State of the Mission: 700 Pomodoros!

Update:

Now up to 800 pomodoros.

Pomodoro Count

Since the beginning of this year (2017), I have invested a total of 700 pomodoros towards the following:

• Studying programming
• Coding
• Looking for work
• Self-promotion on social media

What Do I Have To Show for My Efforts?

I have a growing body of code: https://github.com/clockworkpc

I have interviewed strongly for junior positions at a number of companies:

• Envato (2nd round)
• Zendesk (1st round)
• reinteractive (2nd round)
• GreenSync (3rd round)
• MYOB (3rd round)
• BlocksGlobal (3rd round)

The feedback has been overwhelmingly encouraging, and with each interview, there is evidence that I am even closer to having the package of skills and knowledge that will distinguish me from other candidates.  Moreover, most of the companies have pointed out to me the precise areas of improvement, and I have incorporated their feedback into my curriculum.

Do I have a job yet? No.

Am I moving inexorably in the right direction? Absolutely.

What Is A Pomodoro?

Italians have been bemused by this term ever since, I imagine.

One pomodoro is 20 minutes of pure, uninterrupted, focused work.

For about 60 seconds before I start the clock, I orient myself; for about 60-120 seconds after the clock rings, I summarise my work.

Add to that the time spent getting up from my desk and making notes on the whiteboard, and that comes to about 25 minutes when all is said and done:

• Preparation: 1 minute
• Pomodoro: 20 minutes
• Summary: 2 minutes
• Whiteboard: 2 minutes
• Rest: 5 minutes

Thus, allowing five minutes of rest between a pomodoro and its surrounding activities, one pomodoro amounts to half an hour of productive labour.

Working on the assumption that about five hours of a software developer's eight-hour day are spent on his primary task (coding), and the rest is taken up by meetings, etc, this means that 700 pomodoros are the equivalent of...

• 350 hours of productive labour
• 70 working days of productive labour
• 14 working weeks of productive labour

Pomodoros: A Photographic Overview

Unfortunately, I did not record my pomodoro counts fastidiously from the outset, so some of the data are missing, but a glance across photographs of the completed pomodoro cycles, shows that the amount of time spent on each activity varied.  Sometimes I was focused on my studies, sometimes on coding, sometimes on looking for work.

I spend the least amount of time on promoting myself through social media, which makes sense, because it is more important to me to learn how to code, to code, and to look for work, than to blog and network on LinkedIn and Twitter.

2nd of January 2017 to 15th of January 2017 (100)

16th of January 2017 to 30th of January 2017 (200)

(Image lost to oblivion)

31st of January 2017 to 15th of February 2017 (300)

16th of February 2017 to 6th of March 2017 (400)

7th of March 2017 to 30th March 2017 (500)

1st April 2017 to 23rd April 2017 (600)

(Image lost to oblivion)

April 24th 2017 to 10th of May 2017 (700)

Coding Exercise Complete (58 Pomodoros)

I have submitted my solution to the coding exercise for Envato, as part of my application for a Junior Developer role there.

I spent 58 pomodoros on this project:

• 7 strictly on planning and writing (roughly 3.5 hours)
• 3 on studying RSpec (roughly 1.5 hours)
• 47 on coding, reviewing, testing, refactoring, etc.

I do not know if my solution is good enough for Envato, but it was the best I could do.

There are many things that give me encouragement, regardless of the outcome of my job application.

I can code.

I have a lot to learn, I make many mistakes, my code is probably inefficient and clumsy, but I can take a problem and solve it through the code.  It is a sort of "hello world" moment for me.

What I do works.

As I have been teaching myself, it is always hard to gauge whether I'm getting things right, or whether I ought to sign up for a course instead.  I am more convinced than ever that I am on the right path, and can take pride in my work ethic, time management, knowledge, and skill.

For example, I got stuck on writing Rspec tests, so I purchased an Rspec manual, studied it for precisely three pomodoros (black cells) and found I could write the tests I need. I have spent so far 3 x 20 minutes on study and 33 x 20 minutes on planning, writing, and coding for this exercise. The brevity of the study break excites me, because it is tangible, documented evidence that I have the intelligence, self awareness, and discipline to take a break from the main project, learn what I need, and then get back to work without wasting time. 

I will succeed.

If I get the job at Envato that would be great, and if I don't I shall certainly be disappointed.  However, I am much closer to being the best pick for a junior spot somewhere out there, and I won't relent until I've achieved this goal.

I am grateful to Envato for granting me an interview and the opportunity to show them what I can do.  Let's see what they make of it.

Minor Surgery Today

Going in for surgery today.

I will shortly go to an endodontic clinic (specialist dentist -- I learned about it only recently) for an operation under local anaesthetic.  The 'root' cause of my problem is a traffic accident I suffered as a teenager.  Seventeen years on, in spite of excellent dental care and oral hygiene, I need surgery to eradicate the problem.

I hope to return to my coding work later today, but I suspect I'll have to take it easy for the rest of today, much though I'd like to keep on working hard.

Wish me luck.

100 Pomodoros for the Month of February

This cycle was dominated by study (black) -- Toy Robot, Ruby documentation, 'Rails 4 in Action' -- and job seeking (red) -- lots of calls, emails, and networking at the Ruby Conference (2017) in Melbourne, Australia.

Let's see if we can make it two hundred pomodoros for the month of February.

At any rate, it's been a very productive one hundred pomodoros so far.