for increasing my productivity as a software developer<\/a>. I follow that technique. I have kind of my own version of this with\u2014using the KanbanFlow but I often get some questions about how I execute this. Kent says, \u201cI recently finished reading your book on soft skills and wanted to start by congratulating you on such a fine piece of work.\u201d Here\u2019s the book if you\u2019re interested. \u201cIt was thoroughly fantastic and I\u2019m already applying some of the techniques you suggest with good success so far. If you have time I have a few questions for you about the Pomodoro Technique.\u201d There\u2019s a couple of questions here.<\/p>\n\u201cHow do you account or adjust for delays imposed by computers? I\u2019m talking about software updates sometimes forced on you, long build times, mobile dev particularly has lengthy build lengths, backups. Since starting the Pomodoro Technique I found myself several times in a position where I\u2019m being forced to wait a long time for a computer and I wasn\u2019t sure how to deal with that. I\u2019d switch task if I could but often my entire machine is crippled until the update is completed.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll just address these one at a time. When you have things that are outside of your control when you\u2019re doing the Pomodoro Technique and this is a refresher here, the Pomodoro Techique you\u2019re basically working for 25 minutes on a single focus task, no interruptions then you take a 5 minute break. In that 25 minute block Kent is basically asking, \u201cHey, what happens when you got to wait for your computer update or something that is stopping you from working, what do you do?\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a couple of different things that you could do. One, you can switch to another task. I frequently do this. Technically that\u2019s against the rules. But hey, what are you\u2014are you just going to sit there at your computer? I\u2019ll switch to another task and start working on that task. You\u2019ve got to be careful. You don\u2019t want to be switching, switching, switching task but it\u2019s acceptable in my mind to switch to one task. We\u2019re going to be pragmatic.<\/p>\n
The other possible thing is staying on the same task. This is probably preferable but get out your pad of paper or go to your whiteboard and start doing some brainstorming. Most tasks require some thinking as well as some doing. Very rarely is there a task where they\u2019re just like do, do, do, do, so plan it out a little bit more while you\u2019ve got that down time while you\u2019re waiting for something to happen. Do some of the thinking work and usually you can figure that out if you\u2014if you think in those terms you can usually figure out how you can do that. Overall, number one, be pragmatic about it. Just don\u2019t sit there and wait in front of the computer because you\u2019re supposed to follow these rules of the Pomodoro Technique. That\u2019s not very pragmatic.<\/p>\n
Then he asked, \u201cWhat about problems with third party software? I\u2019ve been hit by several bugs and third party dependencies including my dev tools themselves. I had to go on major tangents to get those issues fixed and felt like I was straying from my goals even though I guess I wasn\u2019t. They would just take me longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, you can apply this generally. When you\u2019re sitting there doing the Pomodoro things that are outside of your control are going to happen, right? You\u2019re going to go on some tangent. The idea is to minimize this as much as possible, right? When you recognize something that is going to be a new task that\u2019s going to take you a longer amount of time, then plan that out. You might not have to do it immediately.<\/p>\n
For example, suppose that you\u2019re working on your task, your Pomodoro, and then all of a sudden you have some kind of a bug on a third party component and you\u2019ve got to go and fix that thing in order to finish your task. At that point you want to figure out first of all what\u2019s the minimal thing that you need to do to get your task done? Can you do some kind of work around or something in order to accomplish what you\u2019re trying to accomplish? If you can\u2019t and when you do that you might be able to create a new task that you\u2019re going to work on to fix that thing later, to fix the right way later so that it doesn\u2019t interrupt that flow. If you can\u2019t then you\u2019ll just have to accept reality, again being pragmatic and realize that you\u2019re going to have to go down this road and things are going to take you longer than you expected, but that\u2019s where you replan.<\/p>\n
If you planned out your day you get new information and you realize that I have 2 hours, this critical task or 2 hours worth of debugging that I\u2019m going to have to do, you have to replan your day. You have to sit there and match reality. You can\u2019t force things that\u2014you can\u2019t artificially force things. Replanning your day is probably going to be the answer in most of those cases.<\/p>\n
