The week I shipped nothing
What I did instead, and why the week was not wasted.
I had a week in April where I shipped no code, sent no email, and pushed nothing to production. I had planned the opposite. I was anxious for the first three days and then I was not.
What I actually did#
I read the last six months of my own commits, slowly, with coffee. I opened tickets I had closed prematurely. I wrote down three things I had been avoiding for reasons I could not articulate, and then I articulated them.
The articulation was the work.
What it changed#
The week after that one, I shipped twice as much as a normal week. Not because I had been gathering force, but because three of the things I had been hesitating on were now decided.
The hesitation had been a coordination problem inside one person. Once it was on paper, the coordination cost dropped to zero.
When to do it again#
I do not plan these weeks. They show up about twice a year, signalled by the feeling that I am working hard and finishing nothing. The signal has been reliable. The week always pays itself back.