Hello people! A working junior developer here. This might sound a little weird; but does anyone also feel stressed and bad when you’re spending your free time on non-coding things?
I love coding and have a list of things I’d like to get my hands on; meanwhile, I also enjoy learning new languages. Every time I spent my weekend on reading a book/working through a podcast in a language I’m learning, I feel bad and stressed out.
The source of the negative feelings comes from that, whenever I choose to do anything else other than coding in my free time, a voice in my head will constantly remind me that, I’m NOT growing and improving as a developer. This feeling is stressing me out and I’m just wondering how people who share this feeling deal with it. Any ideas or input are all appreciated!
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I work from home as a freelance web developer and I feel the same way. What helps me is to make a schedule that I stick to so I have x amount of hours dedicated to working or studying and then I balance it out with making time for hobbies too. It’s super important for mental health to not spend all your time working and do things you love. I hope this helps!
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The best way to quill the superego when you’re doing things that aren’t related to coding is having a curiosity about a particular concept in web development.
Let’s say you’re online and you’re going through a favorite blog. Why not pull up the dev console on chrome and start looking at the html? What would happen if you added border radius to a particular element? How about using Jquery in the console log to make changes on a grander scale? That’s the beauty about web sites as their source code is very easy to reveal compared to our previous generation which had a bit of an adventure de compiling their favorite apps.
Another suggestion I have, which is controversy, is learning by doing. Instead reading a book or doing a walk through, why not try coding something on your own? For instances, using something like repl.it and building a small algorithm that organizes arrays or building a navgation bar using html and css?
Sure, it’s scary but you’re only propelling yourself even further with your skills when you start coding without the bumper rails?
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The idea you need to spend all your free time learning is because you think other developers do the same, which may be true for the ultra elitists that need to be #1, but just isn’t true for most developers, or people in general.
Most people enjoy their weekend and don’t even think about work outside of work. Developers are like any other people, except its very easy to bring your work home with you.
The way I look at it is we all work so we can have free time. How you spend that free time is up to you, but don’t think you need to spend it working, because that is literally pointless. Enjoy your free-time for what it is, you work hard to have it, so use it wisely!
If you want to spend your free-time developing a side project or learning some development related stuff go for it, or if you want to spend it with time and family, or reading a bug, then do it!
Don’t think your cheating yourself, the voice in your head is just Imposture Syndrome + FOMO. Enjoy your weekend how you like and tell the voice in your head to beat it 
PS. I personally don’t plan my weekends, outside of big stuff (like doing laundry haha) I more or less wing it based upon how I feel. I have side project ideas stacked up for years, but I only work on them in my free time if I want to at the time, if I don’t get to it, oh well my million dollar idea will have to wait until tomorrow
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OMG it’s like you read my mind! That’s exactly what I thought! Thank you for the reply; I feel much better now!! 
Thanks to all of you, I feel less stressed now! This forum is awesome 
