How Technical Debt Slowly Breaks Your Project and How to Fix It

Technical debt is like taking a shortcut in your code. At first it feels convenient. You get things done faster, the feature ships, everything looks fine. But slowly those shortcuts start asking for repayment. The more shortcuts you take, the more interest you pay later. And when the time comes to add something new, suddenly your old decisions start fighting back.

Most people think tech debt only happens to big teams or huge companies. But the truth is, it happens to every developer. Especially when you work on real projects where timelines, ideas and requirements keep changing.

For me, I never really felt the weight of tech debt until one recent experience that completely drained me.

My experience. How one small idea broke half my project

One morning I decided to add a small feature to my app. I wanted to create a developer program. Nothing huge. Just a simple addition. I thought it would take a few hours.

So I opened the code. Ran the project. And i saw the payment flow broke.

First problem. The Supabase client I used earlier was outdated. So I replaced it. After replacing it, I started getting token and auth related issues. So I fixed that. Then suddenly some database tables refused to insert or update. Row level security issues. So I fixed them one by one.

After that, the storage started failing. File uploads, folder structure, access rules, everything began throwing errors. To fix storage, I realised I had to change the entire folder structure for all files I was saving. At this point I was exhausted. What started as a simple feature slowly became a spiral of fixing old decisions, patching mistakes, and discovering more and more things that needed rewriting.

In the end, I just added a temporary patch and told myself I will fix everything properly later. I was frustrated. I was drained. And I felt demotivated because I realised I was in technical debt.

The code was not bad. It was just carrying old decisions that no longer matched the current needs.

Why this happens. And why it is normal

Tech debt mostly appears when we build fast. When we try to get things working quickly. When the project grows from a small experiment to a real usable product. Earlier decisions start to clash with newer requirements.

This is normal. Every developer goes through it. Even the best engineers deal with tech debt in large companies. The moment your app grows a little bigger, the hidden cracks start showing up.

It is not a sign of bad coding. It is a sign of progress.

Tech debt is basically your project telling you that it needs some cleaning before you stack more features on top.

So what is the solution? Do we just accept messy code forever?

No. Tech debt can be handled. You just need a plan. Here are some practical things that help in real world projects.

1. Separate feature work from cleanup work

When you are adding a new feature, do not try to clean everything at the same time. It will drain you. If something is too messy, add a quick patch so your work is not blocked. Then schedule a separate time for cleanup.

2. Create a small tech debt list

Write down the areas that need fixing. For example. payment flow, storage structure, authentication, folder structure. When you list them out, they stop feeling overwhelming.

3. Fix the biggest pain areas first

Not everything needs fixing immediately. Focus on the parts that break often, or the parts that will affect new features. For example. RLS or storage rules.

4. Refactor in small pieces

You do not have to rewrite everything. Even cleaning one file or reorganising one flow can reduce a lot of future pain.

5. Document your flows

Payment flow, storage flow, auth flow. Anything you write down will save future frustration. It also makes debugging easier.

6. Accept that tech debt never fully ends

Even when you clean everything today, new debt will appear in a few months. That is normal. The goal is not to remove all debt. The goal is to manage it so it does not stop your progress.

My takeaway

That day when everything started breaking, I felt like I was a bad developer. But later I realised this is exactly what every developer goes through. The project was not trash. It had simply grown fast. And my earlier shortcuts were now showing their cost.

Tech debt is not a failure. It is a signal. A reminder that your project is evolving. A reminder that updates are needed. A reminder that you have learned enough to see what needs improvement.

The most important lesson for me was. Do not panic when things break. Do not try to fix everything at once. Plan, clean up slowly, and rebuild confidence piece by piece.

Your code is not supposed to be perfect. It is supposed to improve over time. And that improvement only starts when you notice the debt and decide to handle it.