After observing hundreds of people go through Makers Academy, we’ve identified some habits that our most successful students seem to follow. This isn’t a universal truth, but as George E. P. Box said:
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.”
1) Be Healthy
Your brain can’t function well if you’re not maintaining your body. Just like a machine, your body needs the right fuel and periodic maintenance. I start with health because it’s a keystone habit. If you make small changes here, you’ll see major changes in other places. Without health, it’s hard to be happy. If you’re not happy, your brain will often give up without giving a problem the attention it deserves.
Here are the low-hanging fruit when it comes to health changes:
- Exercise — Sweat for 10–15 minutes every day. You’ll be sitting in a chair for most of the day while learning to code so doing Yoga kills two birds with one stone. It will help you with your blood circulation while also keeping you flexible.
- Diet — Eat healthy. You know what’s good for you and what isn’t. Try to minimise the stuff that isn’t.
- Sleep — Prioritise getting a full night’s rest. Your brain doesn’t function as well when it doesn’t get an opportunity to shut down for a while.
If you can make these three health changes, your machine (YOU) will run much better.
2) Be Mentally Healthy
There are a few additional things that you can do to keep your mental acuity in tip-top shape. Being able to focus and reach deep levels of concentration are directly tied to the idea of “mental quietness.” Some people are able to achieve mental quietness easily, while others have to work at it.
One of the best ways to exercise your brain’s ability to focus is by meditating. The technique isn’t super important (although I do recommend Transcendental Meditation) — what’s important is that you find a way to quiet your mind.
3) Manage Your Willpower
Knowing what to do and how to do it isn’t always enough. You also need the drive to do it.
I’ve written about the various mindsets that we recommend you cultivate to get the most from your learning to code experience, but this is somewhat different. Every time you force yourself to do something that you don’t want to do, you use up a little of that day’s willpower. If you completely deplete your willpower over the course of weeks or months, this is how you burn out. Recovering from burnout is a very long and difficult process.
You avoid all of this by observing yourself over time. Try to determine your own circadian rhythm. If you realise that you focus better in the morning, try to schedule the hardest work for that time. If you find yourself getting overly frustrated, take a break. Try to figure out what activities recharge you (i.e. talking to a friend, walking around the block, etc.) and build them into your routine. Some people use the Pomodoro technique as a reminder to get up and move around.
4) Practice Getting “In Flow”
This is the most abstract and difficult habit to form.
Most people are trained to think in terms of subject and object. The subject (you) is taking action on an object (your code). What happens to great craftsmen (and yes — coding is a craft) is that this dichotomy between subject and object begins to disappear. For lack of a better description, you stop distinguishing between you and your code.
Athletes often recite tales of being “in the zone” and how they weren’t consciously thinking about what they were doing. Josh Waitzkin in the “Art of Learning” talks about how professional chess players don’t logically consider every alternative 8 moves in advance — they just begin to feel the game and react to that feeling. Developer’s talk about being “in flow.”
When learning a completely new skill, you have to take a classical (i.e. using logic / reason) approach. But as you progress you’ll learn how to integrate the romantic (i.e. art / style) approach into your craft.
While it’s very difficult to plan for “flow,” Robert Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance lays out some things you can do to prime yourself for it. The three things it recommends is to find physical quietness, mental quietness and a state of zen.
Physical quietness and mental quietness are fairly straightforward. Get into a comfortable position in a pleasant environment. You shouldn’t be in any physical discomfort or around environmental distractions. Clear your head.
The best description given for a “state of zen” is to “remove desire.” People get frustrated when trying to solve a problem if they don’t feel like they’re making progress. Frustration has a negative impact on creativity and thus decreases the chances they’ll solve the problem. If you can maintain physical and mental quietness while also removing desire, you enter “flow.”
You’ll recognise the power of this approach if you think back to a time when you were looking forward to doing something that somebody would define as “work.” Perhaps you used to be a woodworker and found yourself really looking forward to going into work one day. You knew that difficulties were likely to arise — maybe the wood would crack or the stain wouldn’t come out the right colour — but you were in such a state that you were enjoying the work for the work itself (obstacles and all).
Contrast this to the day you are forced to go in and every little difficulty is mentally blown up into an over-exaggerated mountain of a problem.
Achieving “flow” is difficult, but it’s where truly exceptional craftsmen try to return to over and over again.
For more advice on how to embed wellness and mindfulness into the best practices of being a developer, contact Makers Academy and we’ll put you in touch with Dana, our Chief Joy Officer.
