Delivery is near!

"Tiny" Delivery Truck
Originally uploaded by El Struthio

The last 6 months or so has been rather hectic, and very unstructured, but the end is in sight!

This month I've committed to delivering 'complete' software by the end of the month, so the last week or so has been bug fixes and working with a colleague to do a variety of tests on the software I've written or integrated with.

Testing has been going pretty well overall, I've got a suite of unit / integration tests that I run myself, but just having someone else go over my project, confirming what I've tested and what's in my head has been great. It's enabled me to sit back a bit, release some of the unnecessary information from my head and prepare for handover.

There is still a lot of work to do (see my previous post about builds), integration that is yet to be fully tested, but it has been a great relief, and one of the reasons I'm keen on moving towards an agile work practice - handing over a tested and complete piece of software every cycle will hopefully allow me to leave work at work more effectively.

Work, life and distractions all about

I read a great blog the other day that my colleague sent to me - all about the reasons for working, particularly on a shared project - check it out at coding horror, but in particular the reasons that drive you to do good work, and keep on going at getting better.

Then, this morning I watched this video:

3 Barriers To Help Block Consumerism from Adam Baker on Vimeo.

Along with a pay review at work, it all got me thinking about why we go to work. Thankfully I live in a country where there's good employment, and I can choose what sort of work I do, but we have an endless array of stuff that we can keep searching for. I get paid fairly for the work I do, but there is always more to spend it on, which makes me think that I'm getting ripped off.

How hard it is to be content, and to be thankful for the many good things I've got at the moment! How do you go at being content with what you've got? What do you find satisfaction in?

Disconnecting from work

Disconnected color
Originally uploaded by Leonid Mamchenkov

Over the last 6 months, I've been increasingly stressed at work and in life in general. Chatting to a number of people, I think one of the causes is my ability to disconnect from work when I go home. I've got a good job, and the expectations are that I won't take work home (not sure how I'd survive if I needed to do that), although the general work environment at the moment is pretty intense.

My task for the next couple of weeks is to figure out how I can better disconnect from work. Some thoughts that I'm thinking might help:

• Walk to and / or from work - it's been raining for the last week, so this hasn't been possible, but I have found it just a good time to get a bit of space between work and home
• Get into a regular routine of exercise at night - expending some energy is a good thing to do, and probably means that I sleep better 
• Go on a holiday

As an information worker, I think it's hard to disconnect - if only I could leave my work brain at the door!

What techniques do you find help you to disconnect from work, and keep stress levels at a maintainable level?