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Keshav Naganathan
Keshav Naganathan

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5 Reasons why Journaling is important for Programmers

As an Information Science student, I have noticed that coding takes a lot of time and energy and after working on something for long hours,the brain gets exhausted.

Especially if there is a bug present in the code or if a certain feature is not able to be implemented,we tend to spend long hours in front of the laptop trying to make it work.

At such times, programmers tend to shut down themselves from everything and just think about solving the problem.

By doing this ,I feel that they're caught in a web of their own thoughts and are not able to think in a different angle or use a different approach.

I have found journaling to be the solution to untangle them from this web and also added a few bonus points below to highlight how important journaling is for a programmer.

For those of you who don't know what journaling is -

"Journaling - It's simply writing down your thoughts and feelings to understand them more clearly".

Now that you have understood what journaling is - read below how it helps -

How Journaling helps programmers :

1. Situation : Let's imagine a programmer not able to find a solution to a certain problem and his mind is filled with different ideas and everything is messed up in the head.

When they put these thoughts on paper,they're able to visualise the problem with a clearer mind and accordingly work towards a solution as the problem is now divided into smaller sub problems -> which is in fact the very essence of programming.

2. Penning down thoughts on paper is an easier way to bifurcate the problem at hand and the approach.

3. When a programmers work load increases, stress is inevitable.

Writing down how you feel is extremely therapeutic and relieves stress almost instantly, it's actually like talking to someone and releasing your tension by "letting out" so you can come back to the code with a fresh mind, completely undisturbed.

Bonus Points :

4. I may be wrong,but something I have observed is that most programmers are huge introverts and engage in limited conversation with everyone.

This is exactly why journaling is the best thing to do, as a diary won't reply back to you or judge you -

It would just listen to you silently and this is basically you having a little quiet time with yourselves- whispering and listening to your thoughts at the same time.

5.The most important reason -

A programmer solves problems, gives a real life solution to an existing problem and has made life so easy by creating so many wonderful applications and continues to update it with wonderful features constantly.

A programmer documents their code and the learning, but what is the point if they don't document their achievements?

A diary is the perfect place to enter all their achievements- It may be as complex as creating a software or as simple as fixing a bug in the code.

It is instrumental that they do this so when they look back some day,they would notice how long they have come in their journey to reach the destination and see that it's those little milestones/achievements that helped them to reach the final destination.

git commit -m "Achievement added"

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See, you can make journaling fun too!

The best part is programmers are super creative individuals and can journal in different ways!

Here's an example-

console.log("I love journaling");
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Do let me know in the comments what you think.

P.S - It's my very first blog post :))

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