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January 15th, 2024 × #productivity#workflows#organization

How to be Productive

Wes and Scott discuss productivity habits like tracking goals, scheduling focus time, simplifying workflows, and pushing through procrastination to build momentum.

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Topic 0 00:00

Transcript

Announcer

Monday. Monday. Monday. Open wide dev fans. Get ready to stuff your face with JavaScript, CSS, node modules, barbecue tips, get workflows, breakdancing, soft skill, web development, the hastiest, the craziest, the tastiest web development treats. Coming in hot. Here is Wes, Barracuda, Boss, and Scott, El Toro Loco, Tolinski.

Scott Tolinski

Welcome to Syntax. On this Monday, hasty treat. We're gonna be talking all about productivity habits for 2024, how you can be productive this year. It's the new year, new year, new us, and we're ready to go On all of our productivity Sanity, and one of the biggest productivity habits you can have in your code Bos is by adding error and exception handling tracking because, hey, if you mess up, it's productive because you can solve and fix your bugs without even, having to think about it. You can put them on your to do list in your GitHub issues. You can crush them. You can assign them, and you can do all that with Sanity at century.io.

Scott Tolinski

This podcast is, presented by Century, so let's get going. Wes, how are you doing today? First off, this is, our 1st recording of the new year. So we are, you know, getting those,

Wes Bos

getting those shakeies off. Yeah. Exactly. We're about to record, the React server components after this, and I was like, I don't think that would be a good first one to do right off the bat. You know? Let's get right into it. Yeah. Yeah. We just Scott get going on this. So I'm I'm excited to be back. It was a nice break, but I'm I'm stoked that everything's sort of back on track, and And we're working. Yeah. Same.

Scott Tolinski

So I've been I've been you Node, I tend to, like most people, get kind of Habit focused, productivity focused come the new Yarn, it's something I like to evaluate throughout the year. It's not necessarily a a new year thing, but it It's hard not to feel that way at the beginning of the year. Like, alright. You you've had some time off. You're coming back to work.

Topic 1 02:02

Evaluating productivity habits for the new year

Scott Tolinski

You have Big goals. You have big dreams. Like, what are you going to do to hit this stuff and to change change the the way you're working right now? And so for me, you know, I'm focusing pretty hard on the habits that I'm doing, my processes, the way that I I work.

Scott Tolinski

You know, I know, Wes, I I don't know if this is getting too personal, but I know you you, ADHD folk. I, recently Wes officially diagnosed with ADHD.

Topic 2 02:18

Scott formally diagnosed with ADHD, re-examining how he works

Scott Tolinski

Formally diagnosed so that by my my wife. It turns out, your spouse, even if they're a doctor of psychology, cannot officially diagnose you with anything.

Scott Tolinski

So, I I recently went and got that done, and, you know, it has got me thinking a little bit about the way my brain works. So I've definitely been subscribing to some ADHD podcasts and then, immersing myself in a little bit about how I work to try to improve things. Yeah. It

Wes Bos

When we talked to Courtney about that, the biggest thing she said was like one of the best ways to deal with your distractions and your focus and your productivity is just systems having systems in place, you know, and finding ways around whatever road bumps you hit and having the software or the processes in place to sort of get around that. So I'm excited to talk about all this stuff today because it's Exactly the the type of stuff that you put in place to actually get things done.

Topic 3 03:25

Tracking habits can help build momentum and consistency

Scott Tolinski

Totally. And and maybe we can even talk about some books because there's, like, a a lot of, like, good Systems books out there, to to fill your life with.

Scott Tolinski

Systems work. So I think the big thing is that you wanna examine, first and foremost, your your current habits. What's holding you back? What are you working on? What what are the types of things in your day to day that goof you up? Like, for me, I can tell you very explicitly the things that that Wes me up on a day to day because I'm paying attention to them, and I'm trying to always think about them. But, you know, 1st and foremost, I've noticed that, you know, my focus is one of my key things that holds me back Wes In the short time in which my code is building, I could have opened up, like, 2 more tabs. You know? So, being able to, like, really recognize that my my focus on a specific task is a problem. I'm definitely a this It's over here. This is over here. This you know you know, especially in, like, a code world, people might relate to the fact that, like, you could be working on feature a, And then you see CSS thing is wrong. Let me fix CSS thing real quick while I'm here. The next thing you know, you've forgotten what The actual feature a that you're working on is.

