"No more zero days" is a good quote to live by. No matter how busy I get, I try to code something everyday.
Link to the original article. http://www.reddit.com/r/getdisciplined/comments/1q96b5/i_jus...
Write Code Every Day
11–20 of 221 posts
Re: Write Code Every Day
#12This "don't break the chain" approach has worked extremely well for me, particularly during busy periods of high stress. I first learned about it in my college writing classes, where you're supposed to write something, anything, meaningless jibberish even, every single morning. Recently I read about Seinfeld using this approach to great successs. Every day he works on material, and puts a big, fat, "X" on the calenda…
+1. I've been using Joe's Goals [1] to track my daily goals since I learned about it on Life Hacker years ago. Can't recommend enough.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#13That was a beautiful post. Currently I'm in the complete opposite modus operandi. I don't do a lick of side-project work during the week, and on weekends I take a modafinil(wakefullness promoting medication) and stay up nights on end to crack out as much as I can. I get an INSANE amount done on the weekends that I have the energy to pull this off, but it's horrible for my health. The rest of the week I have anxiety a…
I would say changing to a more consistent work schedule is definitely a good idea, but don't lose the "schedule" part. There's a huge advantage to being able to say "okay, now is work time".
However, after writing that I imagine it's a very personal thing, not everyone will work best in the same way.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
An important change that I made, compared with these techniques, is that I require myself to write meaningful code. It's certainly much harder to do that but as a result I find myself developing good time management skills. Knowing that I have to be mentally "present" for my work forces myself to schedule and plan my days better, resulting in higher quality work all around!
When did you find yourself getting most of your coding done? Mornings? I'd love to try something like this, but it will probably mean writing code at like 6 am..
Personally I like to do my side coding project in the evenings. I find that if I do it in the morning it's too "all consuming" (I'll end up working on it to the exclusion of my main work.) For me morning/early afternoon is my prime coding time so it feels right to devote those hours to my job. I concede that the weekday side project code won't be the most amazing ever, but it's something and it's moving me forward.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#15This "don't break the chain" approach has worked extremely well for me, particularly during busy periods of high stress. I first learned about it in my college writing classes, where you're supposed to write something, anything, meaningless jibberish even, every single morning. Recently I read about Seinfeld using this approach to great successs. Every day he works on material, and puts a big, fat, "X" on the calenda…
When the so called Seinfeld technique really takes off, you forget to even mark the calender, then get the gratifying experience of going back and marking a big block of days after the fact.
I guess that's the threshold of the internalised habit.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#16The real problem with "don't break the chain" is that once it does, things collapse. See my graph: https://github.com/steveklabnik As you can see, I'm about to lose a ton of green. I'm at 87 days as my longest, but July 6, 2013 was brutal for me. I was actually flying, and had saved a small bit of work to do during a layover, but then I totally forgot. Once that chain was broken, it was super easy to justify taking s…
I agree, definitely. I tried to emphasize how important it is to make this a lifestyle change (equivalent to dieting or exercise) rather than just a "check the box" tactic. I've absolutely broken streaks in the past (especially for dieting and exercise) - but I feel confident about this one because I care about it so much. I just can't let it fail!
Re: Write Code Every Day
#17I just want to caution folks, from experience, that it is easy to miss the forest for the trees if you are constantly trying to code.
I think the key takeaway here is that sticking to a plan is helpful, and that a coding heavy plan is a productive one. This is a great post for that.
I would argue that a good plan should include time off for reflection, and to avoid burning out. I have seen too many engineers burn out because they were convinced that working constantly was optimal for progress.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#18That was a beautiful post. Currently I'm in the complete opposite modus operandi. I don't do a lick of side-project work during the week, and on weekends I take a modafinil(wakefullness promoting medication) and stay up nights on end to crack out as much as I can. I get an INSANE amount done on the weekends that I have the energy to pull this off, but it's horrible for my health. The rest of the week I have anxiety a…
Experiences with modafinil have been mostly positive? Any major draw backs?
Re: Write Code Every Day
#19That was a beautiful post. Currently I'm in the complete opposite modus operandi. I don't do a lick of side-project work during the week, and on weekends I take a modafinil(wakefullness promoting medication) and stay up nights on end to crack out as much as I can. I get an INSANE amount done on the weekends that I have the energy to pull this off, but it's horrible for my health. The rest of the week I have anxiety a…
no side effects from the modafinil? I take them very rarely pretty much only when it's of the utmost importance that something gets done by a deadline and even then i'll only take a half or a quarter.
Re: Write Code Every Day
#20I really needed to read this, today. Thank you.