¡Hola! I'm Alexis, a Web Engineer at Human Made working from San Sebastián, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 in the Caribbean.
This document goes over how I like to work and how I manage my energy to be most productive. Feedback is always welcome, specially if we work together or collaborate on projects.
I live in the Caribbean, within the Atlantic Standard Timezone (GMT-4) throughout the year, with no Daylight Saving Time.
I'm an early riser and most productive in the morning. I like to wake up at 4am and work from 5am - 1pm with an hour lunch break in between. I'm available for meetings if needed until 4pm. My afternoons are spent "recharging my batteries" and working on personal projects if any.
I don't work weekends as this had led to burnt-out in the past and I don't want to repeat that mistake.
I work almost exclusively from home, which I share with my wife, two kids and small dog.
I don't concentrate well on noisy, stimulating or overly quiet environments (my fleeting thoughts take over) so the coffee shop and the library are out of the question for me. When I'm having a hard time concentrating, calming instrumental music and binaural beats help bring me back into the zone.
I spend most of my work day reading and writing code. Since I'm most productive in the morning, I try to do the bulk of my code writing as soon as I start my day and focus on easier tasks later in the day when my brain starts to shut down.
I love to focus on the front-end, client-facing functionality of a site or admin UI which directly affects the user experience. I'm passionate about accessibility and performance and see both of those things as crucial to providing an accessible experience for all users.
Slack is the best way to get in touch with me, which I check regularly and respond to as soon as possible. Although I check email often, I can sometimes miss one amongst the noise.
For general meetings, I prefer video chat as they are more personable and make it easier to "read the room", but for technical discussions, text-based communication is best so I can better analyze things and refer back to them when needed.
I like good constructive feedback that isn't overly negative.
I not only want to hear about where I need to improve, but I also want to hear about what I did do well so I know I'm in the right track. A focus on negative criticism is very draining and discouraging to me.
I'm a slow typer, so please be kind if you ask me to take meeting notes.
I'm easily distracted and have a hard time concentrating on a task when I find it boring. I cope by trying to do something new and interesting on each project — a new technique or codebase — which can sometimes lead to over-engineering, or a task taking me longer to complete.
I'm getting better at recognizing when I'm about to go down this path, and I'm also learning about techniques that help bring me back into focus like music and short bursts of intense physical activity, but I still struggle with it sometimes.
I really enjoy being out in nature, hiking, camping or just sitting down by a river absorbing it all. I enjoy all kinds of biking, and love slacklining. I'm obsessed with bats 🦇, like to read, and enjoy learning new tech-related things.
I grew up in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, lived in Florida and in the Pacific North West USA, but recently moved back home to get back to my roots in the Caribbean.