Streamlining development
Time management is key in any business position, whether you are a receptionist for a law firm, or a sole-proprietor in a web development company. I’m going to assume that as a constant in any business discussion. There have been hundreds (thousands?) of books written on the topic, and I won’t try to reinvent the wheel. One of my favorites is The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey. Why am I saying all of this? Because I won’t be talking about it at all. If you don’t have this concept down, you need to stop reading, and go figure out what I’m talking about. Back? Okay, good. Here we go:
1) More desktop space!
Maybe it’s just me, but when I have more space to get work done, i can get more work done. I prefer to have two screens, and when I plop my laptop at my desk, its heaven on earth, let me tell you. Your desktop may not have the ability out of the box to hook up two monitors, but it is a lot less expensive than you may think. At the time of writing this article, I know of at least a few different cards under $75 that support it… In fact it seems almost new cards that are made are supporting dual monitors these days. Grab a couple of 17 inch widescreen monitors at $150 a pop, and you have twice the desktop space than you ever had before. If you want to use a couple of 19 or 20 inch screens, it may run you a bit more, as the value graphics cards don’t tend to like the 1440×900 resolution or higher… I had a bear of a time getting an old GeForce FX card to work properly.
2) Better Desktop Space
So, you don’t have room on your desk for two screens… or you don’t have $400 to blow. Second best option (my home solution) is find a nice, well-priced, clear, crisp, easy-on-the-eyes screen. I found a Samsung 932BW that ran me a few pennies over $200 at best buy. I don’t care if you aren’t “playing games” or “using photoshop” on your computer. Having a lot of easy to look at pixels really improves your desktop stamina. If you have to look away and rub your eyes every 20 minutes, not only are you going to get cataracts, but you lose focus, and thus lose time.
3) Steal code!
What? What? Oh come on. Don’t feel bad about it. If there’s something you need to do, chances are, someone else has already done it. Look: Geeks with Blogs I think the header says it all. Here are some links to some helpful libraries of prewritten code.
- http://www.phpfreaks.com/
- http://www.dynamicdrive.com/ <— GREAT “Web 2.0″ code library
- http://www.php.net/ <– Why not straight from the horses mouth?
- http://www.codeproject.com/ <— for M$ Stuff
There are many more, that a good old Google search can turn up. Try it out!
4) Look away!
If you aren’t taking a break from staring at the screen every now and then, you’re killing yourself, and your productivity. I’ve heard people complaining left and right about smokers, because they take a 7 minute “smoke break” almost every hour it seems. I’d rather have a smoker as an employee… I’m willing to bet they get more done! When you’re in the middle of an intense coding session, and you hit a small hump… most of us stare at the screen and run ideas through our heads. I’ve done it. After a minute or two, if it doesn’t hit me, I walk away.
It’ll rest your eyes and your brain, and let your common sense hop on the thought train. I get laughed at by my girlfriend because I’ll be outside pacing, sucking down a cigarette like its going to disappear if I don’t finish it in 30 seconds, then almost always throw it in the coffee tin outside our house as I run back inside and sit right back down. I got more thinking done in that 2 minutes than I ever could have staring at the screen. You don’t have to be a smoker… just go get some coffee, or splash water in your face, kiss your kids, hit the washroom, buy a candy bar, throw a couple free throws… whatever. Just get away from that screen so you can think!
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This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 and is filed under css, development, php, web 2.0. It has 63 viewsComments Feed. | Leave Comment | Leave Trackback.
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