I've been feeling quite a bit of anxiety lately. A few factors have been the cause of this: a new job position that puts me at the center of many hard technical decisions, a big business-critical project and a mind that is never satisfied with the current state of things.

Anxiety slowly creeps on you. I think of many ways that it can happen, but let me tell you what I think is the most common cause for a software developer.

They hire you to do something meaningful, an end goal, and this includes a multitude of tasks that needs to be done to get there. The mountain of work is gigantic, and it's a long to get to the top. When you start, you try to plan your trip as well as you can, but a lot can go wrong along the way. Halfway through is where it gets hard. You're tired and not sure that you'll get to the top.

So how do you manage it? Offload the risk to more people. Pinpoint what difficulties stress you out and talk about it with your technical leader, team manager, or boss. People will hear you and will understand the challenges you or the team faces. Maybe they will take the risk and accept that perhaps it will not work out or will help you seek help to finish the task.

Once the risk is clear and all parties accept it, you can concentrate on your task at hand one day at a time.