As others state, the best way to think like a programmer is to program, but also seeking a senior programmer as a mentor helps. Also, browsing code on sites like StackOverflow and Github but you kind of need to develop a quick sense of good vs bad code. There is a lot of both on those sites.
I have this issue with learning guitar right now. Finding a competent mentor, on recommendation, is surprisingly difficult.
I spend a lot of time on git reading code, shamelessly stealing function and seeing how they work in my code. I am glad that there is benefit to what I am doing. Thank you for the advice!