Stop When You Know What Happens Next

People in many professions -- computer programmers certainly among them -- sometimes have difficulty leaping right into their work at the start of the day.

Therefore:

Choose your end-of-day stopping point with the idea of having a good starting point the next day, one which will immediately draw you into your work.

For programmers, this might mean ending the day by writing a UnitTest and beginning the next day by making it pass. It might mean leaving a PromptingStatement in your notebook.

"I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way, I could be sure of going on the next day." -- Ernest Hemingway, Nobel Laureate

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I attended a talk on writing by Colin Greenland ("Harm's Way", "Take Back Plenty". Probably not as famous as Hemingway, but a nice chap) and he said a similar thing: when you stop overnight, stop halfway through a sentence. That way, when you get up in the morning, you know the first thing you need to do, and by the time you've finished that sentence, you're back in the flow... --KatieLucas

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