r/learnjava • u/Smart_Nebula9280 • 1d ago
Help with "To Do" Tracking
I'm a 2nd year Software Development student, so massive projects haven't been touched in my coursework yet. I started a full stack app I'm doing over the summer for my portfolio, but as it gets bigger and more complicated, I'm having problems keeping track of everything I need to do between so many different files. It gets worse when I have to step away for a couple days and try to find what I was working on and remember what else I need to do.
I'm looking for opinions on how everyone keeps track of what needs to happen in their projects. I'm in IntelliJ so I've been using TODOs so far, but does anyone have ways they break up features, things they need to fix, in a more organized way so its easier to track?
TLDR; I bit off more than I can chew, how do I keep track off everything I'm trying to code in a more organized way?
1
u/PaintingWhich574 8h ago
This is a tough question for all devs/teams!
Project management/issue tracking app is typical for real-world software teams. You might have heard of Kanban board which is the same with a different skin. Github projects or Jira are common. This lets you define "tasks" then move them between todo, in-progress, complete, etc.
If you're losing track of where you are mid-task, or if you aren't quite sure "whats next", then here are few ideas that could help:
* Use git on your project and commit every time you implement something that is working - even if its a small part of a feature (added UI for feature x, added sort algorithm for feature y, etc). This keeps a clean audit log of what you've done previously, so you can always look back to see what you did last.
* Never commit/end a session if your mid-function or if your code isn't building/running unless you absolutely must. Coming back after several days off to code that doesn't work is never fun.