Rules to become a calm developer

Tips for improving your software development game.

Being into software development means daily hassle with bugs, unexcepted client requests, meetings, tight deadlines, and a work-life balance conundrum.

So the real question that every software developer should ask himself/herself is how to maintain the sanity of mind in all these day-to-day jugglings?

After 3 years into software development, I developed some rules for myself to tackle the rough world and it is now more than 8 years and these rules are the only silver lining that keeps me going.

1. Accept the truth

The first thing every developer should do is to accept the bitter truth of the software development field that no matter how good you are, there will always be someone who will be less deserving than you or maybe more talented than you who will get better pay or better image in front of the manager. All you need to do is to focus on yourself, give your 100% to your job as you normally would. Down the line, you will get what you deserve.

2. Constant learning is the key

I think we all can agree that Software development is the field in which if you are not keeping yourself up to date with technology, you will be outdated very soon. So always focus on learning things while completing your assigned task, don’t just copy-paste but learn how and why things are working. Reading the documentation, doing little-bit research is never going to hurt you. If something goes sideways, you should be able to adapt. Keep learning and improving your skills while doing your day-to-day sprint tasks.

3. Don’t hassle too much

There will be times when things will not work, you’re gonna be stuck in the second gear, code will not compile, the root cause of the bug won’t be visible, production will be down, the client will escalate bugs, but that doesn't mean the end of the world, all you need is a break. Sometimes we hassle too much and get stuck in an infinite loop of not getting to the solution, then just break, take a break(coffee/tea/snack/call a friend/reach out to someone you trust/talk to others) and then come back with a fresh mind.

while(solution_not_found){
 if(mind_is_stuck) break;
 find_solution();
}

4. Help others

If your seniors were mean to you, that doesn’t mean, that you also have to be mean to your colleagues or juniors. Always help others within the limits, it will help you to build a good reputation in the team, and in need, you will also get help back.

5. Excercise daily

It is the last one but the most important one. If you like walking, go for a walk daily, if you like jogging, go for a jog daily, if you like the gym, go to the gym daily. In my case, I go for a run daily in the morning that not only motivates me for a fresh new day but also calms me.

Last Words

These are some rules that I follow in my day-to-day development and which help me maintain my sanity. I hope you can grab some points from this article and it also helps you the way it did to me.