My Life in Dev

Hi,

I know that each of you is passing for difficult times since the beginning of the pandemic. for some professionals, working from home became a necessity, not an option. For us, software engineers, we still have this advantage. I'd like to use this article to tell you about my daily routine in these last four weeks inside the house.

For much time in my life, I read about high performance, how we can organize our activities in a way that we can learn, do hundreds of different things and learn everything possible, all of this without being overwhelmed, stressed or with the feeling that you achieved nothing. Unfortunately, the second scenario occurred to me a lot.

For example, I got for myself that it doesn't make sense to create a huge list of activities and put all in the wall, like a Big Kanban Board, and expect that I will tackle each of them and get it done. It sounds like a plan but, at least for me, sooner or later you will get bored and disappointed with this.

Despite of this and many other mechanisms to organize and learning things, what it worked for me was to create a routine. Not a crazy one, but the simplest and achievable possible. Let me describe it.

Morning:

Afternoon:

Evening: 

This pattern can change a little from each day, especially at the weekends, when it's no work, and it's possible to extend all the other activities. It's pretty simple and it worked well last month.

Some tips:

• It's not a matter of how many things you do during your day but, essentially, how focused you execute this thing. If you exercise in the morning, try to focus on your breath, not doing everything in a rush. You have plenty of time to focus on your body and feeling better about it;

• It's important to maintain your work environment as much organized as possible. A comfortable place makes total difference in your study and work; 

• Try to maintain your body and mind good. This means water and good food. Heavy food is tasty but, during the week, it causes laziness and lack of focus. Seeds of different types like walnuts, almonds, pistachio, peanut, sunflower, Brazil nuts are good in the morning because they contain the antioxidants and minerals to support our cerebral work during the day;

• It's important to start and finish some course, project or theme you are studying. They are lots of platforms and good courses but, if you don't focus in one each of time, it'll be a mess in your brain, and difficult to organize the ideas at the end. I was thinking, for example, squeezing in some little timezone a code practicing but it'll incur in more stress. Maybe to choose a day between your current studies to practice codes, for example, sounds like an idea;

• Still talking about study, they are lot's of good platforms. Udemy has lots of interesting and good courses. Pluralsight has pretty interesting learning paths that you can follow. ACloudguru is a good platform for cloud technology, LinkedIn Learning is good for introductory or specific contents. Youtube is a good way to watch presentations about an specific theme. Lots of events are entirely recorded and available there for free;

• A good amount of sleep makes a difference. That means 8 hours per night. Yes, you will have less time during the day but, instead, you will be more focused on everything you are doing, without feeling sleepy some parts of the day. And stay off your phone is good in this sacred and important period of your time;

• And, most important of all, is use this period that you are more at home to learn how to deal with yourself, to understand more your feelings, what your expectations. It's the chance to slow down and think about it in a good way.

Feel free to leave your opinion about it and have an excellent week.

Be safe.