Do you feel stressed when you’re trying to hold a big problem in your head? Do you get frustrated when someone interrupts you and you have to start all over again? Those emotions are inevitable if you’re in the common habit of treating each programming task as a long, precarious, all-or-nothing tightrope walk. But it doesn’t have to be that way! In this talk I’ll explain why the tightrope walk is so harmful and show you some practical techniques for avoiding it.