I like to spend a few hours in the beginning of the year doing a reflection of the past year, and brainstorming goals for the new year. Here’s a reflection of my 2022 year.

Setting your goals can be a daunting task. Whether you have already set your goals or still need to do so, this guide will give you the tools and resources you need to set goals that truly matter to you – and help you to achieve them.

It doesn’t matter whether you are starting to set your goals in January, or in the middle of the year. The best time to set your goals is now.

Why is Setting Goals Important?

Goal setting is important because it provides a clear direction, a plan to follow, and a means to measure progress. It allows individuals to focus their energy and efforts on what is truly important to them, rather than getting bogged down by the many distractions in life.

Goals are an essential part of personal and professional development as they provide direction and purpose to our lives. Having a written goal provides a clear destination to work toward and a roadmap to follow.

Framework for Setting Goals

In this section, we'll discuss some steps you can follow to setup actionable goals that you feel motivated to follow.

Step 1: Start with your vision

There is one quality which one must possess to win, that is a definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it. – Napoleon Hill

Here are some prompts to help you set your goals:

1. Envision your legacy: What impact do you want to make and how do you want to be remembered?
2. Create a 5-year vision: Imagine where you want to be in five years and what you want to have accomplished.
3. Start with your dream: Think about what you would love to achieve, even if it seems unrealistic.
4. Reflect on your past: Think about what you've been wanting to achieve over the last few years.
5. Consider what you admire in others: What are the qualities or accomplishments that you admire in other people that you would like to adopt?
6. Determine what you want to do less of: Are there any activities or habits that you want to reduce or eliminate?

Write down everything that comes to your mind even if it seems crazy. Your wildest dreams may be unrealistic, but this process will help you steer yourself towards achieving them.

For instance, for me, my dream is to write a book that is important to developers in my community.

Step 2: Break down your vision into achievable goals

Your desire to achieve this goal must be so intense that the idea of accomplishing your goal brings you happiness and excitement. – Brian Tracy, Goals!

Once you have written down what you want to achieve, it is now time to create goals that will help you get there. Here are some strategies for creating achievable goals.

Create goals from your vision

Working backwards from your vision, think about what goals will help you get there. For example, if your dream is to run a marathon, what goals can help you achieve that?

An example of a goal that would help you achieve this vision would be to run 5 miles every day. For me, that goal would be to write a few words every day. Write down all your goals on a piece of a paper or a digital notepad.

Prioritize your goals

If you have a lot of goals at this stage, it helps to pick your topmost goals. When prioritizing, I like to think about the “fire level” I have for each goal. I define “Fire level” as the feeling you get when you think about how badly do you want to achieve your goal? I use 🔥 to denote “HECK YEAH” and 💕 for “would be nice”.

In the book Goal!, author Brian Tracy recommends thinking about your “why” behind the goal and writing it down next to the goal.

Since we have finite time and it is possible you won’t be able to achieve all your goals in one year, knowing your “Why” will help you determine how much fire you have in you to achieve this goal.

Knowing how strongly you want your goal will also help you evaluate if this goal is worth pursuing when it is time to re-evaluate goals.

Bring goals under your control

You have better chances of achieving your goal if you have control over the outcome.

For example, if I set a goal of becoming a best-selling author, I am setting a goal that is not under my control. I can try to write the best book I can, which is under my control, but how the audience receives it is not under my control.

So to bring this goal under my control, I can reframe my goal to be “write a well-researched book on topics that my audience is interested in”. Now this is under my control, and it makes it achievable for me since I can do research to ensure I am writing a well-informed and in-demand book.

Identify the areas that require improvement

For each of your goals, evaluate why you have not achieved your goal yet. In his book Goals!, Tracy recommends identifying any obstacles or barriers that are preventing you from reaching your goal.

Be specific and thorough in considering all possible factors that may be hindering your progress. What are you missing right now to achieve your goal? Where are you good? Where do you need to improve? These are the gaps you need to work on to achieve your goal. Write these down as tasks.

Define success

One of the key questions to ask yourself when measuring progress is, "How do I know I achieved this goal?" Having a clear understanding of what success looks like will help you know when you've reached your goal.

In the book Atomic Habits, author James Clear suggests thinking of your goals in terms of quantifiable metrics, such as numbers and percentages. This makes it easy to track progress towards your goals.

For example for me, I will know I am making progress towards achieving my goal if I start writing chapters and have completed a certain number of chapters in a year. So a measure of progress for me is the number of chapters I finish by the end of the year.

Step 3: Prepare for failures

As we all know, not everyone who starts a new year’s resolution sticks to it by the end of the year.

How long do you think it takes most people to drop their new year’s resolutions? 23% of people quit by the end of the first week, 64% after the first month (according to a study with Australian and UK citizens), and 81% before the end of the second year.

Why do you think that happens? It’s because people lose motivation when things get tough.

When we haven’t prepared ourselves for the adverse situations, it becomes hard to stay on track and be motivated to overcome hardships when progressing towards our goal. Instead, when we prepare for failures, we've prepared ourselves ahead of time to tackle the situation.

So to ensure success of your goal, it is important to prepare yourself by thinking about the issues or challenges that might occur. Some questions that can help your prepare yourself are:

1. What will stop you from starting this goal?
2. What are some things that can go wrong when you are making progress?
3. What can you do when you encounter failure?
4. How can you prevent yourself from burning out?
5. How can you get back on track to keep your momentum going?

Write these down next to your goals, so that when you see you are not making progress, you can use these to get back in the momentum.

For example, it will be my imposter syndrome and the habit of procrastination that will stop me from even starting. When I do start, I may feel bored, unmotivated or too tired at the end of the day to write anything. I may run out of ideas while writing or feel burnt out.

But if I prepare myself for these things in advance, I can get a better handle on things when they go south.

Step 4: Make it a habit

Once you know your goals, it's time to put them into action. Do something everyday that brings you closer to achieving them, even if it is for a few minutes.

To make it easier to be consistent towards your goals, it helps to establish a system that helps you achieve these habits everyday. In Atomic Habits, author James Clear discusses the importance of setting a habit system. Here are some tips from Atomic Habits that can help you establish your habit system:

Find your “clutter”

Clutter is any time that is not directly progressing you towards your goal, adding to the joy of your life, or helping you relax.

Take an inventory of the time you are spending every day on each clutter activity. By removing your clutter, you can bring intention into your schedule and clear up time to put your goals on your calendar in the form of daily habits.

Block time in your calendar for a habit

It becomes a lot easier to achieve your goal, when the habit that will help you achieve that goal is scheduled in your calendar.

It is a lot easier to forget about a goal if it is not accounted for in your day-to-day life. Use your calendar or however you schedule your time to appoint time to achieve goals.

Remove friction

Instead of relying on motivation, create a system that makes it easy to follow through on your good habits and hard to slip back into bad habits.

Think about how you can help your future self be in the right mindset to achieve the goal. Remove all distractions.

For example, if you are going to workout, make it easy for your future self to get to the gym by keeping your workout clothes next to your bed so you can put them on first thing in the morning, and load up your pump-up playlist on your phone so you can play as you go.

Figure out baby steps

Often, a goal feels overwhelming to achieve because it feels like a giant elephant we need to eat. But, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Similarly, in order to build lasting habits, small, incremental changes are incredibly important. Think about what is the smallest thing you can do to make a baby step towards your goal today.

If you are thinking of getting in shape and are struggling to go to gym, put on your favorite workout clothes and go for a walk. Bring out your yoga mat and do an easy yoga practice.

The practice of finishing a small task towards your goal can release dopamine, which makes us feel motivated, joyful and successful. Our mind wants to achieve that feeling again, and so getting into the habit of achieving smaller tasks towards our goals becomes easier.

For me, this baby step is getting a few words on the page. I will be a lot closer to finishing my book if I put in 200 words every day. This will help me make incremental progress towards my goal by the end of the year.

Be consistent

Consistency is key to building lasting habits. By sticking to your habits even when you don't feel like it, you'll be able to make it a part of your identity and make it stick.

Step 5: Find people who support you – your hype squad.

Having a group of people whom you can reach out to when you are feeling low, unmotivated, doubtful, or lost is really important and often overlooked.

We undervalue how much we are affected by our surroundings, family and co-workers. Think about some people who affect you day-to-day – your friends, family, co-workers, social circle, and folks who you don’t interact with day-to-day but aspire to be like.

I like to think of this group of folks as my hype squad. These are the folks I reach out to when I am in doubt, need advice, want to feel motivated, want them to hype me up, or am just generally looking to get good vibes when I share my accomplishments.

Here are some roles that you should look to fill:

1. Who is someone who can help you reach your goals? Perhaps this is someone who has already achieved this goal themselves. This person can be your mentor.
2. Who is someone who can be your cheerleader when you feel down? This person can help lift up your spirits when you are feeling doubtful of your skills.
3. Who can be your accountability buddy? This person can help you stay motivated and on track by checking in with you regularly and helping you stay accountable.
4. Who should you surround yourself with so you can stay inspired and motivated? These can be experts in the industry, or someone who is excelling in this field. This person will inspire you, motivate you, and keep you focussed on your goal.
5. Who in your household can help you achieve your goal? We often overlook the importance of family and housemates. Think of how your family can support you in achieving your goal.

For example, for my book, my hype squad could include people who have written a book before, and can therefore offer me advice.

Staying accountable and tracking your goals becomes easier when you are part of a supportive and motivated community. For this reason, I created this Discord community. We help each other stay on track by keeping each other accountable, checking in regularly, and hype each other up. I strongly suggest you become a member of this community.

