In today's episode, we're talking specifically about deliberate practice. Today's episode is sponsored by Linode. Head over to Linode.com/developertea or use the code DeveloperTea20 at checkout for a $20 credit towards your cloud hosting account! Thanks again to Linode for your support of Developer Tea.
In today's episode, we're talking specifically about deliberate practice.
Today's episode is sponsored by Linode! Head over to Linode.com/developertea or use the code DeveloperTea20 at checkout for a $20 credit towards your cloud hosting account! Thanks again to Linode for your support of Developer Tea.
Please take a moment and subscribe and review the show! Click here to review Developer Tea in iTunes.
Hey everyone and welcome to Developer Tea. My name is Jonathan Cottrell and in today's episode we are continuing our discussion on deliberate practice and performance tuning. This is part two. If you missed out on the first part, I suggest you go back and listen to part one. You can find it at spec.fm. Today's episode is sponsored by Linode. With Linode you can instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode cloud. You can get a server running in just seconds with your choice of Linux distribution resources and node location. Thanks again to Linode for sponsoring Developer Tea. Before we start today's episode, go ahead and take out your phone and subscribe to Developer Tea in whatever podcasting app you use. This is the most important thing you can do to stay up to date with Developer Tea. If you don't want to stay up to date with Developer Tea, then that's okay. Don't go and subscribe. Of course, you're going to get notifications that you don't want and I understand you don't want those notifications. Don't subscribe. But if you want to stay current with Developer Tea, I suggest you subscribe. We have some really important episodes that are coming up in the next couple of weeks and I don't want you to miss out on those. So go and subscribe in whatever podcasting app you use. Okay, let's jump into today's content. In today's episode... In today's episode, I'm going to give you a few practical pieces of advice you can use when planning your practicing sessions, your deliberate practice sessions. We're continuing our discussion on deliberate practice and performance tuning. Last episode, we discussed how important practice is and what exactly we mean by the term deliberate practice. Again, if you missed out, make sure you go and listen to that one. We have six different pieces of advice for you today. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. So if you're taking notes, now's the time to pull out the paper. course, that is a $20 credit that you can use on any of Linode's services. Go and check it out, linode.com slash developer T and use the code developer T20 at checkout. Thanks again to Linode for sponsoring developer T. So we're talking about deliberate practice. I've given you three pieces of practical advice, and we're going to continue on. Number four is hyper-focus on narrow problems with your performance. We touched on this very briefly in the last episode. The important point of practice is that you're hyper-focused on a very narrow set of skills. In other words, the most narrow thing that you can focus on. When practicing, your focus should be absolutely singular. This means that you should identify one thing that you want to fix in your skill set or improve in your skill set. Maybe that one thing is using more effective naming in your code. Or perhaps it's writing clearer comments. Don't approach a practice session with five things to get better at. Your energy should be targeted directly at fewer things that you want to improve. In the scientific method, this is known as limiting variability. In order to take feedback and change those specific skills to better them, you need to know that you're only changing for that particular skill. In other words, there's a little variability in what you are focusing on. So hyper-focus on narrower problems with your performance. Number five, take notes. Take notes. It's very simple. If you don't take notes, you can easily forget what things you want to improve and what the changes you are trying are actually affecting. Don't rely on intuition when you're practicing. Document the process and take notes, especially on the feedback you receive. This is stuff that didn't come from your intuition. It's new information. And you're likely to forget it. So make sure you write down specifically about the feedback you receive. And lastly, number six, you must practice regularly, routinely, and during times of your best energy. If you aren't practicing regularly, routinely, and during times of your best energy, you're absolutely not going to see the most effective returns on your investment. Recognize the times that are most effective for you to practice. At the same time, remember to write down yourijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijijij to a frequency and a routine and don't take breaks unless you absolutely have to. These are how you can create an effective practicing routine. So today I've given you six pieces of practical advice. We're going to run back through them very quickly before we end out today's episode and our discussion on deliberate practice and performance. Number one, study how others who have succeeded are doing things. Number two, recognize that the action you are practicing and the driving skill set, the thing you are practicing and the thing you're practicing for may not necessarily always be the same. Number three, the practice and feedback loop requires that you either adopt a new perspective or get someone else to give you their perspective. Number four, hyper focus on narrower problems with your performance in a practice session. Number five, take notes. Number six, if you aren't practicing regularly and routinely and during times of your best energy, you will not see the most effective returns on your investment. So develop a routine. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. Don't forget, Linode is offering you $20 and a seven-day money-back guarantee on top of all of the fantastic things they are already doing at Linode. Their plans start at $10 a month. Go check it out. Linode.com. And use the code developer T20 for $20 of credit at checkout. Thank you again to Linode. And once again, thank you to all of you who listen to this show regularly. I make this show for you and without you, the show would not exist. So thank you so much. You can always reach out to me at developer T at gmail.com. Of course, you can find the show notes for this episode and every other episode of developer T at spec.fm. You can join the spec.fm.com. And if you want to learn more, you can go to the spec.fm.com slash slack community by going to spec.fm slash slack. Make sure you share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear about deliberate practice. Sharing this episode is the most effective way to help other developers find developer T. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, enjoy your tea.