Working in tech is awesome, especially as a software developer.
The opportunity to build amazing products, being paid to learn and working with very smart colleagues are just some of the reasons why this profession is so rewarding.
However, software engineering isn’t always a walk in the park. Tight deadlines, adjusting to remote work, fixing major outages and generally, the velocity of the tech industry are some factors that can cause you stress as a developer. Therefore, it’s important to look after yourself and create simple, daily rituals that support a healthy working routine.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day on October the 10th, we asked our software engineers on how they take care of their mental wellbeing.
Here’s what they said
1. Fresh air
Our interim VP of Engineering swears by fresh air and regular doses of sunshine; living in Hamburg means that biking to work or going for a lunchtime stroll around the Alster is easy to integrate into your daily routine.
2. Meditation
Some of us have trouble not thinking about things, so meditation can help you put things into perspective and arrive in the current moment rather than being swept away by thought.
3. The Pomodoro Technique
This technique focuses on working in 25 minute sessions throughout the day.
This can be helpful for focussing efficiently and it encourages you to take regular breaks so that you avoid sitting for hours and hours without moving, drinking water or looking away from your computer screen.
4. Connect with colleagues
At Taxdoo, we encourage everyone to set up or attend ‘Donuts’ (informal online meetings), regardless of department.
Catching up with a colleague over a random Donut or setting up a Developer Donut is a great way to get to know your colleagues and helps you to feel connected and part of a team.
5. Take a break
Coding is awesome and the feeling of completing a task is great, however rest is also important. Why not use your lunch break to talk a walk around the block? You might be surprised at how refreshed you feel.
6. Find a job you love
We all spend a lot of time at work, so it is important to feel comfortable and motivated by your tasks, colleagues and environment.
How do you look after your mental health as a developer?
Today is World Youth Skills Day so we want to celebrate young people’s access to training and career opportunities by providing some inspiration for anyone interested in working in tech.
We asked our developers, product managers and even our CEO about the resources that sparked their interest in tech and helped to hone their skills; here are their recommendations.
Practise this
If you have 30 minutes a day, try completing a few exercises on FreeCodeCamp. This is a great way to learn to code in bitesize amounts of time.
Try this
A good starting point are the Hello World courses on Codecademy, which helps with learning tooling set-up and understanding how things work in that language. You can also test your knowledge by modifying the code and adding other statements.
Get stuck into this
A slightly more advanced course for learning frontend development is ToDoMVC, which also has a lot of other examples for each tech stack.
Build this
Learning by doing is the best method which this C# Unity Game 3D course from gamedev.tv definitely will help you to do so.
Read this
Clean Code is the classic book written by Uncle Bob, otherwise known as Robert Cecil Martin, who epitomizes the concept of clean code. From a product perspective, check out Lean Product Playbook.
Watch this
Silicon Valley (HBO)
our co-founder, Matthias Allmendinger, recommends this series as it sparked the entrepreneurial spirit that brought Taxdoo to life.
Eat this
Sushi. Ok, just kidding. Although our developers do love a good Bento box, feel free to pick your favourite brain food for learning to code. Happy hacking doesn’t happen on an empty stomach!
We hope this list was helpful! It is, of course, by no means complete- what else would you recommend for budding developers