Topic 4 04:31

To-do apps and GTD methodlogy help you get things done

Scott Tolinski

So I've examined that, and I know that that's holding me back. Another one is, like, if I have a task Such as writing an email I don't want to write, I will put that off. That's the key number 1 thing that I procrastinate. Yeah. I'm not gonna procrastinate any code Wes. I'm gonna dive into that stuff right away. Recording, content creation, exploration learning. I'm not gonna procrastinate that stuff, but it's It's the little itty bitty stuff that I don't want to do. Oh, I gotta call a contractor about something for our house. I'm gonna put that off forever.

Topic 5 05:12

Scheduling focus time blocks out distractions

Wes Bos

Accounting stuff is the worst for me with that. It's just like, I feel like I want to do that a little bit later. My biggest thing that holding back is just like split attention in general JS that I guess that falls under focus as well. But while you are doing something. Oh, what's on Slack? Oh, what's on Twitter? Oh, what's on? And often I'll get into that state of like, And sometimes it happens accidentally. And I realized that I had turned my do not disturb on. I have like a hotkey on my desk here. I've got a little my camera JS over here now. I've got this little keyboard here, and one of the hot keys is my recording key. And part of that process, it turns on my do not disturb, and it starts my screen recorder all in one. And sometimes I I also have another hot key to stop the recording, that doesn't take me out. Sometimes I press them in the wrong order, and and And then I got a whole bunch of work Deno, and then I realized, oh, shoot, I missed, like, 80 emails, and it's just 60 Slack messages. But I got so much done, And I often need to find myself getting into that sort of flow state a little bit more often.

Topic 6 06:20

Uninterrupted time critical for creativity and focus

Scott Tolinski

Yeah. I get that.

Scott Tolinski

The do not disturb features for me are, like, both a blessing and a curse because, yeah, I I have it blocking text messages from literally everyone except for my wife. Yeah. And because of that, I I do miss, like, texts from friends and stuff, and I maybe just don't even see them because I I have a hard time, like, going back and looking looking at stuff like that. For me, it's the like, missing a meeting is always the kills me because, like, I go into this deep zen state

Wes Bos

and I either totally miss a meeting or I'm, like, a couple of minutes late for it because I totally forgot. I've got 18 reminders set up and Yeah. I was gonna say really frustrating. Or the opposite Wes I'm trying to get into the the flow Scott. And I keep having these little like, did I miss it? Did I miss it? Did I miss it? You Node, and that's why we'll talk about this in just a second. But that's why I love having days where I have nothing on on the board because I know I can just get lost in it, and I'm not constantly thinking, do I need to get out of this? Yeah. I know. Since since stepping into

Scott Tolinski

The role of executive producer at Century. I have very few of those days anymore. I I have lot I have a lot more meetings, which, it's one of those things. But Yeah.

Topic 7 07:21

Leveraging Siri for reminders and timers

Scott Tolinski

It it is tough, and and I've had to put on my My workflow notifications for my calendar, which I use Cron as the calendar. It's a nice little app.

Scott Tolinski

I have to have those notifications persist through no matter what. Unless I'm recording, I'll turn that stuff off, or I'll make myself private or something. But need to have a reminder 30 minutes before, 10 minutes before, 5 minutes before, and then 1 when the meeting's starting. Stuff. I just need it. Or else, you know, I will do the same thing. I totally get that. Yeah. That that 2 minutes before the, I'll often just sit in an empty room.

Wes Bos

5 minutes early, just so I know I'm not gonna totally miss it.

Scott Tolinski

Yeah.

Scott Tolinski

So, you know, what stuff. What do you what do you do for habits? Well, you know, I I really like to track my habits.

