Dealing with Developer Perturbation
It is highly likely that being a developer, you faced or still facing some sort of anxiety, perturbation or hysteria. Its nearly unavoidable (unless taken care of deliberately).
A lot of scenarios can push you towards this feeling including but not limited to working in a team, collaborating with a client, or someone questioning your output which you are unable to explain or justify. My aim to write this article is to help you with whatever I’ve done to handle this issue (in a summary), so let’s dive in!
Practice to Write ’n’ Act
It’s human nature to see things out of proportion. If you feel overwhelmed by being too busy, you will naturally amplify that feeling in your head, which will cause further spiral. Counter that by writing down the essential and achieving it. That feeling of progress also releases dopamine (it makes you feel good) and prompts you to push yourself a little harder to be more productive.
Improve the way you Communicate
Being in a collaborative environment, you are always required to communicate mostly through Emails or Messages.
Written communication is usually short and precise but it DOES contain a tone with every message you are sending. Your intention might be different but our brains don’t read messages the same way. We’ll read that message as if it was in a conversation and, generally, a short response is indicative of a negative emotion.
“Send me that file” comes across as far more aggressive than “Hey Bud, would you mind please sending me that file we spoke about?”.
Focus on your content rather than the message. Too many people develop a negative opinion of others because of a poor communication infrastructure and reading negative tones where there were none.
Keep your Response Speed low
Think n-times before you respond to a query! This issue creates a lot of anxiety for the developers as they are usually quick in responding and doesn’t take into account the repercussions that might happen due to an unwanted response.
When replying to any query by your client, management or even your colleague, you always have two scenarios: You know the answer or you don’t.
If you know the answer then simply take a moment to formulate your response and then clearly answer their question. No need to ramble or go on. They asked a question and you’re giving an answer. If they ask you to expand, then that’s another question and you can then dive deeper with your answer.
If you don’t know the answer, be honest. Don’t thumb suck or make something up. That never works and only backfires. Rather offer the response, “I don’t actually know the answer to that offhand but give me some time to go do some research and I’ll get back to you ASAP”.
Most people are reasonable and would accept this answer because:
- It shows honesty and humility in your knowledge
- It shows taking initiative to go out of the way to provide an answer
Take Regular Breaks
Devs do not take this seriously at all! You aren’t a machine and you need a break to get out of your lockstep. Try scheduling breaks in alignment with your team even if you just stay at home but stay away from screen.
Give Pair Programming a go
The simplest way to avoid stress or anxiety while coding is to pair up with another developer.
Extreme Programming focuses on the concept of Pair Programming to develop high quality stress-free code. While pairing up, your code gets reviewed on the spot which saves you from the regular cycle of getting reviewed at a later point and a larger audience may get to know about your shortcomings which sometimes results in increased anxiety and stress.
To read more about Pair Programming, please go ahead and read this article.
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Hopefully you’ve found these insights valuable and you’ll be able to use them to help calm any potential anxiety and ensure that you’re performing as a great developer.
See you in the next article!
Disclaimer:
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