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Discussion on: Go Home: 4 Techniques That Help You To Leave Work At Work

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katieadamsdev profile image
Katie Adams • Edited

Wow okay. Fantastic call-out piece.

Facebook reporting meme saying 'I'm in this photo and I don't like it'

The other half came home at 2am once to find me asleep on the keyboard with compiler errors on-screen. Whoops!

However, your points are completely valid. I love the idea that drinking more water encourages you to get up. A win-win!

Furthering your idea of emailing notes to yourself, however, I recently read another article about tracking progress that was incredibly helpful.


As well as helping you to remember where you left off and notate any ideas for solutions, it also offers a backlog of progress reports. Not only do you get better confidence in your own programming abilities - lessening the impact of 'Imposter Syndrome' for those affected by it - but also it reinforces the point you made about 'having gratitude for what you've accomplished'. You'll be able to leaf through weeks of progress reports and logs to remind yourself of all the brilliant code you've written already.

Definitely between your article and the aforementioned one, I'm gaining a new outlook for how I approach my own programming.

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cubiclebuddha profile image
Cubicle Buddha

Wow that was really interesting that you would share that logging article. One of my future article focuses on gratitude journaling which (I’m sure you’re already familiar with so forgive me) is a mindfulness technique that is known to help people remain aware of the present moment and get more centered. So that seems like a good overlap with the progress tracking article. I think the only thing that concerns me about progress logs is the hyper-focused notion that we ”need to improve.” I think I finally became a good developer when I learned to love myself for the skills that I have. Self care is important. And I’m glad you’re working through your imposter syndrome. It can be tough.

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katieadamsdev profile image
Katie Adams

Totally agree with everything you've said there. However, if I could counter your "need to improve" comment, I'd simply say that whilst I 100% agree that too much ambition has a negative effect, a couple of achievements here and there is good for the soul. Good programmers should be able to balance a desire for progress with their ability to step back and appreciate their current skills. That being said, I think balancing that is much easier once you've mastered the mindfulness techniques you mention in your article. Learn to walk before you can run. Thank you for your support. :)

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cubiclebuddha profile image
Cubicle Buddha

Yup, you nailed. It’s all about balance. :)