Tech Productivity Issue #261 (Good DevEx Increases Productivity)

Issue #261 (Good DevEx Increases Productivity) 02/12/24

Pylot — the Mental Energy Wearable
Pylot is the first wearable to track your mental energy, helping improve your productivity. Pylot uses EEG and HRV sensors to track Flow and Mental Fatigue, pinpointing your best times for deep work and suggesting breaks when necessary.

Pylot is now available on Indiegogo, along with a bonus trial to some of our favorite productivity apps valued at over $125.

Get it now on Indiegogo →

I tend to associate proficiency and productivity with good study habits. So you'll often see links to articles in this newsletter on improving study, learning, memory, and related skills.

One that I recently came across is How to Study: A Brief Guide by William J. Rapaport. The guide includes some related comic strips from popular comics like Calvin & Hobbes. I like that the table of contents itself works as a nice guide in itself, even if you don't have time to get into the details of each of the tips.

The main headings are:

Manage your time
Take notes in class & rewrite them at home
Study hard subjects first & study in a quiet place
Read actively & slowly, before & after class
Do your homework
Study for exams
Take Exams
Do research & write essays

As you can see, the guide is aimed at students. But as you know, in the technology industry, learning is an essential and never-ending skill. Of course, a lot of fields of work are similar, but it's especially true in programming and tech.

The suggestions to rewrite notes and read slowly are excellent and are sure to help when learning a new aspect of your work in tech. So I hope the suggestions will inspire you to continue learning and not feel like you've hit a roadblock.

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

Tools & Apps

Nino — Windows or web app that offers a collection of apps to build a custom workspace with tools that are flexible, extensible, and can adapt to your needs as you grow.

Let's Block It! — A collection of community-owned content filters for uBlock Origin, the popular ad blocker extension, to remove low-quality content and useless nags from web pages.

Pylot – Mental Energy Wearable — Pylot is the first wearable to track your mental energy, helping improve your productivity. Pylot uses EEG and HRV sensors to track Flow and Mental Fatigue, pinpointing your best times for deep work and suggesting breaks when necessary. sponsor

ArchiveBox — An open-source, self-hosted internet archiving solution for Mac, Windows, and Linux, to collect, save, and view websites offline, while retaining control of your data.

Notion Calendar — From the folks at Notion, a beautifully designed, calendar that integrates with Notion, with built-in scheduling, time zone features, and support for 12 languages.

Retriever — Interesting twist on secret sharing: Send a link to someone you want to get a secret from and this tool will generate a URL for them to send you that only you can open and no data is sent to a server.

Sheet Copilot — A privacy-friendly Google Sheets plugin that lets you use ChatGPT to complete tasks and get answers to questions in Google Sheets.

Articles & Resources

The Undercover Generalist — Interesting piece from Adolfo Ochagavía on why he markets himself as a software specialist but is in actuality more of a generalist.

3 Steps For Building High-Performing Teams — Article requires login but it outlines three primary things that can improve team performance: clear goals, roles, and team norms.

Free Your Newsletters From the Inbox — The inbox is full of distractions and too many subscriptions lead to inbox chaos. Time to liberate your inbox and move to Meco, a newsletter aggregator built for reading. sponsor

Aim, Fire, Scan: The 80/20 of Executing on Big Projects — The author believes strongly in a "plan, do, learn" process that he's been using for years, something you might want to look into trying yourself.

Yes, Good DevEx Increases Productivity. Here is the Data. — A much-needed consideration of the importance of a strong developer experience, based on a study conducted by GitHub and DX, a developer experience insights platform.

Should We Try to Be More Self-Sufficient? — "I started my career as an engineering designer, and I persuaded ... my wife ... to join me on a slightly mad journey to escape the conventional world of employment and create a more self-sufficient life."

The Sterile World of Infinite Choice — A really thoughtful essay from the Substack of Anne Helen Petersen who longs for the days when we weren't so inundated with technology and information.

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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