A few summers ago
(No, I do not dare count.)
I was on holiday and decided to try and write a little bit of code every day as one of those classic simple ways of building up the code muscles. It worked okay for a while during that holiday, but as new activities often go I had to apply a little bit of force to work on something, could not decide what to write and so on. All the usual problems you have when trying to form a new habit. So the project faded out, even though I thought about it regularly and still like the idea.
Now this summer holiday is coming to an end (nooo). There have been plenty of days during which I have not coded. But now, days like that - especially several in succession - clearly stand out as the exception, the unusual case. I have to put a little bit of energy in to decide that it is in fact good to be on holiday and let the curly braces rest every now and then.
This has to be progress.
(Right, I looked up how many summers ago it was. 2009, not as distant as I feared.)
A big part of the "secret" is probably the fact that I have a bit more code lying around in a few different projects which is both meaningful enough to build on, and also simple and nonessential enough to play with.
Many things have not changed at all. I would still like to do more toy and test projects to figure stuff out. I like stuff to feel useful, so I tend to bolt whatever new thing I amd trying to figure out right onto the code I want it for. But getting it in the "right" place right away certainly is not the way to make things cleanest and simplest. It works to get me going, but that could be the next area to apply some conscious effort to. Play with parts first, then put them together once I understand them (a little bit more). And I would still like to simply write more code more often and with less effort. To sum up: I am still and still want to keep moving in the same direction, but it was nice to look back and notice that I have kept making progress.
Also unchanged: I still am too good at distracting myself.
Twitter! Facebook! Squirrel!
I do not predict that changing much regardless of energy spent.