---
title: "1 Thing Programmers Should Do More Often"
date: 2014-09-01
author: Matt
url: https://www.mattwarren.co/2014/09/1-thing-programmers-should-do-more-often/
---

# 1 Thing Programmers Should Do More Often

This past week I found myself with a task of creating pages on this site for all the Mobile Apps that have been developed by Halotis Inc.  At the same time I wanted to get the marketing material organized for all of those apps in a consistent directory structure.

Which lead me to something I believe more programmers should do more often. **Write Automation Scripts**. Rather than manually create the directory structure for 23 different Apps and find all those apps in the App Store to get their descriptions and screenshots.  I was able to write a script to create the directory structure, search iTunes, pull out relevant information, and download all the screenshots.

It’s what I love most about Python.  It becomes so easy to find a decent library for any public API, and quickly whip up a command line utility to automate what would otherwise be a tedious task.

Getting good at writing these sorts of automated scripts is a differentiator.  After a while of writing them, you build up a library of neat scripts that can help you day to day to get more done in less time.

A script, once written, becomes an asset to be possibly used again and again in the future.