No Matter How Good You’re At Programming, If You Don’t Have Good Habits

We sometimes get so obsessed with becoming better programmers that forget about building good habits. Now, I’m not referring to good coding habits such as documenting your code or following the DRY principle, but to healthy habits that will help you be at your peak performance as a programmer.

Software engineers, data scientists, and developers have something in common — we all write code on a daily basis. We spend a lot of time in front of a computer and often ignore how our body is feeling. That’s a routine we develop thanks to the deadlines and tight schedules we have.

Most tech people aren’t able to escape this routine. I wasn’t able and probably you weren’t able too. In fact, some days ago I got sad when I learned that one of my favorite YouTubers and excellent Python teacher (Corey Schafer) was facing some health issues.

Not only have Corey’s YouTube videos taught me a lot about Python, but his latest post also reminded me of a valuable lesson—we must listen to our bodies.

I know this firsthand, and, in this article, I’d like to share with you my own story and what habits I follow to have a healthy life and perform better at work.

I used to code many hours per day. One day my body couldn’t handle it anymore

Three years ago, I quit my 9-5 job to start a life as a solopreneur. This meant being my own boss, but also doing all the work myself.

Back then, my goal was to share with people my knowledge of Python, so I’d spend days doing coding projects and nights making video tutorials for my YouTube channel and online courses. 

Unlike most office jobs, I didn’t have a deadline or a boss to please, but I anyway pushed myself to produce the best work possible in little time, so I’d spend hours coding non-stop. 

The result? Little by little I started having problems with my eyes, feeling pain in my neck and even in my ass, but I still kept working because I had to get that damn script working!

Spoiler alert: I always got the script working. Unfortunately, later I discovered that there was a price my body had to pay for the excessive work.