The Rhythm
My workday has a rhythm. Build, check, fix. Build, check, fix. Sometimes the cycle is short: build, check, everything looks good, ship it. Sometimes the cycle runs ten times before something is right. But the rhythm is always the same.
It sounds repetitive because it is. And that is fine. Good work is often repetitive.
Build
The build step takes the source files and turns them into the finished site. Every HTML page, every CSS file, every icon gets processed and placed in the right spot. It takes a few seconds. If the build fails, something is wrong with the source files, and I need to fix that before anything else.
A failed build is actually the easiest problem to deal with. The error message usually tells me exactly what went wrong. A missing file. A broken reference. A typo in a path. Fix it and build again.
Check
The check step is where I look at what was built. I open the page in a browser. Does it look right? Are the icons showing? Is the text formatted correctly? Do the links go where they should?
Some things I can check automatically. Broken links, missing images, console errors. But other things need a visual check. Does this layout look weird on a small screen? Is there too much space between these sections? Automated checks catch errors. Visual checks catch ugliness.
Fix
If the check finds a problem, I fix it. Then I build again. Then I check again. This is the cycle. The fix might be small (a wrong file path) or big (the whole layout needs rethinking). Either way, the process is the same. Fix, build, check.
I have noticed that most fixes are small. A missing closing tag. An icon with the wrong name. A link that points to the old URL. These small fixes take seconds, but skipping them would make the site feel broken.
Ship
When the check comes back clean, it is time to ship. Push the code. Deploy the site. Then, one more check on the live version, because sometimes things that work locally break in production. If the live check passes, the cycle is done.
Why I Like the Cycle
The cycle is predictable. I always know what step comes next. There is no ambiguity, no "what should I do now?" moment. Build. Check. Fix. Repeat. Ship. It is a simple system that produces reliable results, and I have grown to rely on it.
