I’m a web developer & data visualizer working at a think tank in D.C. I'm a self-taught dev trying to better my skills. I spend most of my time on the front end of the stack.
Location
Washington, D.C.
Work
Lead Developer at Center for Strategic and International Studies
Setting aside time is definitely a struggle, and more than once I ended up working OT because I was trying to get my own work & reviews done at the same time. The best thing I've learned to do is treat reviews like their own dedicated task (because they are!), which means when I give time estimates for how long it will take me to deliver a project, I have to take into account how long I think reviews will take. So my time estimates are longer now than they used to be, but I'm fortunate that my manager is very understanding as to why that is.
I also will block off time on my calendar so I can't be booked for meetings or other tasks. The amount of time depends on the project. When we're building a website with a lot of interdependent parts, I will set aside larger chunks of time more frequently to do reviews so I'm not holding up the process. If our timeline is a little more flexible, I will do shorter periods of time (1 or 2 hours). I also prefer to do reviewing in the morning when my brain is still fresh, and I've found it puts me in a good place to start writing my own code when I'm finished because I'm more aware of good syntax, logic, etc.
I’m a web developer & data visualizer working at a think tank in D.C. I'm a self-taught dev trying to better my skills. I spend most of my time on the front end of the stack.
Location
Washington, D.C.
Work
Lead Developer at Center for Strategic and International Studies
Thank you so much!
Setting aside time is definitely a struggle, and more than once I ended up working OT because I was trying to get my own work & reviews done at the same time. The best thing I've learned to do is treat reviews like their own dedicated task (because they are!), which means when I give time estimates for how long it will take me to deliver a project, I have to take into account how long I think reviews will take. So my time estimates are longer now than they used to be, but I'm fortunate that my manager is very understanding as to why that is.
I also will block off time on my calendar so I can't be booked for meetings or other tasks. The amount of time depends on the project. When we're building a website with a lot of interdependent parts, I will set aside larger chunks of time more frequently to do reviews so I'm not holding up the process. If our timeline is a little more flexible, I will do shorter periods of time (1 or 2 hours). I also prefer to do reviewing in the morning when my brain is still fresh, and I've found it puts me in a good place to start writing my own code when I'm finished because I'm more aware of good syntax, logic, etc.
I'm going to give that morning pr review routine a try. Thanks !
Good luck!