Topic 8 08:21

Scott built his own habit tracking app

Scott Tolinski

I was a guy who didn't consistently floss at some point in my life. I'd gone through life, like, being like, yeah. I'll occasionally floss. You know? I I brush my teeth the toys a day. You know? I'm I'm I was good doing all the other things, but flossing for some reason Wes hard for me. I don't know why. So I set up a a a, habit tracker, started doing my streaks.

Scott Tolinski

Next thing you know, just Flossing all the time.

Scott Tolinski

Big time flosser. Right? No problems there anymore.

Scott Tolinski

And so for me And you built, Sorry. I was gonna ask you I've been seeing on Instagram, you've been hacking a little app for habit tracking? Yeah. So habit tracking is, like, Big time for me. And and for the most part, I've always used this app called streaks on Bos. But you know what, man? Habit tracking apps, For some reason, people are like, this has to be a a Node a year subscription for Habitatrade. Me a hate joke.

Scott Tolinski

You gotta be joking.

Scott Tolinski

And I understand server costs and stuff. So, yeah, I built my own, and it's at Habit Path Scott io.

Scott Tolinski

If you go to Habit path.ioforward/waitlist.

Scott Tolinski

I have a waitlist right now. I'm gonna open this up for the public because I initially just made it for myself, And there were no user accounts. Everything was just saved to the database as a habit, and then I got so many people saying, hey. I would use this. The interface looks great.

Scott Tolinski

Stuff. So, I I rolled my own auth. I wrote my auth from scratch by hand, and now I have user accounts.

Topic 9 09:48

Rolling your own auth simplifies tying data to users

Scott Tolinski

And, what was really great about rolling my own auth is that I could do things like, oh, if you have a special pin, you can actually make an account.

Scott Tolinski

All those things were really easy to do.

Scott Tolinski

Also, I tried some, like, built in Bos solutions before. I decided to roll my own, and, like, man, That's still a problem. I'll tell you what. Even the ones that are, like, branded as being like, you can do do your own you know, just bring in your own auth. They're Yeah. The hard part with auth is that they they all wanna control your database. They all wanna do this or that, and they're all trying to do too much. I'd rather have one that just takes care of, like, some of the intermediary steps, and maybe I'll open source some stuff that I'm doing there. Yeah. I was thinking about that the other day, and, unfortunately, I think it's going to get even harder with passkeys

Wes Bos

because stuff. Yeah. The all the back and forth that needs to happen. It's similar to Stripe where you need to, like, send a request and get it back and then get a token and send it back. And But that that was a good episode, by the way, as it just aside the past

Scott Tolinski

episodes. It's a great episode. Go go and listen to it. You know, and another thing, you know, I I actually really like Clerk as an auth solution, but I I just didn't wanna pay for something. Right? Yeah. This is like a little work you know, a little fun project to keep it all in my database.

Topic 10 10:59

Clerk provides a nice auth solution

Scott Tolinski

For tracking, though, track the stuff that actually you want to improve. Like, if you brush your teeth every day, don't put that in your your tracking app. Because why? Like, it's just gonna clutter. So track the stuff you're actually interested in doing. I'm doing, like, a dry January. I wanna track that. Gonna I'm gonna put that in my my my tracking app because it's something that I want to see the progress on. If you're motivated by streaks, An app the app called Streaks is actually really good for this. I'm going to add streak tracking to my app eventually, but, you know, Streaks can be really effective for anything Because, like, let's say you're using Duolingo or, you know, doing workouts in your workout app. If your workout app is like, you've hit your goal, you know, 52 consecutive weeks, that's gonna make you feel great. And I'm I'm personally motivated by seeing those numbers go up. My wife, She does not care. The the the streak, she doesn't care. Yeah? The Apple Watch rings? I don't give a single crap about gosh. The rings closing

Topic 11 11:18

Only track habits you actually want to improve

Wes Bos

or or any of that stuff. And like my I use a workout app called the Strong ESLint, and it tries to show you. And I

Scott Tolinski

I don't care. You know? It's a Give me those virtual badges. Yeah. Give me those colored circles. Give me those numbers. I want them. I wanna collect them all. Yeah.

