Step One.
It’s a journey for the long haul. Marathon runners have spots along the race to get water and a good share of encouragement from spectators. Start building your own pit stops along the way to get that as well. A written record of this journey will help you build a stable foundation. Something you can use to push through the challenging times.
Keep a written journal or better yet take advantage of the internet and keep a blog. As with all thing’s moderation is key. Don’t focus on number of likes, clicks, and follows online. Keep in mind your original purpose, to track the little wins and gain momentum to tackle the bigger roadblocks. Have a passion for what you do, and the rest will fall into place.
Step Two.
We know fixing bugs is the most time consuming and just as important, positive attitude consuming activity we can engage in. How do we reduce this? Great question. Let’s look at another well researched industry for inspiration, the medical field. Prevention is better than cure. So how can we prevent the self-inflicted roadblock from happening to begin with?
Often, we just want to run the race. Let’s jump in, roll up our sleeves, and type the greatest code the worlds ever seen. At least that’s our thought. The truth is that coding is only a tool and the resulting source code is a method to deliver a solution. The most important part about code is not writing the code but A) analyzing the problem and B) designing a proper solution to it. Picking the appropriate building blocks is much easier once that is in place.
Create an IPO model of your problem:
- Input
- What is your starting point? Do you have any known constants? Where is your variable data? Is it from file, the user or both? This is where you start defining the initial attributes of your program.
- Processing
- What actions must take place to move from your condition of input to the conditions listed as your final output? Leave this blank untill you map your Output state.
- Output
- This is the end state of your code successful processing. Define what that output will be then go back and write the processes needed to transition from your input state into the desired output state.
To quote a mentor of mine; “Make sure you’re asking the right questions first, before you spend all of your time chasing the wrong answers.”. That sounds like an obvious thought, but you’ll be amazed throughout your career how often that is overlooked. If you can take this to heart you’ll start seeing opportunity for solutions before problems even occur.
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