How to stop getting too focused on a train of thought when programming?

Posted by LDM91 on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by LDM91
Published on 2012-06-02T09:38:55Z Indexed on 2012/06/02 10:50 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 262

Filed under:

programming-practices

|

problem-solving

|

technique

|

thought-process

I often find myself getting too focused on a train of thought when programming, which results in me having what I guess could be described as "tunnel vision". As a result of this I miss important details/clues, which means I waste a fair amount of time before finally deciding the path I'm taking to solve the task is wrong. Afterwards, I take a step back which almost always results in me discovering what I've missed in a lot less time..

It's becoming really frustrating as it feels like I'm wasting a lot of time and effort, so I was wondering if anyone else had experienced similar issues, and had some suggestions to stop going down dead ends and programming "blindly" as it were!

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about programming-practices

programming practices starting

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have taken my major as computer science and Engineering and I am really confused at this moment. My first course was about learning C and C++ and I learned the basics of those. Now I am really confused what to do next. Some says I should practice algorithms and do contests in ACM-ICPC for now… >>> More
Are `break` and `continue` bad programming practices?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
My boss keeps mentioning nonchalantly that bad programmers use break and continue in loops. I use them all the time because they make sense; let me show you the inspiration: function verify(object) { if (object->value < 0) return false; if (object->value > object->max_value)… >>> More
Why is C++ backward compatibility important / necessary?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
As far as understand it is a well-established opinion within the C++ community that C is an obsolete language that was useful 20 years ago but cannot support many modern good programming practices, or even encourages bad practices; certain features that were typical of C++ (C with classes) during… >>> More
Any task-control algorithms programming practices?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I was just wondering if there's any field which concerns the task-control programming (or at least that's the way I call it). For a better explanation of task-control consider the following scenario: An application (master-thread) waits for a command - which might be a particular action or… >>> More
displaying python's autodoc to the user (python 3.3)

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm writing a simple command line math game, and I'm using python's autodoc for my math algorithms to help me remember, for example, what a proth number is while i'm writing the algorithm, but later on I'll want to tell that information to the user as well, so they'll know what the answer was. So… >>> More

Related posts about problem-solving

problem solving [closed]

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Problem Statement The Sports Associations in India (SAI) wants to choose 2 teams of 4 people each to send to Asian games. There are 13 people who want to be members of the teams. The SAI tries grouping them in various ways to see which athletes perform well together. Each grouping gets one test… >>> More
How do one improve him/her problem-solving ability ?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
How can one improve him/her problem-solving ability? Every one says same thing "a real programmer knows how to handle real problem", but they forget how they learn this ability, or where (I know in school, no one gives us any ability, of course in my opinion). If you have any idea except above… >>> More
How does one improve one's problem-solving ability?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
How can one improve one's problem-solving ability? Everyone says same thing: "a real programmer knows how to handle real problem." But they forget how they learn this ability, or where (I know in school, no one gives us any ability, of course in my opinion). If you have any idea except above ones… >>> More
ASP.NET/VB.NET problem solving help!

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi folks, Got a problem I need help with. Basically I'm gonna develop a form (part of a bigger web app) that lists a load of clients and there business contact, tech contact 1, and tech contact 2. The idea is rapid data entry. So one form shows each client with their contacts in dropdowns and I… >>> More
Problem solving-pascal

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Salutations, Need some help writing this; a pseudocode that accepts as input the name and sections(160, 220, 280, 350, 425) of a masquerader, continue to run until a blank name is input. After that, pseudocode should process the amount the masquerader pay.Then pseudocode code output masqueraders… >>> More