Every Sunday, I Refactor Old Code and It’s the Smartest Habit I’ve Ever Built

I don’t have a fancy morning routine.
No 5AM wake-ups.
No Notion dashboards.
No coffee in a minimalist setup with lo-fi beats.

I usually wake up late. Scroll LinkedIn. Check Dev.to...
But every Sunday, without fail, I open my laptop and refactor my old code.

Not to fix bugs. Not to build new features.
Just to read my past self’s code and make it a little better.

That’s my weird little ritual.
And honestly... it changed how I write code.

Messy Projects, Lazy Sundays

It started accidentally.
One Sunday, I opened an old JavaScript project that barely worked, one of those final_version_realfinal folders.

The code was full of console.logs, duplicated functions, and CSS that looked like spaghetti.
But instead of feeling embarrassed, I started cleaning.
Renaming variables. Reorganizing files. Removing useless code.

One hour later, I wasn’t just refactoring, I was learning.
From myself.

No Rules, No Frameworks

I don’t follow a strict process.
I just open any old project that randomly pops into my mind, could be a React app, a Python script, or even a CSS art experiment from months ago.

Sometimes I realize how much I’ve improved.
Sometimes I realize how weirdly creative past-me was.
And sometimes… I can’t understand what on earth I was thinking.

But that’s the beauty of it, it’s raw, honest progress.

Small Tweaks, Big Wins

Refactoring doesn’t mean rewriting everything.
It means:

• Renaming bad variables like temp_data_final3 to something human-readable.
• Removing unnecessary code that does nothing.
• Replacing old logic with something more elegant.
• Adding comments where my past self left chaos.
• Updating CSS that makes my eyes hurt.

Each tiny improvement feels like a conversation with the person I used to be.
It’s weirdly comforting, like mentoring your younger self.

What I Learn Every Week

Every Sunday teaches me something new:

• Readability beats cleverness. If I can’t understand my old code, it wasn’t clever, it was confusing.
• Consistency matters more than complexity.
• Small refactors compound over time. My codebase (and my brain) feels cleaner every week.
• Old code is not embarrassing, it’s a snapshot of your growth.

I used to feel guilty seeing messy code.
Now I smile. Because it means I’ve grown.

Why I Stop After a Short Time

Here’s the trick: I never spend more than 2 hours.
Even if I’m in the flow. Even if there’s more to fix.

Because I don’t want to burn out.
I want to look forward to next Sundays.
To that quiet moment of reflection between the old and the new.

It’s not about perfection, it’s about connection.

What I Don’t Do

❌ I don’t follow tutorials for this.
❌ I don’t rewrite everything from scratch.
❌ I don’t treat it like work.

I just open my projects folder.
Pick something random.
And have a chat with my past self through code.

Final Thoughts (From One Developer to Another)

If you feel stuck, unmotivated, or overwhelmed by “learning new stuff” every day, try this:

Don’t chase new frameworks. Don’t start 10 new projects.
Just revisit your old code.

Refactor one file.
Rename one variable.
Clean one function.

You’ll be surprised how much you’ve learned, and how much you’ve changed.

Your old code isn’t something to hide.
It’s something to learn from.

So go ahead, make Sunday your refactoring day.
You’ll thank yourself next year 😉.

Thanks for reading! 🙏🏻 I hope you found this useful ✅ Please react and follow for more 😍 Made with 💙 by Hadil Ben Abdallah

Hadil Ben AbdallahFollow

Software Engineer • Technical Content Writer • LinkedIn Content Creator