npdarrington/ND_CJ_Mod_2_Week_1.md Secret

## ND_CJ_Mod_2_Week_1.md

      
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    Mod 2 Week 1 Personal Development


Reflect on your habits from last module. What behaviors and activities were helpful for you? What activities and behaviors could be more effective for you? What processes would you like to try differently this module to become more effective at your work and as a software developer?

For myself, it's more 'me' time. I like to stay busy and have learned that not focusing on work or staying busy is okay. There are ways that I can still feel productive that is not work related or even better giving myself a break and letting my brain reset and digest the information. The more information I try to stuff inside of it without fully understanding concepts the quicker it is to forget them.
Consistently working out. It is on and off and the times I do it, I feel great. The times I don't do it, it makes my body ache from sitting in the chair all the time. Substitute 10 mins of a work out instead of sitting in front of the computer for 3 hours saying 'productive'
Focusing on keeping a beginner's mindset has helped me out a lot. When I feel "advanced", I get really complacent. This has lead me to read more books on personal and professional development and has made it easier for me to see things between the lines rather than missing easy things.
Every morning I have 30 minutes of time where I focus on how I can stay focused and efficient for the day. I learned that most of my time in front of the computer was not 100% efficient, which lead to negative mindsets with efficiency and longer hours getting my code the way I want it to. This has allowed me to handle situations where I veer off course and reflect on if this staying consistent with my daily goal.
Helping others in moderation is a really big goal for me this mod. Last mod, I focused so much on helping others that there were multiple instances where I put my own success in jeopardy. In the end it worked out, but this is because of my previous programming experience instead of the right habits. Helping others is one of my big 4 pairin qualities, but I have to realize that I can only help others if I myself am in a good place.
Lastly I really liked a new habit that I developed at the end of mod 1 of putting myself in a position of power. It was never something I talked about in the journals but realized during break time. When I put myself in a position of power, it allows me to stay more accountable to myself and to others around me. This lead me to be incredibly productive. For an example, the final project I got off to a fantastic start with and had most of the hard work done within the first day. This was a decision for me to handle the hard things first instead of the easy things. There was a big blow up during the middle of project that lead me to losing almost 20 hours of work time on it. I barely finished the project but passed with almost all 4's and it was because I put myself in that position of power in the beginning. If I left the hard stuff for the end after the blow up happened, which was my normal original habits, I would have never been able to finish the project and potentially not continued into Mod 2. This will be my #1 focus and priority of turing into a habit this mod.


Setting intentions for this module: who do I want to be this module? What specific habits would help me get there? How are those habits tied to the identity of a software developer?

I want to be a flexible thinker - There are times where it is really easy for me to tunnel vision on the problem or project directly in front of me and that has led me down some large rabbit holes later. Thinking forward and implementing 'at this moment' are my main focuses.
I want to be a more efficient programmer - It's really easy for me to break my focus while programming to give myself a mental break. Developing more habits that when something goes wrong with programming, I have other ways to break down the problem (EX: pseudocoding vs tabbing out to read for 10 mins then coming back).
I want to focus on health - Last mod, by the end of it, I was really burned out. It was because I did not space my time properly for how long I was in front of the computer, taking consistent breaks, working out, mental health, and take my PD projects very seriously except for a couple questions. This mod, I will have a much larger focus on myself rather than forcing myself to push through the grind of learning programming. It is hard enough already as it is and I should be supporting myself with healthy habits as opposed to making it harder for myself.
I want to be an expert - Last mod, I had a very large focus on building my foundations. This mod, it will continue. This is what will allow me to become an expert in the programming world rather than just "another programmer". My main focuses are on developer and consumer empathy, team coordination and synergy, positive mindset, knowing which operations are best to be used in certain situations, and fully understanding how and why the programming language does what it does.
I want to be a teacher - Another habit to carry over from last mod is giving back to others in the cohort or even the new mod 1 cohort! I would love to be part of the rock program and be a rock for someone that is just coming in. Teaching is a very big way for me to solidify my own understanding of programming concepts, as well as give back to others. There were multiple instances where I received many fresh new perspectives helping new members in my cohort that help me realize my inflexible thinking. They taught me as much as I helped them!


Incorporate temptation bundling to create a new habit by using this template:

After 10PM, I will go to bed!
After morning qigong, I will do some stretches!
After lunch meal, I will do some yoga!
After class time, I will take 1 hour to myself before working more!
After researching, I will plug my new thoughts into my program and learn them through understanding of action!
After reading, I will apply one thing that I learned during that material within 5 minutes of reading it!
After dinner, I will tell at least 2 people daily why I am happy they are in my life!


3a. How to enjoy “hard” habits: Reframe your habits to consider their benefits rather than their drawbacks; name 3 habits that you have to do and explain the benefits of them. How do they further your goals longterm? How will they add to your processes as a successful developer? At the end of the day, how do they add to your life?

