To make things easier for your code reviewer, each patch should be small, and hold one well defined change. I break this rule all the time, and it comes back to bite me. What happens is that I get heads down coding, and I have a solution that involves changes to wide number of files and subsystems, new abstractions, etc. Here is how I am currently dealing with breaking down a big patch.
OpenStack Milestone Icehouse 2 (I2) is due this Tuesday. The gate is deep and the penalty for messing it up is costly. I recently had to update a patch that depends on three patches that are approved but but not merged to master. Using the git review command line, all 5 patches would get resubmitted. This was too high a risk for me.
“Sitting is the new smoking.” –Unattributed quote making the rounds.
Lower back pain is part of what has been termed “Silicon Valley Syndrome,” the side effect of using too much technology. I’ve been battling lower back pain for years.