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Last fall, work on my coding side projects came to a head: I wasn’t making adequate progress and I couldn’t find a way to get more done without sacrificing my ability to do effective work at Khan Academy.
去年秋天我的业余编程项目(coding side projects)到了一个紧要关头：没有充足的进度，也不能够找到一种方法在既不牺牲我可汗学院(Khan Academy)高效的工作的前提下完成更多的事情。
There were a few major problems with how I was working on my side projects. I was primarily working on them during the weekends and sometimes in the evenings during the week. This is a strategy that does not work well for me, as it turns out. I was burdened with an incredible amount of stress to try and complete as much high quality work as possible during the weekend (and if I was unable to it felt like a failure). This was a problem as there’s no guarantee that every weekend will be free – nor that I’ll want to program all day for two days (removing any chance of relaxation or doing anything fun).
如何处理我的业余编程项目是有一些严重问题的。我最主要是在周末或者某些工作日的晚上编写代码。如同结果一样，这种策略并不适合我。周末我拖着巨大的压力尝试完成尽可能多的高质量代码（如果我没能完成我会认为自己很失败）。这样想有一个问题，因为没有什么能够保证我每个周末都有空，并且想整个周末都写程序而不是抓紧机会放松或娱乐。
There’s also the issue that a week between working on some code is a long time, it’s very easy to forget what you were working on or what you left off on (even if you keep notes). Not to mention if you miss a weekend you end up with a two week gap as a result. That massive multi-week context switch can be deadly (I’ve had many side projects die due to attention starvation like that).
每周写代码之间空挡太长也是个问题。你很容易忘记在做什么、什么还没做完（即使做记录也于事无补）。更不用说如果你错过一个周末，你就会面对长达两周的间隔。大量两周或者更多周的思维转换可是致命的（我的很多业余项目都由于精力不足而终止）。
Inspired by the incredible work that Jennifer Dewalt completed last year, in which she taught herself programming by building 180 web sites in 180 days, I felt compelled to try a similar tactic: working on my side projects every single day.
我被Jennifer Dewalt去年完成的工作震惊了，她在180天内构建了180个网站以学习编程。受到她的启发，我强迫自己尝试一个相似的策略：每一天都要进行我的业余项目。
I decided to set a couple rules for myself:
我决定给自己制定一些规则：
1.I must write code every day. I can write docs, or blog posts, or other things but it must be in addition to the code that I write.
1.我必须每天都写代码。我可以写文档，博客或其他的东西。但必须依附于我所写的代码。
2.It must be useful code. No tweaking indentation, no code re-formatting, and if at all possible no refactoring. (All these things are permitted, but not as the exclusive work of the day.)
2.代码必须是有用的。不能代码微调，不能代码重排，且尽量不要重构。（这些事情都是允许的，但不作为当天特有的工作。）
3.All code must be written before midnight.
3.所有代码必须在午夜前写。
4.The code must be Open Source and up on Github.
4.代码必须开源且放在Github上。
Some of these rules were arbitrary. The code doesn’t technically need to be written before midnight of the day of but I wanted to avoid staying up too late writing sloppy code. Neither does the code have to be Open Source or up on Github. This just forced me to be more mindful of the code that I was writing (thinking about reusability and deciding to create modules earlier in the process).
其中的一些规则有点武断。虽然从技术上来讲代码没必要非得在午夜前写，但我想要避免熬夜太久写糟糕的代码。而且代码没必要开源放在Github上。这只是强迫我写代码时多上点心（想想重用以及决定开发过程早点写模块）。
Thus far I’ve been very successful, I’m nearing 20 weeks of consecutive work. I wanted to write about it as it’s completely changed how I code and has had a substantial impact upon my life and psyche.
