Everyone has ups and downs. Maybe a fight with a significant other, or a problem with family, it doesn’t matter, brought you down. I went through something in this line a while ago, although for a completely different reason. But why am I talking about this?

People who read my blog for sometime now probably know I like agile software development. One of the strategies it uses (from eXtreme Programming) is pair programming, and I talked about it a long while ago here.

Now, to the point. What I found out is that, at least for me, pair programming has one more advantage that I was not used to pay attention to: it can help you get motivated. Just having to explain my ideas and having to listen to my pair’s ideas goes a long way in terms of motivation. As I love what I do, this conversation “thing” helps me get back to reality and be productive.

If you cannot do pair programming constantly, what I would suggest you should do is, as soon as you’re feeling you’re not doing as well as you could, do some short pairing. Even if at least for an hour or so, it should help renovate your thoughts.

Now get your hands dirt, try it out and post a comment with your opinion! =)