I version-control my dotfiles, my blog, my notes, side projects, and even some writing. Git is the one tool I use every day across every creative discipline I have.
The Core Habit
Commit early, commit often, write messages that explain the why. That’s it. You don’t need branching strategies or rebase workflows for a personal project. You need a record of decisions so that when you come back in six months and wonder “why did I do it this way?” — you can find out.
Three Commands That Cover 90% of Personal Use
git add -p # stage changes interactively (better than git add .)
git commit -m "..." # commit with a message
git log --oneline # see what happened
git add -p is the one most people skip. It walks you through your changes hunk by hunk, letting you decide what goes into each commit. The act of reviewing forces you to think about what you’re committing.
For This Blog
Every post is a commit. Every design tweak is a commit. If I break something, git diff shows me what changed. If I want to throw away a direction I went down, git stash or a reset gets me back.
It adds almost no overhead and has saved me multiple times.