Wes Bos

Digital hoarder. Yeah. So, another kinda interesting thing about habits is this idea of neural pathways in that your brain gets used to doing things, whether it's good or bad.

Topic 12 12:29

Creating new neural pathways can override bad habits

Wes Bos

And sometimes you have to try to pave good neural pathways, and sometimes you have bad Sanity. Like for me, I'll tell you right now JS I can mindlessly type in TweetDeck without even noticing. Sometimes the closed TweetDeck and open up a new tab and just type deck and go directly to it. And the same thing with, like, you might just pull out your phone when you have a split second. That's because your brain is smooth.

Wes Bos

You know, you got you got lots of smooth parts in your brain that are that's the the easiest path for the brain electricity to go through.

Wes Bos

So figuring out how do I interrupt those paths, whether it's throwing up some sort of focus app on your computer or whether it's literally just putting your phone in the other pocket.

Topic 13 13:13

Slight environmental changes can interrupt bad habits

Wes Bos

If something is slightly different, then you have A chance to sort of catch yourself. Yeah. It's kind of like, you know, the

Scott Tolinski

there's like a subreddit. I think it's called, like, desired path or something. Yeah. Desired path. Just, Yeah. It's just like you could see paths in the grass where people have walked that, like, hey. That's the that's the way people are actually walking. But if you if you walk a path Repeatedly, it erodes away at the ground, and your brain kinda works the same. Right? Those desired neuropathways become further ingrained, which is one reason why, You know, as people get older, you always hear that, like, people get more, like, deeply ingrained with their flaws or maybe just who they are. You know? If you're not, like, examining those things, you just end up becoming a much more intense version of the way that you were your entire life because the the the habits that you cultivate are the habits that we continue to cultivate and and grow through our entire life.

Scott Tolinski

And for me, it's funny because in dance, right, as a as a dancer, I tend to always practice the things I'm good at And the things I like to practice, and, therefore, those things continue to get better. The things that I don't practice, I never get any better at them because I don't like to practice them. Yeah. It's kind of similar, right? Let's talk about to do's. To do's is probably the

Topic 14 14:10

Ingrained habits become harder to change over time

Wes Bos

number one thing you can do to actually Sit down and get stuff done.

Wes Bos

Scott and I have been major fans of using to do apps, as well as we've talked many times about the Getting Things Done methodology. That's a fantastic book by David Allen that I would recommend that you read. He's updated it a couple of years ago.

Wes Bos

Whatever you use to do your apps.

Wes Bos

I use the Things application, which I find really nice. It has a decent Integration with the Siri reminders, which I really like because so many times I think I'm driving home or something like that, and I'll remember, oh, I need to do something and then I'll just, hey, X, You can't say the word because you'll set off everybody's thing. But hey, Sourcy, remind me in 15 minutes to do X, Y, and Z. And then they'll automatically import into my Things app, and then I can drag them up and down in my list for the day, and I absolutely love that because I am the worst for forgetting stuff like that. Yeah. You know what?

Scott Tolinski

I've just started using Siri for things. I it's funny. I always used Google Assistant when I was Bos Android for a long time. And then when I moved to Apple, I completely stopped using it because I always just like Siri wasn't as Vercel. But you know what? I've been using it for setting reminders. I've been using it for setting timers when I'm cooking, just like little things here and there. And I I gotta see. I use the the app I use for to dos is called Height.

Topic 15 16:03

Scott uses Height app for to-do tracking

Scott Tolinski

Height dot app is the URL, and it's really Node, lightweight, To do tracker, I really like it. Feels nice to use.

Scott Tolinski

I know people really like the app Things as well.

