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Leitura de 15 min

Getting Stacked Value From your Daily Activities

Summary

In this episode of Developer Tea, host Jonathan Cattrell challenges common misconceptions about productivity and time management. He argues against the idea that we need to work faster or multitask to get more done, pointing out that these approaches often reduce quality and value output.

Instead, Cattrell introduces the concept of “stacked value” activities—tasks that deliver multiple benefits simultaneously. He explains how certain activities act as “forcing functions” that naturally create additional value beyond their primary purpose. For example, the process of estimation in software development forces clarity about the work being estimated and facilitates discussion when done with colleagues.

Cattrell provides practical examples both in professional and personal contexts. In work settings, activities like estimation create value through clarity-building and collaboration. In personal life, something as simple as a scheduled evening walk can serve as a forcing function to stop working at a reasonable hour while also providing exercise benefits.

The episode encourages listeners to consciously evaluate their daily activities, looking for those that offer multiple dimensions of value and cascading effects into other areas of life. Rather than trying to increase the volume of work, Cattrell suggests focusing on selecting activities that naturally multiply their value through built-in mechanisms like forcing functions and natural boundaries.

Recommendations

Concepts

  • Forcing Functions — Processes or activities that require certain conditions to become true, creating additional value beyond their primary purpose. Examples given include estimation forcing clarity and scheduled walks creating natural work boundaries.
  • Stacked Value Activities — Tasks that deliver multiple types of value simultaneously, multiplying benefits without requiring multiplied effort from the individual. These activities have cascading effects into other areas of life.

Tools

  • Linode — A cloud hosting provider with 11 data centers worldwide, S3-compatible storage, and GPU compute plans suitable for AI, machine learning, or video processing. The host mentions their nano plan starts at 20 credit with promo code DEVELOPERTEA2020.

Topic Timeline

  • 00:00:00 — Questioning what makes activities worth doing — Jonathan introduces the core question of how we decide which activities are worth our limited time. He challenges the assumption that highly successful people somehow have more time, emphasizing that we all face the same time constraints but use our time differently.
  • 00:01:29 — Introducing heuristics for choosing activities — The host announces his goal to provide heuristics for selecting the right activities. He critiques the binary thinking of being “on the clock” versus “off the clock” and rejects the assumption that simply putting in more hours leads to more value delivery.
  • 00:02:52 — Shifting from multitasking to task selection — Jonathan argues against trying to multitask, explaining that quality and speed suffer when we attempt multiple tasks simultaneously. Instead, he proposes looking for activities that “do that multitasking for you”—tasks that inherently deliver multiple types of value.
  • 00:05:42 — Common misconceptions about productivity — After the sponsor break, Jonathan returns to discuss the most common misconceptions about time and effort. He addresses the flawed approach of trying to work faster to cram more into each hour, contrasting this with the better approach of choosing the right activities.
  • 00:06:47 — Offloading responsibility to the task itself — The host introduces the key heuristic: offloading the responsibility of value delivery to the task itself. He explains this means carefully choosing activities that provide multiplicative value, where the task multiplies benefits rather than requiring multiplied effort from the individual.
  • 00:07:38 — Example: Estimation as a high-value activity — Jonathan uses software estimation as a concrete example of a stacked-value activity. He explains how estimation forces clarity about the work, requires detailed understanding, and creates learning opportunities when done collaboratively with other developers who may have different perspectives.
  • 00:09:08 — Forcing functions and their value — The concept of “forcing functions” is introduced—processes that require certain conditions to become true. Jonathan explains how estimation acts as a forcing function for clarity, and how consensus-building around estimates requires discussing differences, creating additional value.
  • 00:09:55 — Personal example: Scheduled evening walks — Jonathan provides a personal life example of a stacked-value activity: scheduled evening walks. He explains how this simple activity serves as a forcing function to get outside, creates a natural boundary to stop working at a reasonable hour, and provides exercise benefits—all from one activity.
  • 00:10:57 — Practical application and daily reflection — The host offers practical advice for implementing these concepts. He suggests asking periodically throughout the day what extra value you’re getting from current work and whether there are alternative activities that could deliver more stacked value through multiple dimensions and cascading effects.

