Preventing Developer Stress

In development some stress helps to provide a sense of urgency. However too much stress can degrade your ability to produce your best work. In this episode we discuss some common causes of stress in development and why they can become problems. We then talk about a few methods you can use to reduce stress in your development career.

Causes of development stress

• Internal: Imposter Syndrome, Real Developer Syndrome, unwillingness to collaborate.


• External: Pressure from others, Timelines and deadlines, work/life imbalances.

Why too much stress is bad

• Leads to development burnout


• Can lead to health issues


• Prevents you from doing your best work

How to prevent development stress

• Remember you are only “building sandcastles”


• Take a break and step away from the cause of the stress


• Ask others for help.

Links from this episode

• Deep Work* by Kal Newport


• How to Invest your Time like Money* by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Listener challenges

• Share your methods for reducing development stress.


• Spend a day without context switching. Focus on a single task.


• Chunk out your next week into buckets of time.

Previous episodes mentioned

• The Four Attributes of a Great Development Team


• Procrastination vs. Precrastination


• How you identify, treat and prevent the three types of developer burn out.

*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.