I’m a fairly early career dev, my job doesn’t really give me a lot of opportunity to write new code, instead I spend most of my time updating other people’s code, much of which is a legacy rat’s nest. Most of my time on a given story is spent trying to understand the code I’m given, and as I’m reading it I often feel like my eyes start drifting apart, it’s really hard to focus on it and understand the meaning.
The two most helpful things I’ve found are a) diagramming everything out. For that I have a big white board next to my desk, like 15 scattered notebooks and a tablet for onenote. b) my medication.
I was put on Ritalin about a year and a half ago, and (when I remember to take it) the difference is night and day. I wouldn’t say the medication makes the work easier, but it does make me feel motivated to do it and be less distracted even though it’s not work I necessarily want to be doing.
I do feel I should mention since you mentioned having some anxiety issues on other medication that I can end up with the save issue, but I’ve noticed that it only happens if I didn’t eat before taking it, or take it too late in the day to where it’s still fully in effect after I’m done working.
I also absolutely feel you on wanting to refactor everything that doesn’t make sense - it would make life so much easier, but I’m not allowed to do it -_-.
I’m a fairly early career dev, my job doesn’t really give me a lot of opportunity to write new code, instead I spend most of my time updating other people’s code, much of which is a legacy rat’s nest. Most of my time on a given story is spent trying to understand the code I’m given, and as I’m reading it I often feel like my eyes start drifting apart, it’s really hard to focus on it and understand the meaning.
The two most helpful things I’ve found are a) diagramming everything out. For that I have a big white board next to my desk, like 15 scattered notebooks and a tablet for onenote. b) my medication.
I was put on Ritalin about a year and a half ago, and (when I remember to take it) the difference is night and day. I wouldn’t say the medication makes the work easier, but it does make me feel motivated to do it and be less distracted even though it’s not work I necessarily want to be doing.
I do feel I should mention since you mentioned having some anxiety issues on other medication that I can end up with the save issue, but I’ve noticed that it only happens if I didn’t eat before taking it, or take it too late in the day to where it’s still fully in effect after I’m done working.
I also absolutely feel you on wanting to refactor everything that doesn’t make sense - it would make life so much easier, but I’m not allowed to do it -_-.