到目前为止我进行得很顺利，我已进行了20周的连续工作。我想要写下这些是因为这方法完全改变了我的编码方式并且对我的生活以及心智都有实质性的影响。
With this in mind a number of interesting things happened as a result of this change in habit:
有这些规则后，习惯的改变导致了很多有趣的事情发生：
Minimum viable code. I was forced to write code for no less than 30 minutes a day. (It’s really hard to write meaningful code in less time, especially after remembering where you left off the day before.) Some week days I work a little bit more (usually no more than an hour) and on weekends I’m sometimes able to work a full day.
最少可行代码(Minimum viable code).每天我被强迫写至少30分钟的代码。（少量时间内很难写出有意义的代码，尤其是在记起前一天写到哪里后）有一些工作日我写得多点，但通常少于1小时。而周末，我有时候能一整天当程序猿。
Code as habit. It’s important to note that that I don’t particularly care about the outward perception of the above Github chart. I think that’s the most important take away from this experiment: this is about a change that you’re making in your life for yourself not a change that you’re making to satisfy someone else’s perception of your work. The same goes for any form of dieting or exercise: if you don’t care about improving yourself then you’ll never actually succeed.
编码即为习惯(Code as habit).其实重要的一点是我并不特别在意Github上的（负面）聊天内容是如何被他人理解的。我认为这是从这个实验中我学到的最重要的东西：这是关于在你一生中为了你自己而进行的改变而非为了让你的工作能讨好他人而进行的改变。这也适用于任何形式的节食或锻炼：如果你不在意提高自己，你是永远也不会成功的。
Battling anxiety. Prior to starting this experiment I would frequently feel a high level of anxiety over not having completed “enough” work or made “enough” progress (both of which are relatively unquantifiable as my side projects had no specific deadlines). I realized that the feeling of making progress is just as important as making actual progress. This was an eye-opener. Once I started to make consistent progress every day the anxiety started to melt away. I felt at peace with the amount of work that I was getting done and I no longer had the over-bearing desire to frantically get any work done.
抵抗焦虑(Battling anxiety).在开始这个实验之前我经常担心不能够完成足够多的工作量或者取得足够的进展（这两点很难度量，因为我的业余项目没有明确的截止日期）。我发现想要取得进展与实际取得进展是同样的重要。这让我豁然开朗。一旦我开始每天取得持续的进展，焦虑就开始消失了。我对我不断完成的工作量感到欣慰，并且我不再过度疯狂地期望完成更多的工作。
Weekends. Getting work done on weekends use to be absolutely critical towards making forward momentum (as they were, typically, the only time in which I got significant side project coding done). That’s not so much the case now – and that’s a good thing. Building up a weeks-worth of expectations about what I should accomplish during the weekend only ended up leaving me disappointed. I was rarely able to complete all the work that I wanted and it forced me to reject other weekend activities that I enjoyed (eating dim sum, visiting museums, going to the park, spending time with my partner, etc.) in favor of getting more work done. I strongly feel that while side projects are really important they should not be to the exclusion of life in general.
周末(Weekends).在周末完成的任务曾今对于推进进度是绝对重要的。的确有地表性地，这是我完成业余项目显著代码量的唯一时间。但现在并非如此，不过非常好。在周末完成我一整周所期望的有价值的内容只能以让我以失望告终。我极少能够完成我想要完成的所有工作，而这强迫我放弃其他周末我喜欢的活动（例如，吃中式点心，参观博物馆，去公园以及和我的小伙伴在一起玩等）以完成更多的工作。虽然我非常相信业余项目真的很重要，但总之，他们不应该阻碍你的平时生活。
Background processing. An interesting side effect of writing side project code every day is that your current task is frequently running in the back of your mind. Thus when I go for a walk, or take a shower, or any of the other non-brain-using activities I participate in, I’m thinking about what I’m going to be coding later and finding a good way to solve that problem. This did not happen when I was working on the code once a week, or every other week. Instead that time was consumed thinking about some other task or, usually, replaced with anxiety over not getting any side project work done.
