memory

Your Memory

• Maintains a LRU list every read is a write

• Things get purged and can get modified, even corrupted. write stuff down

Core 1 (Left/Linear)

• OLTP Application

• Heavily Indexed

• Highly Responsive

Use this side when tackling detail

Core 2 (Right)

• NOSQL database of images

• “Big Data” analysis

• Result is an image/connection

• Searches take a long time

• Works Asynchronously

Use this side when you need the big picture

The Shared Bus

Core 1 (Left Brain)

Core 2 (Right Brain)

Memory

Shared Bus

for i in 1..1,000,000 loop for j in 1..1,000,000 loop x := mod(i + j,2); end loop; end loop;

Using your Right Brain

• Listen

• Keep a Notepad/Smartphone handy

• Morning thoughts

• Think and Forget

• Pair Programming

• Mind Maps

Storytelling

www.kullillaart.com.au

Using your Right Brain

• Intelligence increases when we think less

• Wisdom increases with less information

• Allow yourself to be bored

Use Both Cores Effectively

• Stop and Think step away from the keyboard to solve complex problems

• Rubber Ducking explain the problem out loud

Use Both Cores Effectively

• Unleash your creative side and review with your logical side. write drunk, revise sober

• Do first, theory later build to learn, not learn to build

The Dreyfus Model of Knowledge Acquisition

• Novice

• Advanced Beginner

• Competent

• Proficient

• Expert

Learning with Both Cores

Learn Deliberately

SQ3R

• Survey

• Question

• Read

• Review

• Recite

Learn Deliberately

We all learn differently

Visual Need to see the material (and the instructor). Pictures and graphs work well.

Auditory Need to hear the material. Tone of voice etc matter.

Kinaesthetic Need to do and touch. Especially appropriate for sports, arts and crafts.

Find what works for you. Experiment with other learning techniques.

Use more of your sensors, expand on your current method.

Debugging your brain

• Cognitive Biases

• Hardware Bugs

• Personalities

• Generational Archetypes

Anything that was in the world when you were born and up until you were 15 is just a natural part of the world.

Anything that was invented between when you

were 15 and 35 is new and exciting and you can probably get a career in it.

Anything that was invented after you after 35 is

against the natural order of things.

- Douglas Adams

Being Productive in I.T.

1. Understand your brain

2. Understand your tools

3. Controlling your day

Understand Your Tools

Understand Your Tools

Work Smarter, not Harder

• Think

– Be Innovative

– Question Habits

• Automate

– Repetitive tasks

• Review

– Throughout lifecycle

Productive Team

• Companies are Team Sports

• Be Helpful

• Share Knowledge

Learning options

• RSS

• Books

• Magazines

• Podcasts

• Webinars

• Reviews

• Blogging

• Course notes

• Tool play

By three methods we may learn wisdom

• Training

• OBE

• User groups

second, by imitation, which is easiest;

and third, by experience, which is the most bitter

(Confucius, circa 500BCE)

first, by reflection, which is noblest;

Don’t take shortcuts

• Quick fix

– Assertion to ensure never again

• Code for the future

– What if you end up maintaining it?

Being Productive in I.T.

1. Understand your brain

2. Understand your tools

3. Controlling your day

Make your day productive

• Work from a Long Term plan

“The plan is worthless, the planning is invaluable”

Make your day productive

• Prepare for Tomorrow’s Automated Testing Meeting

• Finish Enhancement to Orders Screen and assign to QA team

• Investigate bug in Stock receipt - need time from Jadon

• Prep for planning session

• Create Change Request for Jack

To-Do List Scheduled day

This space is intentionally left blank

Make your day productive

• Other Techniques

– Just do Emails/Tasks that take 5 minutes or less

– Scheduled it / Delete it / Delegate it

– Add it to a Monthly Review List

– Learn to say “No”

– Slow down email fetches

– Avoid Interruptions

Best time of the day for...

Before work – right brain thinking / exercise

First thing at work – start complex task quickly

Late morning – continue complex tasks

Early afternoon – meetings / less complex tasks

Late afternoon – plan for tomorrow

Evenings – avoid grey times

Stay Focused in the Now

Make your day productive

Rocking chair test

Make your life productive

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life

Dream like you’ll live forever, live like you’ll die today

Make your life productive

Life is wonderful – don’t just use your brain/tools/ time for work use them for life

In Summary

• Understand how to use your brain

• Learn deliberately

• Learn your tools

• Productive teams

• Schedule your day

• Listen to your body clock

• Focus in the now

www.pragprog.com

Coupon Code INSYNC13_TimD 25% discount Expires 26-November