Summary

• The environment also includes the Body

• Physical Hard

• Electronic Soft

• Bodily Body

• Just as you are meticulous about the settings and maintenance of Hard and Soft, it’s better to pay attention to the Body as well.

• Those who neglect their Body are like people using Hard and Soft at their default settings, missing out on many opportunities.

• I’ve developed a framework so that even engineers can focus on Body Environment, and I’ll give you a quick preview.

Background

The importance of focusing on the environment should be clear if you’re an engineer

Hard Environment refers to physical surroundings such as an office, home, desk, or network.

Soft Environment refers to electronic settings such as OS configurations, software and its settings, development environments, and production environments.

Both are important, and I assume you’ve already been optimizing their settings. You may not always focus on them, but you certainly do when necessary. At the very least, being indifferent is not an option.

There is another environment that tends to be overlooked

However, there is another environment that is often neglected for some reason.

Body Environment refers to your bodily setting.

...Many of you might have just thought, "Ugh." Yes, for some reason, Body Environment is often overlooked.

Neglecting the Body Environment leads to missed opportunities

I believe that engineers—especially because we are engineers—should also pay attention to the Body Environment.

Those who aren’t particular about Hard Environment use cheap chairs, desks, and keyboards. Those who aren’t particular about Soft Environment use the OS and software in their default settings. You can easily imagine the loss caused by such indifference.

It’s not that I’m saying you absolutely must be particular; we’re talking about engineers. Working with high-level tasks in engineering means it’s probably better to pay attention.

Similarly, those neglecting the Body Environment are also missing out on various advantages. It’s such a waste. I even want to deal with Body Environment as part of my DevEx and DevRel efforts.

Body Environment Engineering

Therefore, I’ve developed a framework.

Body Environment Engineering is viewing the Body Environment through an engineering lens. We prepare theories and tools for us engineers—developers and managers alike—to focus on the Body Environment.

The following sections will provide a brief dive into Body Environment Engineering. You’ll learn about the approaches and concepts that can help you pay attention to your Body Environment.

The Essence of Body Environment is Constant Care

Let’s start by summarizing the essence of Body Environment. We’ll compare with other environments, all unified as CC.

• The essence of Hard Environment is Capital Configuration

• Specifically acquiring and setting up physical items

• It involves physical tasks and requires a certain space, so it’s tough until it’s all set up, but once ready, it lasts until it breaks

• You must secure physical space and get used to physical tasks

• The essence of Soft Environment is Continuous Customization

• It’s your fate to continuously customize from OS to software settings and usage

• There’s a culture of trying new tools and settings actively

• At the very least, you’ll be involved with updates

• Being able to embrace continuous customization can be a turning point in establishing yourself as an engineer

• The essence of Body Environment is Constant Care

• You need to replenish regularly

• Examples: hydration, meals, sleep, breaks

• Human physiology is rhythmical, so stabilizing rhythm is crucial. Thus, replenishing regularly, ideally constantly, is best

In a Hard Environment, physical space and skill are needed. In a Soft Environment, adapting to the endeavor of continuous customization is necessary. Similarly, in a Body Environment, constant self-maintenance is required.

Approaches to the Body Environment

Finally, I’ll introduce some approaches to focusing on the Body Environment.

Visualize and Monitor Health Status

• How: Measure factors governing health
• Why: To identify factors when you’re in good or poor condition

Just like with systems or projects, it’s beneficial for the Body Environment to be data-driven. Specifically, measure factors that govern your health.

Examples:

• Sleep hours
• Time spent under the sun
• Fluid intake (monitoring water bottles or cup usage)
• Meal timings
• Caffeine intake timings
• Timing of exercise exceeding a 20-minute walk

Measurement types include:

• Timestamp
• Count
• Quantity
• y | n

The factors that should be measured depend on the person and situation. If you can define factors well, you can measure health status. You’ll know factors when your condition is bad or good. Once identified, it’s simple—eliminate poor factors and increase good ones.

Incorporate Actions

• How: Design small actions to impact target improvements and validate them

• In development, the flow is design → implementation; in Body Environment Engineering, it’s design → action

• Why: Specific actions are necessary for improving and strengthening the environment

To focus on Hard or Soft Environments, we engineers move our hands daily. To learn a new technology, you probably do the same.