Step 6: Measure progress and re-evaluate goals.

Forming habits is a continuous process that requires constant reflection and adjustments in order to improve. Tracking progress, staying motivated, and making necessary changes will aid in this process.

Reflect and adjust

Measuring progress towards your goals is an important step in achieving them. Reflect on your progress regularly and be honest with yourself.

If you are not making enough progress, try to understand the reasons behind it. Is it that the “Why” of your goal is not strong enough and you are not motivated to achieve this goal? Is it possible that your schedule is too busy and you don’t have time for this goal?

Reward yourself

To make the journey toward achieving your goal more exciting, reward yourself for reaching milestones. This can help keep you motivated and give you a sense of accomplishment.

Celebrating your progress by setting up rewards for yourself can be a great way to stay motivated throughout the process.

Have a check-in day

In order to make sure your goals are working for you, setup a check-in day. During this time, you can reflect on your progress, evaluate if the goal still makes sense for you, check if your priorities are the same, and see if there are any obstacles that are preventing you from achieving the goal.

This could mean changing some things around your goal, stopping or pivoting if you're not making progress, or even breaking your long-term goals into smaller, more manageable chunks.

This is also a good time to check in with your hype-squad. This check-in day could be quarterly or monthly.

My Personal Goal-Setting Tools

Here are my personal tools that I use to set goals:

Bullet Journal Goals spread – I mentioned writing down your goals on a piece of paper. I use my bullet journal to write my goals for the year. This is the spread from my 2023 bullet journal

Notion template – I use the framework I described in this blog to break down my goal into smaller tasks, habits, my “why”, the fire level, potential failures and my hype squad. I put this in a digital format that I can keep on me at all times. This is the notion template I use. This is inspired by Ali Abdaal.

Discord –This is my accountability community to help you stay on top of your goals. This is a goals cohort, and we check-in with each other monthly.

I am excited to invite the community to join my Discord channel, where we will come together and support each other as we work towards our goals. Together, we will be a powerful force of accountability and motivation, pushing each other to be our best selves.

Whether you're working on personal development, career goals, or just looking for a supportive community, this Discord channel is the perfect place to connect with others who are on a similar journey. By joining forces, we will be able to achieve more than we ever thought possible.

Let's make our dreams a reality!

This is OUR YEAR.

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed this article, share it with someone you know and spread the knowledge.

• For more frequent tips, stay in touch on Twitter
• Get articles like this directly in your inbox

With programming, the greatest challenge is often not the complexity of the language, but rather staying consistent and motivated through the learning process.

In order to stay consistent with your learning, you will need a lot of motivation and energy. The consistency with which you learn would help you to understand the complex concepts of any programming language and make the most of your time.

Having come from an absolutely non-technical background, I had to learn this late. After I took the first step into the transition, I struggled with everything relating to learning, particularly motivation.

This article will share the steps I have gathered over time to overcome my struggles with staying consistent and motivated.

Start Slowly but Maintain a Habit

In the early stage of learning, you might only have a few free hours that you can dedicate to learning.

This is because most people are just opening themselves up to doing something they have never done before. Also, they might have tasks such as a full-time job which take a better part of their daily life. Therefore, adjusting and making time for learning might not be easy.

At this stage, you don't need to be concerned about the amount of time you have available to learn in one sitting. The most important thing is making time for a daily study session, regardless of its length, and persisting with it in spite whatever crops up in the way.

Always Schedule Your Tasks

If you don't schedule your daily tasks, it's much easier to procrastinate and forget about them. It's easy to become engrossed in just one or few tasks and lose sight of the fact that there are other things you need to do. Often, this happens when you don't follow a set task list.

To prevent procrastination and forgetfulness, make sure you plan out your days by scheduling tasks. You can use the following tips as a guide in scheduling your tasks:

1. Think of all the tasks you would like to accomplish.

2. Estimate how long it will take to accomplish each task.

3. Identify your peak hours of productivity.

4. Arrange the tasks in order of priority.

5. Make sure to bundle similar tasks together to improve your productivity.

6. To stay organized, schedule these tasks on your phone or computer and use reminder and task applications.

7. Schedule complex or difficult tasks during your peak productivity hours.

8. Make time for unexpected events in your schedule and plan for them ahead of time.

Note that it is a good idea to schedule your tasks at the beginning of every week.

To learn more about how you can schedule your day for better productivity, consider reading this article by John Rampton, the co-founder and CEO of Calendar.

Join a Community of Learners

For most people, learning alone can be boring and tedious, and in no time, it can hurt your motivation. This is why having a community of like-minded people is always better.

This type of community will provide you numerous benefits, including, but not limited to:

• access to group study

• access to different resources to help with your study

• information on current technological trends

• getting feedback on personal projects

• an avenue to share your progress and measure your growth

Find out if this type of community exists in your area. Alternatively, if you are unable to find one, you can join a remote learning community instead.

The following are some of the remote communities I have personally found useful and consider to be of great value:

• 100Devs: The 100devs community is a nonprofit organization founded and maintained by Leon Noel, a teacher and Managing Director of Engineering at ResilientCoders. The 100Devs community provides free lessons in full-stack web development to individuals. You can join the 100Devs community here.

• 100DaysofCode: 100DaysofCode is an online challenge where people dedicate 100 days to learning a programming language of their choice. In order to participate in 100DaysofCode, you must devote at least an hour a day to learning. And after that, you post a completed task on Twitter with the hashtag #100DaysofCode.

• Kevin Powell Community: The Kevin Powell Community of active learners is a community on discord created and maintained by Kevin Powell. Kevin is a teacher and software developer with years of experience. You can join the Kevin Powell Community on discord.

• Commit Your Code: The Commit Your Code community is created and maintained by Danny Thompson. The community has a lot of active learners as well as experienced developers who are more than willing to help you with your projects and mentorship. You can join the Commit Your Code community on discord.

And of course the freeCodeCamp community has a supportive and friendly forum where you can ask questions and meet other developers.

After joining one or more of these communities, it is important to be on your best behaviour. Keep in mind to also be kind, provide value, and follow their rules.

Find a Study Partner

Being consistent and motivated may be hard even after scheduling your tasks and joining a study community. If this is the case, you might need a study partner.

You can benefit from having a study partner in the following ways:

• Makes sure you have accountability.

• You can set up joint study sessions.

• You can collaborate on joint projects.

• You might find mentorship.

• You can go through coding challenges together.

Use an Efficient Study Technique

Programming languages are generally complex. Unless you have an effective study technique, it will be difficult to understand the concepts and apply them in practical contexts. This can make you frustrated and lessen your motivation to learn.

If you're learning new concepts or a new programming language, here are some study techniques you might have tried:

• repetitive reading, otherwise known as re-reading

• highlighting

• summarizing or making notes

• cramming

But there's lots of evidence from prominent scientists and psychologists that has proven that these techniques are less effective when compared to other study techniques you can use.

To make the best use of your time and ensure you remember what you have studied for a longer time, try the following study techniques:

Active Recall

Active recall is a study technique that involves retrieving already stored information from your brain.

The mind is a vast storehouse or space; memories are objects stored in that space; and retrieving a memory is akin to searching for and finding an object in a physical space (Roediger, 1980).

Using this technique involves reading a topic once and then converting concepts and ideas in the topic you have read into questions and then testing yourself on them.

Spaced Repetition

This study technique, as its name suggests, involves spacing revisions of what you have learned by way of active recalling. This is in contrast to cramming, which involves memorizing all the concepts in a particular topic in a single sitting.

Essentially, spaced repetition helps you minimize the effect of The Forgetting Curve. It is a mode of learning by which you allow yourself to forget what you have learned. Then you try to retrieve those concepts from your brain by making active recalls at specific intervals over a period of time.

The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. This curve shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it. (Source)

Using the above study techniques will help you make sure that you are not spending too much time understanding and remembering any topic or concepts.

In addition, you will have more time to complete other tasks on your list, as well as the opportunity to learn new skills that will be helpful in your professional development.

One popular tool you can use to help with active recall and spaced repetition is Anki. Learn how to use Anki here.

To learn more about the use of these efficient study techniques, watch the video below:

Pomodoro timer

The Pomodoro study technique is ideal for people who struggle to concentrate on studying for a lengthy period of time.

One way to use this technique is to break your workday into 30 or 20 minute chunks separated by five minute breaks. These intervals are called Pomodoros.

Set Short Term Goals and Stay Focused on Achieving One Goal at a Time

Success doesn't happen overnight.

Trying to achieve too many objectives at the same time can be overwhelming. So it's always better to break your objective into shorter chunks of goals and focus on accomplishing one of the chunks or goals at a time.

For instance, let's say your goal is to be able to build a webpage with any of the popular JavaScript framework as a beginner. To do that, you'll need to learn various scripting and programming languages, tools, and skills. Here's what you should know to build a webpage:

1. Understand the basics of HTML.

2. Understand the basics of CSS.

3. Understand the use of semantic elements in HTML.

4. Understand the use of CSS Flexbox and Grid for layouts.

5. Try building a simple static website with what you have learned so far.

6. Start learning the basics of JavaScript.

7. Focus on building projects with your knowledge of HTML, CSS and the basics of JavaScript you have learned so far.

8. Start learning advanced JavaScript concepts such as Objective Oriented Programming, and Asynchronous Programming.

9. Solidify you knowledge on the advanced concepts by building projects with them.

10. Learn the JavaScript framework of your choice. React, Vue, and Angular are all popular choices.

11. Finally you can build your favourite project using the framework you have learned.

You might think that going through the steps above in the order they are stated would take you a few months. But it may take you much longer than that – and that's ok.

