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The watercooler for ideas, opinions, and fun topics as it relates to product, design, and engineering in the world of software...and maybe more. Guess we will find out!
Have you ever had one of those days
where it felt like you're unstoppable,
everything that came up, you had an
answer for, or you were able to solve
it right away, then you'd have other
days where it felt like no matter how
much you tried To get something done.
It just felt like it
was never getting done.
Everything that came up.
Just kept going.
You couldn't finish any task.
I was listening to a video the other
day, and the speaker was discussing
a mental model for motivation.
I think it would be the
best way to phrase it.
But the mental model was an answer for
those two different types of days that
I often have experienced for myself.
the ideas is if you want to stay
motivated, you need to close loops.
For example.
A very simple loop would be you walk
through your house, taking a break
from work and you notice that there
are some dirty dishes in the sink.
You could say I'm too busy.
I need to come back to it
later when work is over.
But now you're thinking about.
The dishes that you need to
do when you're done with work.
And that's just sitting
in your mind all day.
Whereas, if you just went
and did the dirty dishes.
During your break.
Then the rest of your Workday
no longer has that open loop.
It builds motivation.
It builds momentum.
If you want to stay
motivated, Closed loops.
This concept of open loops
actually reminded me of an idea.
I started thinking through, I have like
a note in my notion, Workspace that I
called active processes or open processes.
And it's the same concept.
So today let's talk about open processes.
This is episode one of strong opinions.
Weakly held.
Let's do.
All right.
Episode one.
The first strong opinion, like I said,
strong opinions, um is kind of just
like, uh, I just thought the phrase
was really punny, so I had to use
it, but, they are strong opinions.
Weakly held in that I am.
I am beginning to form opinions on
the things that I want to discuss,
but nothing is set in stone.
So I want to talk through my ideas
behind these different things.
And I think this is like the
perfect place to do it because
y'all are going to reply back.
In the threads, we're going to have a good
conversation about it for each of these.
Ideas and I get to refine these
ideas together with y'all, and
we Can form better opinions
after talking through these.
As I mentioned in the intro, the
idea that we're kind of going to be
talking through is this idea of having
open processes or active processes.
And the big, the big.
I guess idea that I had, the
opinion that I have is that.
The more active processes that
you have, the less effective.
You are with each process.
Because when you have
open-ended processes is.
Processes, LOL open-ended
processes running in your head.
It is so easy for the ones that you're
not focusing on at the moment to force
them themselves into the forefront.
A lot of times it can
be an inconvenient time.
Sometimes it's not inconvenient, but
I've noticed personally that the more
times I'm trying to hold open-ended.
Problems or open-ended tasks or things
that need to get done in my head.
It just caused us stress.
And a lot of times it causes rabbit
holing where something will trigger
one of those open-ended processes.
And I will divert from whatever
I'm currently doing and go down the
rabbit hole of fixing that other
one, which can be fun at times.
especially with my personality type.
But a lot of times it's like a distraction
and means I don't get things that I
wanted to get done for that day or for.
A lot of times when I have
a lot of open processes.
Going.
It shows itself in.
Not necessarily work stuff.
So sometimes it's work stuff.
But generally when I sit down at my
desk, it's pretty easy to stay focused
some days I'm not, but you start a task,
especially with development and design.
And it's really easy to
just get in the zone.
But what happens is when I have an
open process, That I don't close.
When I get done with work, that
process is still churning in my head.
In time where I shouldn't
be turning on it.
And it shows itself in being
forgetful for tasks that I'm
responsible for, with my family.
Things my wife's asked me to do.
And it's like A running joke in my
family that I never closed cabinets.
And the reason I never closed
cabinets is because I'm always.
I'm either jumping to the
next thing in my mind already.
To another process.
Another idea.
Or something that I'm.
while I'm doing this manual
task around the kitchen.
My mind is somewhere else.
My mind is, is thinking
through a different process.
Uh, and.
That's just something that
I noticed about myself.
And so what that has led me To realize is
that those days where I feel unstoppable
the days where I feel like I'm just like
getting things done, I'm on top of things.
It's when I start something.
I close that process down.
And complete it.
Now that doesn't always mean
like completed in the sense that
I did the thing it has done.
I don't have to look at it
again, but I have gotten it.
Out of my head.
A lot of people, I think.
talk about this in the way of like,
uh, that's why they keep personal to
do lists or like to do lists at work.
Whether it's like linear tickets
or whatever, where it's like, I've
got this thing that I need to do.
I'm going to break it down
into smaller tasks and I'm
going to put it somewhere else.
