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[increpare]

I tried out the Code::Blocks to-do list plugin today.  It really struck me as something that will increase my productivity.  Also mercurial has been helping in that regard as well (though not to the same extent: that's not really its function for me anyway).

Anyone else have any other things they've stumbled across recently that they think have given them a boost in terms of their productivity?

[Decipher]

Eclipse's awesome developer orientation nulled out anything else for me. Especially the built-in "ToDo" string track and many more awesome but unknown heroes helping you at the background, one bad part of Eclipse is its lack of ease for alien toolchain integration (you need to edit this gigantic xml file which is a pain in the ass), if only it provided that from a GUI natively I'd declare it my new god.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Anyone else have any other things they've stumbled across recently that they think have given them a boost in terms of their productivity?

This is not a programming tool, but there's a FireFox plugin called LeechBlock which limits the time per day you can spend on certain sites (such as forums, Youtube, or whatever else you tell it to do), and that has improved my productivity quite a bit since I installed it. The major problem with it though is that you can just open up IE or Chrome to get around it.

[bateleur]

Anyone else have any other things they've stumbled across recently that they think have given them a boost in terms of their productivity?

My top three productivity tips would be:

* Get a good editor. No, a good one. And then learn to use it properly.
* Automate everything. Make sure you have a convenient way to write quick scripts (not just for runtime, but also for automating your development processes).
* Keep notes external to your codebase. These days I use a Wiki, but even a notebook and a pencil will do fine.

[Farbs]

Use an interpreted language. You may think your build time is short, but once you factor in the inevitable alt-tab to firefox it's bloody enormous.

If you have to use a compiled language, make sure your build chain starts the game at the end. There's no better reminder to get back to work than the game leaping up in your fa

[increpare]

I find your advice to be quite interesting Farbs.

If you have to use a compiled language, make sure your build chain starts the game at the end. There's no better reminder to get back to work than the game leaping up in your fa

I don't much like this advice.  Sometimes I'm just in the middle of something and want to see if what I've written is syntactically correct.  Admittedly, 80% of the time I compile something I do play the game a little.

I find that even for quite complicated (though still relatively simple) games I've worked upon, compilation rarely takes more than a couple of seconds...say, the same amount of time it usually takes a game-maker game to load...

Also, there are languages that can straddle the border between interpreted and compiled.  Haskell has several interactive environments (ghci being the main one), where you can actively test out/evaluate your code as you go (though it's still compiled I think).  In some circumstances this can be a fantastic time-saver, saving one a good deal of debug-time.

I guess most of the languages (barring PHP, say) I've used have been compile-time ones.  That's a bad thing, I know: I need to diversify

Make sure you have a convenient way to write quick scripts

Oh boy that's an important one, use you a big fancy IDE or not.  My biggest annoyance with bash scripts is that I always forget how to do loops and have to google them every time I want to write a proper bash script.

[Alex May]

Use an interpreted language. You may think your build time is short, but once you factor in the inevitable alt-tab to firefox it's bloody enormous.

If you have to use a compiled language, make sure your build chain starts the game at the end. There's no better reminder to get back to work than the game leaping up in your fa

I lolled

Yeah I wouldn't get anywhere without C# - I can breakpoint in the code, change it, keep running. You can edit and continue in C++ sometimes, that's nice, do that.

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

[Hajo]

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

I agree very much here.

The biggest productivity killer is loss of motivation. No tool will help there. Sometimes I hit a feature in my projects that is pretty tedious and boring to code. This uses to be a real killer for my projects ...

Edit: To post something positive, the modern IDEs are pretty good in raising productivity, once you have learned to use the features properly. I particularly like code refactoring tools.

[bateleur]

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

It's very interesting to me how people are recommending tools both for taking breaks and for keeping breaks short. Are people really not disciplined enough to achieve a good work pattern without automated aid? Maybe someone needs to write a book on coding psychology?

The idea of drinking water during a break is weird to me, though. I always have water beside me whilst I'm working (and frequently something more caffeinated too). Is there some reason why you don't?

[increpare]

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

It's very interesting to me how people are recommending tools both for taking breaks and for keeping breaks short. Are people really not disciplined enough to achieve a good work pattern without automated aid?

The last time I had a good solid programming day I didn't get around to eating until midnight.  It's not always like that, but I can see why many people see great utility in these programs.

[David Pittman]

Taking a coffee or exercise break is important for health but not always for productivity. When you're in the zone programming, you're keeping track of a lot of things in your head. Taking a break tends to wipe your mind's blackboard clean, and you spend quite a long time getting back into the zone. I try to take breaks in between subtasks instead of just at regular intervals.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

For me the best pattern is an hour or two without a break, then a break of an hour or two, and then repeat that about three times a day.

