Gotta go fast

October 12, 2023 6:50 AM

Has anyone got any advice on turning around bits of work quickly?

I work as a data scientist / sort of coder / sort of engineer.
I find that it often takes me ages to get things done, compared to expectations.

I just did an assessment for a job position and found that the time had run out before I'd got close to getting any meaningful analysis done. How can I focus on the outputs and actually get stuff finished?

posted by Just this guy, y'know to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Hi I work fast and I wonder where it is you're falling down..

1) Do you take a long time to parse requirements? Spend time practicing pulling out the key info quickly.

2) Do you take a long time to figure out what you need to do to get to the outputs required? Spend time thinking about different categories of [data/stuff] you need to sort through and make a skeleton plan for each type of thing.

3) Do you get lost in the details/interest/possibilities? Work on bringing yourself back around to the outputs required - this is more like a rubber band technique for reminding yourself what is best to spend attention on.

4) Do you find it hard to produce the outputs? Practice on some example datasets.

5) Do you find it hard to communicate the outputs? Make yourself some output templates with appropriate caveats already listed.

I often find it useful to re-write the list of outputs required - often people don't ask in a very succinct way, and may ask for the hardest stuff first. Reorder this list so it makes sense with how the data/stuff is organised and pick off what works for you first. Get up that head of speed and then work your way down your newly ordered list.

Sure - you can't make everything speedy this way because probably (4) is hiding the most problems such as getting stuck. In a test I would do this differently to in real life because in real life I would take a break. But in a test I would just keep on doing stuff - try to answer the next question/produce the next output and hope it jolts something that will help me unstick something else.
posted by london explorer girl at 7:01 AM on October 12, 2023 [13 favorites]

Can’t speak to a timed assessments, but for me, a molecular biologist/ sort of data scientist / self taught coder with lots of knowledge gaps who can take a while to get set up on a problem:
- set aside at least 4 hours
- turn off or mute literally everything that will interrupt me (no notifications)
- have three things open: an IDE, a notebook of some kind for writing down in words what I’m doing and why, and a ChatGPT browser tab.

I get the problem, motivation, and goals set up in sentences. Then I refine the approach in conversation with ChatGPT, which isn’t perfect but involves way fewer random rabbit holes and distractions than searching the internet. Then I write some code. Lately I’m playing around with Google CoPilot in VScode, which makes autosuggestions once you insert even a comment describing a desired function, which is pretty wild. And then I’ll start testing out the approach, examining the errors, and as much as possible, feeding anything confusing back into ChatGPT for comment so that I don’t get distracted by the rest of the internet.

All of the above is a pretty new workflow for me (I wasn’t using AI tools for anything professionally 3 months ago) and it has made me astonishingly more productive. A non trivial side benefit is that I also find asking an AI questions about best practices and why my code is/is not working as expected a pretty effective way to learn.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:07 AM on October 12, 2023 [10 favorites]

My background is project management/agile and one of the classic mistakes I see from people who don't have that base is skipping over a planning or outlining step at the outset because they feel like they have to move fast. And so there's a stalling out because:

a) the scope is not well defined (i.e., you and whoever requested the info do not agree on what needs to be done so there's a lot of review/back and forth)
b) the tasks are not broken down in any way so there's no way to see progress and determine how much effort is given per day/month/etc.

Like there's a consistent thing I see which are people feeling like they need to "get organized" but not having a system or plan for how they actually do that where you end up...being organized.

So to me - outlining what needs to be done at the outset is how you get things done efficiently. Ideally you can break things down into activities that will take a couple of hours/half day/day so you can see the progression, track your progress, and identify consistent areas where your time management/estimation is off across projects to improve over time.
posted by openhearted at 7:40 AM on October 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

Dunno if this will be possible with your kind of work, but to knock out easy translations on tight deadlines I listen to very fast Completely Instrumental music very very loud on headphones. Drum'n'bass, trance, techno etc. Speeds my fingers up, helps me focus.
posted by runincircles at 7:57 AM on October 12, 2023 [1 favorite]

Others have covered organization steps. Those are very important, but there is also the seductive trap of trying to do things as fast as possible -- and quickly getting tired and distracted.

Instead I suggest practicing "deliberate speed". Set a fixed tempo to your work, one that is sustainable over the long term. I find music helps but it's not necessary. Sometimes I imaging a rowing crew -- rhythm is necessary and breaking it fouls up everything.

I've found that working that way often leads to me getting in the zone and staying there.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:49 AM on October 12, 2023 [4 favorites]

It sounds so silly as I write it, but chewing gum nearly always helps me focus and therefore work faster. I don’t know if it’s because then I can’t take snack breaks, or if it just absorbs my nervous energy, but it works for me.
posted by leslievictoria at 11:29 AM on October 12, 2023 [2 favorites]

Lower your expectations.

Since I know nothing about your project, I don't know how, but a common ploy is to narrow your focus. Or you might do the report without the fancy graphs. Or just get the words down on paper without making it simple enough for management to understand.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:05 AM on October 13, 2023 [1 favorite]