Things is another popular to-do app

Scott Tolinski

There's, like, several of these. Either way, The the best to do app is the one that you actually use. You know? For me, for a long time, pen and paper was it. I really liked and I used the remarkable E Ink tablet to do this, you know, just physically checking things off. The only problem is is, like, if you have to dos that persist for multiple days, it's harder to track, and it's harder to assign values and have them Scott and stuff like that. My wife loves

Wes Bos

the physical calendar in the kitchen and a list to dos, and I'm just like, it doesn't exist to me if it's on this whiteboard in the kitchen. You know? It needs to be in my calendar. I said that about the whiteboard in the kitchen too. I said that thing about the whiteboard in the kitchen,

Topic 17 16:39

Physical to-do lists don't provide enough metadata

Scott Tolinski

because I do like physical things like that, but the whiteboard in the kitchen, particularly to me, does not exist as a calendar. It does not does not remind me of things that doesn't tell me the location or what time I'm supposed to leave. I would love to get, like, a a monitor in the kitchen that has a massive touch screen, but, like, that's easy enough to add stuff to and swipe through. One day, I'll I'll do that project. I know. It I I've had it on my brain for a long time. I've been Talking to my neighbor about it because he does stuff like this as well. So, we've been we've been sharing some things. And what's cool about our house, Wes, JS that there's, like, an old security system, like one of those old school security systems. Too. Yeah. So we have the power wired throughout the house. It's 12 volt. Yeah. You can you can easily hook that up to a tablet to power a tablet and then mount mount a couple tablets throughout the house if you could get them cheap enough. Yeah. I I thought about doing that for a long time. If anyone is listening and is curious how that works JS your security systems,

Wes Bos

throughout your entire house, the keypads, at least the keypads. Sometimes the sensors will also have 12 volts, but the keypads themselves will have 12 volts running to them.

Topic 18 17:53

Repurpose old security system wires for power

Wes Bos

And then you go on Amazon and buy one of these 12 volt to 5 volt USB converters. And those are very popular because JS your car battery. 5 volts is most USB devices, so you could just twist the wires together. It's low voltage, so it's allowed to be in your wall, at least in in Canada and the States. And then you could just plug a tablet into that, and you're you have unlimited power.

Topic 19 18:27

Use tablet as central household organizer

Scott Tolinski

Yeah. You know what I have to think about it. Yeah. I know. To me, yeah, that that that seems like a a cool thing either way. Yeah. With your to dos, I think a really important thing to do with to dos is to assign to dos like due dates, assign them maybe, like sometimes you can give them points, like, if they're Like, how difficult, how long of a task this is going to be. If it's an easy task, it could be, like, 1 point. In that way, you can easily visualize, Like, hey. I gotta you know, I can do this thing in very little time or very little effort, and priority 2 is a a good thing to assign. A lot of these apps will just have that built in JS, like, columns for your to use. I will assign dates to things that need to happen in the future. But for my day of, I'll do I'll just do what's called bubbling, which is I'll just look at everything, and I'll just reorder them top to bottom in which order I think I should do them. And then I just know exactly what to do next. Totally. So, I mean, the the good big thing about to do list is you Scott use it. You gotta maintain it.

Topic 20 19:25

"Eat the frog" means do the hardest task first

Scott Tolinski

Sometimes people do eat that frog, which is where you find The biggest, baddest to do in your list and you do it first, get that thing crossed off the list. Make sure the highest priority.

Scott Tolinski

It should always be the thing that you need to accomplish for the day. I like that methodology. I am not the best practitioner of it. Again, I mentioned that, the scariest things are oftentimes the easiest for me to procrastinate. Even if they're not, like, the most difficult, they're still, You Node, scary to me. So I know Yeah. Choose not to do them. I always say, like, sort your to do list by, like, anxiety.

Topic 21 20:00

Sort to-dos by anxiety level

Wes Bos

Like the things that you just don't wanna do. Just do them 1st because it's incredible how much better you feel after you actually get it done and you realize, oh, wow. I just spent 3 weeks

Scott Tolinski

We're casting that task that took 6 minutes. Yeah. I know. I hear you. Alright. Well, we got to dos, and I think it's important to have these things.

Scott Tolinski

But I think really the you know, to dos are are are a good tool. Habits are a good tool.