Similarly, you need to take action to improve and strengthen the Body Environment. It borders on life-hacks and self-help domains, but here are examples:

• Increase sleep from 5 to 7 hours by setting up and trying a night routine

• Start a 30-minute morning walk to ensure daily sunlight for more than 30 minutes. Just ensure shoes and attire, and then actually walk

• To measure fluid intake, buy a bottle and unify drinks to barley tea (anything without toxic or caffeine is fine)

• Barley tea is a popular non-caffeine tea in Asia, known for being easy to obtain. Personal preference varies, and I prefer Rooibos tea

• Procure or develop a tool for SNS detox and apply it

The challenge is how to regularly perform such actions, but we’ll use robotization, discussed later.

Robotization

• How to apply job scheduling like cron to oneself
• Why: Because constant maintenance of the Body Environment is optimal

Robotization refers to establishing systems or skills that allow certain actions to be performed regularly. It’s the most crucial concept in Body Environment Engineering. Some engineers may have set up cron or other job/task schedulers. This is the human version.

Key approaches include habituation, streamlining, daily routine, and dynamic reminders.

• Habituation

• As the word suggests, it’s about habits

• Aim for a level where your body moves automatically

• Requires strict training; usually needs external enforcement

• Streamlining

• Here, “streamline” means places frequently seen every day

• If you can secure such a place, whether physically or electronically, by placing instructions on the streamline, you’ll notice them → execute them, a system that will take shape

• Daily Routine

• A daily routine means "something you need to do every day but can be done anytime"

• For those whom habits and streamlining don’t suit, a daily routine could work

• There are various ways. You can simply make a list, or I previously suggested Continuous Reminding

• Dynamic Remind

• Refers to something with reminder functionality, though not as strict as reminder apps

• ≈ a person

• In essence, if you tell a colleague or roommate, they might remind you!

Depending on the person and situation, what suits best varies, so find an effective way.

Avoiding and Eliminating Toxins

• How: Address the root cause or set up “detox periods”
• Why: Since toxins harm the body and can’t be immediately eliminated, they must be reduced or removed over time

We, engineers, know the harm of toxins. Brilliant jerks or technical debt won’t ruin us immediately, but long-term, they slowly corrode. However, they can’t be immediately eliminated, requiring routine reduction and removal, right? The same applies to Body Environment.

First, avoiding toxins such as soft drinks, smoking, and alcohol is better. Especially with alcohol, research may fluctuate its pros and cons, but it’s already recognized today as having "no benefit," considered a toxin.

*While some might say it aids in relaxation or mental health, which is factual, I personally believe that being reliant on such substances is undesirable. It’s akin to drug addiction. Would we then condone drugs? It’s a necessary evil and should be a personal choice, but as engineers and professionals, it’s better not to rely on such toxins—I firmly believe that!

Bring these toxins as close to zero as possible. In most cases, you need to reduce or eliminate the root causes of stress. To identify the causes, you must face yourself. Refer to the following articles for retrospection and introspection:

• In-House Production and Introspection - DEV Community
• TIL in the Age of Generative AI: Writing with a Focus on Soft Skills - DEV Community

Then, use detox (set periods with absolutely no exposure) for toxins that accumulate daily. This kind of toxin, if continuously built up, strengthens biases. It decreases tolerance to diversity and may lead to indifference in daily life, resulting in overwork. Therefore, occasional detox is recommended.

Examples:

• Digital Detox

• Spend a day without touching digital devices

• SNS Detox

• Chat Detox

• Abstain from chats like Slack entirely

• Meeting Detox

• Avoid meetings altogether

For engineers, programming detox (abstaining from development or programming entirely) or AI agent detox (not using AI agents at all) can be beneficial.

For detox duration, a minimum of half a day, ideally more than a day, is desirable. Anything shorter isn’t effective.

Defend the Proper Amount of Caffeine

• How: Explore your optimal amount of caffeine and adhere to it
• Why: Caffeine is healthy and a boost if taken in proper amounts, but it becomes toxic if excess. Thus, it’s critical to defend the proper amount

Among toxins, there is only one that you may consume if you adhere to the proper amount: caffeine. I’ll skip the overview and benefits of caffeine, but as long as you don’t overconsume, it can be a reliable ally. I rely on it every morning.

The proper amount of caffeine really varies per person, so you must explore it yourself.

Specifics are as follows:

• Use the same cup daily and pour the same beverage daily

• Then, measure the timing and amount of intake

• Further, explore the threshold not affecting your sleep

• Whether it affected falling asleep adversely

• Whether your sleep duration decreased

Whether it affects your sleep is the key. Reduce frequency and amount until it’s not affected.