Sometimes in the morning I open my calendar and at first glance it looks like I'm going to be swamped with meetings and will get nothing done.

But it's more complex than that. For a lot of them that statement is kind of true. There are a lot of meetings - some short, some long - and they will be a mixture of talking, listening and seeing if there are things that I need to do to note down and add to my to-do list.

However, there are blocks that are nothing like the rest. Instead, I'm going to be spending a couple of hours pairing with a colleague. Maybe on day to day work, maybe on some complex and interesting problems.

I really look forward to that time, but seeing the overall calendar always reminds me of something that I've heard often about pair programming.

I have enough meetings, I don't want to add any more to my day

It got me thinking. Why don't I view pair programming as just another meeting? Why do I actually see it as a way to get things done? For a while I've struggled to answer that question in a way I'm happy with. After all "because I do" doesn't really cut it 😅

Last week the answer hit me.

I was watching someone else who was in meetings the whole day, and I asked, jokingly "wow, that's a lot of meetings, are they getting things done meetings, or adding to the todo list meetings?"

And, ping, there was the answer for me! Meetings, especially those that could have just been a mail or 5 minute call, take energy to attend. They are the meetings that you attend knowing that

• You'd rather be doing something else
• You are going to leave that meeting with more work and less time than you went in with

They can cause stress, irritation and frustration, they can sap will power and exhaust you.

Pair programming sessions on the other hand don't do that to me.

Rather in these sessions we are actually doing something!

We are working together, collaborating, and the whole session is series of tiny check marks of getting something done.

When I leave a pairing session that has gone well I feel like I have achieved something. That I have less work on my plate than I had before I started. That between us we have solved a problem and helped our users.

That feeling, that dopamine spike, that is the reason I don't just see pair programming as just "yet another meeting on my calendar".

How do I try to make my pair programming sessions work well? Take a look here