Jun 10, 2024

Ship something every day

Edit: A better title would've been "commit every day that you work". I don't mean you should work on weekends or not take time off, and whatever you work on doesn't need to "ship to prod".


I don't feel particularly qualified to give advice (I blame imposter syndrome), but I do have one tip to share that I think has been useful for me. It applies both to professional software dev and personal projects.

You probably guessed it from the title: ship something every day.

It doesn't need to be a major feature or even a bug fix. It just needs to be something you can point to.

Why? A few reasons:

  • The dopamine rush of your code being shipped
  • Your team sees you're working
    • There's more to this than just performance reviews; with remote work, it's easy for you and co-workers to feel isolated.
  • It encourages incremental work. Your future self and co-workers will thank you
  • Your git commit streak looks good
    • Yes, in an ideal world this doesn't matter. But I'm sure people like recruiters look at GitHub profiles, and an empty page isn't a great look. This is a benefit of the habit, not necessarily a reason to start it.
  • The satisfaction and mental benefits of getting something done.