These days of post-pandemic engineering and living have placed needless time-constrained bounties above the heads of designers and developers of software. There is an equestrian-like race to get to states of function before others might do. Requests are made by people higher up on an organizational chart – and often think lightly about what might be required to complete the requested task.
Time. Use it. Cherish it. Take pride in the tasks indeed – making sure to buff away rough edges, double-checking code. Approach the tasks as one might sip a finely brewed cup of tea, or slowly lighting and enjoying a fine hand-made cigar. Give yourself ample time to properly address the task at hand and to craft it rather than quickly produce it.
I have found that when in certain situations, stopping at intervals and addressing clean-up, formatting, and organizational sub-tasks are necessary to keep things on track, presentable, and to offer a level of professional construction that I can properly take pride in. Even if the code doesn’t have my name in the header comments. Or within a design document. People will come to expect no less from you and will more easily engage with your work.
Become known for solid code. Code that doesn’t contain unused routines that were written before the entire class properly came together. You’ve removed the cruft before passing it along. You have prepared well-thought-out comments and elegant solutions. Your Sketch files have properly labeled layer elements and you have removed empty groupings that accumulated during the design of UI elements, Remove any possible future confusion for both yourself and for others that will consume your work.
Try not to produce a lot of throw-away work. As you gain experience and expertise, your time becomes more valuable. Keep it that way.
Slowly work. Do not race. Keep a steady mind. Do your best work every time. Do not cut corners to make a deadline – get whatever you can do. I have found that when people want things very quickly – it’s usually a need they make to impress others or to cover the fact that there was poor planning. Quickly delivered crap doesn’t benefit anyone and you do yourself a disservice when you consider it.
Have a great Saturday.