Generally I take the lead on group projects — trying to my best to knock out the requirements and keep things organized — however, when I fell sick after a brief period of focusing on other classes’ requirements, it was apparent that I had fallen behind. By a good bit. As I pulled main from GitHub after my period of absence, a sinking feeling came to me. The voice in my head said, resolutely, everything is different.
In some aspects, it was. New features, fixes, and refactors made me feel like a stranger in a strange land compared to what I knew previously. The panic rolled over and I felt as though I didn’t know where to start. Eventually, though, I made the all-important decision to:
Just get started
Sometimes, that’s all there is to it. The curious thing I realized is that I hadn’t felt this I’ve got so much make-up work feeling since when I’d caught the flu in grade school. And there was a striking similarity between the two situations: the only real option was to simply get going on the work. Eventually, the pile clears, the backlog is depleted, and things return to normal.
As well, I found it helpful to get on the level with those I was working with and ask about what had happened in the meantime, as opposed to snooping through the repo’s history on GitHub to see what changed. As it turns out, the people who wrote the code often know best what’s important about it. Sometimes comments don’t always fully express what someone can easily inform you of themselves.
While it’s easy to say that the best antidote to falling behind is, “well, just don’t fall behind,” it’s a fact of life that, at one point, it will happen to everyone. The important thing is to get back on your horse and keep going. Having been sick this week (and still recovering, upon writing), I can certainly empathize with those who feel like they simply don’t have the energy to do it. However, sometimes a small, good-faith contribution is enough to at least reaffirm your commitment (and allay a bit of the personal guilt).
I recognize that this blog post does re-affirm the obvious: you’ll eventually have to do work in some form or another — and that the work involved in keeping your promises is less dreadful than breaking those promises — perhaps it’s constructive to cement in writing the truism that it’s best to spare your future self and do what work you can while you’re able.
