Energized Work

Energized Work is a practice designed to help the team remain sharp and focused every day. The need for energized work stems from the fact that software teams need to innovate constantly to solve new problems.

Software teams work on implementing new ideas, designing new products, solving complex logical problems, and testing what’s built, all of which requires a relaxed and rested mind. Here are four tips to encourage energized work:

Have enough time to do the job

The easiest way to kill a team’s morale and take away the joy of work is by setting unrealistic deadlines. XP teams use iterative development so that if there’s something that won’t be “done” in the ongoing week’s cycle, the team pushes a part of it into the next iteration instead of trying to squeeze everything in by working late.

Get rid of interruptions

There’s a practice gaining popularity in some companies, which might be named differently but the concept remains the same: focused work. Teams are asked to set aside an hour or two for focused work. During this time, no meetings are scheduled, and email and message notifications are turned off. If you remember the concept of flow—the state of deep concentration—team members can achieve flow by following this practice.

Let yourself make mistakes

Failure is the foundation of innovation, and building software is innovative work. Teams should be able to make mistakes and treat them as opportunities to learn.

Work at a sustainable pace

While working harder and extra hours for a couple of days to meet important milestones is generally fine, no team can be expected to maintain that pace indefinitely. Studies show that teams regularly working under the pressure of faster delivery produce less and lower-quality code compared to those working under normal circumstances. A sustainable pace means working the usual 40 hours a week, with no late nights or weekends. That’s how teams can be most productive. In fact, do you remember one of the agile principles?

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

This principle shows that a good work-life balance is part of the agile mindset because it is the most productive way for the team to function.

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