Clean sheet problem

One of the most common problems among writers, journalists, and other “pen workers” is the problem of “clean slate”. This is when you need to write something, but all that is currently available is a blank page. On which you need to start writing something. Thoughts, it seems, are there, and there is time too, but it is difficult to write the first word, sentence. It seems that they will determine the entire subsequent text, immediately and directly affect the quality of the result. And therefore it is scary to write them.

For programmers, the problem of “clean slate” looks different. Here you come to work in the morning. Yesterday was a difficult, busy day. You have done a lot, with the last bug I understood an hour and a half after the end of the official working day - but it had to be done! After all, your product is made on high-quality modern processes, it has the obligatory nightly builds and it was very important to fix the bug in time so that today testers could work with the new version of the product. You had time yesterday, you did a good job, the assembly was successful - and this is the most important thing. After all, screwing up the assembly through your fault is a shame.
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But this morning - everything seems to be calm. Yesterday's bug is closed, the product is going fine. You turn on the computer, log in - and before you "clean sheet". Yes, there are still a lot of tasks, but at the moment you have not started any of them yet. Pulls read mail check news. You are not yet "in context" of work. That's when you start working - then just hold on! But still not started. Well and further standard “Habr, news, the friend threw off the link to the ridiculous video, it is necessary to drink tea, oh dinner already soon“, etc.

What to do?


Everything is very simple. If the problem of a clean slate is, it means that it is necessary that there should not be this clean slate upon arrival at work. Yes, to screw up the night assembly is bad. Yes, there should be a working, compiled code in the repository. But on your own computer, the programmer is free to do anything! Technical progress has given us version control systems, which means that we can create any chaos that is convenient for us locally, if it helps us to be more productive - why not?

My thought is very simple. With the same forces and dedication with which we try to bring the code in the repository to working state before leaving work, one more thing needs to be done - to bring the project code on your personal computer to BROKEN state.

You know about what you do tomorrow? Start it today. No, I do not ask you to stay longer after work! Spend 30 seconds on this. Start a task today with a minimum of effort. Is there a bug in the product? Great, run it under the debugger and stop at breakpoint in the suspicious method. No bugs, but there is a new problem? Ok, write in any suitable place the prototype of the interface \ class \ method that will solve it. Do not try at the end of the working day to think too much about how to do it well and correctly. You will not succeed. Moreover, the worse you do it, the better. The code should not compile. Run the build, get a compiler error message, highlight it with the cursor - and go home.

Do not turn off the computer, that a couple of hundred watts of electric power, which he eats during the night, are not worth the hours that you save on "entry into the stream."

And now look what will happen tomorrow. You come to work. Turn on the monitor (login) - and you no longer have a “clean slate”! You have a bug or a problem ALREADY IN THE PROCESS OF WORK ON IT. Something has already been done, there is already some progress. Not only a programmer will be able to minimize the IDE window with a non-compiled project with a pure soul and go to watch pictures with cats and videos with a funny falling poodle. A breakpoint debugger is an even more stimulating thing - you can see the value of this variable right now, so what will return this function and more ... Look, you are already at work! There is no rocking, no “drinking tea”, no news and jokes. 30 seconds after the start of the working day, you are already in the context of the current task. It is possible that by lunchtime you will finish it, and then after lunch it will be possible to start the next one. More will be done in a day, time will be spent more efficiently.

And at the end of the working day the most important thing is not to forget to break the whole project to hell again.