Things I encourage: Frequent local commits This way you don't have to be bothered by changes others are making to the central repository while working on a handful of related tasks. It's a good idea to try to work on one task at a time and commit all changes at partitioned stopping points. A local commit doesn't have to build, just FYI, so a stopping point doesn't mean a build point nor a point that you can push centrally. There should be several of these in any given day. 2 hours is a good indicator ......