I'm still learning to dig myself out of knowledge gaps without asking my manager for assistance, and I have a question to hopefully bring this discussion even deeper:
How do you balance filling in your knowledge gaps on your own (be it StackOverflow, tutorials, etc.) and getting your assignment in under the deadline? I am currently using time boxing to try to work through something on my own, then I approach my manager for assistance when I've been stuck longer than my allotted time.
To be honest I don't have a solid way of balancing these things out.
Usually when something is wrong I try to find the root cause. Through debugging, googling and trying to find a related issue or pull request on Github.To make sure I explain everything that I have learned I keep track of the whole process by writing new insights down in my notebook.
If I run into a session like this at the end of the day, the stand up the next day is when I ask for someone to help me out. If it's in the morning I'll ask someone to help me after lunch.
The only time I ask for assistance outside of these meeting points is when I run out of 'leads' and unable to understand or find the cause.
I have tried to limit this process to an hour in the past but I'm really stubborn at times, when I think I'm close I stretch it for way too long 😅.
It doesn't happen too often that this goes on for way too long but there are still some occasions soooo 🙈....
How long do you usually make your timeslots before asking for assistance? And how do you avoid the trap of: "I'm really close though, I got this just a few more minutes" ?
Hey, thanks for the reply! I try to stick to a timebox of an hour or two as well, depending on how complicated the issue is. If it's feeling like I'm really close I'll give it another 10-15mins and then take my findings to the manager or more senior developer and tell them what I've got and ask if they have any input on how to get to the next step. I'm the same as you, I'll go on all day if I feel like I'm close and "just need a few more minutes" so I really try to be disciplined about it.
Pomodoros are actually a great way to timeblock and not let yourself carry on all day - give yourself until the end of your current/next pomodoro period to solve it, and if you cant, it's time to recruit help.
I'm still learning to dig myself out of knowledge gaps without asking my manager for assistance, and I have a question to hopefully bring this discussion even deeper:
How do you balance filling in your knowledge gaps on your own (be it StackOverflow, tutorials, etc.) and getting your assignment in under the deadline? I am currently using time boxing to try to work through something on my own, then I approach my manager for assistance when I've been stuck longer than my allotted time.
Great technique!
To be honest I don't have a solid way of balancing these things out.
Usually when something is wrong I try to find the root cause. Through debugging, googling and trying to find a related issue or pull request on Github.To make sure I explain everything that I have learned I keep track of the whole process by writing new insights down in my notebook.
If I run into a session like this at the end of the day, the stand up the next day is when I ask for someone to help me out. If it's in the morning I'll ask someone to help me after lunch.
The only time I ask for assistance outside of these meeting points is when I run out of 'leads' and unable to understand or find the cause.
I have tried to limit this process to an hour in the past but I'm really stubborn at times, when I think I'm close I stretch it for way too long 😅.
It doesn't happen too often that this goes on for way too long but there are still some occasions soooo 🙈....
How long do you usually make your timeslots before asking for assistance? And how do you avoid the trap of: "I'm really close though, I got this just a few more minutes" ?
Hey, thanks for the reply! I try to stick to a timebox of an hour or two as well, depending on how complicated the issue is. If it's feeling like I'm really close I'll give it another 10-15mins and then take my findings to the manager or more senior developer and tell them what I've got and ask if they have any input on how to get to the next step. I'm the same as you, I'll go on all day if I feel like I'm close and "just need a few more minutes" so I really try to be disciplined about it.
Pomodoros are actually a great way to timeblock and not let yourself carry on all day - give yourself until the end of your current/next pomodoro period to solve it, and if you cant, it's time to recruit help.
This is definitely one I'll have to practice but it will be worth it. Thanks for the advice 😁.