Logging programming time can make you a better coder.
To get good at something you need to work on it for 10,000+ hours. Using a tool like WakaTime, you can log your coding hours and utilize these hacks to up your programming game.
- Track yourself learning to code Regardless of what the “be a programmer in 30 minutes” courses tell you, computer science is a study of discipline. By tracking your time coding on a daily, weekly and monthly basis you can observe how hard you are working and how your skill is developing. You should need a lot more work to complete tasks in the beginning than in the end of a course. This would manifest itself in the higher number of files you touch in the same amount of time. Sharing the stats with your teacher will also help.
- Hold yourself accountable for new skills How many times have you thought about learning a new language but reverted to your familiar ones? Thursday, our awesome team member, saw a friend slacking when trying to learn Go. She recommended WakaTime’s language breakdown. After her friend saw how little time she actually spent using Go, she became more motivated and got focused on using the new language.
- See how much time you spend on documentation Sometimes, you might spend time on documentation but don’t know if you are doing enough for yourself or your employer. Taking a look at the markdown files in your WakaTime time logs will show you how much effort you put writing docs. Overall, quantifying your effort goes a long way in achieving your goals. Programming is no different. So start logging, and begin improving.
| Reference: | 3 Hacks to Increase Your Productivity from our JCG partner Priyanka Sharma at the Wakatime blog. |
