Refactoring

Another short post today.

I’ve spent a large portion of the last few weeks refactoring code at work. For those not in the software industry, refactoring basically means cleaning up/reworking how a piece of software works, without changing the external behavior. Sometimes it’s simplifying the logic. Sometimes it’s renaming things to make comprehension easier. Sometimes it’s removing unused features. Sometimes it’s moving duplicate code to a common implementation.

I’ve been doing all of the above. It’s tedious at times. It’s fun at times. And it normally makes me feel good once it’s done. But it got me wondering… why don’t we use the same word in real life? For instance: if I’m reorganizing stuff in a room to make it easier to access? Sounds like refactoring to me. Or how about migrating from a few different note taking tools/methods to a single format? In other words, all of the small modifications/improvements that I make to my daily life that don’t change the end result, but improve the workflow… is kind of refactoring.

In short: I think I’m going to start referring to some real-life changes as refactoring as well.

I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload (Day 12/100). You can join in yourself by visiting https://100DaysToOffload.com.