Developers have it rough, and I understand it is not easy to be a developer, especially when met with unrealistic deadlines, bugs, code breaks, and threats from AI nowadays.
Needless to say, it is really difficult to stay motivated as a developer sometimes.
Here are some tricks I personally use to stay motivated in my work as well as on personal projects.
Break the problem
One of the fundamental concepts in programming is breaking a bigger problem into smaller chunks that can be solved one after another. Instead of trying to solve a big problem at once, why not take a step back for a moment and break that problem into smaller problems?
A big goal in front of you to finish by a certain deadline will be much harder to tackle than having smaller and more realistic goals to be finished at the same time.
Join communities
What can’t be done alone can only be done with a team. While working independently can hone your skills, working in a team when needed will help you boost your skills by 10X.
It takes less time to debug and find solutions; you can gain perspective from different developers (from different viewpoints) to find the optimal solution.
Join virtual or physical communities with developers of like mind and similar skill sets. They will help you stay motivated.
Find your passion
It sounds obvious, and you might have heard it from thousands of developers. When I say find your passion, I mean “the thing” that first got you into programming. Go back to your roots and do some personal, fun, and bite-sized projects to get yourself the adrenaline that you first got when you started. For me, it was game development that I wanted to do, and ultimately I ended up doing programming. So when I get frustrated with all the errors and bugs, I just take my time off from that and work on personal game projects to keep me motivated.
Take some well-needed rest.
It is one of the most effective ways to stay motivated and also a way to have a long-lasting career in not only the development world but every other aspect of life. We are humans, not machines; we get tired and anxious over repetitive tasks. So in order to not get tired and anxious, you should take some rest and get yourself some fresh air.
Go somewhere cozy, watch something fun, or do some sports; just get out of your chair and do anything new. Refresh your brain, come back, and look at the problem from a different perspective.
I hope these tips and tricks will come in handy in keeping you motivated and creating amazing products.
Happy developing 👨💻
