Most days are pretty easy. Being that I maintain a large project (Open Dylan), there is almost always a simple bug to fix, documentation to improve, typos to correct, bugs to file, pull requests to merge from others.
It has been great for keeping things moving and making sure that every day, I make at least a little bit of progress. Every day, at least a tiny step forward.
I find your streak particularly impressive, since it is all public contributions. The authors streak (as well as any, much shorter, streak that I have made) has always relied much more heavily on private repos for personal projects.
The contribution graph is in my opinion really a great motivational tool. Seems to work better for me than projects like Julython, however I'm guilty of a few single-commit days fixing a typo or updating some dependency packages. Looking forward to 365!
I tried the same thing a few months ago (this lasted 58 days), but some days you just don’t want to work.
A few notes:
- it’s the time of the commit which is important, not the push. So you can contribute on your projects locally if you don’t have Internet access (e.g. on vacations), and then push at the end of the week. It’ll be the same as having pushed everyday during one week (this works with personal projects, be careful with projects where there are other contributors)
- Only contributions on 'master' are counted by GitHub, so if you use multiple branchs for new features / bug fixes, the contributions will count only when (and if) you’ll merge them into master
I'm glad someone can relate to that feeling of not wanting to work. The master branch thing was annoying as well especially if you work regularly on separate branches in larger projects.
This isn't really in the spirit of what you're trying to do, but you can set the --date of the commit, or even amend the commit after the fact if you haven't pushed.
TFA isn't about a productivity metric, it's about establishing a habit. Everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Anne Lamott to Pablo Picasso extoll the virtue of making a habit of doing some work--even sometimes crappy or merely symbolic work--every day. ("Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working")
But that said, it's not as if doing something every day is totally uncorrelated to productivity. Sure, it's a proxy metric at most, but doing something is eventually a prerequisite to productivity.
But then again, maybe I'm a "clueless manager" type because I'd also argue that test-coverage isn't totally unrelated to quality. It's also a proxy metric and one that's relatively easy to game, but come on, is there anything in software development you find measurable?
I had the same kind of motivations and had a 83 day long streak. Was finding it difficult to contribute a lot on weekends. One travel broke my streak and was happy for it. https://github.com/manojlds
Blogging on github ( octopress, Jekyll, static files etc ) is one of the easiest ways to contribute.
Really curious about what, if any, side effects you picked up. Getting a commit streak is cool, but did you learn anything about networking, or finding open source projects to create/contribute to? Something that you feel you'll be able to take with you into your work habit (aside from the awesome "learn how to habit").
I did actually contribute to more open source projects that were not my own! This was because I had run out of my own ideas and wanted to keep making meaningful contributions. Some side-effects near the end were more negative than anything though, including a lack of motivation to do ANYTHING GitHub related. It was uncomfortable at some points because I felt I was being forced against my will to contribute.
162 days here! Was about to write a blog post about it - but I still need to finish the vaporware blog engine I've been working on for the last five years :)
If you ARE going to make pretty patterns on your Github contributions graph, make sure you view them with my "Conway's Game Of Life in Github Contributions Page" Chrome Plugin: https://github.com/mk270/life-contributions
Mine was 126 days, and my story went almost exactly like this, down to the end: I just kinda... spaced out. Even in a month with something like 50,000 miles flown, committed every day. But at some point, it just didn't matter any more, and I slipped up.
I'm currently on day 211 mysef[1]. About 50 of those days were contributions made from my Nexus 4 (Connectbot, tmux, vim) while traveling without a laptop.
Hah, just did the same thing since last month. Only manage to have a 33-day long streak ( https://github.com/cheeaun/ ). Perhaps will do it again when I feel motivated :)
[+] [-] BruceM|12 years ago|reply
Most days are pretty easy. Being that I maintain a large project (Open Dylan), there is almost always a simple bug to fix, documentation to improve, typos to correct, bugs to file, pull requests to merge from others.
It has been great for keeping things moving and making sure that every day, I make at least a little bit of progress. Every day, at least a tiny step forward.
[+] [-] wpnx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfritsch|12 years ago|reply
I appreciate your contributions much more!
[+] [-] zsiciarz|12 years ago|reply
The contribution graph is in my opinion really a great motivational tool. Seems to work better for me than projects like Julython, however I'm guilty of a few single-commit days fixing a typo or updating some dependency packages. Looking forward to 365!
[+] [-] sspiff|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanseys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hk__2|12 years ago|reply
A few notes:
- it’s the time of the commit which is important, not the push. So you can contribute on your projects locally if you don’t have Internet access (e.g. on vacations), and then push at the end of the week. It’ll be the same as having pushed everyday during one week (this works with personal projects, be careful with projects where there are other contributors)
- Only contributions on 'master' are counted by GitHub, so if you use multiple branchs for new features / bug fixes, the contributions will count only when (and if) you’ll merge them into master
[+] [-] ryanseys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marblar|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CWIZO|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bowlofpetunias|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rodw|12 years ago|reply
TFA isn't about a productivity metric, it's about establishing a habit. Everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Anne Lamott to Pablo Picasso extoll the virtue of making a habit of doing some work--even sometimes crappy or merely symbolic work--every day. ("Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working")
But that said, it's not as if doing something every day is totally uncorrelated to productivity. Sure, it's a proxy metric at most, but doing something is eventually a prerequisite to productivity.
But then again, maybe I'm a "clueless manager" type because I'd also argue that test-coverage isn't totally unrelated to quality. It's also a proxy metric and one that's relatively easy to game, but come on, is there anything in software development you find measurable?
[+] [-] manojlds|12 years ago|reply
Blogging on github ( octopress, Jekyll, static files etc ) is one of the easiest ways to contribute.
Btw, anyone with similar habit for consecutive days visited on stackoverflow? http://stackoverflow.com/users/526535/manojlds
[+] [-] ricardobeat|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zalew|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] monkey_slap|12 years ago|reply
Great post!
[+] [-] ryanseys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chewxy|12 years ago|reply
0 - http://blog.chewxy.com/2013/06/25/dry-spell/
[+] [-] seivan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanseys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mk270|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] paulclinger|12 years ago|reply
I like the fact that sometimes you don't have time to start something complex, but find small improvements or documentation updates that can be made.
[+] [-] steveklabnik|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] uggedal|12 years ago|reply
1: https://github.com/uggedal/
[+] [-] cheeaun|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zachlatta|12 years ago|reply
https://github.com/zachlatta
[+] [-] munchor|12 years ago|reply
A song of GitHub for this user is quite interesting ;)
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] elrzn|12 years ago|reply
You're all being gamed by a flashy calendar.
[+] [-] mufumbo|12 years ago|reply
Anyway, you MUST make commit an habit. If you're into gamification, force yourself to do that and you won't regret.
[+] [-] wpnx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryanseys|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pablobaz|12 years ago|reply