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How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

andreizgirvaci.com

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Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#11

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

Is your manager or anyone else in the team harassing you?

If not, then your anxiety might come from an expectation that you must love every part of your job. Use something like pomodoro (this is simple and works: https://brainpls.work/) to do one task at a time. Once your work day is over, go do something you enjoy.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#13
You have to fill up your cup before you can fill others. Perfectionists are well known to hardly ask for help and in life that's the catalyst for being able to make more time for yourself.

Say no to more things. Spend more time on finding out more about yourself. Start to understand your emotions around the constant trauma you're living through and have lived through.

You don't need to pay somebody $150 for this advice. Go pick up any well known book on stress, trauma, etc and it'll start to make sense.

Here's some to start:

- The Stress of Life

- The Body Keeps the Score

- When The Body Says No / The Myth of Normal

- The Drama of the Gifted Child

- The Courage to Be

- Awakening the Soul

You can also read ancient mythology, philosophy, or religious texts which will repeat familiar stories that help you ponder a deeper sense of purpose. There's many ways to get closer to your soul.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#14

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

I'm on the other side of the slump you're in. Also a career switcher over 30. I stuck it out in the same job because I had a lot of other stuff to work on in life and wanted to make use of my health insurance. And over time it got better, even though I still wanted to leave often, mostly because my skill level and confidence rose and I could more easily say "no".

But honestly, take a little bit of time every week, even if it's just 1hr a week, to start looking for a new job. There are better workplaces. And if you start interviewing now as much as you can stand, you'll be ready when you get a chance to actually jump into something better.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#15
Personally I think most of my depression comes down to not getting any joy out of my job as a dev and just doing it to pay the bills ... at then end of the day it's so draining that I have no energy left to work on personal projects, the current job market is not helping either to jump ship elsewhere

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#16

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

Nobody loves a job where people constantly make bad decisions(or decisions you're not involved in) and you don't feel like you're doing the right thing(when you could be).

You're morally hijacked. That's no way to live a working life.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#17
post #14

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

I'm on the other side of the slump you're in. Also a career switcher over 30. I stuck it out in the same job because I had a lot of other stuff to work on in life and wanted to make use of my health insurance. And over time it got better, even though I still wanted to leave often, mostly because my skill level and confidence rose and I could more easily say "no". But honestly, take a little bit of time every week, ev…

> wanted to make use of my health insurance

This is the root of a lot of emotional problems for employees in the USA.

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#18

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

Obviously I don't have the details of your situation, but using terms like love or hate my job are a warning sign.

First, I would advice to stop using the love your job mental model. Instead look into the concept of "Career Capital" from So good they can't ignore you.

Second, here is another mental framework and exercise that I recommend to my mentees. Rather than thinking about job satisfaction as a line between "love" and "hate", think of it as a measure in a multidimensional space. Maybe you work with cool tech, but the commute is killing you. Maybe you have tons of fun with you colleagues, but it pays way below market.

Every day write down your mood, and what caused that mood. Maybe you are angry because of a bad interaction with your boss. Maybe you are unhappy because Tim got the new cool project again and you are stuck doing grunt work. Maybe you had fun when you went out for lunch with your team.

Once you have enough data points you can start observing patterns. I find people hardly ever completely hate every single aspect of their jobs. Most often there is a few factors driving the dissatisfaction, that paint the whole experience badly.

Then you can decide what step to take next to improve on those points. Some actions might include doing things differently in your current position, change teams or change companies (it hardly ever comes down to changing careers).

You might be thinking that this is a very long winded way of telling you to change jobs, but the self reflection step is important. I've seen people change jobs because they were unhappy, just to be unhappy in their next job. Often the reason is that they misinterpreted the reason of their unhappiness. Without that awareness they are bound to find themselves in the same situations over and over.

As a side note this isn't a replacement for help with anxiety and despair. If needed be look for professional help. Best of luck.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Good-They-Cant-Ignore-You/dp/14555091...

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#19

> "Today, I am excited to announce my 4-week daily guided program, The Anxious Developer Program!" > "You can join our waitlist now, to be the first one to know when the pre-sale begins" Talking about FOMO anxiety then announcing a pre-sale discount to your anxiety course is a kind of a bad look.

you feel betrayed because he played on your emotions to promote his product ? yet that's how most of ads/marketing works

Re: How to reduce stress and overcome anxiety as a software developer

#20

As a junior, I started out loving my job. Then the bad decisions from management started and I started to love my job less, I still woke up with some excitement. 2 and a half years later: today what I do has more to do with pressure and deadlines than with learning and/or doing the right thing. Today, I find it unsustainable to work 8 hours a day, I've come to hate what I do, I can't imagine looking for another job d…

Verbalizing and doing so publicly is already an immense step.

You told us what you dislike but what would you personally prefer ? is it only a manager level issue or maybe there are problems in how the team works ?

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