Six Productivity Best Practices for Software Development Leaders

In the dozen years I’ve worked in the tech industry, I’ve balanced working as a small cog in large enterprises and working as a an independent IT consultant, building and running software for organizations like the Mises Institute, Liberty.me and the Foundation for Economic Education. One of my biggest challenges as an independent consultant has been time and task management. It’s essential to track the list of priorities and the time I spend on each project.

Here are six strategies I use for time and task management in my projects:

1: Make setting priorities the first thing you do, and write down tasks for every activity

Setting priorities is the most complex activity that human brains engage in, and it is also what suffers the most when our brain is fatigued. We’re just not very good at setting and remembering lists of things to do. (see “Your Brain at Work” by David Rock).  So whether it’s for a six month project or a single day, I always start by writing down a list of tasks to be done and prioritizing them.

It used to be common for me to get to the office with a specific task on my mind, yet leave six hour later having worked on something entirely different. The solution to this is to making writing a prioritized set of tasks for the day the first thing I do every time I come to the office. I put task lists on paper or in Evernote, so I can refer to them later.

2: Use Project Tracking Software

On a professional level, I use project tracking software (JIRA) to write down all my tasks. I have used JIRA to manage projects with 25 developers and multiple teams as well as projects where I was the sole developer—task tracking is essential for any project.  Using project tracking tools has many benefits for facilitating interaction with project stakeholders (that I will cover that in part #3), but it is quite essential for me to have a prioritized list of tasks to work on.

3: Use Test-Driven-Development

Following my task driven approach, I write the list of tasks to be done directly on my code. When I started as a developer, I would write down a list of comments in a file, then implement each function below, so that the task would become a comment describing what a single function did. Now, I keep my classes small, and keep the big picture in a unit test class. This (1) helps me stay focused on what needs to be done (2) allows me to test each step in isolation (3) helps to detect regressions in the future (4) and provides all the usually extreme programming benefits you can read at Wikipedia.

4: Write less code, spend more time on GitHub

It’s well established that developers on average write 10 production lines of code per day. So, if I find myself doing a lot of typing, I will step away from my computer and go for a walk. My goal as a programmer is not to write the most code, but to maximize the business value I deliver with my time.

I do this by spending my development time searching GitHub, NuGet, apt-get, etc for the best components, trying to fit them together, and building supporting tools (like unit tests)—and not debugging code or building components from scratch. If I really have a unique and worthwhile module to create, it is typically either a candidate for an open source GitHub project, or is some sort of highly proprietary business process/algorithm.

5: Schedule regular breaks

I have a theory that my obsessive Wikipedia and Reddit surfing was actually my brain’s cry for help for not allowing myself to relax and review my work. Unfortunately, by swiping from a mentally taxing production to a mentally taxing consumption activity, I was still not allowing my subconscious to relax and integrate.

I’ve since learned that it is important for me to walk away from my desk at least once per hour. When I’m deep down in work mode, I lose the ability to access, prioritize, or identify when I need to try another approach. I will take loops around the office, or around the block several times per day to allow my mind to relax and review the approach I am taking to solving the problem at hand. It is very rare for me to be stuck on a difficult problem and have a flash of insight at my desk. I need to walk away to process problems on a high and/or subconscious level.

6: Use tracking analytics to set goals, to improve time management—and to do billing

I use RescueTime to track ALL my computer time, both work and entertainment. I use WakaTime to track the time I spend in IDE’s. Git repositories record all the code and documents that I create.

Once a month or more, I spent several hours doing billing, which consists of opening up RescueTime, WakaTime, SourceTree App (git log), and Tempo (time tracking product integrated with JIRA) side by side. It takes me several hours to process 30 days, but I get a very detailed account of how I spent my productive and personal time. Once I understand how I’m spending my present time, I can decide what changes I want to make in the future. RescueTime allows me to set personal goals for how much or little time I want to spend on certain activities.

Below you can see my allocation for July and August, and for a single day. I use all three tools to account for my hours. Although only a portion of my work involves writing code, RescueTime helps me understand how much time I allocate to each project.

Conclusion

Not everyone is suited for work as a technical manager or independent consultant. Many engineers are great at focusing deeply on a single task at a time, and that’s OK. However, adopting the right set of practices and tools is essential if you  want to develop in this direction. It took me a few years of struggle to develop these habits, but they have made me far more productive and confident in my career.