
177 Days of GitHub - ryanseys
https://ryanseys.com/blog/177-days-of-github/
======
BruceM
I'm currently on day 252 of a streak:
[https://github.com/waywardmonkeys/](https://github.com/waywardmonkeys/)

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.

~~~
sspiff
Are you aiming for the "at least one commit per day", or did this happen
naturally as you worked on Open Dylan?

~~~
BruceM
I aim for it. Clearly before the streak started, I was much more intermittent
with some days passing without visible progress. :)

------
hk__2
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

~~~
ryanseys
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.

~~~
LeonidasXIV
Yes, exactly this. Every time I think I could work on my side branch it feels
like this is not really "worth" it. Sucks.

Actually, it is not the master branch. It is the default branch. I have a repo
with a gh-pages branch, this works as well.

------
bowlofpetunias
And yet somehow we're still surprised when clueless managers try to measure
productivity in lines of code or quality in test coverage percentage...

~~~
rodw
I don't see the comparison.

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
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](https://github.com/manojlds)

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](http://stackoverflow.com/users/526535/manojlds)

------
ricardobeat
This has little to do with GitHub itself - I'm surprised the term open-source
is only mentioned once.

~~~
zalew
yeah. but I'm more suprised nobody noticed the 1337.

------
monkey_slap
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").

Great post!

~~~
ryanseys
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.

------
chewxy
Still haven't broken my 30 day streak record since the last time I wrote about
it [0]. Bums me out.

0 - [http://blog.chewxy.com/2013/06/25/dry-
spell/](http://blog.chewxy.com/2013/06/25/dry-spell/)

------
seivan
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
:)

~~~
ryanseys
Keep going and report back! :)

------
mk270
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](https://github.com/mk270/life-contributions)

------
paulclinger
173 days here:
[https://github.com/pkulchenko;](https://github.com/pkulchenko;) haven't
pushed today's changes yet...

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
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.

------
uggedal
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.

1: [https://github.com/uggedal/](https://github.com/uggedal/)

------
cheeaun
Hah, just did the same thing since last month. Only manage to have a 33-day
long streak ( [https://github.com/cheeaun/](https://github.com/cheeaun/) ).
Perhaps will do it again when I feel motivated :)

------
zachlatta
I've been doing the commit every day thing for a while. Not quite as long as
the author, but it's still something.

[https://github.com/zachlatta](https://github.com/zachlatta)

------
munchor
[http://song-of-github.herokuapp.com/?username=ryanseys](http://song-of-
github.herokuapp.com/?username=ryanseys)

A song of GitHub for this user is quite interesting ;)

------
elrzn
So what's exactly going to happen if you somehow break the chain?

You're all being gamed by a flashy calendar.

------
mufumbo
uow! I haven't even ever seen this streak thing (too busy commiting all the
time). Mine is pretty big and I'm ashamed to make it public hehehe

Anyway, you MUST make commit an habit. If you're into gamification, force
yourself to do that and you won't regret.

------
wpnx
A really interesting experiment, and congrats for sticking to it for so long!

~~~
ryanseys
Thank you! I am glad you found it interesting, it was certainly a learning
experience for me :)

------
pablobaz
I like the concept but like not having my laptop on my vacations more.

------
krapp
my current streak is 4 days :/

but i just recommitted a project that's been dormant for 10 months so maybe I
can pick away at it and make it not suck by the end of the week.

------
k-mcgrady
Do commits to private repos count towards the streak?

~~~
ryanseys
They do for your own view, but the public will see a different number for your
streak. My projects are all open-sourced so I did not have this issue.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Thanks, you've inspired me to give this a try and the inclusion of private
repos will really help.

------
Zoomla
this could easily be automated to make sure you don't miss a day if you keep a
commit buffer offline

