All things Productivity
VS Code extensions that I use every day
I use numerous VS Code extensions to increase productivity and make life easier as a developer and blogger. Here are some of them: Theme Atom One Dark Theme is based on Atom's One Dark theme. It is the best rated One Dark theme port in the marketpla…
WikipediaAn Iterative Approach to My Blog
I was leaving the corporate world behind and needed to rebrand. I had a hard deadline. I had a new job, a new domain and new hosting, I needed a new blog. I could have rebranded my old blog but I didn't take that approach. In retrospect, it wouldn't…
My Nomadic Lifestyle
My goal for the next two months is to maximize my learning time and try to keep my anxiety as low as possible by stripping out unnecessary concerns. I made some changes that ripped me outside of my comfort zone that initially made me anxious. This i…
Rewire your brain (Part 8) - Conclusion
Page 172 of the book Rewire: Changing Your Brain to Break Bad Habits, Overcome Addictions, Conquer Self-Destructive Behavior written by psychotherapist Richard O’Connor says that whatever we pay attention to determines how our brain grows. This post…
Rewire your brain (Part 7) - Our habits
Germany Kent says that it's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack. In the part 6, Neuroplasticity, we looked at how the chemicals of the brain ca…
Rewire your brain (Part 6) - Neuroplasticity
Lara Boyd challenges us by asking how do we learn? And why does some of us learn things more easily than others? In the part 5, The Satir Change Process Model, we looked at how the model can help transform unhealthy behaviors to more positive behavi…
Rewire your brain (Part 5) - The Satir Change Process Model
Virginia Satir says that we can learn something new anytime we believe we can. Therefore we can learn to cope with what we are dealing with by readjusting the way we think. In the part 4, Survival Rules, we look at how we can identify childhood surv…
Rewire your brain (Part 4) - Childhood survival rules
Virginia Satir says that you have learned what you have learned very well. It has helped you survive. In Part 3, Distress Tolerance, we learned how to "Distract. Relax. Cope." We identify negative coping mechanisms and avoid self-destructive behavio…
Rewire your brain (Part 3) - Distress tolerance
Oliver Goldsmith says that the mind is ever ingenious in making its own distress. In Part 2 we looked at how we can activate five neuro pathways in order to create new neural networks in the brain. This technique helps us rewire the brain to change …
Rewire your brain (Part 2) - Activate neuro pathways
Dr. Hilary Stokes says that we have trillions of brain cells, resulting in thousands (if not millions) of strings of lights (chemical reactions) correlating with our habits in all areas of our life. In part one, the introduction, we looked at why we…
Rewire your brain (Part 1) - Introduction
John Medina said, "what you do and learn in life physically changes what your brain looks like - it literally rewires it." You are learning something new everyday. Whether it be a new skill, new way of doing something, discovering something you have…
Deliberate downtime
"Do you really squeeze more productivity out of yourself by powering through your weariness?", Caroline Webb To make good decisions you need your mind to be fresh. If you keep grinding through tasks, your brain gets tired and can go on auto-pilot. T…
Sustainable living
The aim is simple. I wish to boost my overall sense of wellbeing by living a more fulfilling life day-to-day. I decided it was time to consciously unpack why I feel overwhelmed: The city feels rushed. The negative effects of traffic while people are…
Code katas
A fun way to practice and familiarize yourself with development tools, workflows, patterns and practices. Wikipedia states that a code kata is an exercise in programming which helps a programmer hone their skills through practice and repetition. The…
The rainbow in our storm sprint
Communication is essential to minimize stress and get the support a team needs to be successful. We are seven days into our two week sprint and our burndown is flat-lining. Until today, this sprint felt like a terrible storm that would never clear u…
Making red-tape allies
Having allies that are exposed to just as much red-tape as you can give you the confidence and guidance you need. Sometimes you have to tackle many obstacles to get something done at a corporate. Many refer to such obstacles as red-tape. This can be…
Streamline operations communication
Get the support you need to make the product and operating the product a success. Teams cannot focus on sprint work when there are multiple communication channels filtering into the team at any given point in time. Source of image: Clarice Bouwer T…
Discovering fiddles
If you are new to fiddles, it's an online code playground that let's you quickly experiment, visualize results and share code without having to start up an IDE, editor or server of some sort. They are generally free and include features such as synt…
The horror behind design
Improve your craft, write the cleanest code you know how at that point in time, learn from your mistakes (and that of others) and always aim to improve. I think looking at the plumbing behind many designs could make one stay up for weeks. Now, when …
Reignite the passion
Do you remember how excited you were when you wrote your first program? It's easy to forget when you've been in the real-world for a long time. Sometimes we just need to reignite that passion that we once felt and spread the feeling throughout our t…
Dealing with change in teams
It's sad when people leave because bonds are formed but we can't stay in the same environment and position forever. I had a bad experience. I once joined a team that had pressure from all angles. Fixed deadlines, unexpected and sometimes last minute…
How this blog improved my productivity
Having a pet project has some powerful benefits. Do you have one? What benefits have you observed? I started this blog as a course. I decided to meticulously create the site from scratch keeping in mind page speed and user experience. It took a lot …
Adjusting the corporate mindset
Just because it's always been done that way, doesn't mean it can't be changed. Personally there is nothing I can do about the way corporate work. There are a lot of people involved and possibly a plethora of reasons for why they do things the way th…
picsum.photosTime is precious
When last did you just stop to smell a flower? Or take a peaceful walk without having to rush for something? Today I sat in standstill traffic. It took me an hour to get home. It's usually between 15 and 20 minutes. My time is precious to me so I wa…
Days that rush away
Are you busy but don't feel productive? I feel this way sometimes. It is exhausting. How can we find ways to feel fulfilled and accomplished at the end of the day? Rushed days leave me feeling exhausted. Today was one of those days. Events were back…
Bonding with Testers
Do you form relationships with testers? Teaming up with testers from the beginning of a feature can positively impact the quality of the feature being developed. At work we often get trapped in our roles. We develop the software so we should only co…