Also, don't try to skip any of these steps. Simply taking a crash web dev course likely won't be enough, and can set you up for disappointment and cause you to struggle much more than you would if you'd taken your time learning the concepts thoroughly.

On the other hand, making sure that you carefully go through each of the steps, one at a time, will help you to build the skills necessary to achieve your main goal. It will also prevent you from losing motivation, which is the likely result of having unrealistic expectations.

Don't be Afraid to Ask for Help

One of the reasons why people give up early when learning programming is because they encounter some sort of bug in their program that seems difficult to solve.

But you should know that no one knows it all when it comes to programming. Even software developers with decades of experience still encounter bugs they find very hard to solve on their own.

This is a major reason why collaboration is so important – even more so than developing your personal skills.

Whenever you find yourself in this situation, do not linger on the problem for too long. Use the internet to your advantage when searching for answers. In this regard, your best friend is Google. You can get the answer to almost everything related to programming on Google if you take your time and search deeply.

If you are unable to get the answer you need from searching on Google, then the next step to take is to go to the study community you belong to get help from others. They will typically be more than willing to help you, whatever the problem may be.

Take note of the following when seeking help from your community:

• Make sure to ask direct questions.

• Make sure your questions are clear enough to understand.

• Provide a copy of your code by putting them in a public remote repository such as GitHub or Codepen and provide the link to the repository.

Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle

I can't overemphasize the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It will help your maintain energy and keep you fit for the next challenge.

There are several ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle, some of which are:

• Get regular exercise to help your cognitive abilities and general fitness.

• Don't sit for lengthy periods of time.

• Exercise your fingers regularly while you're studying.

• Keep your eyes off your screen at regular intervals while you study.

• Make time for your hobbies as a reward for your efforts.

• Ensure you always sleep well and get a proper amount of rest.

Conclusion

Programming is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want to achieve any level of success, you have to take your time and study consistently.

Taking the steps discussed in this article will significantly improve your chances of reaching your goals.

If you enjoy this article, then you should give me a shout-out.

Further Reading and References

1. Retrieval creates learning.

2. The forgetting curve.

3. Download Anki, a powerful tool for active recall and spaced repetition.

Have you ever had those moments where nothing feels exciting? You lay in bed thinking – is it me, or is my work that boring?

I have those days too. Some weeks I am charged up and determined to take over the world. Other weeks, I feel low, bored, and stuck, and I feel like I don't have the motivation to write even one line of code.

This article will discuss what to do when you are not motivated and how to manage procrastination.

What to do when you don't have motivation to work on anything

We must remember that motivation comes in many shapes and forms. Some days, motivation looks like creating art, whereas other days, it inspires you to create a blog post.

Some days motivation looks like going on a 7-mile hike, whereas other days, it is about taking care of yourself and working your butt off.

Acknowledge and appreciate each type of motivation and its form. Let it encompass you, take you on a ride, and bring you new experiences, joy, and fulfillment. Let yourself feel motivated – no matter what form it takes because motivation in one form bleeds into another.

Some days when I feel low, I pull out my paintbrushes, put on a Bob Ross painting tutorial, play my favorite show in the background, make myself a cup of tea, light a candle, and start painting.

It feels good to use this time to de-stress. I don't care too much about the quality – I care about how I feel in the moment. I feel relaxed, inspired, motivated, and like I am taking care of myself and feeling creative while I am doing it.

Even though I may not feel motivated to write code, I feel motivated to paint – and that's okay!

I then take that feeling to the next day, either to let my creativity work on my art or to help me create something else.

An important thing to remember is that motivation is fleeting. A burst of inspiration usually lasts 1 - 3 weeks. By only relying on motivation to fulfill your dreams and goals, you are not creating a strategy for being consistent.

What you need is discipline. You need a system of habits. A habit system keeps you going day after day and becomes part of your daily routine, even when motivation has left you.

What is a habit system, and how do you create it?

A habit system is a carefully thought-out daily routine of habits that take you closer to your goal.

It is a system of what you need to do, how long you need to do it, what ambiance you want to create before you do the things you need to do, and how you will put yourself in the right mental frame of mind.

For example, as a developer, think about what goals you have set for yourself? They may look like this:

1. This week: create a feature for a project you are working on.
2. This month: learn TypeScript
3. This quarter: release project
4. This year: be proficient in React and TypeScript, speak at a conference, and create one blog every month.

Now, think about how you will break down these goals into tasks, and by what deadline are you hoping to get it done. Work backward from that deadline, and see what tasks you can achieve in the short term to achieve that goal.

Here is an example of one of the above goals:

Goal: create a feature for a project you are working on

Deadline: 1 week from today.

Steps:

1. Research what I need – dependencies, stakeholders, assets.
2. What are the steps for creating this feature?
3. What are some open questions?
4. Who can help me?

Timeline:

Day 1: Research
Days 2 - 3: Development work + testing
Day 4: End to end testing + fixing any bugs.
Day 5: Deploy to staging env and get ready for demo.

The next step is to "make" the time to do these steps. You carve out in your calendar to make it happen.

Look at your calendar, and block out "focus time". This is the time when you will get these tasks done.

Next, create a system of "setting your mental frame". This is how you get yourself in the mood for getting work done.

My Habit System

I've developed my own habit system that I use to keep myself on track. I'll explain each part so you can adapt it to your own needs.

How to find ideas

Often, I don't feel inspired to do anything because nothing is on my plate to do. I may have a lot of items in the backlog that I could work on, but I haven't given much thought to any of those ideas. And because I haven't "brought them on my plate," they don't feel as exciting.

So I go through my backlog or idealist and see if anything inspires me to overcome that. If not, I will browse blog articles on dev.to, freeCodeCamp, or Medium to see if any trending articles inspire creativity.

If not, I will find exciting conversations on Twitter. If that doesn't work, I will open Udemy or YouTube and find something to learn.

If none of that works, it is a signal that I need to chill out and take time to myself. I give myself a "creative" break – go on a walk, listen to a podcast. When something does inspire creativity during this break, I will write it down.

How to set a timeline

Once I have a few ideas in mind, I will pick the one that excites me the most. I will put a soft deadline for me – often two weeks. Then I will work backward from the deadline and mark time in my calendar to work on that topic.

I usually set 1-hour slots in my calendar if my calendar is busy and longer if I have more time. Some weeks, I may only be able to carve out 2 hours, okay.

Once it is on my calendar, I will force myself to sit down and get myself ready for focused work hours.

How to set a mood

Setting a mood is crucial because having a good ambiance is vital for me and creates a stimulating environment. My stimulants are sound, smell, and sight.

Sound: I put on a lofi or focus playlist. This is the one I commonly watch.

Smell: I have candles and diffusers set up in my office to create a "focus vibe". Sometimes, when I need a kick, I will also use roll-on essential oils.

Sight: I feel most motivated when someone else is working with me or when I am outside in nature. This is why my work desk faces a window where I can see trees, wind blowing, leaves rustling, and birds chirping.

In the youtube video I linked, the guy is also working, which makes me feel inspired to work. It's like having a working buddy.

I created a Twitch stream and discord server for this reason. When sitting in my home office alone is not enough to motivate me, and I need external motivation, I go to a cafe. Lately, I have also been going to a neighborhood park to write, which has been very helpful in creating articles.

How to cut out distractions

This is very important to me because I have the attention span of a goldfish. If given a chance, I will merrily browse away on Twitter, keep clicking notifications, or keep scrolling on Instagram.

So during my focus time, I put my phone on silent, quit my email applications, and turn slack to Do not disturb mode. I tell myself that for the next 45 minutes, I will not look at my phone, answer emails, look at Twitter or open Slack.

If I need to stop getting distracted, I will log out of these applications. Out of sight, out of mind. 😄

How to get things going

At this point, I have got my idea picked out, my vibe setup, my drink in my hand, my music playing, and the only thing I need to do is start typing.

I begin my Pomodoro timer. I work in 45-minute sessions with 15-minute breaks. I use the video I linked above as my Pomodoro timer. My goal is that I should work through the whole video by the end of the day.

Once the bell in the video hits "ding," I am ready. I start typing whatever comes into my head. I don't care much about polishing the content or code in the first go. This is a first go anyway. I will come back and revise the code or content repeatedly.

The idea here is to get it going and get the juices flowing. It's all about getting your mind to dump all the ideas out on the page.

Don't forget to take a break

Once the timer is done, it's time to take a break. I force myself to get up, take a walk, go outside, make a new cup of tea, do an errand – anything as long as it is not scrolling away mindlessly on Twitter or Instagram.

This is the time for me to give myself a break. Sometimes towards the end of the break, around the 10-minute mark, I will check Slack, emails, or any urgent notifications on my phone. Sometimes, nobody needs me ☹️ so I get back to work for another 45-minute cycle.

Wrap it up

I realized during these sessions that to have continuity and be motivated in the next session, I need to know what I have accomplished, where I left off, and what I have to do next.

For this, I will make notes at the end of the sessions, usually a revision of the above outline – what I did, what open questions I have, what I need to do in the next session, action items, and people I need to reach out to for help.

And so, the cycle repeats.

Wrapping Up

I hope this article helped you get inspired to create a habit system for yourself to keep you on track.