[jjs]

Productivity tool of champions:

[Alex May]

Install Workrave and take regular breaks to keep fresh. On your break, drink water, stretch, look out the window, or go for a quick walk.

It's very interesting to me how people are recommending tools both for taking breaks and for keeping breaks short. Are people really not disciplined enough to achieve a good work pattern without automated aid? Maybe someone needs to write a book on coding psychology?

The idea of drinking water during a break is weird to me, though. I always have water beside me whilst I'm working (and frequently something more caffeinated too). Is there some reason why you don't?

Yeah water was just a general recommendation, really, not specific to breaks. Don't be so pedantic.

I don't recommend drinking caffeinated drinks. The problem here is burnout, and if you're hooped up on cola or those ridiculous taurine drinks like jjs just posted (red bull cola is absolutely disgusting by all accounts anyway), you're less likely to realise you need a break. It's hard enough to realise anyway, and I have a relaly hard time believing you've never spent hours at a VDU or playing a console game without a break because it was so engrossing.

Why would we need a book on coding psychology to tell us why it is easy to forget to break? It's a fact, and Workrave is there to make life easier. I don't care why coding is so engrossing, all I know is that it's bad for you if you don't break properly. I've done enough coding without breaks to know what the substantial physiological ramifications of it are.

[Eclipse]

Are people really not disciplined enough to achieve a good work pattern without automated aid? Maybe someone needs to write a book on coding psychology?

...and are you the right person to write it down, aren't you?

The idea of drinking water during a break is weird to me, though. I always have water beside me whilst I'm working (and frequently something more caffeinated too). Is there some reason why you don't?

get up to dring water can be a good way to do a micro pause, having water next to you is surely the best way to not break your workflow but it's only matter of tastes and methods.
I usually prefer to get my lazy ass up and drink without watching the monitor, it also rests your eyes.

Also, it's proved that while caffeine and drinks like that can surely increase your focus for a short period of time they will also stress your nerves more, making you feel worse while working for long periods. Instead, taking little pauses help you to keep active your mind without stressing your nerves...

I usually have one or two espresso coffee during my day but just after breakfast and lunch and some minutes to one hour distant from starting working again: stress from working + caffeine = bad working habit

[isaac]

get up to dring water can be a good way to do a micro pause, having water next to you is surely the best way to not break your workflow but it's only matter of tastes and methods.

I personally use my water/tea as a break timing method. Once my cup is empty, its time to get up, walk to the kitchen and grab a new one. And if you combine water & tea, when your tea cup is cold & empty, you can spend the time waiting for the kettle to boil as your longer break. All problems solved!

[bateleur]

...and you are the right person to write it down, aren't you?

Did I just poke a bear without realising it or something?

I have a really hard time believing you've never spent hours at a VDU or playing a console game without a break because it was so engrossing.

Indeed, as you surmise, I've done both.

What I haven't done is harm my productivity by doing so. This is the point I was making - though apparently not very well: that different programmers face different obstacles to productivity. One of the advantages of being self-employed now is that I've been able to experiment with work patterns without pressure from anyone else. And in fact the way I'm most productive is with unbroken work periods of around 90-120 minutes separated by long breaks of 15+ minutes.

Which is why I was amused by people proposing multiple different sets of tools which would mess up my work patterns.

I think the psychology of it is interesting precisely because it doesn't seem to be as simple as you're implying.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I also recommend not using huge amounts of caffeine, but small amounts from black tea are okay -- I have about a cup or two of black tea a day, which is a fairly small amount of caffeine, equivalent to half a cup of coffee. But any more than that doesn't work as well for me. No caffeine is better than too much caffeine, but a tiny amount isn't a bad thing.

[Alex May]

And in fact the way I'm most productive is with unbroken work periods of around 90-120 minutes separated by long breaks of 15+ minutes.

Which is why I was amused by people proposing multiple different sets of tools which would mess up my work patterns.

I think the psychology of it is interesting precisely because it doesn't seem to be as simple as you're implying.

Workrave can be set up to remind you (intrusively if you like, or less so if not) to take a 15 minute break every 120 minutes. There's no reason it would mess up your work pattern. Additionally, you shouldn't criticise something in terms of its worth for people generally based on only your own evaluation of its worth for you personally.

I didn't imply the psychology of working at a VDU was simple at all. I'm not really interested in it myself; if you can be bothered to continue that line of argument please point out where I did so.

[FARTRON]

I can't recommend this one hard enough.

http://launchy.net/

My understanding is that Vista has something like this now, though I can't imagine it would be as good. For everyone on XP, this is necessary. Shortcuts and start menus are a huge impediment to productivity.