What to do with software development downtime

3 January 2019

Waiting on a long build or deploy? Blocked on your main task? Not at 100% brain capacity to work on your main task? Slow day in general?

Try doing any of the following:

Ask colleagues if they need help
Write docs
Fix / refactor tests
Improve test coverage
Lint files
Fix warnings when installing dependencies / running servers / app runtime
Find and clean up TODO comments
Create tickets / improve existing unclear tickets / delete irrelevant or old tickets
Upgrade project dependencies
Run benchmarks / profile things which are slow
Reduce bundle or build sizes
Remove dependencies on tools or external libraries
Run audits for security or accessibility
Use a screen reader or dictation software to find access issues in your frontend
Test your frontends in obscure browsers
Go for a walk and decompress a bit