We programmer have to wait for the response from the machine. When the machine is slow, such as, slow simulation or long compilation, it disturbes our rhythm.
During the waiting time, I tend to think what to do next, but most of the time I just wish the compilation ends sooner. Wishing is not my job, and know that I’m not doing right. Knowing that makes me stressed up.
So first thing I do is to stop seeing the progress. By looking at the scrolling screen,
I tend to go into wish mode, or spend time looking for warnings in the scrolling screen.
Unless you are like a chess master, you can prepare only one step ahead. Preparing two steps ahead takes more effort and sometimes turn out to be wrong.
So I do something else instead; the best thing is something unrelated, such as unrelated reading or short stretching. Sounds inefficient? But I found that I tend to accomplish more than I expect at the end of the day, and I get less stressed.
