Laravel 11.17, weekly updates, and 🔥 tip

Laravel 11.17

Yesterday Laravel 11.17 was released. Here are some highlights:

  • Support setting etag cache header in 75d7b47
  • Improve accuracy of isEmpty and isNotEmpty Collection assertions in #52184
  • Improve readability of SQLite schema dumps in #52172
  • Add HasCollection trait for models in #52171
  • Add whereLike to query builder in #52147
  • Implement HasVersion7Uuids to use with MariaDB native uuid data type in #52029
  • Allow microsecond time travel in #52190
  • Add QueryExecuted::toRawSql() in #52192

You may review the full branch diff on GitHub for a complete list of changes.

This version bump and update is automated for subscribers to a Shifty Plan. If you don't have one of those, be sure to bump your constraint and run composer update to get the latest features.

Weekly Journal

Last week I did a series of live streams updating an old client app from Laravel 7 to Laravel 11. In addition, there was another Human Shift which came in to upgrade from Laravel 8.

I finished both of those up over the weekend. As always, I started this week off tweaking Shift after dogfooding my own service. There were a few of note. I will write-up a deep dive for the Shift Blog.

This week I'll do my Wednesday live stream to make another improvement to Shift. With the remainder of the week, I'm planning to update those Shift Videos.

🔥 Tip

I found myself avoiding work yesterday. When I'm struggling to get started, I like to do a little reverse Fibonacci sequence.

Let's say I have 7 tasks I want to complete. That might feel like a lot.

What I do is order the tasks from easiest to hardest. Then I chunk them into groups of 3, 2, 1, 1.

I do a micro-sprint to complete the first group of 3 easy tasks. Then I reward myself with a break. Maybe I get a snack, surf the web, or some bit of quick fun.

If I'm still struggling, well, it's just 2 tasks next time. Then another break.

By the single tasks, I normally have some momentum. Even if not, it's just 1 task to complete. Sure it's a little harder. But I can grit through 1 task.

If I was still struggling, I'm not by the end. At that point, it's just one more task and everything is done.

Anyway, just something I do sometimes. Feel free to try next time you're struggling to start your todo list.