spec-obs

I've taken to relying on just my memory and then use a calendar to sketch out into blocks what I will work on for the day (just mark them as free so if someone has something important they can see those slots as available). I do this at the end of each day, ready for the next day. These then go alongside scheduled events (meetings / appointments etc). I settled on this after messing around with todo apps, todo.txt, spreadsheets, pens and paper, org mode, post it notes, etc etc.

If you just trust in your own mind, it will manage priority for you and get better the more you trust it. You rarely forget important things (they have an immediate need and make it known). Small stuff just mentally shuffles themselves to the back of the mind, if a few fall off the table, it's not going to cause any significant impact.

Doing this removes all the guilt of having big lists that need daily attention (where you feel you need a todo list to manage your todo list). This way I know I am tackling the important things, which are also what make me feel better as I know I have made an impact on my day. I am not going to start / end the day with a list of everything I have not done yet.

This feels like a much more human experience to me. As they say 'don't sweat the small stuff'

..if you live long enough to set it up.

This is not happening for me, but then again I am doing zero to market myself, so that' not a complaint. I would have thought I would have a few headhunters after me , oh well :(

As a RH'er who has started to see a creep in contact coming from IBM'ers the past few days have been very peaceful.

This is my concern. This could end up generating great swathes of code that no one understands, so that when it breaks it takes much longer to fix.

I would be up for that, if said society did not leave us destitute as a result

I don't know if this helps you (hope it does), but I won't assume what fixed me has to fix you.

I was in just the same position. I adored programming and built my life and self-esteem around my achievements in coding, but I ended up depressed and feeling isolated. My health was also not ideal and I could see issues on the horizon stemming from a poor diet and sitting hunched up in front of a monitor for most of my working hours.

Upon recommendations of family, I joined a gym. I freaking hated it and felt like a fish out of water. I lasted about 10 days and then bailed out.

My small stint trying a gym had left me with a pair of running shoes. So I decided I would try and go out and run early on a Sunday morning around the block near my house. This way if I needed to stop and walk I could do so. Turns out I did in fact stop and walk (quite early on), but I managed to get around the block twice.

I then tried again the next day, and it was much of the same, however something magical happened. My very poor attempt at running became gamified. I hit the internet and started reading up on how to get better at running and then all of a sudden a whole world opened up around the technicalities of running. After just a week or two I started to see improvement from tracking on smart watch. Weeks then turned into months and I started to improve, my weight started to drop and I felt my confidence build. For me personally running worked great for my depression.

It then all escalated from there. I did a park run, met other runners and started to become part of a running community. Now I have so many friends through running its unreal. My career choice is also paying off hugely as WFH as a developer means I get to really manage my time around running out on the trials.