Summary

The context provides three tactics to build discipline, focusing on active listening, daily code katas, and tackling the most challenging tasks first.

Abstract

The context emphasizes the importance of discipline in achieving goals and presents three tactics to help software engineers build discipline. The first tactic is to always listen before speaking, which involves actively listening to team members and asking questions to ensure understanding. The second tactic is to perform a code kata for 30 minutes a day and review it the same day, which helps refresh knowledge, sharpen skills, and practice focused concentration. The third tactic is to eat your frog, which means tackling the most challenging task first thing in the morning to strengthen the ability to convert goals into habits.

Opinions

Active listening and asking questions are essential for understanding and contributing effectively in a team setting.
Regularly practicing code katas can help engineers maintain and improve their skills, especially in areas that are not frequently used in their current role.
Tackling the most challenging task first thing in the morning can help engineers overcome procrastination and make progress towards their goals.
The concept of eating your frog is based on the idea that completing difficult tasks first can provide a sense of accomplishment and momentum for the rest of the day.
The context suggests that these tactics can be applied not only to software engineering but also to other fields and areas of life.
The context also mentions a recent publication that explains the neurological basis for the effectiveness of the eat your frog tactic.
The context encourages readers to share their thoughts on the most important discipline habit and promotes an AI service for those interested in a cost-effective alternative to ChatGPT Plus.

3 Terrific Tactics to Build Discipline

Never seem to hit your KPIs? Become an excellent engineer by focusing on your foundation.

I use the word “tactics,” intentionally. An often cited quote by the well-known war tactician and philosopher, Sun Tzu, who stated:

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

But what does this actually mean? You can think of strategy as anything that involves the big picture and informs a decision “I am going to Point B.” In contrast, tactics are the specific actions that get you from point A to point B.

It’s important to distinguish this because what comes below is a quick review of some tactics that you can incorporate into nearly any mission, agenda, or strategy that you have set for yourself. The target audience below is for fellow software engineers, but these fundamental tactics can be applied to anyone. So enough theory. Let’s keep it short, sweet, and to the point.

Always Listen Before You Speak

Now, I’ve been in this place and I’m still even guilty of it at times. But the truth of the matter is: You don’t know everything.

You may be a software engineer. An electrical engineer. A computer engineer, bioengineer, or nuclear engineer. And what is in common across all forms of engineering? Well, for all different flavors of engineer, these involve working with other people. The beauty of working with other people, and with teams, is that each person comes together to contribute their own unique gift to the cluster. And when that happens, you have to realize that what you might expect is not the reality of what you need to build.

So, before you even begin to speak, always make sure that you are listening to those around you. And if you don’t understand, it’s okay to ask questions. Did you hear me?

It’s OK to ask questions.

In fact, the more questions you ask, especially if you work with a team, the better you will be as an engineer.

Make sure that you actually understand why you’re writing that code. Why you’re doing whatever you’re doing. And always sync up with either your project manager, your team manager, your tech lead, or yourself, depending on your role.

It’s oK to ask questions. If act, the more questions you ask, especially if you work with a team, the better you will be as an engineer.

Perform a code kata for 30 minutes a day

And review it the same day

Sometimes, especially if you’re at a F500 company, you might start forgetting some of your CS fundamentals. I mean, when was the last time I had to check if a given subsequence existed in a binary search tree?

No worries! You can address this by performing a code kata. These time-enclosed coding exercises are known as “katas,” a term originally used in Japanese martial arts and even among training samurai. It simply refers to training fundamental positions or poses. In the context of software engineering, you perform a kata by completing time-enclosed coding exercises and reviewing them. By doing so, you’ll accomplish these three steps in your personal evolution as an engineer:

Refresh your knowledge foundation
Sharpen a tool in your toolbox of skills that you could use for a work project
Practice the art of focused concentration

If you’re still confused, feel free to check out a code kata I wrote earlier this year. ( https://towardsdatascience.com/code-kata-robot-sensing-reduce-branching-and-cyclomatic-complexity-fe290b3050d1 )

Eat Your Frog

Now, I know that this sounds really weird, but eating your frog isn’t about literally eating your frog. The truth is, we want to explore this concept of addressing the problem or task that you LOATHE. And doing it first thing in the morning. To eat your frog, just follow this one instruction.

Schedule a 90 minute window at the beginning of your work-day to finish your hardest task.

By doing so, you strengthen your ability to convert your goals you wish into habits you complete. Otherwise, if you keep just holding off until the last minute, or until the last moment of the day, then you’re just going to end up needing to do that task the next day. There’s a truth to the saying by former CEO of AOL, Stephen Case:

A vision without execution is hallucination.

Think about it.

In the best case scenario, in those 90 minutes, you will have solved this task that you’ve been loathing the entire time. You will have completed everything that you needed to do. How awesome is that?

In the worst case scenario, you’ll probably generate more questions and run into more walls. But, if you do it first thing in the day, especially if you work with a team, then you can ask those questions. Isn’t that profound? Yes, it might sound pretty basic. Still, many of us ( myself included), can have inclinations to laziness and procrastination. I too, have to eat my frog.

Hey, remember how I mentioned earlier that you strengthen your ability to convert your goals you wish into habits you complete when you set aside 90 minutes of dedicated time and eat your frog? Curious to know the details of how this is done?

A recent publication came out, that revealed this is done by literally strengthening the connection between the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) to the dorsal striatum, which is necessary for goal directed action control. For more details, check out: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273%2816%2930157-X

The more you know.

What do you think is the most important discipline habit? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.