You may be wondering, what is the point? What is the point of all of these podcasts you've been listening to about personal productivity, about career development? What is the point of all of the process that you've been learning about? What is the whole idea? What is the macro picture? How can I think about this without having to remember every single detail every single time? I know this is the place that I find myself very often. And returning to some kind of principles-based understanding of the point is helpful. So that's what we're going to do in today's episode. I want to talk to you about two basic principles that virtually all of the information that you get on this podcast and on other podcasts, at least as it relates to productivity, to habits, to process, all of those parts of the advice that we give on this show and the advice that you hear on other shows, I want to bring it down to two simple principles that you can then kind of, kind of extrapolate and hopefully find your own ways of thinking about these things. These principles are where you would start from, by the way, using these principles and going and doing your own kind of investigation, research, whatever you want to call it, in areas of other mental models to determine, okay, how can I apply learning from social sciences to my career as a software engineer? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. may not be immediately obvious when you think about it in those terms, but if you put on this lens of these two principles, we're going to talk about today, then drawing on those mental models from cross examples, cross domains is a much more productive process. So that's why I want you to have these. It also will help you kind of test the metal of any given idea as it relates to productivity. So we're going to talk about two principles today, But first we need to kind of lay this meta framework for what it is that we're even talking about. When we talk about productivity, when we talk about any kind of process, the productivity, the process, all of this, our habits, everything, are driven by some motivation. So coming into this discussion, it is assumed that you have a particular motivation that you're trying to accomplish. And maybe more than one motivation, maybe a series of motivations. And these can be personal, they can be corporate, they can be aspirational. Whatever the motivation is, there is either a perceived destination or a perceived state. These are kind of fixed motivations. Or there's a perceived identity or process. And these are more dynamic motivations. A fixed motivation might look something like, I want to achieve this particular job potential, this particular title. And a process motivation might be, I want to align with this kind of value in my life. But the reason we have to clarify that up top as kind of a meta framework, that there is some motivation. That you care about something. That you're trying to either do or become a certain way. Do something, become a certain way. These accomplishments are essentially the way that you would measure whether the advice was good in the first place. And that's over the course of many actions, of course. Not just one to one, I took your advice and then I failed. Those are possible outcomes. But if you're taking the advice over and over and over. And not seeing any results towards your motivations. Then either you are unlucky. Or the advice is not very good. Or perhaps a combination of both. So I want you to judge the advice you get on this show. And any advice that you get. Through that kind of combined lens of. Okay, have I applied this long enough to see a difference? One. And am I actually progressing towards the thing I'm motivated to progress towards? Alright, so that's the meta framework. We're going to share the two principles. The first principle is. This is going to sound very reductive. Reducing interruption. Reducing interruption. Why is reducing interruptions such a big deal? We're going to talk about that right after we talk about today's sponsor. . If I were to take a snapshot of your backlog. My guess is that you've got a bunch of bug reports in there. And my second guess would be. That not every bug report looks the same. Your teammates have sent them to you. Or maybe users have sent them in. But sometimes it's just a text description. No screenshot. No logs. No user ID. No additional context. No walkthrough. You have to go chasing the information. On what the reproduction steps. Actually are. In my time as an engineer. I've seen some crazy bugs happen. Things that you'd have to have all the context to be able to solve. And if you're wasting a bunch of time. Going and getting this information. As we're going to talk about in today's episode. The importance of having all this information up front. So you can solve these bugs. More holistically. Cannot be overstated. Today's sponsor is Jam. You can find them at jam.dev. Jam.dev. Developer friendly bug report. It's in one click. You may have heard of this already. It's already used by more than 75,000 people. Probably more by the time this episode comes out. It's growing very quickly. That's because