If my coding journey was video game I’m just putting in the disk…
I have roughly 6 weeks of total freedom before returning to my current field of work. I plan to use these following weeks to effectively advance my skill and understanding of developing code.
My question to this beautiful community is such;
What is your process? What is your style? What do you/do you not suggest?
in terms of habits… good/bad
schedule? am/pm what works for you?
caffeine. yay? nay?
hours of grind? slow n steady?
time management. Strictly code? invest time into literature? if so, what authors/titles?
I’m willing to put in the work these next few weeks to build as sturdy a foundation and understanding as I’m capable of. I will continue furthering my progress once I return to work but the time I will be able to invest will not be as plenty.
Any study tips/tricks / coaching / feedback is greatly appreciated.
My suggestion is to go through the freecodecamp.org lessons. There you can pretty quickly get a solid understanding of the front end web and figure out what parts of it you like. The lessons keep you on track to make progress. The best thing you can do is practice - get some projects done and get feedback on them here - and people will tell you what to improve on.
As far as your specific questions - am/pm both work for me
hours: usually its fairly small sessions 2-5 hours. Taking breaks can help you digest information - but when you get in a good groove on a project some times the sessions can be quite a bit longer.
time: it’s good to have a balance - you can’t just code - or just read - or just watch youtube.
I use a whole ton of online resources to help me when I get in a jam - the main one is google - learn how to query google so you can find the information you need when you get stuck.
The really important thing is that you are writing code. Write code every day. You’re going to get frustrated over and over because you’ll write a solution and it won’t work the way you expect it to. That’s where the learning really happens. In terms of scheduling, environment, books vs. google, etc - that’s going to be personal. Go with what works for you. Just keep writing code.
The only other question of yours that I’ll address is “hours of grind? slow n steady?”. The longer you just grind through challenges, the less you’re going to retain. If you’re just starting out, you’re going to be going through a lot of new information very quickly. Every hour or two, take a break. Get some exercise. Eat a snack. Do some laundry. Let it sink in and let your brain desaturate so it can absorb more. If you want to stay programming focused, maybe listen to a podcast or spend some time on a forum like this helping campers who are working on challenges you just finished.