Having worked for myself (and by myself mostly) for a few years now I feel lucky that I have had some training for the “new-normal”.

Right now things look OK for me – My current projects can largely be worked on remotely. But what if you can’t?

So here is my general plan for a quiet development period:

1. Work on processes and automation.

Look back at your development processes. Now is a great time to cast a critical eye over them.

In particular look for opportunities for automation such as CI or code scripting. The work you put in on that now will pay off for years to come.

2. Do experimental refactoring

Not expecting to be able to deliver code for a few months? Now might be a great time to work on those refactoring jobs that always get pushed back because “deadlines”. (Use source control in case it doesn’t work!)

3. Learn, learn, learn

It’s a great time to learn a new language, technology or skill so you can come out of this stronger.

Money may be tight but there are some great learning platforms out there.

I joined the ACM which gets you access to O’Reilly’s e-learning platform including their books and video courses.

I also use Pluralsight when picking up new technologies (I’ve been learning SaltStack at the minute)

For software engineering, I’ve always liked the look of Construx online learning as well.

EDIT: LabVIEW Learning

If you are already a competent LabVIEW developer I would use this as a chance to look outside LabVIEW a bit more. You will probably learn that in normal circumstances anyway and I find it hugely valuable to increase your world view. But I should mention resources here as well:

• Since I posted this, I’ve seen that NI has announced that all their online learning is available for free until the end of April: https://learn.ni.com/training
• There was an excellent book released recently 🙂 https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Richard-Jennings/LabVIEW-Graphical-Programming-Fifth-Edition/24023115
• Nicola Bavarone (thanks!) offered the great suggestion of looking at the badges on ni.com (https://learn.ni.com/badges). I’ve found these good for identifying gaps in my knowledge.

4. Give Back to the Community

Everyone is going to be in a bit of a funk. Wouldn’t a great new open-source tool make everyone feel more positive? Or perhaps try some teaching yourself. Recording some videos and put them on youtube to share your expertise.

What do you do that I’ve missed?