Seasons, Injuries, and Rainy Days
Rainy Days
Some places have more rain than others. Some cities or regions have rainy seasons; one way or
another, rain will happen. Either because it is in the season or because the players are traveling to
play, and there is rain where they are right now.
Considering software engineering rainy days for me, it's like one of these everyday moments:
● Having personal issues
● Having health issues or in the family
● A significant event is happening: marriage, baby, move, etc...
Often, people don't have control over these events, and that's fine; some of these things happen. Now
The question is how we will deal with them.
Taking time off is a good way to handle such problems. Another good technique is to manage your
time well and stay very organized. The more organized you are, the more you get it done, and the less
effort it takes.
Long Seasons
One non-obvious thing people don't realize is that sports players play very long seasons. For instance,
consider 1 year(365 days) here is some data:
● Football In South America: 70~ matches/year + 300 training days
● Football In Europe: 70~ matchers/year + 330 training days
● Basketball In NBA: 90~ matchers/year + 150-200 training days
As you can see, it's a lot. High performance requires a lot of dedication. Such dedication has a regular
price, close to the end of the year, you are tired, that's why it's essential to:
● Take vacations of 2-3 weeks minimum per semester.
● Take small periods of time off (1-2 days to time), i.e, a couple of Fridays here and there.
● Make sure you are getting proper rest, proper sleeping, and proper time doing nothing.
● Make sure you get family time; it helps to cool down and chill.
Make sure you can negotiate: sometimes you need to say NO!. Other times, you need to
negotiate to have more time to get something done, and other times, you need to delegate.
There are two kinds of vacations: vacations where we go out and do a bunch of things, i.e, Visit
Disneyland is excellent, but you might be exhausted from that vacation. There is a second kind
of vacation: you go to a beach and chill, or stay at home and do nothing but rest. You must make sure
you are also getting the second type.
Injuries
High-performance teams are taking the maximum out of every single player, and it's normal to be
injured and things happen. Engineers get hurt too often; they call it "burnout," but it's the same
principle. There is a big difference between a player at the normal high-performance peak and one
who is injured. It's not really the same results, and that is okay. How does that happen in software?
Due to a variety of reasons:
● Long projects with tight deadlines
● Too many bugs or incidents in production
● Understaffing and not having enough people to handle the workload
Some of these causes are not causes that an engineer can fix by himself, but he can do the following
to improve:
● Control over estimates: Don't let others estimate for you, add some buffers, make sure the
estimate is reasonable, and you account for "unknowns and uncertainties".
● Sometimes you can't say no, but several times you can; learn to say no and to negotiate above
all.
● Take time off: Vacations and breaks of 1-2 days at a time can help a lot.
Keep in mind that injuries will pass. It could also be the fact that you are causing the injury to yourself
by:
● Working too much
● Not delegating enough
● Not taking breaks and vacations.
● Being in a snowball
Snowball effect
When problems compound over time, you are in a bad cycle: you don't fix the issues you have, and
more problems arrive. If such a thing is helping you, you need external help.
Talk to your coach, mentor, or leader to get help:
● Understand what you are doing, what you are behind, and work out a plan to fix it—to catch up.
● See what can be negotiated and postponed, or even dropped.
● See what it can be delegated.
● See what the mistakes are and how we can prevent them from happening again (drive lessons
learned)
Asking for help is not a problem; it must happen when things get harder.
Back to Seasons
Winter is not forever. Everything passes in life; the thing is to learn how to handle and find better ways
to handle it. Thats how we grow; that's how we better equip ourselves to deal with situations that will
repeat forever until we master how to handle them.
No matter what company you work for, you will get long seasons, rainy days, and injuries; it's just a
matter of time. There is no escape. We should learn how to better deal with them and make better
decisions.
Take a look at this video by Ray Dailo (amazing book BTW)
Cheers,
Diego Pacheco