If you would like to work together on Twitch or Discord, DM me on Twitter telling me what is your preferred work schedule:

1. 9 AM - 11 AM PST Weekdays
2. 9 PM - 11 PM PST Weekdays

In the next article, I will talk about what to do when motivation does not strike, no ideas come to mind, and you need to give yourself a jolt. Stay tuned. You can also receive notifications about the next article directly in your inbox.

Hitting a dead-end is common when you're programming. It’s common with any type of problem-solving.

We get stuck on a particular way of seeing the problem and it can be difficult to achieve a new perspective.

I recently came across a tool from the creative arts and realised it could be adapted to work for programming.

The tool that inspired me is Oblique Strategy Cards. They are prompts to break a cycle of thinking and inspire us to think differently. Cards include ‘Remove specifics and convert to ambiguities’ and ‘Use an old idea’.

One of their most famous uses was on the David Bowie album Heroes. On the track ‘Sense of Doubt’, for example, Bowie and Brian Eno took turns doing overdubs based on Oblique Strategy Cards without revealing to the other what their card had said.

I think coding dead ends need something more direct. In moments of being stuck on a problem we both need inspiration and reassurance.

The Solution? The Coding Inspiration Machine

So I’ve collected quotes on the process of coding from experts – people who have created programming languages and operating systems. And I’ve put these wise words into a design by Gordana Minovska that gives the quotes centre stage.

https://ryandawsonuk.github.io/CodingInspirationMachine/

The aim is to have a tool to help get from “I can’t see any solution” to “maybe this approach will go somewhere” to “aha”.

We often get stuck in a perspective that doesn’t allow us to see the ‘maybe’ approaches. In those moments we could use some wise words from a master problem-solver to give us a jolt.

For example, these words from Robert C. Martin:

When you are working on a problem, you sometimes get so close to it that you can’t see all the options. You miss elegant solutions because the creative part of your mind is suppressed by the intensity of your focus.

The idea is to either bookmark the url or fork the repo and configure GitHub Pages to host your own version.

With a fork you can change the quotes to whatever you find most helpful. Then you can return to the Coding Inspiration Machine when you get stuck.

Of course this is just one inspiration tool. It won’t replace others like brainstorming and mind-maps.

David Bowie used many tools for inspiration and his music probably owes more to inspiration from newspaper clippings than Oblique Strategy Cards.

But the point with the Coding Inspiration Machine is to have an easy, go-to tool to remind us that it’s ok to get stuck, that it’s meant to be hard, and that there will be ways forward.

Real world applications for the Coding Inspiration Machine

Here are a few situations I’ve hit recently that got me thinking about this technique.

Getting creative

There was an authorization problem with a system I work on. The authorization code that was working with several authorization providers didn’t work for a particular Active Directory setup.

We didn’t know initially if it was a config problem on the provider side, config on the app side, a connectivity problem, or a problem in our code. We even built a custom test tool to narrow the problem down.

It eventually turned out that we needed an extra resource_uri parameter to be included in one of our http calls.

Finding a solution

For this same system we wanted to show metrics over long periods. This led to trying to make Prometheus queries over data ranges that are too big for Prometheus queries.

There’s a range of ways to handle this, from changing what we query for, to using different/more tools, to restructuring the data. We chose what amounts to restructuring the data.

Seeing the less obvious answer

My father-in-law showed me that his smart TV was not working with Netflix.

After navigating several confusing menus and trying various wireless networks, we found it to be a signal strength problem with the network that the TV was preferring (it worked fine with a network that the TV thought was lower strength).

Wrapping up

These problems are all different but they share common features.

Each required research and experimentation and eliminating possibilities. Each of them was initially surprising and it took time to adjust expectations and realise why the problem was there. It was necessary to explore multiple paths and each time that a path was unsuccessful it was disheartening.

It is easy to get stuck in these situations and find that we can’t see any paths anymore. The words of others who have been there before can help us see these situations with fresh eyes.

Have a look at the Coding Inspiration Machine and feel free to submit suggestions to the github repo or contact me on twitter.

Here are a few tips you can use to help your team improve, become more efficient, and deliver on projects faster.

The Engineer’s Way of Improving Team Productivity

The importance of providing your team with the right tools cannot be overstated. It's not the only important factor, as we’ll see later, but it can definitely make certain processes go more smoothly.

For instance, since code debugging is one of the most tedious tasks a developer needs to perform, you can equip your team with tools that will help them debug faster and more conveniently.

Let’s say you observe that your developers, who are working remotely in different parts of the world, are getting stuck with debugging code.

Debugging your own code is challenging enough. But if you have to debug someone else's – and they live in a different time zone – it can cause massive delays.

Using a debugger can help manage issues like these and make the entire team faster and more efficient.

Go beyond the system – to the people

However, increasing productivity isn’t just about finding the right tools to get the job done. A dev team is a group of human beings, not just code. And humans are complex organisms.

Additionally, software developers are highly intelligent individuals. Thus, they tend to not perform as well if what they’re doing isn’t challenging.

The point is not to look at productivity just at the system level. You need to also see the people who are inside that system.

This is a big problem I see with most startup founders or dev team managers. Most neglect developing leadership skills.

A team of developers isn’t so different from any other kind of a team. It’s a group of individuals put together to accomplish a goal. No matter how “horizontal” you think your team should be, at the end of the day it will fall apart without leadership.

Having been an avid learner in the subject of leadership, I will be borrowing some wisdom from John C. Maxwell’s The 17 Indisputable Laws Of Teamwork.

Make Sure Your Team Has a Vision

A vision gives direction to the team. It provides a battlecry that will make each member emotionally invested in the team’s goals.

A vision also ensures that individual achievements aren’t meaningless trophies. Each member can now align their individual goals to what the whole team ultimately wants to achieve.

For instance, take a look at Apple's vision statement:

"We are on the face of the earth to make great products, and that’s not changing. We don't settle for anything less than excellence."

With this kind of vision, each team member will believe that each line of code they write contributes to creating great products and not settling for anything less than excellence.

Productivity naturally occurs, as each member will have a higher view of their contributions to the team.

Focus on Your Team’s Strengths

Having talented developers in the team doesn’t necessarily translate to excellence in performance. Each member of the team has a particular expertise that needs to be utilized in the right tasks for that expertise.

A team’s dynamic changes depending on how members are placed. For instance, place one person in the wrong task and you'll get a confused team. Or worse, it will generate frustration (and resentment).

But pairing the right people with the right tasks will create progress and a high level of motivation (and thus productivity) in the team.

So how do you ensure that you’re focusing on your team’s strengths? Here are a few tips:

1. You must personally be familiar with every aspect of the team’s vision and shared values.
2. Not only should you be intimate with the vision and core values of the team, but you have to know how to adapt the team depending on each situation. Rigidity and an unwillingness to adapt kills productivity.
3. It’s important that you, as a leader, know each member personally so you’ll easily understand which tasks they’re more suited for.

Constantly Work on Better Communication

This may sound cliché, but I cannot overemphasize the importance of communication.

Software developers, especially when they’re “in the zone”, wearing headphones, shut themselves off from the outside world. They do this so they can focus.

It’s great. Coding is an art. The coder is the artist. Any distraction ruins the masterpiece.

But this doesn’t mean we cannot introduce systems and tools that encourage everybody to speak their minds and share ideas.

Stand-up meetings provide for a short but very effective way for everybody to get updated on the team’s progress.

Communication tools such as Slack or Telegram ensure that information is shared in real time.

Github and Gitlab also have tools that allow teams to discuss issues and be able to resolve them.

For example, team members can review each other's code and ensure proper collaboration on improving shipped code:

Image courtesy of: https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/commenting-on-a-pull-request

Conclusion

The bottom line is that increasing your dev team’s productivity is a mixture of systemization of tasks (such as equipping them with the right tools) and enhancing their potential as human beings.

This not only will ensure you have a highly productive team, but also a group of happy individuals avoiding burnout and enjoying doing what they do best.

So I wanted to share some of the things I do to stay motivated to keep learning to code, and how I continue to enjoy it day after day, year after year.

Here is my TLDR for those who want to view this at a glance. But if you want to know more, keep reading!

• Start by setting aside only 5 minutes to learn
• Break down any learning into smaller achievable parts
• Just pick 1 thing to learn and get started on it immediately
• Enjoy the process of learning itself as part of the journey
• Keep to a routine with scheduled time set aside to learn consistently
• Avoid mindlessness of social media, etc when learning
• Do it again, continue to learn, it's not something you can fail at, only something you might temporarily put on hiatus

5 minutes of Learning

It doesn't seem like much. It isn't much. But it's more than not doing anything at all.

It's easy to get overwhelmed when contemplating setting aside hours of your time to learn something you might not understand.

The engagement for learning to code sometimes misses that level of entertainment you might get when playing a sport or game. But that's because that level of fun happens only once we get into the thick of things.

Setting aside 5 minutes each day or week is enough to get you started, and starting is the hardest part. Once you start coding, the rest will come more naturally.

You will enjoy and gain the motivation to want to do a little more. I've often found myself learning a lot for hours at a time after planning to have only spent 5 minutes on it.

Break down large learning into smaller parts

Most thing's can be broken down into simpler and simpler parts that are easier to understand at each level. Learning to code is no different.

Learning JavaScript, for example, might seem like a huge task. There are so many nuances to it. Yet, every part of JavaScript, down to how it handles an array (a group of items), to the way you can call methods (a way to do something) can be broken down layer by layer.

The final result is that you might just start by learning how to pop (remove a single entry from the group). If you continue learning bit by bit, you will eventually learn how all the methods and functions work, until you can use this one aspect JavaScript without having to google it every time.

