5 Habits that Programmers Must Have!

As a programmer, I understand how demanding our work can be, requiring high levels of focus and often consuming significant amounts of time. Despite our efforts, the results don't always meet our expectations. Through my work experience and insights from colleagues, I've come to realize the importance of habits in achieving our goals. A book that has been particularly insightful in this regard is Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." Covey states, “the way we see the world is entirely based on our own perceptions.”

Rather than being overwhelmed by the vastness of the world, let's focus on smaller, more manageable aspects—specifically, our daily activities. As a programmer, I've identified several habits that can boost productivity. These insights are based on my experiences, so your results may vary, but I believe they will be beneficial if practiced diligently. Let's dive in!

1. Be Proactive

In his book, Covey describes two types of circles that define our lives: the Circle of Concern, which includes things outside our control, and the Circle of Influence, which includes things we can control.

Reactive people tend to focus on the Circle of Concern, worrying about aspects beyond their control. In contrast, proactive people concentrate on the Circle of Influence, focusing on what they can manage and change. This concept is particularly relevant for programmers.

Reactive programmers often get caught up in concerns like office conditions or company finances, believing that their careers can be determined by watching videos like "How to Become the Best Programmer in Three Months." On the other hand, proactive programmers take charge of their growth by practicing, participating in interviews and competitions, and creating opportunities to achieve their career goals.

Proactive individuals understand the importance of being aware of external factors but ultimately take responsibility for their own careers. To be proactive, focus on finding inspiration and control from within, rather than relying on others for a "magic recipe." This approach ensures you remain grounded and effective in pursuing your aspirations.

2. Begin With the End in Mind

Many of us spend our lives going with the flow and we don't even know our purpose. So all we have is hope which is not a good strategy in any case. Stephen Covey says "Start with the end in mind" In other words, in doing anything, including starting a project, you must determine clear measures of success and a plan to achieve them.

If you apply this to programming, whenever you start a new project, you'll take the time to understand the final product. What are the functional and non-functional requirements of the features to be built?

I remember someone saying software engineering is the art of making trade-offs. There are rarely right and wrong answers but rather a matter of determining the different types of design, and what the pros and cons are in a given case. Believe it or not, I have experienced that spending 30 minutes on careful planning can save you more than 10 hours of programming.

“People are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren’t getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope with all of their might.” Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Of course, this is not easy because every plan can go wrong, I also fell into it several times. But this is still much better than not planning anything at all.

3. Put First Things First

Having the ability to choose what is important and what is not is also an effective habit. By being able to sort your interests according to your needs, you will be able to prioritize the order of work that will be done first.

This habit is closely related to time management. Covey advises us to do the main thing based on the four quadrants he created which he called the Eisenhower Matrix.

Previously I thought this quadrant was not that important for my tasks. And it turns out that this is often ignored by most programmers. When I worked as a Software Engineer, I was constantly bombarded by bugs that needed to be resolved. On the other hand, I also have long-term projects to complete.

When you are under so much pressure, you will forget to learn. So if your code has a problem, you just want to go to Google or use AI and copy-paste the solution without really understanding it. Yes, truly understanding the cause of the problem is important for learning, but it is not urgent. For many programmers, learning stops as our careers progress. That's why you need to pay attention to the tasks that fall into this quadrant and schedule specific times for your long-term success. In other words, prioritize and achieve your most important goals rather than constantly reacting to urgency.

4. Think Win-Win

One person's gain is another person's loss - this idea is very familiar in our brains probably because of the various competitions and sporting events that we usually watch. In this book, Dr. Covey considers it important to develop an "abundance mentality". That is, believing that there are enough resources and opportunities for everyone to succeed. This mindset is crucial to having a successful career as a Software Engineer. We work alongside other engineers and people in other job functions such as Data Science and Product Management.

Being able to collaborate effectively is one of the main skills you need to have. So, it is very important to be able to rise above personal career goals and have a win-win mindset for the team. Not just winning yourself by making other people lose, or giving in to others so they win, or even making other people lose because we also lose.

Getting used to always thinking about being able to win over many parties will make us always try to achieve the best results. More than that, this also greatly affects our relationships with other people in the long term.

To build good relationships in the long term, we need to establish relationships with many people. Through think win-win this will help us build a good reputation or image in the future and will make our work more effective in the longer term.

5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

Are you the type of person who is busy asking for your own feedback long before giving someone else a chance? This is not something Stephen Covey recommends.

In order to be understood by other people, the first thing we need to do is understand other people first. Effective people will be able to have great empathy and respect other people by understanding them.

But how does this apply to programmers? In addition to verbal communication, engineers also use their code to communicate with each other. Effective programmers understand the importance of empathy in coding. They prioritize clarity in their code to ensure that others, including themselves in the future, can understand and maintain it easily.

Apart from other engineers, programmers also communicate with end users through their products. Effective programmers prioritize user experience by putting themselves in the end user's shoes. They anticipate user needs, design interfaces that deliver, and create error messages that guide users instead of confusing them.

References franklincovey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People