Wherever you are working, pretend you are going to be there for ever.

This is especially important if you are a contractor.
When you act like you are going to be somewhere forever (and that it’s YOU who is going to be maintaining this software) you behave differently.

You start to write more tests.
You don’t mind creating the occasional support document.
You clean up as you go.
And you are less likely to sweep things under the rug.
You are nicer to people (you are going to be here forever after all).
And you start to care.

Making this attitude a habit isn’t just good for the soul. It’s good for the bottom line.
Contractors who don’t care don’t get asked back.
And nowhere is the world more small than your local IT community.

So start caring. Pretend you are going to be there forever and you’ll naturally act accordingly.

Update:

Here is an equally compelling contrarian view by Jon Homs.