To be honest, I don’t like the term “life hack” very much because too often it just stands for “tips that are common sense”, like “do sports”, “eat healthy” or “put your phone away when you need to focus”. Although definitely important, these more general life guidelines are not what I understand as “hacks”. For … Read more
Staying focused in a noisy environment is not easy. Our brains are finely attuned to detect even the subtlest distractions because this skill kept us alive throughout our evolutionary history. In primal times, a faint rustling sound in a bush or a strange silhouette in peripheral vision could be a venomous snake or some other … Read more
On Instagram and Twitter, I recently created polls where I asked how many of you guys meditate, and only about 30% voted positively. This number should be much higher, considering how many benefits mindfulness meditation provides, especially for people who use their brains as much as programmers. If done regularly, meditation can drastically reduce stress, frustration … Read more
I am not a big fan of learning programming through books, at least not the high-level stuff that we use in our day to day life. I think it’s a good idea to start with a book on the fundamentals if you’re just starting out, because the basic concepts don’t change very much, but after … Read more
When you first start to learn programming and spend some time in the various communities, it can feel as if you just landed on an alien planet and now try to adapt to this foreign race by learning their complicated languages, adopting their way of thinking and understanding the correct manners. Everyone is talking in … Read more
Does that sound familiar? You know you should be doing something important, something that benefits your life or helps you avoid a lot of trouble in the future. Maybe this task is difficult, but you know you could get it done if you would just focus on it for a while. But instead you spend … Read more
Health and fitness are not the most interesting topics for someone looking for programming tips and code examples, but nevertheless we have to keep our body and mind in check if we want to stay sharp and productive. Because besides adding years to our life, healthy habits also let us have more energy and focus … Read more
We all want to be productive, because it helps us reaching our goals more quickly. We also want to be efficient, because then we have more time left for other things in life. Being efficient when working on a computer also means putting less stress on your body, by using the right tools to reduce … Read more
I’m kind of a productivity nerd. I really love reading articles, books and blog posts about tips and techniques that help me get more done, beat procrastination and improve efficiency and motivation. And while there are lots of different approaches and not everything works for everyone, one common theme is always present: The importance of … Read more
A lot of people don’t really know how to start learning programming. They don’t know if they should read books, watch Youtube videos or buy online courses for money and they often seem to get stuck. Now, people have different learning styles and what works for me obviously won’t work for everyone, but I will also … Read more