What habits do you think developers should focus on? I spoke to a real pro and his last one is going to surprise you!

Having a great network of experienced developers is priceless. Tim Andersen knows his stuff. He works as an agile coach and software developer.

Tim’s Advice

When I asked him about developer habits he replied. “Developer habits! There are so many things I could talk about here.” He knows the ropes and what it takes to succeed in corporate work and consulting.

Hotkeys and TDD

Tim reminds us that we need to learn small things and big ideas. “ A lot of it has to do with learning or skillset acquisition, but I think there is something more interesting.” Productivity and learning go hand in hand.

Autopilot

As a developer myself, I always like to see people leverage their brains. He shared, “ I would maybe go a bit deeper and geek out on how to habit-hack your brain. For something to stick, it needs to become automatic.” Similar to how you wake up the same way every day.

Hack your Habits

Tim shares how he learned to hack his habits. Through reading books like Atomic Habits and Tiny Habits he saw what was possible.

“Each habit has a queue, craving, response, and reward. By reverse-engineering the process of how something becomes a habit, we can be more intentional about the habits we design.”

As a programmer, this is right up our alley. Essentially we can tap into the Human API. Think of this like a cron job for people. This gets my mind racing with opportunities.

Writing

The last one Tim shared surprised me. I am guessing it may surprise you too. We do it often but it is overlooked.

Writing to a broad group (an audience, or a blog) is incredibly intimidating and difficult to get started with. Writing to an individual, I find I can do fairly easily.

Developers think of writing code. Not writing to communicate. Then many of us wonder why we never can convince others.

Good writing can influence others. Along with that, it can help us work through our thoughts. Instead of just going into your boss and telling them we need to change something, take a step back and write it up.

Thoughts untangle themselves over lips and through pencil tips — Dr. Howard Hendricks

What are the main points? Create an outline and write up what you want to say. Think about the objections you might get. It can save you a ton.

Josh was our business stakeholder. I shared how we should change the registration process to use new technology. He couldn’t care less.

The next time I created an outline for the change. I wrote up what I would say. I framed it from his perspective. I shared how it would make it easier for users and save us money. That sounded like music to his ears.

Programmers are like everyone. They have habits too. We need to leverage our brain’s tendencies. Use habits to our advantage and make our lives easier. Coding can be simple when you use the right habits!