Don’t rely on your future self to follow through on what present self wants you to do. You’re going to have to also not rely on “motivation” to help you develop good coding/developer habits.
Future Justin is going to get up at 7:00am and meditate for 20 minutes before showering and getting ready for the day. Future Justin is going to come home after an 8 hour day and work for another 2 – 3 hours on coding projects so he can have better skills.
Like hell he/I will.
When Future Justin becomes Present Justin at 7:00 and the bed is comfortable and sleep coats your will and motivation, your real motivation becomes “keep sleeping because it’s comfortable.” When Future Justin becomes Present Justin gets home from an 8 hour day of dealing with people, questions, and issues the last thing he’ll want to do is work for another minute on a computer.
So where does that leave me? Well, without “should”-ing all over myself the only thing is to create conditions that lead to better habits. Instead of going back to bed after feeding the dog, I go directly to the meditation cushion to start that habit. Instead of zoning out at the TV, after changing out of work stuff I grab my lap board and start a pomadoro timer to work and break for a set amount of time.
So tldr; f*cK your motivation. Develop good habits.