Watch for Technical Debt

Let's put it this way, if you really believe you have no time to refactor - you're possibly doomed, and the first step to accepting inevitable dooms like this one, is to refactor anyway.

Seriously now, if you can find some spare time (maybe skip the 4pm snack, or the cooler discussion), like most of us, you can properly spend it on refactoring. But sometimes it's hard to know where to start.

This is where planning comes in: manage your technical debt the same way you manage high priority bugs.

Every time you notice something smelly in your code, be it right when you're working on something and want to save time, or just when you're exploring some code, open up a work item or something similar. Hell, write it on a sticky note and paste it to your monitor.

The important thing is to make sure that once you get the time to refactor, you know what needs to be done, where to start, and why; so make sure you include all these details in your report.