I enjoy working as a software engineer. But sometimes I do find it difficult to focus on my work. The main way that I push through in those instances is by finding ways to “gamify” my work. I have various strategies to do this but one that I’ve found my colleagues apply to equal effect is that of “Palate Cleanser Jiras.”
I’ve found (and my colleagues have found) palate cleanser Jiras to be an effective way to keep up development pace on a project while keeping it “fun” to work on.
The basic premise is that when you’ve just finished with some large task - a Jira in my case - you work on a smaller task as a palate cleanser. This has several advantages:
- It can be demotivating to finish some large task and have to immediately start on another task.
- A palate cleanser Jira can be a quick win that lets you accomplish something and feel productive before moving on to something larger.
- The strategy lets you chip away at smaller parts of your roadmap or tech debt incrementally between larger pieces of work.
I have found this single strategy to have been a big part of why I have avoided burnout in my career so far. If I’m feeling unmotivated after cutting through several large pieces of work, a palate cleanser Jira usually gets me feeling back on track.
Maybe this strategy could help you out, too.