Episode Info

  • Podcast: Developer Tea
  • Author: Jonathan Cutrell
  • Category: Technology Business Careers Society & Culture
  • Published: 2020-02-07T10:00:00Z
  • Duration: 00:12:41

References

Podcast Info

Transcript

[00:00:00] what makes something worth doing i’m asking this at the personal level the activities that you do

[00:00:12] with your moments with your hours or perhaps with your days how do you decide what activities are

[00:00:21] worth doing it’s pretty obvious that we all have the same kind of restrictions on our time

[00:00:29] no matter how much money you have no matter how much success you have the amount of time in a day

[00:00:38] is essentially the same now the amount of margin that you have might be different depending on

[00:00:44] your life circumstances much of which is controllable at a high level but our days are

[00:00:51] mostly the same now the incorrect assumption to make is that the people who are incredibly

[00:00:58] successful

[00:00:59] or incredibly productive or whatever your desired outcome is that they somehow do much more than you

[00:01:08] that they’ve found a way to extend that time of course rationally we know this is preposterous

[00:01:16] that we all have the same time restrictions but somehow some people have found better use

[00:01:23] of their time in today’s episode i want to give you some heuristics for thinking about

[00:01:29] choosing your activities so that you’re picking the right ones my name is jonathan cattrall you’re

[00:01:35] listening to developer team my goal on the show is to help driven developers find clarity perspective

[00:01:40] and purpose in their careers it’s easy to imagine that our time is on one axis and our value output

[00:01:49] is on another and per unit of time we assume and this goes back to our original assumption that we

[00:01:59] assume that we can only output a certain amount of value and so in this kind of binary way of

[00:02:07] thinking we either are outputting value or not and this reflects in the way that we think about

[00:02:13] our working hours we’re either on the clock or we’re not and so in order to get more value out

[00:02:21] of our days specifically out of our work days we try to find more time on the clock

[00:02:29] because that value delivery is is somewhat static it’s the on switch but it’s incredibly important

[00:02:38] to reject this assumption rejecting the assumption that just being on the clock or just putting in

[00:02:44] the hours is the value delivery that you’re looking for if instead you think about how can

[00:02:52] i deliver the most value with a single activity you see the other wrong assumption is that you’re

[00:02:59] working on a task and you’re working on a task and you’re working on a task that you’re working on

[00:03:01] and it’s a very simple solution is that in order to deliver extra value we have to somehow try to

[00:03:03] find a way to multitask to take on more than one thing at a time and we think that our brains are

[00:03:10] kind of like multi-core processors that somehow we can achieve two jobs at once and unfortunately

[00:03:17] even though we get both of those jobs done at the same time the quality or the speed of finishing

[00:03:24] those jobs is probably going to suffer and therefore likely the value output is going to

[00:03:29] less than if we were to just do those things sequentially so instead of thinking about value

[00:03:35] delivery in terms of how much you can do trying to increase the volume of work that you’re doing

[00:03:41] or the volume of activities that you engage in i want you to think instead about activities

[00:03:50] that do that multitasking for you that’s the shift that i want you to make your mind in this episode

[00:03:59] we’re going to take a quick sponsor break and then we’re going to come back and detail more

[00:04:02] about how you can think using this heuristic of putting the effort onto the task itself

[00:04:10] rather than trying to do multiple things yourself but first let’s talk about today’s sponsor

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[00:05:29] promo code developer t 2020 it’s developer t 2020 at checkout for the twenty dollars worth of

[00:05:35] credit thanks again to linode for sponsoring today’s episode of developer t so we’re talking

[00:05:42] about getting the most out of your time and the most common misconceptions about time and effort

[00:05:48] the idea that you need to try to work faster so that you can get more things into your day you

[00:05:55] can cram more into that minute or that hour and so much of that time and effort is going to be

[00:05:59] so much of our uh our attempts to increase our productivity are about finding ways to do things

[00:06:07] faster right one valid approach to this is to try to offload those tasks to something like

[00:06:16] automation right so instead of you trying to get more done faster you’re offloading some of the

[00:06:23] work some of the repetitive action it’s not particularly valuable for you to to execute

[00:06:29] yourself right so that’s that’s a different discussion than what we’re having today instead

[00:06:34] we’re talking about this misconception that you can do more yourself with the same amount of time

[00:06:40] and instead i want you to think about this with the heuristic in mind of offloading the responsibility

[00:06:47] right offloading the responsibility of that value delivery or that value increase

[00:06:53] to the task itself so what does that mean well in effect it

[00:06:59] means choosing the right things to do picking your tasks carefully picking your activities

[00:07:06] carefully what are the activities that you can participate in today that are going to give you

[00:07:13] multiplicative value the the task itself not your effort your effort isn’t multiplied but the task

[00:07:22] does that multiplying for you you can think about these tasks as kind of the simple machines in your

