On Instagram and Twitter, I recently created polls where I asked how many of you guys meditate, and only about 30% voted positively. This number should be much higher, considering how many benefits mindfulness meditation provides, especially for people who use their brains as much as programmers. If done regularly, meditation can drastically reduce stress, frustration … Read more
Does that sound familiar? You know you should be doing something important, something that benefits your life or helps you avoid a lot of trouble in the future. Maybe this task is difficult, but you know you could get it done if you would just focus on it for a while. But instead you spend … Read more
Health and fitness are not the most interesting topics for someone looking for programming tips and code examples, but nevertheless we have to keep our body and mind in check if we want to stay sharp and productive. Because besides adding years to our life, healthy habits also let us have more energy and focus … Read more
Motivation is a tricky topic. There were some things in my life for which I had strong burning desire in the beginning, but after a couple of weeks my motivation completely plummeted and often I even ended up hating this particular task, hobby or project. This can easily happen when you invest a lot of time … Read more
As I already explained in my Incremental Progress over Intense Sprints blog post, I think it is much better to make steady, incremental progress rather than going super hard for short periods of time and eventually burn out. If you can combine both, perfect, but don’t confuse the initial boost of motivation that you always … Read more
Let’s face it: Learning to code is hard and can be quite frustrating. It’s also very satisfying when something finally clicks or a piece of code works, but the next session of sitting in front of your PC with 10 tabs of different Google searches, Stackoverflow questions and documentation opened — while stressfully ripping your hair … Read more
Since I’ve discovered my motivation to achieve something in life rather than just wasting my time with leisure, bad nutrition and alcohol in my early 20s, I’ve always wanted to be one of those guys that say about themselves, that they work “really really hard”. You know, like Gary Vaynerchuk, Elon Musk or any other … Read more