You are essentially building on what you learn bit by bit until you get a better understanding of the whole, and this can be only done by reducing it all into smaller components to start off with.

Pick 1 thing to learn, and start learning it immediately

You probably already know what you want to learn, you might have had it in the back of your mind for a while. Whether it is HTML, CSS, React or even just plain old JavaScript, it's great to want to start learning something.

If you don't know yet what you want, freeCodeCamp has you covered with heaps of topics so you can just pick one or start at the top.

But if you already have a topic, don't just think about it. It's all great to read the latest articles, look at the documentation over and over, see the news of what's happening in that language, but to really get started, you need to just start.

This means if you want to learn React for example, just open up a new project right now and start working on it. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, you might just be doing the Hello World getting started guide, but the goal is to stop thinking about learning, and start learning.

Enjoy the process of learning itself as part of the journey

When you go for a run, eat some food, or go to watch a movie even, you don't think of it in terms of "I want to complete eating this dinner", or "I successfully watched that movie". Rather, you enjoy the process of what you do.

Often we forget about this in learning, we focus so hard on "Understanding the language" that we forget about "Enjoying the learning process".

The best sort of learning is done when you enjoy what you are doing. Your brain will pick it up easier and remember it longer. That's why so many people who do well are the ones already invested and happy to learn something new.

The trick is to stop thinking too much about "finishing" and more about what is fun and interesting in each topic you encounter. This way you will go further and be happier for it. When you look back, you will do so happily and when you look forward, you will want to experience more learning journeys.

Keep to a routine with a scheduled time set aside to learn consistently

It's easy to put learning last. Last thing of the day to do, last thing of the week to do. You are essentially setting it as the last object with little importance. You won't have energy by the time you get to it, and you might altogether let it lapse.

Instead, schedule it in first. First thing you might do when you wake up, or the first part of your day that you complete before going to work.

You will be setting an agenda for it that is easier to keep. You will have more energy at the start of the day so you will learn it easier. And if you schedule it in before anything else, routinely, you will over time (days and days, weeks and weeks) learn quite a lot.

It doesn't have to be for hours – when you spend just 15 minutes on a subject daily over a year, that's over 90 hours of learning!

Avoid the mindlessness of social media, etc when learning

It's easy to forget yourself or lose concentration when you have a hundred little distractions. Learning requires mental focus, and staying motivated to learn means that you should put only one focus in front of you.

With social media notifications popping up in the background, YouTube playing on the side in a picture-in-picture, and a dozen other distractions, you might feel like you are never able to learn.

The best way to stay motivated and focused on learning is to simply switch all of these things off during your learning period. Set your phone to silent or do not disturb. Close all your browser windows, and if you plan on having music, make sure it's without lyrics that might be so catchy that you find yourself singing along.

All of these affect your learning, and if you can cut them out, you will do a better job.

Do it again

Continue to learn. It's not something you can fail at, only something you might temporarily put on hiatus.

If you get used to the idea of learning, it doesn't become a chore, rather, it becomes something you look forward to.

Since technologies, libraries and frameworks are changing so often, it will be something you will need to keep doing in coding. Look forward to it and take time to appreciate that things will never be stale and boring because there will always be something new on the horizon to learn and do.

Stay Motivated to keep Learning to Code

These are some of the things I do personally to stay motivated to keep learning to code. I think they have helped me a lot in getting to where I am, which is a Full Stack developer who enjoys doing both Front end development and some Back end work as well.

Over the years I learnt HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, React, React Native and more. I figured out early on I enjoyed React, so I learn more in that area such as mobile applications, how to use state, and more.

As you learn more yourself, and code more, you will figure out what you enjoy learning and you can focus in on it, but you will only do so if you stay motivated to keep learning to code.

I'm Adrian from Australia ? I have a tiny channel on Twitter & YouTube, so if you want to know more about me or enjoy my content, check me out sometime ?

• Youtube: https://youtube.com/adriantwarog
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/adrian_twarog

Why should we write in the first place?

Maybe you've never thought about writing before or maybe you're looking for a little more motivation. Whatever the case, there are a lot of good reasons why writing can help us grow.

Helping others to learn

Coding can be tough. And we all started somewhere at the beginning.

It's a long journey that each of us go through and it's even harder to go at it alone. Luckily, we've had websites like freecodecamp.org and css-tricks.com along the way that have made that journey more manageable, but there's always going to be a challenge that just doesn't make sense.

CSS-Tricks around 2011 when I got my first official coding job via Way Back Machine

This is where we have an opportunity to share our experiences to help others grow. While our favorite coding sites have tons of amazing tutorials, maybe they're missing a key point someone needed to fully grasp the solution.

Whether you're at the beginning or middle of your journey, every experience, big or small, can help another developer on their own journey.

And this is where it can be rewarding. One of my favorite parts of writing has been getting a Twitter DM from someone about how one of my tutorials helped them learn. It's a great feeling knowing you helped someone else on their journey.

Take this as a way for you to give back to the community that helped you learn and grow.

Reinforcing your learning

Thinking back to your grade school Spanish class, one of the tricks to helping the students learn was to reinforce learning. Teachers use different methods like reading, writing, speaking, flashcards, or even that Cinco de Mayo fiesta where you learned about and celebrated Mexico's heritage to help make the language stick.

This applies to development concepts as well. While your solution is still fresh in your head, write it down! Being able to teach what you've learned by writing about it will help those concepts stick in your head.

And just because you write it, it doesn't mean you have to share it. If you're not comfortable sharing it with the world, just keep a copy in a private notebook. You'll always be able to reference it yourself and still reinforce what you know by writing it down.

Documenting our experiences

Doubling up on reinforcing your learning, by writing about your experiences, you're kind of creating your own personal StackOverflow with a list of problems you've already solved.

As much as we had hoped we would remember how to speak Spanish from the classes we took, 10 years goes by pretty quickly and you suddenly realize you can only correctly say "hola" in Spanish.

_Hola sign from Jon Tyson on Unsplash_

If you were the ambitious type, maybe you saved all of your notes. If not, maybe you remember a good website that has flashcards.

Either way, having resources to go back to, whether it's your own notes or that website you still have bookmarked, helps us to quickly reference challenges we've already come across. By writing down your experiences, you're adding to that digital notebook that you know you can always use to remember that quirk you fixed.

Growing your personal network

Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to write and share content – and that's okay! While some of us might be doing this to help others learn, others might be simply trying to get a job or grow their Twitter following.

One of the benefits of sharing your experiences is that you're immediately growing the network of developers that have a little more insight into who you are and the work you've done.

This doesn't guarantee a job, but it certainly can help. All teams are a little different in how they recruit. Smaller teams tend to include other developers more in the beginning of the process who are probably more likely to open your blog and not only read a little bit, but actually understand it.

But even if you don't immediately get hired, you're playing the long game. Opportunities will start to come in small ways that lead to bigger opportunities down the road.

Why you might be hesitating and how we can look at it another way

Sometimes motivation isn't enough. We all have our personal challenges that might prevent us from doing something we want to do. But sometimes it's a matter of finding a different perspective to give you that bit of inspiration to finally dive in.

Imposter syndrome – who am I to write about this?

This is something I've personally struggled with for the majority of my career. Whether I was confident in my ability to do my job or not, I never felt like it was enough to be one of the people writing guides for others.

My website and blog

It wasn't until another team member brought another perspective to this argument (thanks Marquet) – everyone learns differently and maybe my way of telling a story can help someone learn.

If someone doesn't read my work, what are the consequences beyond a little bit of wasted time? On the other hand, maybe my blog post resonated with someone in a way that other blog posts didn't and they were finally able to solve their problem.

And this goes for any level of experience. As Swyx says, the fastest way to learn is in public. If you're not helping someone else, you're at least helping yourself grow.

Finding time – it takes a while to write a post

Time is a funny thing – it becomes an excuse that we use when we don't want to admit the real reason we're holding back.

Of course that's not always the case. Realistically a lot of us have a ton on our plates already whether we work, take care of a family, or are volunteering to help others. It can be a struggle to not want to just sit on the couch after a hard day's work.

But consider the free time you do have. Can you spare 10 minutes jotting down a few notes or even starting an outline of some things you want to say?

While 10 minutes won't write a whole post, if you start the habit and write another paragraph or two every day, you'll slowly end up with a blog post that you can feel good about sharing.

Just don't set the bar too high. If you start off with an unrealistic goal, you're likely to burn out fast and end up back in the same position you're at now.

No topic – not knowing what to write about

From speaking with other developers, I've noticed this seems to be tied a little bit to imposter syndrome. Maybe you're getting confident enough that you're more willing to write, but you're struggling to find what to write about. Is it because you can't think of a topic or is it because every topic you think about, you don't think you're enough of an expert to write about it?

Not having a topic can be a legitimate problem, but there's inspiration all around us. If you're working every day as a developer, you're working on problems that you ultimately need to solve. Why not write about those problems? And if you can't write about the problems due to contract concerns, what about writing about them in an abstract way without any sensitive information?

Inspiration for me comes from my experience talking with others. I'm lucky to be on a team that encourages growth of junior developers and during my time helping them out, their questions lead me to think about topics that I took for granted.

Whenever a topic like that comes up, I immediately note it down for later. This topic was on that list! Over time, my list of topics has grown to a point where I don't think I'll even finish it by the end of the year.

