Vanta Logo
SPONSOR
Automate SOC 2 & ISO 27001 compliance with Vanta. Get $1,000 off.
Published
4 min read
Up to date

Trevor I. Lasn

Staff Software Engineer, Engineering Manager

Weeks of Coding Can Save You Hours of Planning

Weeks of coding can save you hours of planning. It’s one of those sayings that’s been around forever, and for good reason—it’s a warning that still holds up today.

Jumping straight into coding feels good. You’re moving, things are happening, and you see immediate results on your screen. But if you skip the planning phase, you’re just borrowing time from your future self. And trust me, future you is not going to be happy.

Let me explain. Without a plan, you might get stuck deep in a codebase that feels more like a maze than a system. You add one feature, and suddenly something else breaks. Now you’re spending hours or even days fixing bugs that you wouldn’t have if you’d just taken a little time upfront.

When you’re writing code, you get this sense of immediate progress. The code compiles, you see the UI updates, or maybe a test passes, and it feels like things are going great. But what you don’t see—yet—is the mounting complexity.

Every decision you make on the fly, every hacky workaround, is adding weight to the system. It’s like building a house on a shaky foundation. Sure, the walls go up fast, but they’re going to come crashing down when you try to add that second floor.

I was once on a team where we had to build a new feature under a tight deadline. We were eager to get started, so we skipped the planning and dove right into coding. For the first couple of days, everything seemed to go smoothly. We were making progress, or so we thought.

But then, the issues started piling up. Functions were overlapping, data structures didn’t align, and integration between modules became a nightmare. We realized that our individual pieces didn’t fit together because we hadn’t agreed on a common structure.

We ended up spending more time fixing problems than building new features. What was supposed to be a quick addition turned into weeks of refactoring and debugging. If we had just spent a few hours planning at the start, we could have avoided most of these headaches.

How Planning Saves You

Planning doesn’t mean spending weeks in endless meetings or creating perfect diagrams. It means thinking ahead. What are the tricky parts of the system? How will the different pieces fit together? What are the edge cases?

Even something as simple as sketching out your main components or writing down a few key decisions can make a huge difference.

Here’s a scenario: You build an API without really thinking through how your routes or services should interact. A month later, your boss wants a new feature. Now you’re sweating bullets because you know that adding this feature is going to break everything else. You spend days patching things up and creating workarounds, but the truth is, the system wasn’t built to handle the new requirements.

Planning Doesn’t Have to Be a Chore

Planning doesn’t mean you have to create exhaustive documentation or get bogged down in meetings. It can be simple:

  • Outline the main components. What are the building blocks?
  • Define interfaces. How will these components communicate?
  • Identify potential pitfalls. What could go wrong?

Note: The saying “Weeks of coding can save you hours of planning” is actually a twist on an older quote from the world of scientific research: “A few weeks in the lab will save you hours in the library.”

The original points to the idea that diving straight into experiments without research can feel productive at first, but it often leads to more time wasted in the long run. The same principle applies to coding—jumping into the code without a plan might feel like progress, but you’re just setting yourself up for more work later.

If you found this article helpful, you might enjoy my free newsletter. I share developer tips and insights to help you grow your skills and career.


More Articles You Might Enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you might find these related pieces interesting as well. If you like what I have to say, please check out the sponsors who are supporting me. Much appreciated!

Leadership
5 min read

Advice to New Engineering Managers

Tips for being an effective engineering leader and how to avoid common pitfalls

Feb 15, 2025
Read article
Leadership
3 min read

The 5:1 Rule: Effective Performance Reviews For High-Performing Teams

Research reveals the ideal ratio of positive to negative feedback within high performing teams

Mar 20, 2025
Read article
Leadership
5 min read

Conway's Law: The Hidden Force Shaping Your Software Architecture

If you've ever wondered why your carefully planned software architecture ends up looking suspiciously like your org chart, you're not alone. Welcome to the world of Conway's Law.

Sep 24, 2024
Read article
Leadership
2 min read

Don't bullshit

Be the authentic voice in a world of manufactured personas

Feb 12, 2025
Read article
Leadership
5 min read

Company Culture Happens Outside Management

Why real company culture grows from the ground up, not top down.

Sep 14, 2024
Read article
Leadership
3 min read

Take Your Writing Seriously

It’s not just about getting the message across; it’s about doing so in a way that’s easy for others to follow. Good writing shows respect for your team and your work.

Sep 19, 2024
Read article
Leadership
4 min read

Write Documentation Like a Journalist

Create comprehensive, engaging documentation by adopting journalistic techniques for research and storytelling

Sep 26, 2024
Read article
Leadership
4 min read

It's More Fun to Be Competent

Once you're competent, everything changes. You stop second-guessing yourself. You stop panicking every time you encounter a new problem. And you start taking on bigger challenges with excitement rather than dread.

Sep 20, 2024
Read article
Leadership
4 min read

Build Your Army

If you want to do great things, you'll need people with skills that complement yours. You can't do everything yourself. You need a team. You need an army. You need to build your army.

Oct 4, 2024
Read article

Become a better engineer

Here are engineering resources I've personally vetted and use. They focus on skills you'll actually need to build and scale real projects - the kind of experience that gets you hired or promoted.

Many companies have a fixed annual stipend per engineer (e.g. $2,000) for use towards learning resources. If your company offers this stipend, you can forward them your invoices directly for reimbursement. By using my affiliate links, you support my work and get a discount at the same!


This article was originally published on https://www.trevorlasn.com/blog/week-of-coding-can-save-you-hours-of-planning. It was written by a human and polished using grammar tools for clarity.