Time is so precious, and managing it is...

Time is so precious, and managing it is complex, yet it’s never really taught explicitly in most educational systems. Time management as a software engineer is especially critical because it’s easy to get lost in the zone and have time fly by without even realizing it. " "" "Getting into the zone is great, though, so it’s not like we want to avoid that. Instead, we want to set proper boundaries to do everything else we need to get done. I generally check the clock every ~15min when I’m in the zone just naturally; it’s displayed in so many places it takes just a second. " "" "If you can’t see that working for yourself, set an alarm 5 minutes before you want to break out, so you have a few minutes to wrap up — if you need it, set a second alarm at the exact time in case you zone too far back in!" "" "I tend to find big blocks of time for focus like this only in the mornings, with afternoons filled with meetings with only smaller blocks of time available. This is where my written lists of things I need to get done help me predetermine how I’ll spend the few precious hours of focus time I’ll have. There’s no need to figure that out in the morning; I just look at what’s at the top of the list and can get to work.  " "" "Whenever the big blocks of time make sense for you, being consistent with your protection of that time is essential. A big block doesn’t have to be four or five hours, either — two hours is a lot of time already! If that’s not enough time to get done what you want to get done, break it down a bit further first. " "" "It’s always good to attempt to do a bit more than you think you can do in any particular block of time because you can often surprise yourself! More importantly, though, this should force you to continuously get more efficient as you sometimes hit your ambitious targets and continually make those targets more and more difficult. So eventually, what you used to think would take you six hours, you can complete in two." "" "Improving your efficiency is a form of time management; it’s increasing your ability to accomplish more in less time in the future, which, if done continuously, can have fantastic compounding effects. " "" "Are there any inefficiencies in how you work that come to mind? #bendevtip

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Original post on LinkedIn