Then he says here, \u201cWhat about random little things that require waiting on a third party?\u201d Again, the same thing here, I\u2019m not going to go into the details here. He does mention though that if you had something that\u2019s going to take a week later how do you handle this. I schedule in my calendar and I move on, call that task complete. You can only set work for you that you\u2019re actually going to be able to accomplish so don\u2019t try and control the world, you can only control you.<\/p>\n
In those times when you know that you\u2019re going to wait on someone, mark your responsibility of what you\u2019re supposed to do. That\u2019s your task. Your task shouldn\u2019t be the entire thing that needs to be accomplished, but the thing that you need to do. That\u2019s the key component and then you can mark something in your calendar to follow up or you can various programs that will auto-follow up for you.<\/p>\n
Another question, \u201cWhy does the Pomodoro timer on KanbanFlow anyway not have a pause? Am I missing something? What about when you need the bathroom?\u201d<\/p>\n
Okay. It\u2019s 25 minutes and 5 minutes, right? You\u2019re an adult. You can hold your\u2014you should be able to plan out 25 minutes and 5-minute break. You\u2019re not supposed to pause the thing, right? It doesn\u2019t have a timer because you\u2019re not supposed to have interruptions. You\u2019re not supposed to let interruptions happen. If you have a\u2014I mean obviously, if you have emergency, you got to go to the bathroom. Forget about the timer, right? Hopefully, I would hope that you can like plan your day, so that you can not go to the bathroom for 25 minutes and then in the 5-minute break go to the bathroom. Okay. Enough said about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much detail do you put in to your Kanban board? It seems too transient and medium to bother putting too much effort in the subtasks and the like. I also feel like I’m duplicating what\u2019s in my issue management software or Evernote.\u201d This was a good one here. Put in as much detail as you need to clearly define what must be done. When you have something on your task board, it\u2019s better to spend a little bit of extra time planning things out to know when something is done rather than to waste time like not knowing when you\u2019re not done or when you need to stop. Spend as much time in detail as you need.<\/p>\n
Remember that all this time is overhead and it\u2019s wasted time technically. It doesn\u2019t add anything to the bottom line, right? Planning in general is overhead. It\u2019s a waste. Planning doesn\u2019t actually produce a thing, but what planning does is it can save you time. Plan as much as you can save time off in the backend if that makes sense, right? Sometimes 5 minutes of planning can save you an hour worth of work. In that case, you want to pay that overhead, right? If you plan too low level of the detail, sometimes you can spend an hour or you can have 10 people in a meeting that don\u2019t need to be there planning a thing and then they save like 10 minutes of time for all that planning. That\u2019s not worth it. You got to balance it out.<\/p>\n
Again, a lot of my answers to this is pragmatism. Be pragmatic. Think about what makes the most sense and execute on that. Don\u2019t blindly follow rules. Set up rules for yourself, but be pragmatic when you need to break those rules or change those rules.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, that helps you. I get a lot of questions about this. Again, most of my time Pomodoro Technique or my productivity system technique questions, most of the answers, will basically be pragmatic and don\u2019t drink a 64-ounce Dr. Pepper because you will have to pee in less than 25 minutes.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I hope you found that useful if you\u2019re applying the technique. If you want to find out more about it, you can, of course, pick up your copy of Soft Skills and I do cover a whole section on productivity in there. Thanks for watching and don\u2019t forget to subscribe. Talk to you next time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this episode, I answer a questions about the Pomodoro Technique. [responsive_video]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=F4mNJyHj_7Q[\/responsive_video] [blank_space height=’3em’] Full transcript: John:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hey, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com. I got this question from Kent about the Pomodoro Technique. As you might know I am a big proponent of it for increasing my productivity as a software developer. I follow that technique….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[162229169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-youtube"],"yoast_head":"\n
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