it's a free tool. That saves software engineers a ton of time. And frustration going back and forth. It forces your teammates to make the perfect bug report. And improves your overall flow. Reducing interruption of having to go back and forth. For that information. Is absolutely critical to your productivity. To your team's productivity. Your bug reports literally can't be. Wrong. Because they'll include information. That you've probably never had in a bug report. It includes a video of the bug. The console. A log. Network requests. All the information you need to debug. Like even what was the internet speed. At the time that the bug occurred. Even automatically lists out the steps. That you need to reproduce the bug. To the degree that you can actually take these steps. And create an automated test. Just by copying the attributes. From the report. It's so easy to get your teammates to use. Because it's just a. Chrome extension. When they see a bug. They just click a button. And right away. It creates a ticket. In whatever your issue tracker is. So it saves time for them. And it saves you. A lot of hopping on calls. And meetings to debug. Go and check it out. Head over to jam.dev. That's J-A-M. Dot. D-E-V. It's free. Sometimes the topic of the show. Serendipitously aligns with the. With the sponsor of the day. As we were just talking about. Jam's whole. Kind of value proposition. Is to reduce interruption. And that's exactly what we're talking about. In today's episode. This idea of reducing interruption. Is a core principle. It's a core principle. Of productivity. And the advice that you receive. Around productivity. There's a concept discussed. By Efrat Goldratt. She is the daughter of. Eliahu Goldratt. Eliahu is most famous. For. Writing some of the earliest books. On the concept of the theory of constraints. In fact his book. The goal. Actually introduced this concept. But Efrat discusses in a book. Called the rules of flow. Which is using the principles from. Eliahu's book. The goal. Efrat discusses the idea of a full kit. And similarly Eliahu talks about this. In the goal as well. The idea of a full kit. Is that in order to. A. Accomplish any particular. Chunk of a project. You need some amount of materials. And tools. And time. Whatever other resources you may need. In the case of solving a bug report. You need the context related to the bug. And the whole idea of. Figuring out what the full kit would be. To solve a bug report. Is to reduce interruption. Similarly. The many times that we've talked about multitasking. Or the myth of multitasking. On this show. We're talking about. The idea of interruption. Reducing interruption. It's just as detrimental. It would be just as detrimental. If you stayed focused on a single task. But you had other types. Of interruptions. And one of the most amazing things. About interruptions. As they occur in the workplace. Is that they tend to not be accidental. They tend to be on purpose. Not ill intent on purpose. Not malicious. But on purpose in a way. That we think they're going to produce. A positive outcome. Rather than a negative one. This is kind of counterintuitive. We imagine that making progress. On multiple things at once. Is what we need to be doing. To be successful. That we have to keep a certain number of plates spinning. And thus. We're willing to interrupt ourselves. We're willing to interrupt others. Because we have something that we think. Is important at that moment. It's important. It's important enough. That the thing that we thought was important before. Can go on hold. Of course the problems with interruptions. We've detailed many times on the show. And you can see them in very simple. Illustrations and metaphors. I'll give you a few really quickly. I imagine you're on a road trip. And instead of getting a full tank of gas. You get only. Let's say a tenth of a tank of gas. And you're rationalizing this. By saying. Well we don't know. If maybe the next. The next gas station we get to. Maybe it will have a cheaper price. For the tank of gas. And so we're only going to take a certain amount at a time. And so. Every time that your tank gets. A little bit low. Or close to empty. You only fill it by one tenth. So you're stopping. You know every 50 miles or something. Which is taking a lot of extra time. Now on the one hand. You may say that. Well we were able to save. A certain amount of money. With this strategy. Because we were only taking the gas. That was the cheapest. We were always optimizing. For a certain type of spin. On the other hand. You're discounting the importance. And scarcity of time. In this situation. And as a general rule. The principle of reducing interruption. Is about putting a premium. On time. More specifically. If you recognize. That you are spending time. On things that are not producing. Value for you. Specifically the switching costs. In the case of a car. Getting off of the highway. The time spent finding a pump. To pump the gas. All of this is not producing direct value. Once again in this metaphor. The direct value is. Going back to that motivation. Kind of meta framework. The motivation is to arrive. At a