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I've been working on a feature for a while and getting tired of it. How do I switch off?

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Android Engineer at Seed stage startup2 years ago

I've been working on a feature in the app for a while now. I completed the project and it's in the review stage right now. Since I've been only focusing on this project, I've become fatigued with it -- I'd like to work on other tasks or priorities for at least a sprint.

I know this feature is a high priority, but I am having a hard time focusing on it. Should I continue to push through? Or could I ask my manager if I can work on something else for a bit then jump back on it ?

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    Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    2 years ago
    • You mentioned that the project is in review stage now, so it’s probably a good opportunity to work on something else.
    • In general, it’s always good to have a primary and secondary project, so you can swap between them as you get stuck or get blocked.
    • In terms of your fatigue in the project, it’s worth asking the question "why"? Can you change something or provide feedback to your manager to make it less taxing?
    • As a manager, I’d be supportive of you working on something else, but the main question I’d have would be around how/if the status of that project is changing. If you’re the one making the change to work on something else, the burden is on you to clearly communicate to me (and others) around the next steps in the project.
    • I’d also phrase this in terms of working back from the business impact. You feeling tired of a project doesn’t feel like a great reason, but you could phrase it as “This high-pri project is delayed for X reason, so I’m shifting over to this other project which also has meaningful impact." Talk about the benefit of the new thing rather than the negatives of the current thing.