There are two things programmers should always do, but are way too lazy (myself included). In my case, it helps I know i'll deal myself with the consequences of

There are two things programmers should always do, but are way too lazy (myself included). In my case, it helps I know i'll deal myself with the consequences of shoddy programming, but it's still hard to go against your nature. 1. Test anything. My apps tend to be flat and simple (business software with web interface) so automated testing is not a real option. Simply going through the motions before uploading on the servers finds 80% of bugs... but it requires considerable discipline to go through 10 minutes of data entry to check a bug fix which took you 5 minutes to code. 2. Occasionally put yourself in the user's shoes and do whatever he's doing every day. I seldom did this and not come up with an idea or two.