One piece of wisdom I am taking to heart is Cory Althoff’s advice to code every day. As a creative writer, I know how important it is to exercise writing skills every day, including thinking like a writer. Therefore, I’m not surprised that for programming, the same ideas apply. Where I was mistaken was that I was going into programming with much more perfectionism, meaning I thought that I couldn’t sit down and write code unless it was going to be a very important and purposeful program, one that will definitely run by the time I was done.

When I sit down to write, I don’t write perfect, ready-to-publish stories or novels each time. I go through draft after draft, and aside from the actual writing, there’s a lot of thinking involved. It takes a lot of time to create something from nothing, regardless of the medium.

Now, I’ve been sitting down to code every day, sometimes by opening up a blank file in my IDE, or sometimes by working on old code. Some projects I’ve done more than once, but I’m tackling them in a different way. Regardless of what I’m doing, this method helps me learn with a more hands-on critical thinking.

It’s also important to have fun. Make something silly, something you think is cool just because. Have fun with it. Get something to work, even if it’s simple. Feel good about yourself. Sometimes it’s important to have fun amidst the learning to help us stay motivated and prevent discouragement. And, for me, I find it so fun to see how my learning continuously improves by repeating simple projects at different times.

There you have it! Code (and write!) every day!