My personal list of topic ideas

While that could feel overwhelming, it's also motivates me to have a bigger selection of what I'm in the mood to write about rather than forcing myself to both think of a new topic and write about something I don't want to write about each week.

Whatever the case, find your source of inspiration. You don't need to be an expert on it. It doesn't matter if someone more experienced already wrote about it. Write what you know. Share your experiences. Maybe you'll help someone see the problem from a different perspective.

Finding what motivates you

At the end of the day, writing is something that each of us will need to find our own motivation to do.

Try to evaluate your goals. What are you looking to achieve? If writing is something you truly want to do, you'll need to find your own source of inspiration.

While some reasons might be more valid than others, it's easier to find reasons not to do something than it is to do it.

You got this! ?

A lack of motivation is a mundane and troublesome issue that affects almost everyone.

Sometimes you feel like life is pointless or get depressed and you just feel like you’re not going anywhere.

This general sense of disparity happens to people from time to time and it is very common in a world that moves very fast.

Human nature is a complex amalgamation of distinct characteristics and we, as humans, tend to fall into despair and hopelessness when we feel like we aren’t making any progress.

If you want to motivate or inspire someone, make them feel like they’re making progress.

Look at the MMORPGs, for example. These games can become addicting because you’re progressing, you’re gaining a level, and your character is getting geared up and better at what it does.

Every day that you’re playing you are always making some sort of progress even if it’s a little bit. You are making your way to the next level.

That’s one of the reasons they are successful (World of Warcraft mostly).

So how can you stay motivated?

Simple Steps to Continuous Self-Motivation

No matter what’s happening in your life, always have one thing you’re moving forward with, so you feel good about it and yourself.

It can be great if you can have multiple such things but it’s wiser to have one core thing you’re progressing on.

You can change it later, of course, but it’s important to not divide your attention between several other endeavors.

Here is an example:

If you want to learn JavaScript, make this thing your number one priority. Every day you must read a few pages of your favorite JavaScript book or work on both personal or open-source projects that rely on JavaScript.

Things don’t always go as planned but no matter what happens, you have to make steady progress everyday.

Some days you’ll wake up not being able to write code or being stuck in a chapter in a book. But don’t worry. These things happen to everyone and there are other ways to compensate for the lack of practice.

Reading a JavaScript-related article can sometimes be a thing to look forward to in order to be up to date with your learning process and maintain motivation.

If your eyes get tired you can always switch to other methods of learning. Listening to JavaScript-related podcasts is one of them.

In short, there is always something you can do to make progress in what you want to do.

Think about it.

Every page you read, every podcast you’re listening to, every line of code written is a step forward, every mortgage payment you pay, that’s something you should look forward to. It’s progress.

The more of these things you can find in your life the less despair you’re going to feel.

You’re going to be more hopeful because you’re making progress, you are getting somewhere.

You can do it!

I've recently joined Coding Coach as a mentor. You can reach out and ask me anything about programming or if you just want to talk about the latest technologies.

Around this time last year I started learning the basics of code in my spare time, and sure enough found myself working as a professional developer just 7 months later – with no CS degree, no bootcamp, and no clue.

So if you’re reading this you’re probably thinking: how on earth did that happen?

Well, my thoughts exactly.

In this article I’ll share what I did in those initial 7 months leading up to my first ever dev job. I’ll also include lots of resources I found helpful along the way, and bits of advice that I wish I had taken on sooner.

If you’re a fellow coding beginner aiming to make a similar career change into web development, my hope is that this article offers you some guidance…

(If you haven’t started coding yet but want to find ways to begin, you might find my previous article a little more helpful, which includes lots of insights on how to take that first step towards learning to code.)

So, lesson number 1:

? Share your interest early.

When I seriously started thinking about programming, the first thing I did was talk about it.

I asked my friends and family if anyone knew any developers who’d be willing to chat about their jobs, and ended up meeting so many smart and creative people who gave genuine, practical and (most importantly) varying insights.

The key here is to try and meet as many different kinds of developers as possible. If you can, speak to people with all sorts of interests and specialties at various stages in their careers. This kind of access can unveil the variety involved in programming, and you can use it to demystify the idea of coding as this big, scary thing.

Another good habit to pick up early is to constantly:

? Ask.

I asked developers some of the most basic things like:

• What the hell is GitHub?
• Do you really not need a computer science degree?
• Why is everyone always talking about React?
• What kind of tech jobs do you think there’ll be in 10 years time?

? And go to meetups.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a place like London where there are plenty of meetups happening – go!

This is great practice early on not only because you might get to have human beings guide you through coding problems, but because it lets you meet with organisers, coaches, bootcamp students, etc. etc.

By going to meetups you can also build up your network in the industry and hear about potential job opportunities suited to your skill level.

Some of my favourite beginner-friendly and inclusive meetups include:

• Codebar. This is an amazing weekly meetup with over 20 chapters worldwide, where you can work with coaches and really get stuck into your code (they also run virtual meetups for those who can’t make it to events).
• Ada’s List. This organisation runs friendly monthly meetups in London alongside a virtual community online, offering women a great way to meet other women in tech (and not just coders).
• 24 Pull Requests. This annual event (also in London) is a lovely place to contribute to open source projects, and includes an introduction to Github – very handy for beginners.
• Node Girls. This group organises meetups a couple of times a year in multiple locations, and is a great place for newbies to learn Javascript and Node.js.

?‍♀️ Next: Play the field.

For ages, I thought the first thing I had to know about code was what language I wanted to learn. But not only is it ok not to know where to start, I actually think it’s a huge advantage.

There are so many languages and topics out there, and while this can definitely be overwhelming as a beginner, you can also make the most of your naivete and just try it all out without getting too preoccupied with all the surrounding jargon (for instance, you don’t need to know the entire history of CSS to just play around with it) – which leads me to my favourite bit of advice from those initial 7 months...

? Be bad.

When I first started I was so scared of how bad I was going to be. And one of my biggest revelations since then was: nobody cares.

Of course you’re going to be bad at it! You’ll be terrible. But, having a beginner status gives you license to suck at everything, so use it while the stakes are low. Enjoy being terrible – it’s fun, and freeing.

?‍? Do the tutorials.

When you’re trying to level up from total beginner, tutorials are great because their format eliminates the problem of having to figure out what you want to learn and how you want to learn it (while you’re actually just trying to learn it).

Some of my favourites include:

• Any of the Codebar tutorials (great for learning different languages from scratch)
• Rachel Andrew’s video tutorials (awesome for learning CSS grid)
• NodeGirls workshop tutorials (nicely paced walkthroughs that introduce you to Javascript & Node.js)

When it comes to tutorials though, try and understand how you learn best and don’t get bogged down in one method or approach just because it’s the most popular or it was suggested to you.

You might not know much about coding at this stage, but what you do know is how you learn best. So trust your own judgement here.

Here are some different learning methods that have worked well for me:

• freeCodeCamp curriculum. Byte sized exercises for different languages, great for when you need a break from heavy tutorials and want to play around with something a little lighter.
• CSS Diner & Flexbox Froggy. Two fun games that are great for helping you get to grips with CSS selectors and practicing flexbox layouts.
• Codepen. A coding playground where you can look at people’s projects alongside their code, letting you to connect the dots between the two.
• Grasshopper. A sweet, beginner-friendly mobile app that introduces you to Javascript fundamentals.
• Eloquent Javascript. This digital book pairs really well with freeCodeCamp exercises, giving a thorough and foundational understanding of Javascript.

? Be a copycat.

Soon enough, you’ll feel like it’s time to build something a bit more substantial. And a really fun way to do this without feeling overwhelmed is by trying to replicate cool stuff you’ve already seen (you can browse some cool looking website here). And as you do this:

? Know why.

If you’re building your first ever website, before you even get to writing any code remember to ask yourself why. Are you doing it to:

• Just fill up your portfolio?
• Learn a particular language?
• Try out different hacks you’ve heard about?

As a beginner, your main reason for building something is probably to learn by doing so your website or app is just a means to an end. It’s the byproduct, not the goal. Remember that.

Knowing this distinction is crucial to learning effectively, especially if you’re teaching yourself because as you’ll quickly learn: everyone’s got their own way of doing things. For instance if you’re building a website as a way to learn flexbox, then don’t let someone talk you into using Bootstrap.

If someone tells you there’s a quicker way to achieve a goal they may be right, but they might not have clarity on what the real aim is.

? So articulate it.

First to yourself, then to others, and then make your own decision about how you want to go about it. This part might seem super obvious, but in the midst of soaking up all that information, it’s all too easy to forget.

? Then chill.

The great thing about self-directed learning is that you decide the whats and the hows right? Well, another great thing is that your deadlines are made up by you, and if you don’t meet them, nobody cares. So give yourself a break!

⚡️ Stay inspired.

This learning process is twofold: on one hand you need to spend time figuring out the technical minutiae in your code, and on the other you need to look around every now and again and see what other people are doing.

Blending these two approaches gives a great holistic perspective on your learning, and helps mitigate the stress of getting caught up in all the details. Here are some tips I found useful in my first 7 months:

? Go to conferences.

• You Got This. This is a UK-based event specifically for developers in the early stages of their careers. I went to it without ever having worked as a developer, felt totally comfortable there and left ready to get stuck into some code.
• New Adventures. This Nottingham-based conference provides a less technical, more meta approach to tech and where it fits into the world these days. With varied speakers and far-reaching topics, it’s super inspiring.

? Read up.

