KISSing is Good For You – Coding in a Clean Environment

Let The Paint Splatters Hit the Floor

Maybe you clicked through because of the title… I apologize, I couldn’t help but use the acronym. Keep It Stupid Simple.

I’ve learned rather quickly the importance of staying focused on one thing at a time.

I am a guy, so I automatically have a disadvantage when it comes to trying to multitask. However this disadvantage really is a blessing if I allow it to be.

Once again I must state my somewhat obsessive state of mind when it comes to how I approach what I’m doing. Whether it is building an app from the ground up or even working on a blog post.

When I am working on building an app there are three pieces of the puzzle that I allow myself to have open on my computer. If I was able to do everything with just one simple window open I would.

The three windows are the terminal (for command line stuff), my text editor (for editing app code) and a browser (for testing app functionality).

Those three things work together pretty well. If they are all in fullscreen mode I can simply swipe between them (four fingers on the trackpad) and still focus on what I am doing in every individual app.

When I write I do things a bit differently, because I can get everything done in one window. I open my writing app fullscreen (iA Writer is awesome), set “Focus On” and go to town.

By approaching things simply and straight forward I am basically accomplishing two things with one fell swoop. First I am keeping myself from getting confused, I hate being confused. Secondly I know what I’m changing and how it will affect other parts of the project (generally).

I know I’ve harped on simplicity a lot in recent weeks. I guess I feel like the world would be better off if we would all try to do things in the simplest way possible.

Besides, I get sooooo confused when I try to help one of my classmates and they have 37 different windows open with different instances of the same file open at the same time (please noooooo!).

Make your life easier. Keep things clean. Your brain. Your computer desktop. Your desk. Your bedroom. The kitchen… 🙂

I feel like I should take a nap…