It does not matter whether you are new to programming or already an experienced developer – every person from time to time falls into procrastination. Beginners sometimes find it hard to tune in even to the online programming tutors, and experienced programmers just get tired of their work and don’t know where to find inspiration. If you now recognize yourself and you are in such a situation, these are ways to get new interest in programming for you.
#1 Find Out What New Happens in Programming
The best way to be inspired by work is to talk to your colleagues. But not with those who sit at the next table and work on the same project as you, but with colleagues from another office, city, or even country. It would be great if you do it offline. Look at conferences in your area of interest or specialization, and go to them boldly. You never know what fresh ideas will come to mind after such a party.
#2 Take Care of Yourself
Do not push yourself with the idea that you need to stop procrastinating, and develop here and now. Taking care of yourself and your comfort will work much more effectively. It concerns everything: your favorite occupation, a mandatory ritual in the morning, even your workplace. Believe me, it is much easier to program in a comfortable chair than in a chair, which hurts your back.
#3 Update Tools for Work
Every programmer has a favorite editor, a favorite system, and in general an ideal set of tools with which you can go to fire and water. Don’t give them up if they suit you well, but have you tried anything else? Is it possible that an update has been released or maybe a new startup has recently released an advanced tool? Install it, try how it works, check the new features. It’s always inspiring to deal with something new.
#4 Take a Break from Programming
It is a myth that a top specialist always works, talks about work or thinks about work. It is not only normal but also useful to be interested in something else in life. When you rest and immerse yourself in something new, your brain reboots. And when you expand your horizons, you give yourself a chance to come up with something at the intersection of specialties. Plus, people who are far from programming can help you look at some obvious things for you from a new perspective.
#5 Sign Up For the Programmers Forum
This is both a way to make new acquaintances, to see the problems your colleagues face and to be the first to know all the news. Sometimes it can be dangerous just to read about programming, instead of sitting down and doing your job. But if you dose the time spent on the forum, it will be a good source of inspiration.
#6 Come Up With a Project “For Entertainment”
A good project must be original, creative and be able to be sold. But if you’re doing a project just for fun, all these criteria can be thrown away, and you can only focus on one: you should be interested in implementing it. Do this project in your spare time when you want to program but don’t want to work.
#7 Focus on Who’s Cooler than You
Even if you are already a top professional, there will always be someone better. Perhaps not in all aspects, but at least in one. You don’t have to have one single idol to follow; just look at someone else’s code on GitHub, notice the successful implementations and solutions and take them for yourself.
#8 Learn New Programming Language
This does not mean that you have to change your specialty. But if you only program in Java, at some point you get used to it and its methods and libraries. But in different languages, there are different possibilities, and some techniques from Python can be very useful for some tasks, for example, with data. SQL will teach you how to build more structural code and JavaScript, on the contrary, flexibility.
#9 Try New Approach to Work
In general terms, programmers just write code. But if you look deeper into this work, you realize that everyone works differently. Someone spends a lot of time on research and then writes the code in one sitting. The other one immediately makes a “sketch” and then fixes the details. Look at how others work to refresh your approach and learn something new. It is useful to change the approach from time to time because each of them has advantages and disadvantages.
This is the whole list. If you analyze it, you can highlight the main direction of the tips: try, go beyond and not be afraid to develop. If you keep this rule in your head, you can modify the techniques for yourself, highlight which works best for you. And, of course, do not dwell on inspiration. Even in the most creative work, the most important is the “inspiration” and “muse”, and hard work and understanding why you do it. If you don’t know why you want to study programming or develop it further, no technique can help you. And if you do, it is important to just remind yourself of it from time to time.
