Focus and Deep Work — Your Secret Weapons to Becoming a 10X Developer
As long as you’re a programmer, no skill is more important to your success than focused, deep work. Here are some points from Cal Newport’s book Deep Work that tie together his thoughts on becoming a successful, in-demand developer and how to become one of those highly-paid “10x Rockstar Ninja” developers companies love to hire
From Fear of Code to Lead Developer
The secret to becoming a lead developer at a Fortune 50 company is getting good at focus and deep work
- Take the time to train yourself how to focus on one thing without distraction for an extended period of time to become a world-class developer.
Learning to Focus is HARD
Anything that requires practice means its difficult.
Step 1
Removing Distraction
- Put your phone on silent or turn it off if you’re not in a position that has to be on-call. Face down, somewhere out of arm’s reach is good too.
- Close Slack. Most of these messages are noise so its better for me to close Slack when working. Close any other apps that are going to distract you with notifications.
Work Your Way Up to 25 Minutes
25 minutes might be hard for you if you’ve never done this before. Start with 10 minutes and work your way up to 55-minute blocks when you get good at this.
- Can be done in increments of 10, 15, 20, and 25 minutes.
Yes, You Can Be a 10x Developer (But 5x, 2x, and 1x Are Great Too)
There are more open developer jobs than there are qualified developers to fill them.
- Businesses are having trouble filling positions with any qualified developers, let alone (some multiplier)x developers.
How Does This Make Me a Better Developer?
A few hours of undistracted, deep work produces more quantity and quality than a full day of scattered, distracted work
- Start with one Pomodoro.
- Eventually you’ll be able to chain a few Pomodoros together
- You’ll find it easier to get into a flow state, and it will happen more often
The 2 Steps You Need to Multiply Your Programming Skills with Focus and Deep Work
To remain valuable in our economy, therefore, you must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. This task requires deep work. If you don’t cultivate this ability, you’re likely to fall behind as technology advances.”
Don’t Confuse Busyness with Productivity
Deep work is not locking yourself in a dark room and forcing yourself to aimlessly navigate code for 14 hours at a time
- Just because you’re doing something doesn’t mean it’s worth doing
- If you’re going to spend time learning how to focus, then do it on something that has a high return for the effort involved
Before You Go
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Code is Art
If you have any desire to produce at a high level, then you have to practice
- The quantity and quality of your output increases when you get better at being able to stay focused for longer, intentional periods
- Programming is a creative pursuit – you’re creating something out of nothing
Pomodoro Technique (The Secret Weapon)
This technique will help you go 8 hours without any distractions
One Task Only in a Pomodoro
This can be fixing a bug, planning out a new feature, or starting a video series to learn a new framework.
- The point is that the task, or tasks, have to be one “type” of work.