Within my field of expertise, many new technologies arrive on the market. It comes as small updates from the software you already use. Or it comes as new revolutionary software which helps developers. As a result, one of the main tasks of a developer is to be up to date. When I started to become a web developer, it was exciting. Learning new techniques and seeing their benefits, I was ignited to keep learning. But how much time do we have to invest? Is it worth the time? I will explain why timesavers are often timewasters.
New technologies everywhere
My website project started 2 years ago. When my friend called me late in the night. He saw my Snapchat story where I successfully created a Login-System. However, my friend was amazed by it. So, he asked me if I would join his project. I agreed. So, we met up and started to brainstorm his idea. We added more and more to this idea. Soon, it seems like the next Facebook.
But it is still a lot of work. First, we need to agree on one technology to program on. Second, we listed all features and value this website need to have. And third, we discussed how we divided the work. He will be the Frontend-Developer. He will deal with all kinds of administration issues. And I will be the Backend-Developer.
Effectively, we started this project 6 months ago. We are almost finished to try a Beta-Test. However, working with him was exhausting. Because he came up with new “tech-breaking” software every week. We switched to countless software to manage our workflow. I was sick of it and set my statement on this. “Dude, we can any as many features, new designs, new frameworks as you want. But we need to finish our base product first.”
Why timesavers are often timewasters
It sounds controversial when I say as a web developer that I hate new technologies. As my friend introduced me to new technologies, we faced three problems:
- Investing time into the new technology
The first and most annoying cause was that we had to invest time to use new software. We are on a tight schedule. Every week must be followed and every task must be finished. We had no additional time to spend our valuable time on such matters. He promised it would be worth it. But in the end, we ditched all the new software he introduced or we did not use it at all because it was too complex. So, we used only the most crucial software to run our projects. When the hours of learning these new technologies exceeded the time we could have saved time, it is a timewaster. - Useless Softwares
Another friend of mine is always looking for new apps, Softwares, as well. This time it is an app that reminds you to do your tasks. He sold me this crazy, new app with these words. And, I cannot describe how bored and unexciting I felt at this moment. I asked him: “So, it is such a calendar?” “No, it is much better. It has a cool design and an alarm as well. And it shows you what progress you did.”
To be honest, only people who cannot motivate themselves need such “timesavers”. But, I am too advanced to waste my time on this. - Procrastinate
These friends had one thing in common. They procrastinate and are easily distracted by flashy designs. Here comes the problem. Many people are just satisfied when they list all their tasks in these “timesavers” software. But, I know that once they wrote down their tasks and goals, they never touch this software again.
Summary – Why timesavers are often timewasters
The more I work deeper in my projects the more I can differ timesavers and timewasters. I used some software for my projects and only one thing for tracking the tasks of my projects. In web development, you use Github, a board of tasks like Trello, and in my case Discord, for communication reasons. Besides that, I keep it simple. To track my tasks, like what needs to be done or future features or tasks, I use a simple note app to write them down. And that’s it.
In my previous post, it comes all down to focus. Anything that prevents you from doing your job is a timewaster. Like my friends, they rather concentrate on useless apps and software rather than work on their tasks. In any case, save your time by not investing time in these “timesavers” and stick to the basics. Did you know that the idea of Twitter was handwritten and not immortalized in a program like Microsoft Word?