Let’s face it; Although coding is usually fun, sometimes it gets monotonous. We just hit the wall, forget the actual purpose, and eventually burn out. Sharing a developer’s experience, we spend more days analysing the task and finding the right way ahead. But in this flow we often get lost and confused.  Eventually we spend long weekends brainstorming and become irritable, losing our focus and leading to loss of interest in programming.
So, now the question arises: How do we keep ourselves productive and active in this field? How do we make the journey enjoyable during these times when we are finding it difficult?
I’ve had moments where I just wanted to give up, thinking this is not my cup of tea, questioned if it is the right path to take, evaluated other job fields, and so forth.

So, through this blogpost, I want to share some secret tips to make programming fun again if you ever had the same experience. Though there  is no universal law behind this but just a few things that have worked for me.

1. Without music, coding would be a mistake

There is a very famous quote by a German cultural critic as:

Without music, life would be a mistake

I changed this to “Without music, coding would be a mistake”.

I personally feel programming is a psychological sport and to win in this sport, music is your tool. Just like in cricket, a batsman has a bat to hit the ball over the boundary, programmers have music to handle that psychological road-block. We go through a lot of emotions of stress and anger because we can’t find a solution. A great way to handle these emotions is to listen to good music — not any type, of course, but the ones that keep you excited and help you think properly.  Try listening to some old band songs like Euphoria, Indian Ocean.

Tip: Listen to music that helps you think, with a few beats and vocals to help you concentrate for longer periods. Too much noise will just make you tired quicker.

2. Avoid panic attacks
We start to panic, thinking of all the things we need to implement under a time constraint. And before we know it, we have done nothing but overthink. Let me say this is ‘quite human and being normal’. A construction worker has the same problem — as do most jobs out there. An effective approach in our field is to write things down, either create a bullet list or do some drawings(some ER diagrams, UI mockups, etc). Doing so, helps to put things into perspective and clear our thoughts.

Tip: If you have too many things to do, begin to prioritize what’s important and what’s not. Ask yourself this: Do I really need to know/do this? If yes, then what value does it provide?

3. Positive mindset
I Can Do This This type of mindset is a good thing to have in terms of taking responsibility toward solving problems. However, we must realize we can never learn something fully — there is always a room for improvement. Asking questions is a great way of getting insight and ideas, especially if we are working in an organisation. Ask questions — questions that are well formulated. Only then we will get exact solutions for it.

Tip: When asking a question, make sure you understand the problem. Building knowledge on top of existing knowledge makes it easier to learn stuff. Also, it helps us to get to the root of any cause.

4. Don’t just read code, run it
When we are learning a new programming language or trying to search a code snippet on google, we should try to write and run it once by ourselves.
Learning is a process that depends on time through consistent discipline. We live in an era where we think just because we watch some online videos, read articles, or listen to talks we get smarter.

Tip: Take the time to do it – you will understand it better, and you will have fun trying to modify the code to create snippets which are more clean and robust.

5. Regular breaks
In my early days of programming, I had this understanding that programming was all about locking yourself inside a dark room and coding all day and night. Similar to what we see in movies these days. However, I gradually realised that programming requires few breaks, similar to what athletes do in most sports activities and so on. Resting the mind leads to creative thinking, and creative thinking leads to better problem- solving.

Tip : Make sure to get enough sleep and enjoy your favourite sport for mind freshness. This is an important factor that we often overlook.

6. Find a mentor
The last but not the least tip is to have a good mentor. A mentor can be motivating or inspiring  if  at some point of time, you feel trapped in a critical situation and just need a spark. One can have more than one mentor in the form of  leads or  fellow colleagues. During my initial days, I struggled to make my mindset think in a particular way that helps in resolving various problems. But thanks to my mentors who gave me a goal to follow and taught me the best practices, helping me to improve on my programming skills and stimulate my professional career.

Tip: Sometimes we just need help from someone. Don’t hesitate to ask for help! It’s all about expressing your gratitude for them and exchange of knowledge.

Summary
In a nutshell, programming can be monotonous sometimes and can drain your energy and motivation levels in life. But as said earlier a good coach or mentor can show you the right way ahead and also create interest and passion in you for coding. In Argusoft, we have a passionate team of mentors for freshers and developers who keep us up to date with the latest technological changes and also guide us in our day to day projects. So, it’s not about the code or the challenging problems but the mindset towards it. Hope this helps you folks!!

Happy Coding!!