Dealing With Pain
Pain is good. It helps us mature and grow in our fields. But same recurring pain is not. If you let it, you might get used to it and you won’t even realize that there are better things in life.
In our line of work as developers, slow internet is a pain. A bad keyboard, a slow computer, remembering passwords, setting up a development environment, bad code, etc. They all disturb our workflow to get the job done fast. That’s why we created all these agile scrum methodologies, awesome IDEs and other kinds of technologies to help us become more productive.
Becoming productive i.e. overcoming pain is one of the things that contribute to our happiness.
If you’re happy, you’re productive and your company and other people around you will benefit from that.
Evolve and struggle well. – Ray Dalio
So how can we be happy? It’s a hard question so let’s start small and go with the immediate i.e our day-to-day tools.
Because most of our day is spent in front of a screen, our butt in a chair and our hands in a keyboard or mouse. We need to fix whatever stuff that brings us pain. Otherwise work won’t be enjoyable and we’ll try whatever means to get little or get away from it.
Here are some of the problems that holds me back and the solutions I took:
Mouse, our trusty tool
My Dell XPS 13’s trackpad is inaccurate and doesn’t feel smooth to my hands. This makes working a real pain since most of my time is spent on arranging windows and switching between virtual desktops to declutter and organize my workflow.
So, after a long search online on what’s the best mouse, I bought the Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse. It’s programmable and it makes using Windows 10 features easy.
KLIM Optics
A good blue light filter eye glasses is a must have since blue light messes with our sleep. It’s necessary that we go to sleep on time to keep our brain healthy and productive.
Honestly, sleeping is one of the habit that I haven’t yet incorporated regularly. When my mind is active and motivated I tend to be up till midnight.
Standing or Sitting?
I tried standing while working. At first, it was great but after a few hours my legs hurt and I get exhausted at the end of the day. Plus, it’s harder to ponder and relax when I’m standing.
Sitting shortens life and my butt hurts after a few hours. But I am relaxed and able to hold into work a little longer.
Standing is good when I’m in a meeting online or processing my inbox. Sitting is for when I need to code and focus.
I found that the middle ground is to mix time between standing and sitting throughout the day depending on context or whichever is painful that moment i.e. butt or legs.
So I set up two tables. One as a standing desk and the other for when I’m sitting.
I have two monitors connected over a long cable to my laptop using a docking station. One is on the standing desk while the other is on my sitting-down desk.
Windows 10 has a nice little feature to easily switch between screens. I type in Windows Logo + P and select the appropriate monitor where my standing/sitting desk is set up.
Since my keyboard and mouse are wireless. I grab and move them to the desk I’m working on in just a second.
Here’s my standup desk:
Here’s my sit-down desk:
If IKEA is available here in the Philippines then an automated desk would be ideal since I can save real state.
Anyhow, what I currently have worked and switching between desks gives me different mindsets.
Closing Thoughts
So far, these are some of the pain that I’ve dealt with.
That’s all for now.