Ask HN: How do you minimize remembrance time when coming back on a task/project?

3 points by antonpuz 6 years ago | 1 comment

As a developer, I work with many systems and services. Each one has special configuration, parameters, flows, inputs, etc.

Sometimes, after even few days of not working on a task, I have to spend some time in remembering what to do, how to run stuff, the flows, etc. What are your best practices/methods to reduce this remembrance/recovering time?

auslegung 6 years ago |

Automate as much as you can so you don’t have to remember. Create good documentation and put it in the most discoverable place. Park downhill, meaning you should leave your work in a state that you can come back and immediately get going. That May mean stopping in the middle of implementing a function so the compiler is throwing an error, or leaving with uncommitted work, or making a todo list for yourself so you see the next task when you return.