Scott Tolinski

But to me, the best tool in your Tool chain for productivity is the calendar.

Topic 22 20:26

Calendar is the best productivity tool

Scott Tolinski

The more and more I work, the more and more I realize that my calendar is the baddest guy around in terms of keeping me on track. Why? Because, hey, it can block off time. It can make it so that I'm not available to other people at various points. It can tell me what to do at any given point, And it can even schedule time for scheduling an upkeep. So what do I use my calendar for? I use it.

Topic 23 21:00

Schedule time for email, deep work, planning

Scott Tolinski

I schedule email. Hey. When am I going to actually look at my email? I'm gonna block off an hour for email, and during that time, I'm going to get to inbox 0 Every single day. I try to do that every day.

Scott Tolinski

What do I do? I I take care of emails I need to take care of today.

Scott Tolinski

I, dismiss. I I have them be done or or archive the ones that I don't care about, and then I, Snooze, the other ones. I use an app called Superhuman. A lot of apps do this. I any kind of email app that you can do to news and email will will really improve your inbox because that takes care of the stuff that I don't need to do this right now, but I don't want it in front of me. Them. Yeah. And then the next time you open your email app, hey. That's all the stuff you gotta look at, and everything that's that's not there is, you know, not something you gotta worry about. I I need that.

Scott Tolinski

So, calendar.

Topic 24 21:51

Use snooze feature to clear inbox regularly

Scott Tolinski

So I'll schedule time to do email. I'll schedule time for deep work. I'll schedule time for upkeep and planning. That's like looking at my to do list. That is looking at my, you know, tasks that I have to do. That's pruning things and and, adjusting my systems. I think

Wes Bos

it's very important to just block off time to do your work.

Wes Bos

I know developers Sometimes I think managers and people that book meetings don't necessarily understand that in order to get good coding done. You need large uninterrupted sections of time to sort of get into the headspace and do it. And If you're trying to like, if your main thing is making coding and you're trying to squeeze your main thing in between meetings and little huddles and whatnot, you're not going to be doing a very good job, and you're not going to be getting as much work done as you want. So Just if you are going to have it, squeeze them all into Node day or 1 afternoon or something like that. And then just Hopefully, you can have JS big of a chunk open as possible.

Topic 25 22:16

Schedule focus time for creative work

Scott Tolinski

Totally. Yeah. And that's one thing I I really, I used when I used to work at at Ford, they had a lot of meetings, and I always just remember being I I did, like, sit in meetings with Ford executives We're like, I literally did nothing in that meeting. I'm just sitting in this meeting. Ford executives are there talking, you know, with their Sanity, expensive watches and suits and stuff, and I'm I'm the guy wearing the beanie in the back, like, you know, on my computer.

Scott Tolinski

Like, I I I hated Having to, like, leave my my code time to go send to those things, and it was always so disruptive. So, yeah, block off the time, and then people won't schedule Schedule you for things.

Scott Tolinski

But and, likewise, like you said, group and batch the the the things that you have to do Altogether JS much as possible, uninterrupted time is your your biggest asset when you're trying to be creative or focused.

Topic 26 23:40

Batch meetings to preserve deep work

Scott Tolinski

And, likewise, that brings us to focus. So, Wes. Yes.

Wes Bos

I we've talked about using focused apps quite a bit in the past, and I've never been able to make them stick. What these are are applications that you can use to they operate out like a system level of your computer and they will block or they'll rewrite DNS, which is domain names, right? You can block a domain name and you won't be able to unblock that uh-uh, in a certain amount of time. So I think that do you still use one of those? I know HeyFocus was the big one. Yeah. You Node, so HeyFocus is Mac only, unfortunately.

Topic 27 24:32

Hey Focus blocks distracting sites

Scott Tolinski

So Windows folks, if you are listening to this, hit us up on Twitter with what focus apps you like for Windows. I'm curious because I don't I don't use Windows, so I don't I don't know what's net Yeah. World. So we'll we'll give you a retweet on this, but I do use heyfocus.com.

