Less Coding, More Planning

Lately, at work, the tasks I’ve taken on have been less about creating and more about organizing.

I’ve been working more with lists, and writing/creating JIRA tickets (as opposed to working on them). I’ve also broken out Omnifocus again, as I’m less able to track everything just in my head. Getting things down on paper definitely helps, and also frees up some much needed brain space.

My boss Sajit is out for a few weeks on vacation, and the whole team has been working to cover the myriad tasks that he would normally handle. For my part, I’ve gotten more meetings added to my calendar, and have gotten more involved with our weekly deployments.

It’s all good stuff, and I feel like we’re all doing a strong job of ensuring that work is done, priorities aren’t missed, and we’re moving right along. For me though, it’s been an interesting struggle to balance the actual work I have (and should) be doing, against things that are a bit intangible – planning, organizing, reviewing work in progress or to be done.

The days have felt busier, and I’ve felt like I’ve gotten less actual work done. Which in some ways is to be expected. But it feels less great when a day ends and I walk home feeling like I haven’t gotten anything finished.

I take some small comfort in the fact that it feels like I’ve gotten a little better at managing my time. Still a long ways to go there but I feel like my juggling abilities are, ever so slowly, improving.

[Photo via Glenn Carstens-Peters]

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