Work with the end in mind -> There are many times where I will still be an emotional operator as opposed to a logical operator. Depending on how I feel determines when I will complete some activities. With some extra forward thinking and self-motivation of "What's in it for me?", it can help me further reduce instances where this is happening. This help me battle complacency and overconfidence working in my projects as well as my team synergy working with other team members. This will add to my life by allowing me to be in the position of power and understanding that hard work rewards with great opportunities.
Morning Qigong 8 Brocades -> This is something that I had done in the past that I let get away from me. After having a Mod 1 session with Jun, I was able to talk through why doing this daily routine was so incredibly beneficial for me. It keeps my body active, gives me an emotional outlet for emotions that have built inside me, creates a frame of mind that is more relaxed and many more benefits. This will add a more healthy body and mindset to my life which naturally increases longevity and health.
Socializing -> This one is tough for me because I have always been a home body. I have never had any issues having few friends that I trusted, keeping a tight group that I could enjoy time with, and staying productive (or sometimes unproductive) on the computer. During the one week intermission between Mod 1 and Mod 2, I learned that when I am in an environment with many other like-minded and motivated individuals, that this has been the first instance in over 20 years that I thoroughly felt a lack of socializing with others. Socializing will lead to greater networking opportunities, expanded network of friends, finding more people that I value and value me amidst a plethora of benefits as humans are naturally social creaturs. This will add so many benefits to my life that it is hard to list them all. Some of them is expanded knowledge, a potential partner, more time to unwind and relax and many more.

3b. Environment design (optional 5-min. additional reading: Motivation is Overvalued. Environment Often Matters More): how does your environment set-up currently help you with your habits? How could it be improved to make it easier for you to follow through on your habits?

My current environment doesn't do well with my habits. I say this because, while I can generally work at about the same proficiency from my bedroom as I can from an office, the lack of social interation and drive makes it much easier for me to get distracted. Once I get myself into the groove, it is very easy for me to perform at a higher level. I have also noticed an increase in productivity the closer it gets to deadlines as the more pressure I am in, the more I focus.
My first thought for helping with productivity under pressure is to treat each process of the project the same. It's easy to want to skip over the planning portion of a project and get into the nitty gritty, however planning ahead of time (with the same priority as writing the code) has allowed me to be at least 60% more productive during the creation phase of the project.
Another thought behind this is that finishing earlier doesn't mean that I get to have an extra couple days of rest. This now means that when a project is finished early, I now have more time to refactor and explore new options, knowledge and wisdom to build further upon the foundation going into the next project.
After a meeting with my accountabilibuddy in Mod 1, I laid out a yoga mat near the entrance/exit to my room. This way, every time I am walking out of the room, it prompts me to do something with my physical body to get it moving in alternative motions other than just walking and sitting down. This has led to me starting up Qigong again in the mornings, as well as intermittently doing more work out activities and stretches throughout the day. My body feels good sitting inside of the chair during the day now rather than feeling achy and stiff.

3c. “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” Read this 4-min article on how to stop procrastinating. Apply the 2-minute rule to reframe 2-3 of your habits by scaling them down into the 2-minute version. How does this reframing help you think about shaping your new identity as a software developer?
This was a good article for me to read. The reason is because I feel like even when I have broken down tasks that are on my list to make them easier, I still procrastinate with them. I loved the thought of doing even the smallest action to drive yourself towards the goal and what the activity will do for you for two reasons.

It builds confidence in yourself and your ideology as a person. There is a certain level of confidence that is ingrained into your subconscious in yourself when you are able to make goals for yourself and follow through with them. This has been something that I have noticed from people that are highly effective and happier people as opposed to people that are not satisfied. They have the innate trust in themselves to get the promotion, they have that innate trust to be able to perform at a higher level, they have that innate trust in themselves to put in the effort and receive the reward. When I am confident in my decisions and the tasks that I have set myself in planning/goal making sessions, I naturally don't have to second guess myself or waste that energy. I make it work because I have the confidence that anything I set my mind to, I will succeed.
This leads into interdependence between subconscious and logical operation. As human, we can be moved by our natural instinct, but we can also logically think over situations and adjust accordingly. For me, this has led to a lot of conflict in the past of trusting which operator to go with. Logical or natural. For years, I convinced myself that I am an overthinker and that I would never be able to make my over thinking productive and positive for myself in any way. This has changed a lot over the last year of starting a journal and really focusing on what my feelings are telling me and how my logical operator can work with it rather than against it. This way, I am always working in harmony as opposed to battling myself. This has helped me learn who I am as a person and what my true motivations are in life. Now my goals are aligned with each other and my two selves can work together to create a better version of myself. Not only personally but also professionally as well. Such as knowing my career path instead of bouncing around between the next "big thing", knowing how I best work and the type of people I work best with, learning how to handle conflicts and situations that I normally would avoid or lash out and push away from. This naturally make me a better, more pleasant and efficent person to be around and work with.