I have branched out some and I have decided to take on some freelance jobs to soak up some of my free time. Now I knew in the beginning that I was going to be working on partially finished projects and some half baked projects. It is the nature of our work. It is simply never completely finished. There is always some small patch or some tweak that the developer just doesn't ever get around to publishing.

This mind you is not the case. Without going into any detail, finger pointing, or name calling. I have decided to post a short list of what you should be doing when you program. This really isn't designed for any specific language or style. But just general habits I think every developer should learn or possibly relearn.

Documentation - Let's say you are working on a project, you get called away to do something else and you eventually stumble your way back to your project. But wait oops you forgot what you were working on. Let me tell you this little idea of documenting your code is a life saver. What's that old adage? It is better to have too much documentation that not enough.

Scope your variables - Does it really matter if it is an integer or a Number? You bet your sweet ass it does. Nothing more to say than SCOPE YOUR VARIABLES!

Clean code is happy code - Sure I have the habit of opening 5,6, or heck even 7 different files to test a little bit of code to see how it changes with different variations. But in the end those little test files are gone before I release any project or any type of patch. Make sure that your code is well formatted so that others who may learn from you do not learn bad habits. Your mother doesn't code here so pick up after yourself.

Take a break - If you are beating your head against the wall for hours on end trying to find out why you are getting a particular exception or bug. Stand up, walk away and find something else to do to take your mind off the issue. Once you have had some time away, get back to work you aren't being paid to sit around and read this kind of crap all day.

Enjoy what you do - If you have never said "BAH I hate programming" then you are not to the point to where you truly enjoy what you do.