A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#1

Post by nate » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 3:44 PM UTC

A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken
census.dev

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#2

Post by curo » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 4:29 PM UTC

Similar to this "leave things broken", I like to start the day with some lightweight refactoring. This allows me to pay down technical debt while I warm up my brain to the code.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#3

Post by RockyMcNuts » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

Never stop until you know what you are going to pick up with next.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3021905/hemingways-secret-to-mai...

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#4

Post by throwaway4aday » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 4:37 PM UTC

RockyMcNuts wrote: post #3

Never stop until you know what you are going to pick up with next. https://www.fastcompany.com/3021905/hemingways-secret-to-mai...

Came here to say this, can also be called "leaving a little in the tank"

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#5

Post by Cardinal7167 » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 4:47 PM UTC

RockyMcNuts wrote: post #3

Never stop until you know what you are going to pick up with next. https://www.fastcompany.com/3021905/hemingways-secret-to-mai...

This is the way. I stop working with tests passing but write a context comment on whats to be done next. It’s like flushing my working memory.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#6

Post by JohnFen » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:09 PM UTC

I've been using this "trick" for many years. An old mentor taught it to me, but he called it "park facing downhill". The idea is to leave the workday with the work in a state where there's an obvious and easy task to start the next day with, like parking your car facing downhill so that gravity will get you rolling before the engine is up to speed.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#7

Post by JonChesterfield » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:10 PM UTC

Leaving a test broken that is going to be straightforward to fix does help me pick up the pieces again the next day. A next steps text file helps too.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#8

Post by atentaten » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

I typically use personal "Did do" and "To do" notes to leave myself breadcrumbs as to where I left off and where I should start again.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#9

Post by andorov » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

Hemmingway would leave off writing for the day in the middle of a sentence for the same reason.

Re: A trick to reaching flow: Leave your work broken

#10

Post by bradleybuda » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #6

I've been using this "trick" for many years. An old mentor taught it to me, but he called it "park facing downhill". The idea is to leave the workday with the work in a state where there's an obvious and easy task to start the next day with, like parking your car facing downhill so that gravity will get you rolling before the engine is up to speed.

(author here) "park facing downhill" is an excellent TL;DR - I'm definitely stealing this!