The early return pattern in JavaScript

Today, while wrestling with some code, I caught myself smiling at something small but powerful. I was deep in a function that was starting to look like a staircase of if statements. Halfway through, I stopped and thought: why am I dragging all these checks down the page when I could just step out early?

That’s when it clicked—again 🥳. Early return (or guard clauses, if you like fancy names) isn’t just a coding pattern; it’s a way of freeing your own brain. You handle the simplest, most obvious stuff first and politely bow out of the function. Then the rest of the logic can flow without carrying the weight of those initial conditions.

function processUser(user) {
  if (!user) return;          // nothing to process
  if (!user.isActive) return; // skip inactive users

  sendWelcomeEmail(user);
  updateAnalytics(user);
}

Once those guard clauses are in place, I don’t have to mentally juggle those “what ifs” anymore. They’re dealt with. The rest of the code reads like a straight road.

Before I got into this habit, my functions often looked like a pile of stacked boxes—each if wrapped inside another. It worked, but it forced every reader (including future me) to carry all those checks in their head all the way down.

function processUser(user) {
  if (user) {
    if (user.isActive) {
      sendWelcomeEmail(user);
      updateAnalytics(user);
    }
  }
}

This still runs fine, but it makes you think about conditions long after you should’ve moved on.

The beauty of early return is that it clears mental space.

You make the easy decisions first, exit where needed, and leave the interesting logic standing in the light. It’s not just about fewer braces—it’s about respecting your own attention span.

It’s funny how these little patterns sneak up on you. Today’s code reminded me that writing for humans, including future me—is just as important as writing for the machine.