Weekly Roundup (Week 35, 2016)

Thoughts This Week

Got a good fire going up in Crianlarich this weekend

This week I’ve felt very busy. Not productive, just busy. The difference, you ask? Well, there’s quite a lot of articles on that topic.

Being productive is about understanding that there is only a certain amount of time to complete the tasks that you have. You make a conscious decision to prioritise the tasks. To understand what you can and can’t get done in a given week.

Being busy, on the other hand, is about trying to make more time to complete all the tasks that you have. You try to work as much as possible. You feel guilty when you’re not working. At the end of it all, the list of tasks is still there and you feel defeated for not having completed them all. You then go back to the start and try to fit more tasks in to the next week, repeating this cycle until burnout hits you like a ton of bricks.

This weekend I went north with Eilidh to Crianlarich for a chance to take a break from everything. It’s all too easy to forget to take these breaks. When you do, though, you remember just why they are so important.

Podcast Picks

Elixir Fountain Ben Marx 2016-08-16 - Elixir Fountain

Elixir Fountain is a great show for anyone with an interest in Elixir. In this episode, the host talks with Ben Marx from Bleacher Report about their experience running Elixir in production since v1.0.

30 Consulting, Freelance, and Side Projects - React Native Radio

Although this episode is from the React Native Radio podcast, in it the host and guests discuss their experiences doing contract and freelance software development, both full time and part time. It has some interesting insights about how each of them approach common problems such as pricing and managing time.

Article Picks

How a single conversation with my boss changed my view on delegation and failure

In this article, the author discusses the problem of workplaces that encourage the silencing of failure. They reason about why, ultimately, it is healthier for failure to be recognised as an opportunity for learning and for the organisation to move forward.

You may suffer from 'impostor syndrome.' Lots of smart people with signs of high achievement do.

This. 100 times, this. As I alluded to in last week’s post, sometimes I can struggle with believing the value that I can provide. Sometimes you‘ve just got to have the confidence to look at what you do and realise that it is obviously of value to someone, or they wouldn’t be paying you to do it.

That’s it for this week’s roundup! Got a problem you think I could help solve? Let’s grab a coffee.