That way, that is where
the process is living.
It's not living in my head.
And when I am ready to go work on it,
then I opened those processes again and
I can finish them and then put them back.
I like that idea.
That's like a pretty good one.
Um, but I think there's also just like an.
There is a.
Process of pruning.
Things that are going on in your head.
Uh, that you're trying to
hold all at the same time.
I, and for me personally, I'm
trying to do so many things at once.
Uh, and I find myself
forcefully context switched.
Um, sometimes it's because I've got
like Twitter notifications, Twitter, X.
Notifications on for different people.
Uh, and I see them post and it triggers
some, some process that has been lying
dormant, and suddenly I'm off track.
Um, that could be a social media problem.
Um, it could be a number of
things, but there's this idea of.
Um, if I, if that process that
was in my head, I had just already
resolved, then it wouldn't get, I
wouldn't get distracted doing it.
But it's this idea of like,
you need to be pruning.
These processes out.
Um, you, you hear it.
A lot of times, You need to say no more.
Uh, it's, it's talked about as focus.
So there's like two sides of that coin
that I just kind of want to wrap up on.
Um, better kind of like
open-ended ideas, which is.
Erin Francis talks about
this being in his life.
Currently his.
Era of maximum effort.
There we go.
Got it.
Uh, Erin Francis talks about it
being can be in, in your life where
you want to be taking on a lot.
You want to be trying to do a lot.
Uh, and, and that lends itself to
having a lot of open processes,
which, which can be good.
Um, but then the flip side of it.
If you have.
Your focus spread so broadly.
Each process is, is getting.
Less resources.
So.
On the other you only have a single
process ramping up, I was listening to
Dex, um, Dax and Adam on the tomorrow.
Dot FM podcast the other day.
And they talked about this concept,
unrelated to like this topic, but more
related to the CrowdStrike crash and
software companies in general, that when
you're paying for full-time developers,
You're paying for.
More resources you're
paying for redundancy.
And so there's this flip side of the
coin, which is if you don't have.
Uh, clear.
Goal.
Like if you don't have an idea of
like where you want to be going next.
Maybe having fewer processes.
So that you're, you have available
resources to pour into something
when it's spotted is not a bad thing.
It means that when a real opportunity
shows up, if you've said yes,
To a bunch of opportunities.
You have a bunch of, uh, processes
running for things that you don't.
Feel very strongly about.
Then you don't have the capacity or
availability to go in when an opportunity
you're extremely excited about shows
up or that opportunity shows up.
And you've now got two.
Decide.
If you are going to shut down those
other processes, those other commitments.
Uh, and sometimes that could be damaging.
Um, so there's this idea of like
balance you want to prune processes.
You want to complete and tie together,
open processes and close the loop on them.
Uh, sometimes you just
need to say no to them.
But having, having too few processes
could mean you've got a lot of capacity
that's being wasted, but having too few,
having fewer, um, processes could mean
you have the capacity to scale up when you
find something you're really wanting to.
To put your attention in
on, I actually had this.
Happened to me recently, um, throughout
my career, I've always worked.
So I'm.
Designer software engineer.
And I've always worked.
I used to work with my cousin.
Uh, in law, he had, he has like
an agency and I would do like
WordPress design and development
for these like marketing sites.
And that was awesome at the start of my
career because I got a lot of, extra cash.
That I needed for doing like,
not as exciting work for local
businesses, but it was good money.
And that was like what I needed
at the time as my career went on.
what I found myself able to do
was to say well, I'm now working
on these things professionally.
This is no longer.
Um, something that fits into like
a process that I want to have open.
So I closed the process
down with, um, my cousin.
And then, um, I just took some time
off to focus on what my new path was.
And.
It like freed me up creatively.
I And that freed me up creatively.
Uh, in ways that I wasn't expecting,
because when you've got so many
open processes going, you don't, you
don't realize sometimes opportunities
or things that you're missing.
And that's what I realized.
As soon as I said no to the
process that by default, I just
had kept open because it worked.
Uh, and, and it wasn't like
a necessarily a bad process.
But by closing that process, I started
working on my blog, uh, started working
on sharing more things, publicly,
working on projects, just for fun, like
exploring new ideas, exploring new.
Designs interactions, things of
that nature and like exploring
my, my own style with design.
And that has led to just
so many more interesting.
Projects friendships.
Uh, and that's, I just think that.
That sometimes, if we've had
processes that are open for too
long, That we just accept as well.
This is just a process.
Uh, that I have.
That you, you can miss out on processes.
Uh, that, that.
Processes opportunities.
Yeah.
Like whatever you want