I'm currently writing an article about this but the two most helpful things I've found are: 1. Be thoughtful and patient: Instead of writing down whatever come

I'm currently writing an article about this but the two most helpful things I've found are: 1. Be thoughtful and patient: Instead of writing down whatever comes to my mind, I try to take a couple of minutes thinking about the ramifications of what I'm doing before writing the actual code. In some cases I'll mock several ways of doing the same thing and try to get a "feel" from them [0]. 2. Know and use your tools! Unit testing, debuggers or code analyzers are there to help you. You don't need to use all the tools all the time but by becoming proficient with them you'll make your life easier and you can get a deeper understanding of what you're doing. [0] My "feel" might not be your "feel", it's probably not even the right way of doing things in many cases, but with enough time programming you tend to recognize what "feels" good and what doesn't.