Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 224. Tips For Making Your Job Less Stressful

Transcript

224. Tips For Making Your Job Less Stressful · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Work can be stressful.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Being a software developer with a whole business depending on you writing good code, while in a work environment where the company is struggling and layoffs are possible, while in an economy where everything is getting more expensive, that can all really increase those stress levels.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, how can we cope with all this stress and even thrive in this type of environment?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we're going to talk about in today's episode of Dev Questions.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: Software development is more than just about writing good code.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about the rest of it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Specifically, let's talk about how to reduce or overcome stress.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, work to control what you can control and then let go of what you can't control.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, if you've done your best, that's all you can do.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And worrying about things that are outside of your control only makes it worse.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're doing your best at your job and you're not sure if it's good enough or not, well, you do your best.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's all you can control.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so worrying about, oh, you know, what if the boss doesn't like it?
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: What if, what if, what if, is it helping anything?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, yes, it's human nature.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to do it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And something you have to work on and say, I am going to let this go.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because yes, there are things outside of control that will affect you, but your worry isn't going to make it better.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, it may make it worse.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So by worrying, you can become less effective as an employee.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: And less effective at your job means that you might be on the chopping block.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of a self-reinforcing cycle.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: So work to control what you can control and then let go of the rest.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, improve your skill level.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: The more skilled you are, the more options you have.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of those things that at some point in my career just kind of clicked.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because there was a point in my career where I had worked up my skill level to the point where I realized, oh, I get to start making choices about which company I work for.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I get to make a choice if I stay in this situation or if I leave.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And when that happened, I became more relaxed where I was.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Even in a not great situation, sometimes I could be more relaxed because I knew that if I decided this wasn't going to be good long term, I could make a change.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: But that comes with having good skill levels.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: That means improving your skill level over time, improving that experience is really important to your stress levels being reduced.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, and this sounds like it's not even part of software development, but it kind of is.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that's reduce your spending.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: So a lower cost of living means more options in the job market.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: I have taken jobs where I could have gotten paid one to you know, one to two times more than what I was getting paid.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: But the options, the things around the salary, the days off, the work-life balance, the pace you worked at, that was more important to me because I had a lower cost of living.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that allows you to make more choices.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: If you go into debt, and if you have to have the nicest car, or you're doing things that are extra and driving up your credit card bills, or driving up loans, or not paying off loans, that forces you into choices that make it harder to have a good situation at work.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And they're going to add their own stress as well.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: The idea that you have to pay$2,000,$3,000,$4,000 a month that's just going towards loans, well, that puts a weight on you because now you can't take a certain job because it doesn't pay enough, which means you have to be in a job that might pay more but isn't a great situation.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so it just kind of forces you down a certain road.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I want to be clear here, there are some times you can't help but make a decision.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: You can't help but go into debt for something.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm talking about.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: What I'm talking about here is making choices that lead you down into more debt than you need to.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it means not eating as much.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it means not having a brand new car or even a nice car.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it means sharing a car instead of having one per person.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's lots of things you can do to look at what I can change.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It kind of comes back to number one, the work on controlling what you can control.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can't control everything about your expenses.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Some things just happen, medical expenses if you're in the US, you know, unexpected expenses because of injury or unexpected expenses because something broke in your house.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Those things you can't control.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: What you can control is when you're doing extra above that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: Having a lower cost of living really helps you with that.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're making more money now, maybe work on paying down those debts or maybe spend even more time side jobs, whatever.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a couple of videos on that, or a couple of dev question answers on that.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: But take that opportunity to pay down some of those debts.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I did.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I worked a second job doing some consulting work and I paid down some of our bills.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that had multiple positive effects on my career.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: It gave me more people I interacted with.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: It gave me more experience in more areas.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: It allowed me to have a lower cost of living requirement.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it gave me more freedom when it came to getting out of a bad job.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, number four to reduce your stress is identify what causes a stress and work to eliminate what you can.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is one of those times where you have to be realistic and be specific.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: So saying things like, oh, my job causes stress, that's not specific.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's so general that you can't do anything about it except quit.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: So what is it about your job?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: What could you change?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can't change everything, but what could you change to make your job better?