location. And you're not getting any closer. To that location. When you are looking for a gas pump. Another great example of this. That's directly applicable to many managers. Is the status report. Especially. The frequency of status report. And the style of status report. Imagine that. You are tasked with writing. An essay. And imagine that. Every time you wrote a paragraph. You had to look up. At somebody who is watching. They're not looking at the paper. They're looking at you. And you're going to have to summarize. Whatever that paragraph says. Now you may need to reference previous paragraphs. In order to summarize what this paragraph says. But every paragraph you have to stop. And explain what you just wrote. To someone who is watching you. Now this seems a little bit silly. It seems like the better way to do this. Would be to write a first draft. Of the essay. In total. And then. Look up at the person. And explain the first draft. And then go back and revise. Based on notes that you receive. Or something that you may have learned. During that reporting process. This is very often what status reports look like. We're talking about the same kinds of work. The status report itself. Is not incredibly valuable. Or insightful. To people who care about it. But most importantly. It again is. The same thing as kind of getting off the X ramp. We're taking our. Focus away from the actual productive work. Perhaps a better status report. Would be a way of observing. The writing itself. And this would be a clearer way. To provide a status. If you're looking for ongoing. You know information. If you want to look more into it. What is a way that you can get more direct. Reporting out of the work. Itself. Again if we're thinking about. This principle. There are. A hundred other things that we could derive. From the principle itself. Reducing interruption. And the effect of reducing interruption. Is it provides the opportunity. To stay focused. To have fewer things. That are in progress. Or fewer things that are requiring your attention. You fill up the gas tank. And then you just drive. And you stay. Kind of utilized. If you want to use that word. To a degree. That you are remain. Remaining focused. And you're making progress. Towards your motivation. You're making meaningful progress. You're not stopping progress. To then make a different kind of progress. Towards a similar motivation. You're staying focused on fewer things. At once. The second principle. Is a good compliment to the first one. And that is. Planning adjustments. Planning adjustments. What does this mean? As you are. Making progress. Towards your motivation. If you put your head down. And you don't ever evaluate. If your actions are taking you. The right direction. Then it's very possible. That you'll go the wrong direction. Or at least. You'll spend a lot of time. Moving in an inefficient direction. And basically these two principles. Are reducing two types of risk. Of inefficient motion. The first. Risk of inefficient motion. Is stopping motion. Just to start again. Just to stop again. Just to start again. The second type of inefficient motion. Is moving with focus. But in a wrong direction. And this wrong direction. Hopefully most of the time. If you're adjusting consistently. If you're planning your adjustments. Once again this principle. If you're planning your adjustments. Then the wrong direction. Is only slightly wrong. But if you never plan. To have an adjustment. It's very possible. That you'll continue getting further. And further away. From your motivation. Now unlike a road trip. This is where the metaphor kind of falls apart. Unlike a road trip. Your motivation has no. Explicitly clear destination. Or route to arrive. And so. As you are taking action. In your career. Or in your personal life. As you are focusing. And trying to use your time. As efficiently. And positively as possible. To get your motivation. Your adjustment may happen in two ways. Either your motivation has shifted. This is an important thing to know. Or you realize. That the direction you're going. That you've been going for a while. That you recognize. That the direction you're going. Is not taking you towards your motivation. Like you thought it would. And both of these can happen simultaneously. You may find out. As you're approaching your motivation. For example. Oh actually I didn't want to do that. Actually that motivation is not quite. True. For some reason or another. Now the astute listener. Hopefully is recognizing. There's some very careful language here. Planning your adjustments. Is critical. The planning part. Is the careful language. Because these two principles. Can be at odds with each other. Think about it. If your goal is to reduce interruptions. But you're making adjustments. And adjustment could become. Interruptive. So there's kind of a sneaky. Third principle here. Which is balancing. These two other principles. Balancing your interruption. With your adjustment. Now you'll notice that I left out. A perhaps third principle. And this was done on purpose. And that is the sheer speed. The top capacity. If you were to be fully focused. And if you were