Relax Imagine And Code

Sometimes I don't feel motivated to get things done. I work for myself. No one will fire me if I don't work. I won't go out of business. I won't lose customers. I could sit in front of the TV all day and do nothing.

Of course, I feel a whole lot better when I work. I get excited about ideas. I smile. I challenge myself. My business improves.

So why do I sometimes go weeks without writing code? Or sit down and force myself to work, without really getting into it?

What happened to the old days, when I'd come home from school and fire up TurboPascal for a few hours of just plain messing around?

I think in the years I worked as a professional software developer, I got BurntOut.

Over the past two or three years, I discovered PythonLanguage and UnitTests and DesignPatterns. I realized I could push myself to the next level as a developer.

I read ExtremeProgrammingExplainedEmbraceChange and ThePragmaticProgrammer and RefactoringImprovingTheDesignOfExistingCode. I taught myself Emacs and CVS.

I know I have a million things to learn. Lately I have discovered SqueakSmalltalk and HaskellLanguage.

But it seems to me that all this learning doesn't help until I apply it. And I have used it. But it seems lately I do more learning than using. Learning and playing is easier than creating something worthwhile.

Knowledge is useless until we apply it.

And yet, lately, when I think about sitting down to write some real code, It just hasn't seemed like fun.

I want to change that. I want the FunOfDoing? back, not just the FunOfLearning?.

This wiki makes me smile. So many smart people leaving their thoughts for other people to find. I like the plain white pages. I like clicking a link and writing this page.

Wiki tells me to DoSimpleThings. I like that. I can do that.

I don't need to force myself to be productive. I don't need to worry about completing my projects anymore. Even if I did, maybe forcing myself doesn't work too well.

Maybe it makes more sense to just relax for a minute. Clear my head. Put a smile on my face and sit up straight and come back to BeginnersMind.

What do I want to build? Not a big thing. Something small. One little piece. WriteTheUnitTestFirst?.

Run the test. It fails. A challenge!

What can I do? DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork.

It worked! How exciting!

So breathe in. Exhale. Smile.

Relax. Imagine the next thing for a minute. Write the code.

Relax, imagine and code.

Do it again.

And again.

And soon I have the MentalStateCalledFlow.

The work gets done, little bit by little bit.

ThankYou for teaching me this.

-- MichalWallace

Beautiful!