8 Tips and Tricks to Stay Alert and Focused While Coding
As someone that has been using code for 12-13 years, these are my 8 top tips and tricks that I have learnt over the years to stay alert and focused.
Keep your mind and environment calm
Listening to calm music can help to stay calm in hyper situations. Having a calm environment can also help you to stay concentrated for long periods of time.
Being comfortable with your environment helps you concentrate for a longer period of time. Enlighten your environment, sitting in darkness can cause strain on your eyes.
Pen and paper could be very useful
Writing things down enables a higher level of thinking, and therefore, more focused action. When your brain isn't busy remembering everything, your brain can then process anything.
Pen and paper also assist in taking your eyes off the screen which is a big relief for the eyes as we stare at the screen all the time.
Have an appropriate plan
Before starting, having a well thought out plan will help to view your path. You don't have to have a final road map but having requirements written down will help you stick to the path and not deviate. If you have an end goal decided, having a proper plan will help you reach that goal much quicker. This will also stop you from overthinking which would otherwise waste a lot of your time.
Break the complex problems into smaller pieces
Whenever I want to understand a complex problem, I try to break the problem into smaller pieces. It's easier to understand small problems and coding them is relatively easier. This also helps in debugging the program.
If you have a huge program, it would be hard to test and debug the program. You would be breaking the program to test individual functionality. So it's better to start by breaking your program into functions.
Don’t stick to one method, you can change the method but still perform the same function
There are always alternative methods that can perform the same functionality. Sometimes there would be many options to perform the same action. Choose the method that suits you and your functionality the best. It would depend on what type of action you want to perform with this method. Also, time complexity and space complexity are something that you should consider when coding.
Take small breaks
Working for a long time could be stressful and you won't be able to concentrate completely on the problem. Taking small breaks can help you relax and free your mind. This also helps you get a new perspective on the problem.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
If you're having trouble solving a problem, it's better to seek assistance rather than waste hours attempting to figure it out on your own. It's extremely possible that someone else has asked the same question, and that someone has responded with a solution.
It's not a big deal if you get stuck on a problem; everyone gets trapped at some point. The only need is that you know where to look for assistance. Requesting assistance from your seniors will help you address the problem more quickly. You can also seek assistance from websites such as StackOverflow and geeksforgeeks. If no one has ever asked that question, asking it in the community might be a terrific way to share difficulties. Someone in the same situation in the future could benefit from this.
Using comments
Comments would be extremely beneficial in comprehending the code. It will be useful to someone else who is interested in this programme besides you. Even if you've been watching the programme for a while, you could be perplexed by some of the code. Comments will assist you in gaining a better knowledge of the programme. Having meaningful comments sprinkled throughout the software will speed up the implementation process even more. Even minor comments would make a significant difference in code maintenance.
A ReadMe file will come in handy when explaining what your application does to someone who isn't a coder or who isn't familiar with programming.
Learning how to code is exciting and even a bit daunting at first. Remember that every coder struggles a bit when they’re first starting out, and you shouldn’t expect anything different from yourself. It’s simply part of the learning process.