Programming can be fun and challenging. Writing good code even more so. At times, we can be confused looking at code that we just wrote or code we wrote several months ago. We can write better code by incorporating these four coding habits.

Learn new things

Learning new things can help you elevate boredom. Yes, sometimes programming can get boring. You can fix that by trying out a new tool, technique or programming language. As technology and programming constantly changes, you may be wanting to learn the latest language that everyone is talking about. Try to learn one language at a time. By focusing on a single language, you can learn how to use it and when.

Read

Read about programming and technology. Don’t get your information from only blogs and online magazines. Read books. Books can teach more than a blog post can. Also, read code. Not code included in tutorials but actual published code. By reading the code you copied from Stackoverflow or downloaded from Github, you can learn new ways of writing and organizing your code.

Experiment

The best way to learn a new programming language or framework is to build something with it. You can start with a tutorial or a throwaway project. Throwaway projects help you learn new skills while creating something new. These projects are for experimenting and learning you don’t publish them.

Share what you have learned

Share with others what you have learned. Write a blog post on the things that you learned from your experimental project. If you don’t like writing, create a video on YouTube or talk at a Meetup. By sharing what you have learned, you may can new insights on what you had created.

Summary

Keeping up with new technology can be a full-time job by itself. To keep your programming skills fresh, you should set aside time to learn new things, read about programming and technology, create your own programming experiments and share with others what you have learned.

Looking for more habits to help make you a better programmer? Sonny Recio describes the habits he uses to be a better software engineer.