Reflecting on 2023: Five Lessons From the Past Year

Rather than bore you with a list of my accomplishments and failures over the past year, here’s what I’ve learnt from them all, maybe you can pick something up that’s useful to you.

Delegate and Trust Others

I’ve spent the vast majority of my career in one of two mindsets. Either I get it done on my own, or I take on the most ambiguous and complex tasks in a project and hand over the simpler ones to others. Both of these stem from not trusting anybody more than myself. I wasn’t always like this, heck in uni there were a few projects where I was nothing more than a bystander hitching a free pass through a course alongside my peers. Something about a professional work environment always made me want to deliver on my word and exceed expectations. For that reason I’d always taken it upon myself to assure the timeliness of deliverables, regardless of how many people were working on a project with me and regardless of how much overtime it took. This might stem from a hunger to always do better, maybe fear of losing my job, but mostly a lack of trust with others. Whatever it was it worked until the past few years that is. As of late, obsessing over all the minute details has started to hinder my career growth. I’ve spent too much time making sure everything is done the right way instead of looking forward into the future and defining strategies that will multiply my team’s productivity and direction moving forward. Over the past year I’ve dabbled in letting go of the steering wheel and putting others in the driver’s seat and it’s paid dividends. Not only has it allowed me the time to work on more impactful things, but it’s also provided others with newly found experience and confidence in their work.

Writing Documentation Musn’t be delayed

Delegating work to others can only be as efficient as the material they’re given to ramp up. Sadly, Software engineers (Myself Included), love to delay writing docs. It’s just not fun.

In 2023 I faced the harsh reality that delaying writing documentation only slows the team down in the long run. Onboarding engineers took longer, I had too many repeated conversations about common issues and technical vision, and sometimes it even impacted pull requests. I wouldn’t say documentation was absent, but it was definitely inadequate. Early March, I was fed up with the number of meetings I had on my schedule to get engineers and managers up to speed with things. My outlook calendar looked like an absolute mess. From that day forward “I’m writing a doc for that” became a term I used more than I’d like but getting them done freed up my time to work on truly impactful initiatives instead of spending time on the same rinse and repeat conversations.

Not all docs are good docs

It took me time, but after a few doc reviews early in the year I realized my writing needed work. I had an issue with wordiness, repetition, and context switching. This was something I always knew I needed to work on in the back of my mind, but the technical nature of my work always took priority over it. The more strategic, cross organizational documents I wrote the more I realized getting better was something I could no longer delay. So, what did I do to get better? I read some books, most notably “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. I re-took a few technical writing courses and did a lot more reviewing of my own docs. I’d also noticed that my doc writing got worse, the more I coded. I guess this was mostly because the more I coded, the less documents I wrote and also the less books I had time to read. The more I code the more my english erodes, or maybe it’s just the brain fog from the lack of sleep, who knows. The same could be said about the late nights I spend on RTS games, but that’s a story for another time.

Focus Over Diversification

Sports, miniature painting, Real Estate, woodworking, video games, coding, board games, guitar, gym. I’m not the only one with a ridiculous list of diverse interests. The past year I’ve definitely tried to dabble in a few of these. Heck I’ll even shamelessly show you the coffee table I built from scratch and a miniature I painted this year.

Instead of becoming skilled at either one of these, I’ve managed to accomplish a few measly projects that kept me busy for a weekend or two. Maybe that’s okay for hobbies, but for side hustles and projects it’s certainly left me almost exactly where I was a year ago today.

It’s okay to fall out of love with your job from time to time

Social media is riddled with stories of unbridled passion for your work, painting a picture where every day is a dream come true. The reality is that this is not the whole truth. It's normal to sometimes feel out of sync with your work. Recognizing this as a natural part of a career can be enlightening. These periods aren’t failures; instead, they offer valuable chances for self-reflection and growth. They prompt us to ask important questions: Are we on the path we want? What new skills or challenges might reignite our passion?

Reevaluating our goals during these times can lead to rediscovering what we loved about our job in the first place or to finding new aspects that excite us. This process, rather than a sign of weakness, is a step towards a more fulfilling and sustainable career. Embracing these fluctuations helps us build resilience and maintain long-term job satisfaction.

I’ve certainly had my ups and downs over the past year with work. Continously re-assessing where I was in my career and acknowledging how I felt saved the day at times. But at times it got a lot harder. Tight deadlines and mundane tasks can do that to you and it had me down and out around the midpoint of this year. In the end I accepted that a job is a job and it’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes you need to put your head down and get the things you hate doing done. Luckily enough that slump passed and the exciting tasks ended up coming my way, but only after toughing it out.

Bonus Lesson! Burnout is harder to avoid than I thought

In late 2022, I wrote “Safeguarding Your Mental Health As a Career Driven Individual” where I talked about the importance of taking breaks. The first part, “Take breaks. You need it and it’s good for you!”, was something I should have paid more attention to in my own life. I’ve come to realize that not every break is the same. Some are just a pause, a brief moment to catch your breath, while others are truly refreshing, giving you new energy and perspective. For example, Playing 20 minutes of rocket league as a break only leaves me even more fatigued.

I've learned that it’s not enough to just stop working for a while. What you do in that downtime matters a lot. It’s about finding activities that recharge your batteries, not just things that pass the time. For some, it might be a walk in the park, for others, reading a book or spending time with family. This understanding has changed how I view work and leisure. I now see that effective breaks are those that help you return to work with a clearer mind and a lighter heart. It’s about quality, not just stepping away from your desk. This new approach has made my work more enjoyable and my off-time more fulfilling. In 2024 I hope to combine the 4 previous lessons to live an burnout free life. I’m sure I’ll have a grand time re-reading that next year.

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