Last night was my very first talk for Google Developer Group and it was a night to remember! Not only was I excited to speak(virtually)but I was blown away by the amount of support I received. For my first talk, it was actually supposed to be some sort of 'trial run' where I would give this whole tech talk thing a whirl and see how it goes. I decided to stick with the topic of personal development in the dev world because every dev needs to stick to some sort of healthy routine and take care of themselves. And we all know at least 10 other devs(including ourselves) who blatantly refuse to rest or have some sort of healthy routine. I know I am guilty of it. I figured my first talk would be on personal development as well as improving habits as an engineer.

The presentation is based off the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, where our focus is to produce daily (good) habits and increase them by 1% over time, creating remarkable results. It is a regular practice/routine that are not only small and easy to do but is an important part of the system to bring more productivity into your life.

We can actually put these important points to good use as engineers and in our everyday routine.

So we are going to go over 4 Sets of Laws that can help improve daily habits and translate these points to forming efficient habits as developers!

1st Law: Make It Obvious First point is to fill out a habit scorecard to be aware. Habit scorecards are simply a list of bullet points listing off your daily habits. Afterwards, you can determine whether these habits are positive, negative or neutral ones. These scorecards can help you weed out negative habits from the positive ones. However, if you're having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit think: “Does this behavior help me become the type of person I want to be?” Another point is the implementations intentions approach.

An implementation intention is a self-regulatory strategy in the form of an "if-then plan" that can lead to better goal attainment, as well as help in habit and behavior modification. In other words... "When situation X arises, I will perform response Y" or... “I will perform set[BEHAVIOR] at set[TIME] in set [LOCATION]”

Habit stacking is also another great approach. It is tying desired behavior to something you already do everyday. For example, it is telling yourself “After solving a bug, I will stretch for 5 mins” "After finishing this ticket, I will put away the laundry"

Design your environment - a very important point to think about. This is priming and setting up your environment for a successful routine. It is having a messy desk vs having a clean, organized desk(for example). And that makes all the difference. Your thought process tends to be more clear and organized if your environment is also primed for success, rather than you having to worry about how discombobulated your area is and how poor your cable management can be. I know it gives me some sort of peace of mind working on a clean desk area.

And there you have it! The 1st out of 4 sets of laws translated from Atomic Habits. Next up is the 2nd Law: Make Your Habits Attractive.