Landing Nowhere

I have been learning on fcc for a long time but still I believe that I am going nowhere. I feel like I have not learnt much and that is way lot depressing for me. I am wasting a lot of time on social media and other unwanted stuff. Also I am not able to stay on one firm path like today I am learning something tomorrow I might be learning something else. What should I do now ? Kindly guide me how can I deal with it ?

i have found just learning on its own does not stick well in my mind i forget most of it and i think its the same with anyone if you try to learn to much at once, the best way i found to learn is to build stuff and learn while building and you can always came back here and learn stuff at the same time.
you should try and build something with what you know and then when you get stuck or dont know how to do something then read up on it and learn about it then you can implement it into your project and keep doing this until you have the project you want, this is the best way for me anyway im sure its different for everyone but it might be good to try.

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Thanks @biscuitmanz It is really very helpful. It is something that I can begin with.

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Hi SamuelRose,

I agree with @biscuitmanz. And it helps if it’s a real project for someone else, even if it’s a very small one. Think of a one page website. Working on a real project, not just for learning but for someone else, makes it easier to stay on track. The fact that someone expects a result will help you to keep going.
I did this, not one page though, it was quite a large project and almost overwhelming, so I wouldn’t recommend doing that, but it made html and css stick in my mind. I still use that project to look up things. Reading that code helps me to remember what problem I solved with it and where I found good answers on the internet.

And there is another thing that might help: a short and free course on Coursera. Make sure you enrol as auditor. There is no need to pay for this one.
It’s just a few hours, but it’s very popular for a reason. It’s made for people like us, who study online, especially when the subject is something abstract or technical or just difficult. In this course it’s explained why your brain wants to waste time on social media to avoid studying and how to work around it and stay on track. They also explain how to make the new knowledge stick in your mind and long-term memory.

There is a book about the same subject. Same stuff, but going a bit deeper.

Good luck with your study!

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I agree with @biscuitmanz and @Joke

The best way I learned was to take what I knew and make something with it. Once I made a project I tried to implement a new topic, like arrow functions, map, filter, and reduce, or something else.

One thing I noticed about a lot of feedback for projects or help, not this thread but others, is they say to create a new project to use a new topic but honestly for me I just used the same project a few times. I didn’t want to start a whole new project to learn one thing: like arrow functions or CSS Grid.

I made a portfolio for myself and just started to implement new things in it. This also helped me with learning Git and continually working on a single project. Plus it got me out of tutorial purgatory because I was creating something that was mine and not just a project from a tutorial.

With that being said, I would still start new projects just so you remember how to start a project from the ground up. If you have a simple project and it can benefit from Flexbox or Grid then use that project to learn it. Then start a new project already implementing Flexbox or Grid.

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@SamuelRose all of the advice here is great. If you want to get things done, break up your goals into small easy to accomplish chunks (make them realistic). Write them down on paper as a list of daily tasks. Put the list somewhere where you will see it constantly and relentlessly work on each chunk every day! If possible get an accountability partner who will check in with you regularly.

You can do this! You just need to make yourself a promise and keep that promise.

Btw this is the best way to get anything done

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Build something. Anything. You know how some of the guides make you build a copy of a popular website? That’s how to ingrain this information and knowledge into your skillset.
Also, checkout Chingu.io --> it’s a cohort to get partnered with a team of remote developers to build a website or some other JavaScript project for the web. I’ve completed 2 cohorts and I’ll say that it has helped my learning experience more than just running through FCC’s courses/projects.

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I have this issue too. What I find helpful is to train myself to commit to a path for a predefined amount of time, and gradually grow the duration of the commitment.

One mistake I’ve made is committing to learning something for a month when in reality, it took less than a week before I give up. That’s why it’s best to set goals based on your past performance; if your best is 7 days on a goal, maybe set a goal that ends in 8 days instead of a month or so.

As your performance and endurance grows, you’ll inevitably reach your ideal state as long as you’re consistent.

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Thanks @Joke this will really help me a lot