Does anyone track their stress levels whilst programming?
Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management.
It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern.
Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off once I solved a problem.
Essentially a dopamine - serotonin feedback loop all day every day.
My stress now is generally a more flat and smooth line.
I often thought it would have been interesting to actually track it using a medical device but was unsure if anything like that even exists.
I’ve been trying to improve my mindset when coding. I find myself worrying about solving the problem correctly, and I’m trying to change that so my focus is more on slow,
correct practice. Easier said than done, but the idea is that it will be less stressful and reduce the frustration peaks you mentioned
Anecdotally and non-scientifically I’ve noticed that my health (stress related illness) has vastly reduced since moving from being a staff engineer to engineering management.
It’s not that I’m less stressed but the stress is a different pattern.
Whilst programming I noticed that my day was a series of spikes of frustration and stress and then a severe drop off once I solved a problem.
Essentially a dopamine - serotonin feedback loop all day every day.
My stress now is generally a more flat and smooth line.
I often thought it would have been interesting to actually track it using a medical device but was unsure if anything like that even exists.
I’ve been trying to improve my mindset when coding. I find myself worrying about solving the problem correctly, and I’m trying to change that so my focus is more on slow, correct practice. Easier said than done, but the idea is that it will be less stressful and reduce the frustration peaks you mentioned