Scott Tolinski

I still use it. They just had a recently a really nice update that Added, like, Pomodoro tracking and stuff like that. But I I I very consistently when I do use focus, which more and more I'm needing to, stuff. I get so much more done because the one thing it does is it stops those mindless neuro pathways as you mentioned. Right? The the muscle memory of doing command t and then typing in Twitter. Right? Yeah. It stops that because you hit enter, and all of a sudden, you're you're, For me, heyfocus works like you mentioned on a, it like, I I think it modifies your host file.

Scott Tolinski

And so it will send you to, Like a page that has a quote that's like, you know, Sun Tzu or something like that. So, you know, you you end up getting you kinda feel bad about it. You read the quote, And it's like Benjamin Franklin being like,

Topic 28 25:22

Quotes make Scott feel bad about slacking

Wes Bos

I did this on this day, and you're just like, yeah. See, like, that kind of stuff again, it I find that so cheesy, but, like, that's That's me. Like, I have friends that post quotes on Instagram and about what they're going through and stuff like that. And Like, I'm sorry you're having a hard time. And certainly if that helps you go for it, but I've never once seen a quote and been like, yeah.

Scott Tolinski

Let's do it. Yeah. I'm not I'm not I'm not much of a quote guy typically.

Scott Tolinski

The the what the quotes do in Hey Focus is they make me feel bad. Yeah. They that's like kind of like a finger wave. Like, it's like a it's like, they're they're not, like, inspiring me to work. It's like Benjamin Franklin is looking down at me and and kinda giving me the finger Wes, like, uh-huh.

Scott Tolinski

You know?

Wes Bos

My other tip for focus is actually, I have 2 here. The the Built in Bos focus modes are actually pretty good. Like, they're pretty configurable.

Wes Bos

I actually like them, and I have them turn on, I think at, like, 8:30 every single night, and you can of course, I have my recording one. So I guess I do use focus mode more than I thought. I I have them Scheduled. Yeah. I I scheduled mine. I wish they blocked websites.

Topic 29 26:30

Built-in focus modes are underrated

Scott Tolinski

Yeah. I don't know if they do, actually. That would be kinda cool if they did. But I have mine scheduled on a very strict schedule. So, like, during work time, the work one's on. You know? Bedtime, the bedtime Node starts at 9 o'clock or whatever. Dinnertime Node starts at 5. Like, I I do have them all all scheduled.

Wes Bos

Another thing that I've been thinking about a lot lately. So I'm playing around with my monitors here, and so I have a 32 inch 4 ks, and then I have a 27 inch 4 ks, And then I have my 15 inch laptop open all at once. And I have the same setup at my cottage, but I don't have the secondary 4 k monitor. And every time I go there, I'm like, you know what? Maybe maybe I don't need this many displays. A second Node, certainly because sometimes they need to throw stuff on a 2nd display and reference it when I'm recording.

Topic 30 27:00

Strict calendar scheduling is effective

Wes Bos

But sometimes it's really nice when you just have Node stuff. You're just zoned in, and there's not you don't have the other stuff distracting you. I don't know. Do you ever feel that way? Absolutely.

Topic 31 27:42

Single screen can boost focus

Scott Tolinski

The most productive I am is when I'm at a coffee shop, and I have 1 display Yeah. Right in front of me, and that's my laptop. That's the most productive I ever am.

Scott Tolinski

Stuff. I do feel like I need 2 screens when I'm recording for various reasons, but, if I'm not recording and I'm coding, I I don't think anything feels as better as when I'm you know, just have that 1 screen in front of me, and I'll I'll, like, zoom way out on the windows to get more real estate. And, you know, one thing one mode I've started using in Versus Node a lot, which I never did before, was the you know, if you double click on a tab If you double click if you have 2 tabs up in Versus Node, like, side by Node, and you double click on the tab itself, it turns it into this, like, Where that 1 tab takes over the focus, but the other tabs just get pushed away. And then if you click or tab over into the other tab, All the windows kind of reshuffle instead of keeping 2 up. If you keep 2 up on your laptop and then you got your browser window over the side, Maybe you're trying to code side by side. That gets to be a bit of a pain.

