Tech Productivity Issue #157 (Folders vs. Tags)

Issue #157 (Folders vs. Tags) 02/14/22

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A really crazy Hacker News thread was started by a user with a throwaway account, where the question is posed: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?

As you can see from the upvotes and the numbers of comments, this is a relevant discussion and isn't as out-to-lunch as the original poster may have thought. But I don't think this is a matter of "lying" about our workload; I think this is more about bosses and department heads simply recognizing that maybe it's better to have someone who communicates well and adds to the bottom line, even if that person isn't technically doing 8-hour workdays.

One of the answers in the thread pretty much sums it up, in my opinion (and many in the thread agree):

"Sometimes I'll know I need to write some code or some function and I'll just think about it in the back of my head while doing other things, sometimes for a whole day or two. Then I'll sit down and write it in like 20-30 minutes. Did I work 20-30 minutes, or have I been working for a day or two? I would say a day or two, and the 20-30 minutes was the time needed to produce the deliverable of that work."

I doubt there are many of us who code 6+ hours per day on a full-time job. There needs to be time for other things, which I think make the actual coding more productive. Maybe you feel differently. It's certainly an interesting subject to contemplate.

Now on to this week's hand-picked productivity links!

Tools & Apps

BrandBird Studio - An easy-to-use social media image editor for founders and product people who need to create captivating graphics without the hassle.

PocketTube - Chrome extension. A YouTube subscription manager that lets you tag, categorize, sort, filter, mark as watched, and more.

Voiceliner - A fast way to capture and structure your thoughts via voice notes. Notes are auto-transcribed and searchable.

Postsack - A Rust tool to give you a high-level visual overview of your Gmail account. The author of the tool has 650,000 emails so if you're in the same boat, maybe you'll find this useful.

Escape - A Mac app that tracks your time spent on social media so you can ensure you're not wasting too much time on non-essential websites.

Cron - A next-generation calendar for professionals and teams. Still in early access, but it was Product Hunt's app of the year in 2021, so might be worth a look.

The Easiest Modern Data Stack to Set Up - Sign up for a 14-day free trial of Mozart Data’s data stack. Get set up in under an hour and organize all your data in one place for faster, better analysis. sponsored

Articles & Resources

7 Mental Models for Problem-Solving to Avoid a Catastrophic Mess - These suggestions can help if we're the type who often regret decisions and realize solutions after the fact.

"This Project Will Only Take 2 Hours" - Discussion of underestimating the complexity of projects on first glance using the example of a clipboard URL logger.

Yet Another Hot Take on “Folders vs Tags” - Eleanor Konik likes folders for a variety of reasons. I think this depends on the nature of a person's research combined with mental habits.

Survey Reveals the Mental and Physical Health Impacts of Home Working During Covid-19 - Research shows that there are key health and wellbeing disparities between different groups of people who made the move to remote work over the past two years.

Unlearning Perfectionism - A piece not completely against perfectionism, but more of a balanced view with a leaning towards looking for better ways to improve our self-identity.

11 Unexpected Ways to Sharpen Your Focus and Boost Your Daily Productivity - A simple list of suggestions. The one I like is the "Stop Doing List", which I've never considered before, at least not so explicitly.

Find, Visualize and Apply the Hidden Gems in Your Spam Inbox - Checkmate is the first tool ever built to sort, visualize and apply the deals from your spam inbox while you shop, finding hidden gems and saving early users an average of $40 per checkout. It’s completely free! Try Checkmate today! sponsored

Suggestions?

Have a suggestion for a productivity-related tool, article, or other resource? Send me a direct message via X (@LouisLazaris) and I’ll consider including it in a future issue.

Stay productive!

Louis
techproductivity.co
@LouisLazaris

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