• freeCodeCamp (of course)
• Codebar (they run a great series of interviews with self-taught developers)
• A List Apart (publishes a huge range of topics from design to coding to career progression)
• Smashing Magazine (features articles, books, events, jobs – you name it)

? Follow people.

• Mandy Michael – has a lot of seriously cool stuff on Copeden.
• Rachel Andrew – gives loads of inspiring and practical talks, many of which you can find online.
• Jen Simmons – has a rich Youtube channel full of insights on design and developing.
• Saron Yitbarek – founder & CEO of CodeNewbie – total boss.

And that’s essentially it. Looking back over the last year, I’ve come to realise that these core lessons were what sustained me as I went from being a copywriter who had never looked at a single line of code, to working as a full time developer.

So if you’re thinking about switching careers but are worried about committing to such a big change, try breaking it down into these smaller goals and challenges.

If it can work for a woman who had absolutely no clue what she was doing at the time, it can surely work for you. So please: use these lessons learned, tailor them to your own learning style, and get after it.

If you want to get in touch or keep up to date on future articles, talks and events, you can follow me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/niamhmccoo

Start asking "How?"

At one point or another, we're all held back by limiting beliefs.

Limiting beliefs-Self-destructive ideas that we hold true.

I Just Can't

Some examples, often the cause of impostor syndrome, include

• I can't apply, my resume's not ready!
• I can't get this job!
• I can't teach this subject!
• I can't run a business!

These types of statements don't just severely limit your career, they limit your whole life! How are you ever going to get ahead if you keep doubting yourself like this?

Many of us are so used to saying "I can't" that we've forgotten how damaging it is. Not only are you admitting defeat, but you're absolving yourself of accountability. You want to change but insist on staying in your position, which is lazy and an insult to your true potential.

No hard feelings, I sometimes do it too ?

Fortunately we may have a simple solution. Look closer at those statements, what's the killer common word? Can't.

Change That One Word

If you share this struggle with me, let's try following one simple rule.

Stop saying "can't". Start asking "how".

Now let's refactor our previous statements in light of this new rule.

• How can I get my resume ready?
• How can I get this job?
• How can I teach this subject?
• How can I run a business?

We've immediately unlocked some benefits.

1. Ditched the victim mentality and stopped pitying ourselves.
2. Turned limiting phrases into empowering and thought-provoking questions.
3. Reprogrammed our minds to navigate around limiting beliefs.

This is a much stronger position to be in. Now you're ready to start brainstorming solutions to your problems and continue climbing that ladder into the sky.

This Works Everywhere

If saying "I can't" limits things outside your career, then asking "how" will enhance things outside your career.

It could be spirituality, fitness, finance, networking, or any other kind of personal development. This one word will push you beyond those who give up and help you shatter the beliefs that hold you back.

Go forth and crush it. You got this ?

Thanks for reading

I teach coding on my YouTube channel now! Check it out here.

For more content like this, check out https://yazeedb.com. And please let me know what else you'd like to see! My DMs are open on Twitter.

Until next time!

As a developer, practice is vital to your continued professional success.

The web moves fast. Just a year or two of contentment could leave you eating JavaScript's dust.

Yet many developers, regardless of experience, frantically ask: "Which project should I do?"

...only to receive these cryptic answers.

In hopes of preventing that, I'd like to share some advice that's been very beneficial to me.

Copy–until you can create

Consider the following quote...

Good artists copy; great artists steal. - Pablo Picasso

This doesn't mean rob your parents.

It means, while you're practicing, don't bother with original ideas. Just copy something and focus on perfecting your technique!

You can rewrite the source code line-by-line, do it totally independently, or somewhere in-between.

Everyone's Doing It

Aspiring artists and authors copy all the time. Whether it's redrawing or rewriting, mimicking a famous piece is a mind-opening exercise. You get to immerse yourself in the craft and not worry about formulating a good idea. All the focus goes toward improving your skills.

This applies to programming too! Myself and many other developers copy open source repos just to learn how they work. You discover techniques you might've never encountered before.

In his inspirational Medium Clap article, Emmanuel Ohans took this principle to the extreme. He figured out how to design his own project after copying countless Codrops repos.

It's not about plagiarizing original works–it's about improving your technique and drawing inspiration from others.

How You Can Do It

Find a project you'd like to copy, then pick one option...

1. Copy its source code line-by-line
2. Look at source code only when you're stuck
3. Recreate it 100% by yourself
4. Just do something!

All the choices are valid and beneficial. As you complete the project, research any syntax/patterns you find confusing.

Original = Coding last

If you only practice through original ideas, this will be your workflow.

1. Thinking of something
2. Research
3. Planning
4. Marketing
5. Design
6. Development (The very last step)

Looks pretty wasteful to me, unless you're running a startup company.

Copying = Coding first

For the ones who just want to code, consider this process instead.

1. Code an existing app that interests you

That's it! The process is now aligned with our goals. Instead of developing at the very end, we're now developing all the way through.

The idea, research, planning, and design are all taken care of. We can focus on the good stuff, unlike poor Harold here.

He'll never improve because he's stuck in the idea phase. Don't make his mistake! Spend your resources on practicing instead of idea-making.

If that's your goal, at least. ?

Want Free Coaching?

If you'd like to schedule a free 15-30 minute call to discuss Front-End development questions regarding code, interviews, career, or anything else follow me on Twitter and DM me.

After that if you enjoy our first meeting, we can discuss an ongoing coaching relationship that'll help you reach your Front-End development goals!

Thanks for reading

For more content like this, check out https://yazeedb.com!

Until next time!

I'm currently a Software Engineer in one of the fast growing startups in my country.

I'm an open source contributor.

I'm a writer on Medium and for freeCodeCamp.

I also published my own Mobile Application with my own back-end server.

Some people might look at me and think that I'm an ideal Software Engineer. You might think that I have always been like this, able to do everything like I was born with the talent to do so.

But in reality, I am not everything that people see. Even now, everything I am doing is all for the sake of growing.

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@timberfoster?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Tim Foster / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

I am not an overly smart person. I used to score pretty badly during my university life. And I don't have a good long term memory.

I am not a fast learner. Some people might only need to be explained something once to fully understand it. Meanwhile I might need two or three explanations.

I was not even a good writer. I always struggled doing those assignments which asked you to write a story in 1000 words kind of thing.

And especially, I am not a confident person. I have huge Impostor Syndrome.

Fortunately, I am able to compensate for all those things that I lack. I'm able to get myself back up every time I am feeling down.

Still, nothing comes instantly. Everything comes with hard work and progress. It takes times and dedication to overcome it all.

In this article, I will share several things that enable me to overcome my own weak points.

1. Make learning a habit

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@roadtripwithraj?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Raj Eiamworakul / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

Some people read books every day. Some people watch videos or listen to tech podcasts for learning, or even take online courses.

As for me, I tend to lose focus on long reads and stop halfway through on online courses. But I found reading short tech articles on Medium or freeCodeCamp effective for me. Finding the best way for you to learn is the first step into learning.

Make it become your habit. Whether it's having 5 minutes to read every day in your morning toilet, or even time to read before bed. As for me, I always commute with public transportation and I tend to spend my time finding a good 5 to 10 minute article to read.

Learning keeps me updated everyday. Having a head start has helped me keep myself together so I don't get left behind on track.

Learning is a lifetime journey for us.

2. Make coding a habit (too)

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@adigold1?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Adi Goldstein / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

Yes, it does sound crazy. When you are doing it, a lot of people will think that you need to get a life. Why did I say that? Because I am living proof of that case!

But for me it's a part of making myself better. It keeps me from getting rusty and also it helps a lot when I am trying to learn new things. After all, hands-on execution really helps me a lot when learning new things.

Making coding into a habit is not an easy thing - for god's sake it is coding! It's full of weird magic and unknown realms. All that aside, you need to find some parts of it that you like. As for me, I love the challenge of exploring new things, which is never ending in coding.

Just because you like it doesn't mean you'll make it a habit. What really helped me back then was doing 100 days of code. It helped me get into the habit of opening a computer everyday and at least looking at some code.

3. Sharing is caring

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@priscilladupreez?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Priscilla Du Preez / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

When you are learning so much, there is always time to give back. This really helps boost your confidence. It's also one of the better ways for you to learn, as sharing will help to fill any knowledge gap in thing you are trying to share.

There are plenty of ways in which you can try to share your thoughts: writing a blog or article is one of the ways (as I am doing right now). Giving a technical talk, or even simply mentoring your peers are other ways.

Also, remember those stack-overflow questions you have been copy-pasting?
It is now the time for you to give back to the tech community and share your own though also.

4. Look into an open-source project

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@stairhopper?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Alex Holyoake / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

GitHub is full of interesting things. Try to take your time exploring and you might find a lot of interesting things. Some are complicated super-libraries, some are not even code, only list of open-source APIs which you can use. There are even some joke repositories there for a laugh.

Contributing can even start from making an issue on a repository. Every big thing always starts small.

5. Impostor Syndrome? Learn from it!

_Photo by [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@gryshchenko?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=api-credit">Maksym Gryshchenko / <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=ghost&utm_medium=referral&utmcampaign=api-credit)

Have you ever felt like you are a fake? Feel scared that everybody will figure out that you are just a scam, like you don't actually belong here? Yup, that's what impostor syndrome is.

Most people certainly have felt this before, especially in the fast growing field of technology. In reality, this is very common and it is actually a good sign if you are having it. This means you are in a place where you know enough to know that you do not know enough things.

The thing about impostor syndrome is, don't let it overwhelm you with negativity. Let it drive you and become a motivation for you to grow and be better.

