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Mohammad Fazel
Mohammad Fazel

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How to develop self-discipline as programmers

If you have had read books about time management and success, you may already know about the importance of self-discipline and how it could impact on our progress.
Most of the time we procrastinate a lot and postpone the most important priorities to the next day, then we start doing things that is easy with no valuable results.

What is the self-discipline?

Some people think self-discipline is working hard within 24 hours without taking breaks and just endure the situation!
Nope, it is only part of self discipline.
The most important factor about self-discipline is mental health.
In general the wise person is someone that knows when is the time to take rests and also knows when is the time to hustle.
It takes time to become sophisticated, we learn by trying, failing and doing it again and again and again.

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I am not writing this article, telling you must get up at 04:00 A.M and achieve your goals.
People have different traits, what I am talking about is consistency.
for example : if you work until midnight efficiently so do it everyday, keep this schedule and never break it, this is the self-discipline's rule.

As Warren Buffett says
“We don’t have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplined than the rest.”

Simply take these 4 steps so as to manage self-discipline.
Note : if there is any suggestions those will be welcomed.

1. Devise the plan and know where exactly you are going

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The very first step that you need to take is having a goal in your mind and act on purpose.
Actually when you know what the target is, you won't get distracted by circumstances easily.

Most of the successful people and the entrepreneurs insist on writing goals and achievements, so what are you waiting for? start by writing as much as you can and finally you will find your path.
I personally do it myself and started by reading a very amazing book called Write it down, make it happen by Klauser, Henriette Anne, recommend this book a lot!

To be honest if you are not patient enough to do things, it is not useful to read these kind of books...

2. Just do it!

Talk is cheap, just show me the action!

Now it is time to act and just do what you have devised, with anything you have, it does not matter if it is not the right time.
For instance me, I never have had written long text English article like this before, so start with whatever you have because if I had scared and saw my knowledge I would never have written down this article.

Remember : People won't consider what you were going to do and what ideas you had in your mind, they do not care at all!! until you do it and rather than just speaking about it, do it in action.

3. Measure your progress

original : quickanddirtytips.com/productivity/project-management/how-to-measure-progress-achieve-goals

Gather everything you have done successfully and even failed, details and facts about your process.
Know the reasons accurately and figure out the results carefully, for example : find out why you have successfully done X and why you were unable to get done with the Y task.
It helps you to know your strengths and weaknesses.

Rate your progress, look at you checklists and things you have had done then start to rate them all like how you did it and why it was the priority.

Not measuring your progress, how far you have come over your ideas is equal to not having self-discipline.

Here's a great article for measuring progress

4. Transform, Modify and Retry!

Success cycle.

Do not stop!!!
You have a lot to go, if you feel things are perfect and you know everything that is the time to change your mind.
As you go you have to do more and push more as much as you can, never stop because you have done something successfully unless expect to fail very soon...

After understanding your strengths and weaknesses, you have two options :

1. focusing more on weaknesses and trying to turn them into strength.

2. if your weaknesses are not that important, focus on the strengths and build them up.

It really depends on the situation and needs your cautiousness, if you do the 3 step right you will have no problem about this step.
Never forget that it takes time and energy, nothing valuable is easy so theses steps are dependent on one another do not try to reverse the steps!

NO PROBLEM IF YOU FAIL

You have failed? that's awesome! it means you are learning and really doing it, the person who never fails, never does something.

Conclusion

It was my first long English article on dev.to so if there was any problem and you did not understand it, I am sorry :).
Please do not hesitate to ask, criticize and suggest.

By the way you can follow me on :
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Happy coding, wish you all the best.

Top comments (2)

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lewiskori profile image
Lewis kori

Great article. I'll apply some of this principles as I develop in not only my career, but life in general.

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mdhesari profile image
Mohammad Fazel • Edited

Thank you Lewis, I'm glad that you like it😉