发呆(Background processing).每天都写业余项目的一个有趣的副作用就是当前业余项目的任务会频繁地在你大脑中浮现。这导致当我走路，洗澡或则进行其他不耗费脑力的活动时，我总是在想接下来我要写些什么代码并且寻找好的方法来解决问题（译者注：别人看来就是发呆）。这在我每周或隔一周写一次代码的时候从未出现过。相反这些时间花费在了思考其他的一些任务上，通常是懊恼自己上周没能完成业余项目的工作量。
Context switch. There’s always going to be a context switch cost when resuming work on a side project. Unfortunately it’s extremely hard to resume thinking about a project after an entire week of working on another task. Daily work has been quite helpful in this regard as the time period between work is much shorter, making it easier to remember what I was working on.
思维转换(Context switch). 继续业余项目时总是会有思维转换代价的。不幸的是，当一整周都在干其他任务的工作时，这转变是及其困难的。就每天都写代码而言是非常有利的，因为工作间歇时间更短。这使得回忆起正在做什么更容易。
Work balance. One of the most important aspects of this change was in simply learning how to better balance work/life/side project. Knowing that I was going to have to work on the project every single day I had to get better at balancing my time. If I was scheduled to go out in the evening, and not get back until late, then I would need to work on my side project early in the day, before starting my main Khan Academy work. Additionally if I hadn’t finished my work yet, and I was out late, then I’d hurry back home to finish it up (instead of missing a day). I should note that I’ve been finding that I have less time to spend on hobbies (such as woodblock printing) but that’s a reasonable tradeoff that I’ll need to live with.
工作权衡(Work balance). 这个改变最重要的一方面是直接学会了如何更好地权衡工作/生活/业余项目。由于明确了我每天都会工作在业余项目上，我必须更好地平衡我的时间。如果我计划晚上外出并且会很晚才回来，那么我会在一天中早些时候，既在开始我的可汗学院的主要工作前，完成我的业余项目的工作量。而且如果我没有完成我的任务，并且在外待得很晚，我会赶回家完成他而不遗漏一天。我应该注意到了我拥有更少地时间可花费在爱好上（例如版画），但这是我需要面对的合理的折衷。
Outward perception. This has all had the added benefit of communicating this new habit externally. My partner understands that I have to finish this work every day, and thus activities sometimes have to be scheduled around it. It’s of considerable comfort to be able to say “Yes, we can go out/watch a movie/etc. but I have to get my coding in later” and have that be understood and taken into consideration.
他人看法(Outward perception). 把这个新的习惯告诉别人让我更受益。我的小伙伴理解我需要每天完成这个工作，因此有的时候活动安排也很迁就我的工作。能够说“没问题，我们可以出去玩/看电影/等，但我等会儿要当会儿程序猿”并且能够被理解和考虑在内是相当欣慰的。
How much code was written? I have a hard time believing how much code I’ve written over the past few months. I created a couple new web sites, re-wrote some frameworks, and created a ton of new node modules. I’ve written so much I sometimes forget the things I’ve made – work from even a few weeks prior seem like a distant memory. I’m extremely pleased with the amount of work that I’ve gotten done.
能写多少代码？我简直不敢相信我上个月写了多少代码。我制作了一堆新的网站，重写一些框架，并且创建了大量新的节点模块(node modules)。我写了如此的多，以至于我有时候都忘记了我到底干了些什么，前一周的工作都好像是很遥远的记忆样。我对我所完成的工作量是及其满意的。
I consider this change in habit to be a massive success and hope to continue it for as long as I can. In the meantime I’ll do all that I can to recommend this tactic to others who wish to get substantial side project work done. Let me know if this technique does, or doesn’t, work for you – I’m very interested in hearing additional anecdotes!
我认为这个习惯改变是一个很大的成功并且希望能尽可能地继续下去。与此同时，我将倾尽所有将这个策略推荐给其他希望让其业余项目有实质进展的人。无论这个技术对于你是有用或者没用，请告诉我。我会非常乐意听更多的趣事的！
