Tech Productivity Issue #263 (The Case Against Caffeine)

Issue #263 (The Case Against Caffeine) 02/26/24

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Last year, Addy Osmani published The Developer Experience Book, which is available to read or download free online, or you can alternatively support the book's work by purchasing on Leanpub.

The relatively short book (about 100 pages in print) covers how developer teams can build good products without friction and that the entire team enjoys helping with.

For clarity on the subject matter, here are the main chapter headings:

Why do we need DX?
What makes for good DX?
How do we enable a DX Mindset?
How do we measure DX?
Implementing a DX Roadmap
DX Maturity Levels
Developer Experience and AI

These cover specific topics like core workflows, designing team-friendly APIs, writing good documentation, and building better communities.

Definitely worth a look if you and your team want to consider ways to better streamline your developer processes.

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

Tools & Apps

Filerev — A cleanup tool for your Google Drive that allows you to find and remove duplicates, organize effectively, and manage storage smartly.

SparkReceipt — An AI-powered mobile app for iOS and Android that lets you easily scan and digitize receipts and invoices for easy tracking and categorizing of expenses and income.

Echonotes — A voice notes app that uses AI to help you quickly organize and transcribe your thoughts into clear, structured notes.

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One Minute Focus — As simple as any app gets. This is literally just a button that you press to bring up a large dot that you can focus on for one minute to help improve mental focus for your next task.

rem — An open-source, 100% local tool that allows you to record and enable searching for everything you view on your Mac.

Minutes — A Mac tool that enables you to have team meetings via asynchronous voice and video messages, to help overcome the challenges associated with standard live meetings.

Articles & Resources

How We Help Our Developers Get More Done in 4 Days Than Most Do in 5 — Another case made for the benefits of the 4-day workweek, this time from a company called Tighten, discussing a system they use called 20% time.

The Case Against Caffeine — Some anecdotal evidence here combined with general knowledge on the science of sleep, caffeine, anxiety, and productivity, for an interesting discussion on everyone's favourite beverage.

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

The Anti-To-Do List — From Sahil Bloom's newsletter, a look at the flipside of your to-do list, which he describes as a "set of daily actions, behaviors, and habits to avoid; the things that will hold you back or lead you into trouble."

The Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity Methods — Originally published in 2015, this is a near-exhaustive guide on every productivity method you've heard of and even a bunch you've likely never heard of.

Build Habits of Self-respect to Defeat Procrastination — Based on the premise that procrastination is closely tied to low self-respect and self-worth, which makes a lot of sense, so these four strategies may help.

Work Productivity Improves After 30 Minutes of Fresh Air Outdoors, Research Shows — We know it's true, but we still don't do it. Maybe this mid-2020 report will provide some extra incentive to physically get out of the office at least once per day.

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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