Scott Tolinski

But I I like this this mode where it allows you to focus and shift the windows a bit.

Topic 32 28:49

Tab focus mode reduces context switching

Wes Bos

Yeah. That's another thing JS, like, pnpm down your editor as much as you possibly can. Yeah.

Topic 33 29:00

Minimize editor tabs and panels

Wes Bos

Because, again, you're just focusing on the Node, and there's something, at least for me, there's something about just having it, like, send out as little distractions as they possibly can.

Scott Tolinski

Have you seen, this extension for Versus Node? And this might be getting a little too in the weeds. You might end up spending too much time on this. A PC Customize UI.

Scott Tolinski

No. Okay.

Scott Tolinski

This is a great, Great extension.

Scott Tolinski

And I've been using ABC Customize UI, and it basically allows you to, 1, customize electron aspects of the UI with properties of Versus Code, but it also allows you to write CSS to customize Versus Node? That's what I just made. You made an extension to do this.

Topic 34 29:46

VSCode extension to customize UI CSS

Wes Bos

So I hadn't seen this one. There's another one which is like custom CSS for Versus Node.

Scott Tolinski

Jeff.

Wes Bos

I had tried it, and it's all it always wasn't working properly. And I was like, Scott this.

Wes Bos

And When you change the CSS file, it would inject it into your workbench.

Wes Bos

HTML, which is which is Versus Node like index HTML file. Right. And then I wrote client side JavaScript on the for workbench so that when the server detects The CSS has changed.

Wes Bos

It sent the CSS to the client and did a live refresh of it so that you basically have live reload because the old one was like, you have to restart the editor or, like, reload the window every single time you make a single change, which JS dogs. Crazy. Yeah.

Topic 35 30:41

Wes wrote similar live-reloading CSS extension

Wes Bos

But I'll check this out as well. Can you do any

Scott Tolinski

CSS attitude? It looks like it. Stuff. It's it's pretty pretty amazing, and I you Node, and one of the things I did is I changed the fonts, but I, like, made the Bos smaller, and I got rid of the top bar, and I moved.

Scott Tolinski

Like, I I really went to town pairing down my Versus Node setup,

Wes Bos

over the break. Oh, so cool.

Wes Bos

Christmas break. You got time to write CSS for your text editor. Yeah. I think everybody sorta tweak their editor over the holidays because it's the one time you have stuff. You guys a little bit of time to fuss around. Yeah. Totally. Alright. Well, last thing we have on here is momentum.

Topic 36 31:18

Building momentum by starting small

Scott Tolinski

Like we've mentioned, you know, procrastinating and things like You gotta get the ball rolling. You just gotta start. Starting's the hardest part. Everybody always says that. Yeah. That doesn't make it any easier. That's the thing I hate. You Node, people are always like, Starting's the hardest part. You just gotta start, but, like, that doesn't that doesn't make it any easier to start. That just makes me upset that you're saying that. You know? It it makes it easier to do the hard things Once you've done it 3 or 4 times, that momentum and that that good feeling you get from when you accomplish and finish something,

Wes Bos

It becomes easier and easier, and you'll get addicted to it. Yeah. Totally.

Scott Tolinski

So that's what we got. That's that's how I'm gonna be productive this year.

Topic 37 31:51

Finishing tasks builds momentum over time

Scott Tolinski

Think I am. I'm I'm really interested in improving my habits overall Node dialing down my processes. You Node? I I am not working for myself anymore. I am not you know, before Wes I was, when I was working for myself, Any shortcomings in my day to day, hey, man. That the only the only people that it affects me is is me.

Scott Tolinski

And, Now I'm part of a bigger team, and, you know, I I'm I'm ready to, step up my game here. Alright. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We'll catch you on Wednesday.

Wes Bos

Peace. Ace.

Scott Tolinski

Head on over to syntax.fm for a full archive of all of our shows, jump. And don't forget to subscribe in your podcast player or drop a review if you like this show.

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