[00:07:27] value delivery

[00:07:29] some examples of this if you are familiar with the process of sizing some people call this estimation

[00:07:38] if you look at a chunk of work and you’re forced to make some kind of guess about how complex that

[00:07:46] work is this is a high value activity and why is it a high value activity this activity accomplishes

[00:07:56] multiple goals

[00:07:58] for one

[00:07:59] it forces you to get clarity on the work that you’re talking about because you can’t really

[00:08:08] estimate the complexity of something unless you have some level of clarity about what you’re

[00:08:13] estimating and so the process of estimation also kind of includes or is precluded by

[00:08:23] adding detail understanding something thoroughly before you estimate it

[00:08:29] doing this estimation process with another developer is also kind of adds another layer of value because the other developer may have a different estimation than you.

[00:08:42] and in that difference you may learn something new about what’s going on with that particular feature with a particular piece of work.

[00:08:52] And so what we’re talking about here is some kind of task that doesn’t have linear value.

[00:08:58] It has a scaled value.

[00:09:01] And in particular, in this particular example, we’ve talked about a couple of what are called

[00:09:06] forcing functions.

[00:09:08] A forcing function requires that something is kind of becomes true in a particular process,

[00:09:15] right?

[00:09:16] In that particular function.

[00:09:17] So in this case, the forcing function is in order to estimate something, we’re required

[00:09:23] to have clarity on it.

[00:09:25] Or in order to come to a consensus, we’re required to talk about the differences between

[00:09:31] our estimates.

[00:09:33] Here’s the interesting part about these activities.

[00:09:36] Very often, the activity itself can be very simple.

[00:09:41] You’re looking for activities that have multiple kind of stacked types of values.

[00:09:47] You’re looking for activities that have multiple kind of stacked types of values.

[00:09:48] Outside of a working environment, you might have, for example, a scheduled walk in the

[00:09:55] evenings.

[00:09:57] This requires you to get outside.

[00:09:59] That’s a forcing function.

[00:10:01] It also, if you have that scheduled walk, especially if you have scheduled it with a

[00:10:06] person, it requires that you stop working at a certain point, which, depending on your

[00:10:11] goals, might be helpful, might be healthy for you if you tend to work later than you

[00:10:17] kind of really want to work, if you have a bad habit of working late, then having

[00:10:22] that schedule is, it could be a forcing function or at least an encouragement function, if

[00:10:27] you will.

[00:10:29] And of course, the more obvious value is the exercise itself.

[00:10:32] Now, you can compare this with a midday walk.

[00:10:35] A midday walk may have a different type of stacked value, or it may have less total value

[00:10:42] to you than the evening walk does.

[00:10:45] These kinds of activities are important.

[00:10:47] They’re important to find in your own life and to take note of.

[00:10:51] Sometimes you won’t necessarily know what the value is, and it’s worthwhile to ask yourself

[00:10:57] at the beginning of each day or even periodically throughout the day, what extra value am I

[00:11:03] getting out of whatever work I’m doing at this moment in time?

[00:11:07] Is there something else I could do to get more value out of this time?

[00:11:12] Look for activities that have multiple dimensions.

[00:11:17] That have value and that have cascading effects into other areas of your life.

[00:11:22] Look for things like forcing functions or encouragement functions, things that create

[00:11:27] natural boundaries.

[00:11:29] These are all ways that you can add value to what it would otherwise be kind of a linear

[00:11:34] value of a given activity.

[00:11:37] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Developer Tea.

[00:11:39] Thank you again to Linode for sponsoring today’s episode.

[00:11:42] You can get started with Linode by heading over to linode.com slash developer tea.

[00:11:47] Use the code developer tea 2020 to get that $20 worth of credit at checkout.

[00:11:52] If you enjoyed today’s episode and found it valuable, I encourage you to share it with

[00:11:56] another person that you think will find value as well.

[00:12:00] Speaking of stacked value, this is valuable for you and it is valuable for the show as

[00:12:06] well.

[00:12:06] The value to you is that you’ve actually given someone else the same kind of value that

[00:12:12] you found in the show.

[00:12:13] Potentially, they’re likely to take your recommendation of a podcast.

[00:12:17] Rather than just going and searching for a random podcast.

[00:12:20] But additionally, of course, it helps this show out as well, because as the show reaches

[00:12:25] more listeners, we can continue making more episodes.

[00:12:29] Today’s episode was produced by Sarah Jackson.

[00:12:31] My name is Jonathan Cottrell.

[00:12:32] And until next time, enjoy your tea.

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