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Forced Coding

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36 pointsedw51918 comments

Pick the smallest task, whether complex or not, and just do it!...Doesn’t matter what it is, so long as it’s coding...It could be adding an extra field to an object or table, popping in some validation, anything small and simple. It really doesn’t matter if you do it right or wrong; you’re not doing it to sign off a task, you’re doing it to re-aquaint yourself with your system, by the time you’ve been through X lines of code you’ll be back in work mode and firing on all cylinders, well on your way to getting zoned.

This is excellent advice!

Whenever I'm frozen, this is what I do, and before you know it, I'm doing something else.

Yes. When I'm studying math, I work best if I just dive right into the practice problems, then go back and review the notes as needed. Once I find a challenge and get hooked on a problem that I can't quite answer, I'm fully focused.

I focus best when I have an immediate challenge or a problem to solve. Same for coding - diving right in to stimulate myself, and then I can start thinking of solutions/designs as I tinker with the small stuff and (re)acquaint myself with the structure/API.

"Why not? as nike say “just do it”, if the code has 10 bugs but is finished in half the time then you’ve done good, that gives you loads of time to fix the bugs, and more importantly you get to those moments where you realise x,y&z need to be changed much quicker. Not only that, but would you rather have a week to go and have a list of 80 bugs, or a week to go and 2 major deliverables a week overdue.."

What!? Has he never read Code Complete? I'd rather be 2 weeks overdue with no bugs than on time with 80 bugs. 80 bugs means I'm really overdue by a month...

Details, details. All middle-management cares about is whether or not the task is done. And the associated costs of your shitty code are, at least partially, shifted on to your co-workers. This gives you an even better comparative velocity! Bonus season will be good this year.

What's great about "done" is that there are so many interpretations of it.

This is correct in developer's terms, but not necessarily in sales terms. Unless you manage yourself, you may get fired for choosing the first option (overdue with no bugs). Another good reason for working for yourself, I guess.

Great tips - reminded me of a post on beating writer’s block: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8864

Note: It's a FUN post, not really practical for coders [eg: "Graham Greene wrote exactly 500 words per day, even stopping mid-sentence if necessary"] but a nice distraction.. just what you need when you're battling procrastination.. :)

Supposedly listening to music while problem solving or coding results in similar productivity, but more errors.

On the other hand, http://pom.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/33/2/173.pdf claims that music listeners (with practice) produce similar quality results in similar real time, but 1) have less actual time working (the music does distract) and 2) feel better.

I often listen to (mostly classical) music while programming, but I'll pause it if I feel memory-impaired, or need to make an important decision.

I'd buy that. For me, listening to music while coding is an engineering problem: how to minimize the tendency to let the mind wander without overwhelming it with new input.

For me that means using music that is ambient enough without verging on elevator muzak style irritation. I ended up with instrumental hip-hop (dj shadow, etc).

The worst problem of listening to music is that I get the song stuck on my head after I finish coding. I prefer to avoid it.

The music part would never work for me... whenever I put some music to play I get completely absorbed, and all studying, or coding, for that matter, comes to a full stop.

Strange how this is different for everyone. I'm the opposite, for example.

Works great for me, but only if the music in question has no lyrics. Baroque, bebop or pretentious Philip Glass-y stuff seems to work best.

I can do it with any music, from crazy hip hop to smooth jazz ;) I get massive energy from the music and sometimes my coworkers catch me singing while i code lol !

Music works for me. I also like noisy inter cafes because the noise just blends into a nice background ensemble.

Music doesn't work for me either, but I have no problems with background noise at a cafe or office or something like that. I think it has to do with background noise lacking any sort of discernible structure to focus on. That sort of background is more like white noise and easy to phase out, music gives me too much to focus on.

totally agree.

I listen to music to deafen out the environment. Its not the best solution (Which would be working in a quiet environemnt), but the "distraction" from music is a lesser evil compared to the "distraction" from working in an office.

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