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: And then don't just mask your stress with activities to try and forget the stress.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, whether it's you know, drinking or gaming or overspending.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: All these things are just kind of masks over the stress where you say, well, I'll forget about it for now.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that may be true, but oftentimes what happens is that if you don't have a healthy balance there, what it actually does is it adds more stress because you're just pushing the stress to later and you're kind of piling up the garbage, and someday you have to deal with the garbage.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So don't just mask it, identify the stress areas and see what you can do about eliminating them.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Number five, create stress-reducing patterns in your life.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of getting overwhelming your tasks each morning, for example, plan out the things to do at the end of your day for the next day.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: This has been huge for me because I would get in in the morning and go, oh, what should I do?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: What should I do?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And have some of that analysis, paralysis, and have some time that I just spent trying to figure things out and get back in the groove.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then it feels like the morning is wasted, which just adds more stress because now I've gone through an hour and I haven't gotten anything good done.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, at the end of the day, when you are in the groove, you identify these are the three things I want to do tomorrow morning.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And by doing that, when you come in tomorrow morning, you know exactly what to start with.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And you get right into it and you're able to get things done, clear things off your plate, and that reduces stress.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So another idea is to work in sprints.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for example, the Pomodoro technique, which is where you work for a short period of time, say 15 minutes, and then you take a five-minute break, or maybe it's 30 minutes and a five-minute break.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then you do that over and over again, and then you put an additional 15-minute break in the third one or so.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So you have this opportunity to really focus in on one task and work on it for, let's say, 30 minutes, and then you intentionally get up, you walk out of your out of your cubicle, away from your desk, you get some water, you get a drink, you breathe, you reset, and you take a little bit of a break.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's when you can check Facebook or you can get on your email or whatever it is that's just your you time, and then you get back to it and do the next iteration and so on.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: That can help reduce stress because you are, first of all, getting things done.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: You'll find you actually get things done in a better manner because you're being more focused in that time, but you're also taking the time to get up, to walk around, to get the blood circulating.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, you're actually allowing your body to reset and not get all tight and um and really unhealthy in your attempt to just get stuff done.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, breaks are important.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Another option is to be clear in your time estimates.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Overpromising is a really good way to increase your stress levels.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you say, Oh, I'll get it done in a week.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, will you though?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or is that the best case scenario?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because we know that almost never do you have a best case, which means that you have said either it's gonna be perfect or I'm gonna have stress.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not do that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, be clear about I think this will take a week and a half.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see what I can do to get it done in that time frame.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're leaving the door open for maybe it's gonna be a little bit longer than that, but you've also added in some buffer time.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then if you get it done in a week, people are thrilled.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: No one complains about a task being done too efficiently.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if you get it done on time with some delays, that's okay too.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't take on that stress.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And even if you go over, communicate that and say, hey, you know, I thought about a week and a half, but it looks like I'm gonna have to have another day or two in order to finally wrap this up.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Again, by communicating clearly and by having that open door, you can reduce some of your stress levels.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: The stress is gonna happen.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: In a lot of ways, stress can even be a good thing.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: They found that you know, trees that don't have wind that blow on them that causes stress, they don't have good root systems and they just fall over.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: So having stress in our lives is a way to strengthen us and grow us.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So letting stress overwhelm you, though, is something you need to avoid.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So there's good levels of stress.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: It allows us to grow and allows us to focus, it allows us to think through what are the things I should be doing to be more efficient, to reduce this stress.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's that pain that helps us focus in on what's important, but too much of it can overwhelm you.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you need to avoid that by going through these steps.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so, by following steps, hopefully you can improve your process and reduce the stress in your life.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And as always, I am Tim Corey.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCorey.com and enroll in a course.