Alex Chiou

Software engineers aren't paid an insane amount of money out of the goodness of tech corporations' hearts: It's because they need to consistently deliver while under the weight of sky-high expectations.

Now here's the problem: It is extremely easy to be unproductive as an engineer, *even if you're working incredibly hard*. There are so many software engineers out there who are working 80+ hour weeks but barely meeting expectations.

If you're frustrated with how little you're getting from your time, let's fix that and turn you into a rockstar who also has respectable work-life balance. After going through this course, you will:

- 💯 Know the **true** most important productivity booster

- 💡 Champion the right **mentality** to foster productivity

- 🏃‍♂️ Use the right tactics to **move faster**

- 🛡️ Have shields to prevent you from **wasting time**

- 🤔 Learn how to **debug** a lack of productivity

At the end of the day, time is the only resource that matters. With every minute of your day, you have an effectively infinite amount of ways to spend it, most of them inefficient. In a nutshell, this course will empower you to make the right decision with every unit of your time so you can get more done with less of it.

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer

Overview

Move Faster

Stop Being Lazy

Conclusion

Go Deeper: Follow Through

How This Course Works

The Productivity Giant You Are Missing

Finding The Best Things To Work On

Stay The Course

Focus On The System

Social Pressure > Work Pressure

Get Good Sleep

Touch Grass

Focus Blocks

Organize Your Calendar

Not Every Meeting Needs You

Just 1 Thing

Decomposition

Do The Hardest Thing First

Live And Breathe Quality

Mentor And Delegate

The Demon In Your Pocket

Procrastination

Eat The Frog

Just Jump In

Verify Your Foundation

Introspect And Reflect

It's A Never Ending Marathon

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 24] - Go Deeper: Follow Through

As mentioned earlier in the course, being a productive is a never-ending battle. You need to keep fighting, growing, and retrospecting to keep yourself in check and maintain your productivity. 

Take the related courses:

- [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)
- [\[Course\] Effective Communication For Engineers](https://www.jointaro.com/course/effective-communication-for-engineers/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 1] - How This Course Works

As a software engineer, you're expected to get a lot done with very little time. The compounding problem on top of that is how incredibly easy it is to get distracted as a digital warrior. This course is here to teach you how you can move faster and waste less time. Here are the core parts of the lesson:

- Your instructor [Alex Chiou](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-chiou/) walks you through his extensive 10+ year Silicon Valley background across top companies like Meta and Robinhood, explaining how he was able to be a high-performing tech lead at both those companies working 30-40 hours weeks (particularly at Meta).
- You'll understand why being productive as a software engineer is so hard and why being unproductive as a software engineer is so easy.
- We walk you through the course objectives. By the end of the course, you will:
  - 💯 Know the **true** most important productivity booster

  - 💡 Champion the right **mentality** to foster productivity

  - 🏃‍♂️ Use the right tactics to **move faster**

  - 🛡️ Have shields to prevent you from **wasting time**

  - 🤔 Learn how to **debug** a lack of productivity

If you want to learn how Alex onboarded at lightning speed at Robinhood, check out his in-depth case study here: [\[Case Study\] Becoming A Tech Lead Again In Just 1 Month After Joining Robinhood From Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/X8vpfJooDpsX915ouC00/case-study-becoming-a-tech-lead-again-in-just-1-m)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 2] - The Productivity Giant You Are Missing

When it comes to productivity, most software engineers have the completely incorrect strategy of simply working harder. This isn't sustainable and misses the forest for the trees. This lesson teaches you:

- The true highest leverage thing you can do when it comes to your productivity, explained with an example from Meta and Google
- Why working on the right things is much better than just working on your current things faster

Here's the promotion course: [\[Course\] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 3] - Finding The Best Things To Work On

If you have gone through this course in order, you now know that working on the right things is far more important than merely working on things faster. So how do yo figure out the best things to work on in your organization? This lesson teaches you:

- How to identify the optimal opportunities within your space
- A formula to classify tasks and projects by quality and stack rank them
- What you need to do with your prioritized tasks, particularly with your manager

