As all web developers know, web development is sometimes very stressful. Hours of looking at code, trouble shooting, customising… the list goes on… can affect your sleep, eating habits and your ability to complete the work successfully.
Taking regular breaks to fuel your concentration is critical to your success, but sometimes you just need to step back and relax and revisit the code tomorrow.
Clearing your mind of everything and refreshing your body ready for the next days coding makes sure that your work-life balance is equal.
Here are our tips for developing websites whilst managing stress and approaching each project with a clear mind:
- Exercise is great to free your mind of all those coding problems. Mountain biking, night-skiing, running, jogging, rowing, swimming etc will prepare your body for the next day.
- Cleaning your workspace, vacuum the office/study and dust the tops will prepare your office for a clean start the next morning.
- Gaming on your XBOX/Playstation/Wii console. Mindless beat em’ ups, driving round in circles or FIFA are great stress relieving games.
- Treat the partner to a meal somewhere, or just go to the nearest drive-thru. Giving someone else attention lets you forget about work for a while.
- Have a bath or shower and prepare yourself for the next day.
- Go to a sports event – going to a football/soccer, rugby or ice hockey match will involve your mind in the field of play, forgetting your code and work for a while.
These are just some of the activities that work for us, however it’s important that you know how you can wind-down from a day in front of the monitor.
Sometimes these activities can be done throughout the day to control stress, such as at lunch times or during breaks, and getting the balance right will help your productivity and your accuracy in producing great work.
Not getting the balance right, grabbing food when you can, not doing exercise and not relaxing can lead to all kinds of side effects, including:
- Weight gain or unhealthy weight loss
- Moods and attitudes that sometimes come out in e-mail and phone conversations, which is not at all professional
- Lack of sleep because your mind is too busy thinking of your work
- Stubbornness and ignorance towards other people and an inability to speak to people
- Headaches and eye problems from staring at the monitor too long.
We’re not doctors, nor psychologists, but hopefully some of these tips will help your work-life balance.
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