Doing More by Doing Less - A Loafer's Guide to Software Engineering

Overview

Discover strategies for maximizing productivity by minimizing unnecessary work in this 57-minute conference talk. Learn the importance of focusing, delegating, and saying "no" from both software engineer and engineering manager perspectives. Explore how to break bad time management habits and adopt practices inspired by successful leaders like Jeff Bezos and Daniel Ek. Examine the concept of "busy-ness" as a vice rather than a virtue, and understand how pursuing "doing less" can lead to accomplishing more. Gain insights on balancing time and energy management, prioritizing important work, and maintaining work-life balance. Delve into topics such as organizational queuing, focus time, and remote work flexibility to optimize your productivity and overall job satisfaction.

Syllabus

Introduction
Matt Hawthorne
How to Be Idle
Disclaimer
Jeff Bezos and Daniel Ek
Daniel Ek
Your Schedule
Red Flags
Trigger Warning
Screenshot
Bad Day
Time and Energy
Time Management
Doing Less
Software vs Human Systems
Timeouts
Cap Theorem
Sanity Availability and Productivity
Availability Productivity
Optimization Productivity
Impact
Important Work
Balance
Energy Management
Time vs Energy
Status meetings
Looking at metrics
Different brains different times
Energy
Focus time
Availability
Decline
Saying No
delegating and asking for help
prioritization
consequences
good for team
missing meetings
letting go
Organizational queuing
Zerosum game
Work Balance
Work Balance Techniques
Final Thoughts
Time is Finite
Make Time to Work
Clear Balance
Questions
Being too productive
Boundaries
Focus Days
Cramming
Slack Availability
Managing Slack
The Burden of Slack
OnCall Rotations
Shadowing
Solutions
Best work at night
Working from home
Flexibility
Trust
Remote meetings
Offcamera meetings
Outro