To dive even deeper into this topic: ["How to figure out what the most important projects are?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/CgCPA60bDDHoOteN7Lmb/how-to-figure-out-what-the-most-important-projects-are/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 4] - Stay The Course

It's incredibly easy to get distracted with random incoming tasks, especially at a fast-paced company like FAANG. This lesson teaches you:

- The importance of staying the course and sticking to your high-impact, ruthlessly prioritized tasks
- How to diplomatically push back and say "No" (saying "Yes" to everything is one of the easiest ways to destroy your productivity as a software engineer)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 5] - Focus On The System

Many software engineers simply tell themselves *"I'll do better next time"* when they have an unproductive period - This almost never works. This lesson teaches you:

- Why relying on sheer willpower to be productive is a terrible idea and what you should do instead
- What it means to have a true system around your productivity
- The objectives of a productivity system

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 6] - Social Pressure > Work Pressure

Too many software engineers focus on finding something cool to work on instead of finding cool people to work with. This lesson teaches you:

- Why a supportive team is far more valuable and effective when it comes to making you productivity compared to working on something shiny like genAI
- Tactics you can use to apply social pressure to yourself and enforce productivity

Learn how to find a good team here: [\[Taro Top 10\] How To Find A Good Engineering Team And Company](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/FWqTGeZYrXFohCOU38sR/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 7] - Get Good Sleep

Sleep is one of the first things to go when software engineers are faced with daunting workloads. Unfortunately, this is a tradeoff with disastrous consequences which doesn't even solve the problem. This lesson teaches you:

- Why most software engineers get sleep completely wrong in every possible way
- The correct perspective to have with sleep
- The many benefits of getting 8+ hours of consistent sleep every day
- How sacrificing sleep actually makes you less productive, not more

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 8] - Touch Grass

Let's be real: Most software engineers are out of shape. While this isn't too bad early on, things quickly get worse. This lesson teaches you:

- How to get into exercising as easily as possible
- The many benefits of regular exercise
- A way to hack your brain to make yourself more likely to exercise

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 9] - Focus Blocks

Context switching is one of your biggest enemies as a software engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- What a focus block is
- Why getting back into coding is so difficult, especially at Big Tech
- The power of focus blocks with involved tasks, particularly with writing code

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 10] - Organize Your Calendar

Now we know that focus blocks are one of the most powerful weapons in a software engineer's arsenal. So how can we get them? This lesson teaches you:

- How to organize your meetings in the most efficient way
- What you should look out for when it comes to clearing space on your calendar

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 11] - Not Every Meeting Needs You

Meetings are everywhere at tech companies, especially massive ones like FAANG. The unfortunate reality is that so many of these meetings are wasteful, especially for more junior engineers. This lesson teaches you:

- The huge mistake many n00b engineers make with meetings
- The most powerful tactic you can use to take control of your calendar
- How to figure out which meetings you can skip
- Tactics to safely delete meetings from your calendar

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 12] - Just 1 Thing

As a software engineer, it is incredibly easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer amount of tasks on your plate. This lesson teaches you:

- What you need to do every single day to give yourself the gift of focus and be productive
- What to do if you absolutely need to get multiple major tasks done in a day
- How to enforce your focus on your singular task by systematizing it

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 13] - Decomposition

When you get a huge project as a software engineer, it's easy to get overwhelmed and just sort of... do nothing (or close to it). This lesson teaches you:

- What a well-decomposed project looks like with a concrete example
- How decomposing projects hacks your brain to make it more motivated and productive

To dive deep into tactics on decomposing projects, check out our in-depth explainer: ["How do I make software less overwhelming?"](https://www.jointaro.com/question/YseMPDw538jhyS1MWlTs/how-do-i-make-software-less-overwhelming/)

Learn from the code quality course here: [\[Course\] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer](https://www.jointaro.com/course/level-up-your-code-quality-as-a-software-engineer/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 14] - Do The Hardest Thing First

When you get a tough project, it's tempting to tackle the easiest parts first because you already know how to do them, putting off the most difficult portions for later (you'll totally figure it out right?). This lesson teaches you:

- The difference between bad and good engineers when it comes to taking on a project
- Why tackling the hardest parts of a project first is effective risk management and a defining behavior of the best tech leadWhen you
- The massive team-wide benefit solving the hardest problem grants you

