Innovation in Software

”To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time” – Leonard Bernstein

Bizzarely, I work better when I don’t have a great deal of time. If I have all the time I need, my work generally isn’t up to the quality I want it to be, or sometimes it just doesn’t get done. I suppose it’s the adult version of ‘Sunday-night-and-homework-to-do-syndrome’ that I’ve just adapted to.

I’ve been thinking recently about why I think this might be a useful tool to cultivate. Within this industry, it would seem that productivity skills are even more desired than the ability to write code. The current plethora of calendars, to-do list tools, books and whitepapers around ‘Getting Things Done’ seem to bear witness to most coder’s eternal problem: too much to get done, not enough time to get it done in. Did you know for example, that 97% of IT managers say they suffer stress at work on a daily basis?

Adrenaline, believe it or not, is what makes this industry tick. This awful industry – hated by most who have to deal with it, loved by some of us who’ve been around long enough – draws people in who are bad at time management and makes them pay for it physically, mentally and socially. Then, when we realise what we’ve got ourselves into we go out and buy tools that will hopefully make it better for us: moleskine notebooks, PDAs, ‘Hipster PDAs’, you name it, we buy it.

I’ve decided however that I’m not buying this any more. Yes, I’ll use tools to help me organise and remember where things are, to make sure I remember I pay that bill, I pick up that ingredient when I’m at the supermarket. That’s called ‘a filing cabinet’ and ‘a note in my wallet’. But I’m not buying time management tools any more, because I realise when I stress about what I’m not getting done, I do the current task with more focus and momentum. I realise that when my time management is poor, my customers benefit in the long term. Sure, they might have to wait longer for the code, but it’ll be better code.

I did consider not caring about time at all by throwing my watch away this weekend. I was going to just work when I felt like it, and when my inbox got to the point where it was almost turning purple with client rage I’d know I was running behind and I’d be able to focus properly. Then I realised I’d probably just end up in court one day, and when I got there (assuming I remembered which day I was meant to be there) I’d end up looking incredibly stupid – “I have no idea how many days it took to complete the project, m’lud. I seem to remember looking up and seeing it was dark twice if that helps?”

Instead, I’m going to try and create tools that make me feel always a little under pressure. I might use special countdown timers to give that feel that I only have 45 minutes to fix the project or the bomb goes off, even if I have weeks to get the work done. I don’t want to spend all day filing tasks from my post-it notes into ‘contexts’ – I want to feel the slight pressure that helps me focus, and then focus on my code and my clients.