to be headed in the right direction. Making the proper adjustments. The only thing remaining. That will make you more productive. Is the speed at which you operate. The reason I left this out. Is because it is very likely. The lowest. Leverage opportunity on this list. It's very likely. The lowest leverage opportunity on this list. And the reason for that is. Your speed is unlikely to increase. Or have an impact. On your progress. Relative to these other two measures. Your personal capacity. If you're learning on a regular basis. Then your speed is already increasing. The fact that you are actually. Operating on a day to day basis. In an environment. You are naturally increasing. This is again where the metaphor. Does not quite cover the basis here. But your speed is not going to increase. In a stepwise motion. If you were to. Eliminate all distractions. You're going to have a. Overnight. In a moment. Increase in productivity. That is drastic. If you're eliminating your. Distractions. Or even if you're cutting them in half. If you're finding a way to eliminate interruptions. This is a moment in time change. In reality. It probably wouldn't be a moment in time. But it's possible. It's possible to have a moment in time. Change. On both making an adjustment. And on. Reducing your interruptions. Now it's interesting. Most advice about improving your velocity. Is actually focused on. Reducing interruptions. Leveling up your sheer capacity. Is a much longer term investment. And it certainly is not one. We want to ignore completely. But the first two. Principles that I want you to focus on. Is getting this part correct. Getting your operating procedures correct. Because your speed. Is dependent on getting those two things right. Your speed. Mattering. Is dependent on getting those other two things right. So I wouldn't worry too much. On becoming the 10x developer. In terms of your sheer. Capacity to get things done. When you are focused. The differences between a true. 10x and 1x developer. If we have to talk about that here. Most of them are actually in these other two categories. Staying laser focused. And reducing the interruptions. Is a huge part of whatever that 10x is. Of course. Learning about the domain. Learning about the tech. All of that is important. You wouldn't be where you are today. As an engineer. If you didn't learn some of that stuff in the beginning. And you're likely. In order just to keep your job. You're probably having to learn new things. Yes. This will increase your. Kind of linear delivery capacity. If you want to think about it that way. Your top speed. On a straightaway on the highway. But most of the time. Most of the time. If you can get these other two factors right. Your top speed matters. Drastically less. It matters drastically less. Than you making good adjustments. Planning your adjustments. On some cadence. Where you're balancing your adjustments. To your interruptions. If you're a manager that's listening to this. These are the areas that you can improve your team. Best in. If you can reduce interruptions across your whole team. This is going to have a much larger impact. Than if you were to get your team training. On some particular tech. My challenge. To you. We're not going to do homework in this episode. My challenge to you is. To listen out. Listen out for the. If you have another podcast. It's about to play right after this one finishes. Listen for the kinds of advice. That you're hearing. And try to see. Does it fit. One of these two categories. If not. What is a category. Or a principle. That it would fit. What is a. Underlying truth. That's going to. It's going to carry me. Towards my motivation. If I take this advice. What you'll find is. Most advice is likely to fall. In one of these two. And possibly that third one. And if it doesn't. Then it's worth questioning. How does this fit into the picture. How does it help me. Get to that other piece. It's very possible that you find. Advice that. Kind of leads to. That maybe doesn't fit directly. In one of these categories. But it leads to a behavior. That improves one of these categories. I'd love to hear about your experiences with this. If you have. Advice that fits outside of these. Or if you're finding advice. That yes indeed. It does fit in both of these categories. I'd love to hear about it. Head over to developer t.com. Slash discord. You can join that community totally free. I know it will always be free. There's no paid tier. It's not just the joining. That's free. I come and talk about the. The kinds of advice that you're getting. And how they. Kind of work back towards a principle. I'd love to hear more about that. That's developer t.com. Slash discord. The community would also love to hear that as well. Another big thing you to today's sponsor jam. If you've experienced a bad bug report. And you want that to stop. Then head over to jam. Dot dev. If you're an engineer and you'd rather spend time writing code. Then responding to comments in your issue tracker. Head over to jam. Dot dev. To get started. It's free. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode and until next time. Enjoy your tea.