Write to be right

I think a lot. I mean I think beforehand about the work I might have to do the next day in office, I think about the items I need to buy for an upcoming event, I think about the repairs I need to get done in my house this month, I think about the movies I got to watch and sometimes I think why am I thinking so much! I think (shit I am doing it again), it is a good idea to plan ahead your day to optimally get things done. It is one of the strategies to be more productive in your life. Its just that it takes a toll on my head (especially the frontal area). Man so many things running at once in my head at a time that it sometimes affects my sleep too. Worst thing is (I think its a bit funny), that my wife is talking to me about something and am drawing blanks at her coz I am thinking whether to use apply or spread operator in my code (This joke was only for the Javascript folks).

There are many books around that can help you address these issues and still be productive day in and day out. I have perused some of them but if you are like me, you cannot survive the whole material the author has to say. We are a species that like to see more of the actual stuff than just words. So just for those who want the high order bit of the big message here is, write it down! Write down friggin all the things (technical, non-technical) that come to your mind that you need to take care of in coming days. Use any note application, you could use pen and paper if you are one of those types. I use Evernote application on my iPhone. You could literally use any method that suits you to record your items. As of now I have certain categories decided that suite me, like IMPORTANT, BLOG TOPICS, OFFICIAL,  GENERAL etc. IMPORTANT includes all the items I write for actions I need to take within a day or 2. BLOG TOPICS are my ever increasing topics I need to vomit about on this blog. OFFICIAL is the list of things I intend to work in coming days at my office, this includes some items which I maintain in my TODO.txt file on my office machine. TODO.txt is just my way of keeping track of things I will be doing today after reading the mails and having discussions/meetings with the team. GENERAL are just things that do not require immediate attention, but need to be done in a months time or so. Generating this list takes few minutes of a day. The most crucial aspect of this method is to maintain it regularly and get a habit of reading this list at end of the day. If you do not do these 2 things then this method aint’t gonna work. When I get back from office, after being relaxed for some time on my couch I open up my notes and go through them to remove items I have already done and add items that I am thinking about to do soon. I am glad to say I feel a bit light headed these days and I am not missing out things that I used to forget earlier. Hope this method helps you too if you are in need.

Happy Programming!