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 15] - Live And Breathe Quality

One of the biggest myths in the tech industry is that in order to move incredibly fast, you need to sacrifice quality and do a mediocre job. This lesson teaches you:

- The dangers of cutting corners when it comes to engineering work
- Why having high code quality leads to you landing code faster
- Different ways for you to weave quality into your work for an immediate positive return on investment for your time

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 16] - Mentor And Delegate

Many software engineers are naturally lone wolves due to their introverted nature. While this can work out as a junior or mid-level engineer, it quickly becomes unsustainable as you reach senior/staff levels and beyond due to the immense workload. This lesson teaches you:

- Why being a lone wolf is terrible for your productivity
- The importance of uplifting others around you when it comes to getting stuff done
- One of the core virtues the best engineers have, which is particularly needed for mentorship

Here's Alex's Meta mentorship case study: [\[Case Study\] Mentoring Junior SWEs \[E3\] to Senior \[E5\] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta](https://www.jointaro.com/lesson/EX9563YnxcJb62cCmetg/case-study-mentoring-junior-swes-e3-to-senior-e5-in-just-25-years-at-meta/?playlistId=oLssVMdTJ9NtX5SX1fek)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 17] - The Demon In Your Pocket

Smart phones unlock infinite opportunity, but they also unlock infinite distraction - We've all lost countless hours towards mindlessly scrolling through the many addictive apps on our mobile devices. This lesson teaches you:

- A basic tactic to prevent you from getting distracted by your smart phone
- A more involved and technical tactic to discourage smart phone user, which Alex is a big fan of
- An extremely aggressive tactic to get your smartphone away from you, used by a Staff Engineer at LinkedIn who's also a parent!

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 18] - Procrastination

We all learn how to procrastinate in school - It feels good to wait until the last minute to get something done as this means you got to use all that initial time to have fun! This lesson teaches you:

- Why people procrastinate
- The main tactic to apply to avoid procrastination
- What to do if you simply can't stop procrastinating

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 19] - Eat The Frog

The first couple hours after you start work are absolutely crucial - Unfortunately many software engineers waste this crucial time, working on the wrong type of tasks. This lesson teaches you:

- What it means to eat the frog (don't worry, it doesn't involve any actual eating or 🐸s)
- Why eating the frog is so important
- The difference between junk food tasks and core tasks

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 20] - Just Jump In

If there's one thing software engineers love to do, it's prepare. They'll read and watch and listen to countless resources in order to get "ready" to tackle their meaty technical challenges. This lesson teaches you:

- Why "preparing" to do a task is basically the same as doing nothing
- The right mentality you must have to tackle any software engineering task efficiently, going away from the mindset that got you through school
- How to effectively dive into a task and get it done fast

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 21] - Verify Your Foundation

Work and life are deeply interconnected, despite how much we want this to not be the case. If your personal foundation isn't there, it's hard to get anything done working a mentally-intensive job like software engineer. This lesson teaches you:

- How it's possible to implement literally all the advice from this course and still not be productive
- What to do if you're stuck in a productivity rut that you just can't get out of
- The ingredients behind a healthy personal foundation

Learn more about how to have good work-life balance here: [\[Taro Top 10\] Work-Life Balance](https://www.jointaro.com/playlist/JNCZ1vbRF3NwsOQCqblt/)

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 22] - Introspect And Reflect

As software engineers, we are constantly getting things wrong, including our productivity system. This is why it's important to learn how to evolve and improve over time - There are very things in engineering where you can just set it and forget it. This lesson teaches you:

- How to set up introspection time and why it's important
- What questions to ask yourself when you reflect
- How to process action items to improve your productivity system

Maximize Your Productivity As A Software Engineer [Part 23] - It's A Never Ending Marathon

With the meteoric rise of the Internet, software engineers are constantly bombarded by magical success stories where other engineers rose almost instantly to the top. However, reality is rarely that smooth and simple. This lesson teaches you:

- What successful career paths actually look like, even among the world's best engineers
- How productivity naturally trends across your life
- What to do when you're facing a serious lack of productivity that seems unfixable