The Power of Atomic Habits for Becoming a Better Software Developer
As a matter of fact, enhancing by 1 percent is not considered seriously; however, it could be more meaningful when you use this strategy with long-term vision to make remarkable outcomes in different areas. James Clear recommends even though that goals are proper for setting a direction in your life, systems would be the best solution for making constant progress. Thus, implementing a system of continuous gradual improvements can lead to achieve different results. Improvements are only temporary until they become part of your identity. To be more specifically, an alternative to have outcome-based habits is to build identity-based habits. This essay aims to discuss some main concepts and ideas for becoming a better software developer by using atomic habits.
Introduction and Overview
In fact, it would be easy to overestimate the significance of one matter and underestimate the value of making gradual enhancements in our daily routines. In most situations, we typically persuade ourselves that considerable success needs massive action. Therefore, we try to put pressure on ourselves to make an incredible improvement that people will mention it in future. In the meantime, improving by 1 percent is not considered seriously, but it could be more meaningful when you use this strategy with long-term vision to make remarkable outcomes in different areas.
A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.
An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.
— James Clear
This means success is not a goal to achieve or a destination to arrive. In short, it can be a system for enhancing and an infinite process for refining as well. James Clear explains that goals are proper for setting a direction in your life; however, systems would be the best solution for making constant progress. He believes that some problems could be occurred when you mostly focus on reaching your goals instead of designing your appropriate systems. The reason is that achieving a goal just only changes your life for this moment. This can be able to restrict your happiness. As a result, if you are really interested in the process rather than the product, you will not have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can have sense of satisfaction anytime your system is running.
The goal had always been there. It was only when they implemented a system of continuous small improvements that they achieved a different outcome.
Success is the product of daily habits — not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
Forget about goals, focus on systems instead.
— James Clear
Basically, implementing a system of continuous gradual improvements can lead to achieve different results. Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are. Nevertheless, enhancements are just only temporary until they become part of who you are(identity). In other words, an alternative to have outcome-based habits is to build identity-based habits. Thus, unlike focusing on what they want to achieve, by using this approach, we begin with focusing on who we wish to become. For instance, if you are planning to become an exceptional software developer (the outcome), you should focus on becoming a lifelong learner developer (the identity) who finds different ways to learn some valuable topics in daily life. Furthermore, your behaviors are a reflection of your identity in general. Research has proved that once people believes in a special part of their identities, they are more likely to act in that direction with this belief. The key point is that the relation between identity and behavior is mutually. This means your habits shape your identity, and your identity also shapes your habits. If you are proud of your identity’s part that you are created recently, the probability of maintaining this habit would be much higher in future.
James Clear also recommends if you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself some questions: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying? In a word, there are a simple set of rules that you can use them to build better habits (the Four Laws of Behavior Change): 1. make it obvious 2. make it attractive 3. make it easy 4. make it satisfying.
Finally, you can start to believe what you want to accomplish in various areas, particularly in software development by following two simple steps that are offered by James Clear:
1. Decide the type of person you want to be.
2. Prove it to yourself with small wins.
This article will discuss some main concepts for becoming a better software developer by using atomic habits.
Repetition as the key point
Fundamentally, the idea is that you can program yourself to repeat the same habits again and again in order to notice incremental improvements over the long-term. To change your life in programming with your results, you should do gradual growth continuously(coding and learning together) in a daily basis to build a habit. What you require to understand and appreciate is the significance of incremental steps that you decide to take in a conscious way, which they finally lead to success.
A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.
James Clear
Also, habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. As a software developer, you have seen this term in various topics, like CI/CD and iterative development processes for delivering a software product. So, it is obvious that repetition plays an essential role in software development in practice.
If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.
The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.
James Clear
All you should do is to make programming a daily activity for creating a routine. All habits, like programming, follow a similar pattern from difficult practice to automatic behavior, which is called automaticity. Automaticity means the ability to accomplish a task without thinking about each step that occurs when the unconscious mind can address it effectively. This means you can be able to implement your software projects more quickly and productively if you use your unconscious mind by practicing and repeating regularly.
Eventually, habits mainly create based on frequency, not time. The amount of time you have been developing a piece of code is not as significant as the number of times you have developed it.
Becoming a lifelong learner in software development
To survive in this competitive world, particularly in software development, you have to continuously improve your skills. Recently, employers want their workforce to be up-to-date with software industry standards and technologies. Therefore, to keep your pace with these substantial advancements, you can accomplish different tasks in your daily routine, such as enhancement programs, online trainings, tutorials, and etc. Upskilling yourself could be a turning point in your career as a software developer.
Your habits contribute most of the evidence that shapes your identity. In this way, the process of building habits is actually the process of becoming yourself.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
James Clear
As it was mentioned, your behaviors are a reflection of your identity in general. What you do is an important sign of the type of person you believe that you are. If you are in favor of becoming the best version of yourself as a software developer, you will need to upgrade and upskill your identity. If you study programming for one hour every day, you have an evidence that you are a lifelong learner in software development. The more evidence you collect for this belief that you are a successful software developer, you will believe this fact more firmly in reality. By having this approach, the process of building proper habits in programming is the process of becoming a better software developer in practice.
Moreover, understanding more than just one programming language, IDE and framework will expand your experience and make your code more flexible and agile. Statistics shows that that top 1% of software developers get inspired by studying professional blogs and, surprisingly, fiction.
Surround yourself with motivated people
Naturally, we tend to imitate the habits of those around us. If you want to be a great developer, you should surround yourself with great developers. For example, you can join online communities and participate in a conferences. Sometimes, when you do not feel motivated, interacting with active people who around you could be enough to push you to keep your pace in your developing habits.
Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together.
James Clear
When you surround yourself with positive influences, it would become much easier to stay focused on your system. You will feel motivated when you spend time with these people. Even, you can find some solutions and ideas in your software projects over these interactions and conversations in some cases.
In conclusion
In fact, implementing a system of continuous incremental improvements can lead to achieve various results. Enhancements are just only temporary until they become part of you identity. To be more precisely, an alternative to have outcome-based habits is to build identity-based habits. This article considered some main ideas for becoming a better software developer by using atomic habits approach. The power of atomic habits is that small changes can create remarkable results in practice. All in all, this is a continuous process, and there is no destination.