Final thoughts

Now, even after all that, you might wonder if I have successfully dealt with all my weaknesses. If I have already accomplished enough. If it's time yet for me to stop.

The answer is a big NO.

You never stop in growing. The moment you stop growing, you will start dying inside. The world is vast and you'll never have enough knowledge.

Success is a long journey ahead, nothing is ever instant. Focus more on the progress rather than your destination and your path will feel lighter. Keep up your consistency and you will surely reach your destination. Even then always remember to give yourself a break when the time comes.

Thanks for reading through my article! I do hope that it will be useful for you! I will be very happy if it is! :)

"It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop" ~ Confucius

Thank You

My last article on killing procrastination did much better than I expected. It was reassuring to see others like myself fighting this uphill battle, and heartwarming to hear that you all enjoyed my humble piece! Thank you ❤️

In an effort to keep the momentum going, let’s talk about creating processes.

I’m Going Somewhere!

You’re scrolling through your phone and YouTube recommends yet another motivational video because it knows how much you love them, How I Tripled my Net Worth or whatever. You listen to soundbites of a dude claiming that deep breathing and not eating vegetables transformed him into a CEO.

Man triples his net worth by eschewing broccoli

Like all the others it’s loud and bold enough to stir a familiar feeling within you, and by the time the video ends, a sudden amp and feverish itch make it clear as day–you’ve been bitten by the Inspiration Bug again.

What happens next? Just the usual...

“I will become a web developer!”

“I will start working out tomorrow!”

“I will get a promotion!”

Your battle cries may vary, but your mileage won’t. You are still going nowhere.

Care to Be More Specific?

What does “I will become a web developer” even mean? How can we track progress on these nebulous phrases that you shout whenever inspiration strikes?

I'm not saying don't have lofty goals. Be inspired. Get energized! But please use that energy to be more specific. Talking feels good, we’ve gone over this, but when you inevitably come back down from that inspirational high, what are your concrete actions going to be?

Don’t just say, “I am going to learn web development” Do you know how gargantuan of a task that is?!

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Frameworks/Libraries
• Testing
• Accessibility
• Build tools
• HTTP
• SEO
• Animations
• REST APIs
• Templating engines
• State management
• Command line
• Fatigued yet?

This is the JS ecosystem from 2016...three years ago!

I was suffering from this around 2013, before JavaScript really detonated a few years later. If we’re going by that definition then even with nearly 5 years experience, I still haven’t “learned” web development and I never will.

Every endeavor has a ton of paths, and most of us waste precious time considering all possible paths instead of just committing to one and flourishing.

You're going to end up unmotivated again, because a specific target wasn't set.

Tell Me What You Want

You want to become a web developer, ok great.

What kind? Why?

Do you want a job? What kind of job? Do you want a business? What kind of business? Tell me exactly what you want! Once we identify your target, we can prepare for the hunt.

Here's an example of Batman guiding Joker through it.

Joker: Fine! I flipped a coin and think UIs are cool, let’s focus on Front-End development (for now). I want to become a Front-End web developer.

Batman: Good, where?

Joker: I have kids, so no more than 1 hour from the house. A remote position would be ideal.

Batman: Here’s a job description based on countless Indeed.com postings.

Job description

• Strong knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript

• Knowledge of modern mobile/responsive design techniques

• Git/GitHub
• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Bonus points for React, Angular, Vue, Node.js

Joker: What’s the fastest way to succeed?

Batman: Turn yourself into this candidate. We’ll work towards that by creating a process.

Creating a Process

This requires you to critically think about the goal. What steps must we take to progress?

How about a project that incorporates the job description we just found? I always recommend beginners to make a clone of todomvc.com. For best results, conform as close to the job description as possible.

• Use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
• Make sure the app looks spectacular on all screen sizes
• Put it on GitHub
• Not everyone will agree here, but I say don't use a framework until you’re somewhat proficient in JavaScript. This means you can comfortably write basic apps without needing a framework and you understand how the pieces connect in a more complex app.
• Once you’re more advanced, feel free to redo this in React, Angular, Vue, etc.

Less Shopping, More Googling

The important thing here is to pick a project. Don't buy another course or book until it gets done. You’ll learn everything by Googling the problems you encounter.

After that, pick a different or slightly harder version of the project, rinse and repeat. Do that a few times and you have a portfolio of apps you built from the ground up.

There’s your process–congratulations, you’re now exactly like the candidate in that job description. Maybe even better, depending on the apps you completed.

This Works Everywhere

I’m a huge fan of universal principles, and create a process is one of them.

Whatever you’re doing–programming, speaking, lifting, sports, chess, Chinese, you learn it through following a trusted process. Either pay someone (school, bootcamp, course, mentor) to create that process, or do it yourself.

Bottom line is that process must be created, otherwise you’ll keep getting inspired, making vague declarations of change, and remain the same.

That’s momentum my friends. It’s wrecked me several times, and now I know some of you feel that pain too. It’ll push us right off the cliff unless we slam the brakes and turn the car around.

But just remember next time, before you start going the other direction, use a map.

Until next time!

For more content like this, check out https://yazeedb.com!

I can't even begin to count how many people (myself very much included) keep saying:

"Yeah, I'm going to start this JavaScript course!"

"I'm buying and reading this book!"

"I've started building this app to learn React and GraphQL!"

Months Later...

"I didn't finish that course, this new book is what I need!"

"The book was too long, but this Udemy course is perfect for me!"

"The app idea wasn't practical, but check this new one out!"

No, Stop It.

The course, book, and app idea were all probably fine. Your real issue is commitment. Repeat after me:

I love starting things, but hate finishing them.

Now let's talk about why.

Obsessed With Level One

My fellow gamers, what gives you more pleasure?

1. Playing the first level of ten different games...
2. Or playing one excellent game all the way to the end?

I'd pick #2 any day, especially in an RPG game.

Starting many games is great for browsing, but you won't have time to emotionally connect with any of them. Nobody values ten games they've only demoed.

It's About Quality Time

Immersing yourself in the story, understanding the characters, and learning the gameplay is how memorable gaming experiences are crafted. That's the secret sauce fueling your most cherished childhood gaming memories. That's the experience everyone remembers.

Unlocking that experience requires you to venture beyond Level One.

Same Thing In Life

Here's another poll, what gives you more pleasure?

1. Starting an idea, quitting, and starting another one...
2. Or starting an idea and finishing it no matter what?

This time I think choice #1 wins.

Why do we commit to games, but bail on ideas?

Video games offer pleasure through progression. The whole point in starting a game is to commit by exploring and finishing it. Going beyond Level One is a no-brainer.

Ideas, on the other hand, offer pleasure through passion. All the fun lies in Level One. Once it's time to work, most of us fizzle out and pick another idea.

We tend to quit after Level One: Hype and Talk.

It's Not Just You

I'll be the first to admit–my brain gets a reward sensation when I start something new. And the sensation intensifies with every person I tell it to. Announcing my new plans feels like a win!

But that's a trap.

The hollow victory you "earn" by merely broadcasting your plans can fill you to the point of complacency. Despite being easy, talk can feel so good that you end up believing you've done enough work!

Even at a societal level, we're ADDICTED to life's Level Ones. Whether it's an idea, product, entertainment, or even other people, if you don't like it order something new!

Make a Process

A good video game's based on an idea, but is realized through a process.

If your idea's ever to realize fruition, create a process! Define what you need to succeed, map it out, and get to work.

Try to create your own missions, composed of several quests, which are just many action items.

Whether it's a paper checklist, todo app, or calendar, write down your action items and start crossing them off.

Without constantly having something to attend to, you'll spin your wheels, get bored, and abandon the idea altogether.

Learn to Delay Gratification

I recently coded a little Pokedex in my spare time. Did you know I talked about it for two years, starting/stopping several times in the process?

Talking was easy, cheap, and quick–that's why I kept doing it. When I finally shut up, sat down, and did the work...it felt truly rewarding.

The breath of fresh air I took afterwards nearly blew my house down! That Pokedex App's now a solid brick laid into the foundation of my personal empire.

Keep Reminding Yourself

And sometimes we simply don't remember why we started something!

During the passion phase, you may devote yourself to a routine until success is achieved.

But along the way something strange happens... You start forgetting why you set this goal in the first place. You wake up one day asking who married you to this schedule, and how can you get out.

The why is as important as the what. Remind yourself of both. It's key to making anyone else care.

No one will remember ten ideas you had, but they'll remember one idea you excellently executed on.

Here's a Checklist

If I actually get something done, it usually has the following qualities:

1. A well-defined purpose.
2. Little talk.
3. Much work.
4. Countless hours of frustration and wanting to give up.
5. An environment that reminds you how crucial points 1–4 are.

Here's that list in Doge form.

The end result tends to be no one knowing about your endeavor until they're already applauding you for it. So instead of puffing up your plans for a cheap high, stay grounded and move towards your destination.

Play it to the end, remind yourself why along the way, and create an experience we'll all remember.

Thanks for reading. Until next time ❤️

For more content like this, check out https://yazeedb.com!

I’m a dreamer. I’ve spent my life dreaming of someday having a very comfortable life. Of being able to do the things that only people who don’t worry about money get to do. I’ve been working my ass off building apps and starting businesses for 20 years. I still haven’t made it, but I’ve never given up and I never will.

I used to fantasize about what my life would be like once I’d “arrived”. But I’ve always struggled with my impulses and escapes like gaming, watching Netflix, neurotically checking Facebook and email, noodling with my phone, and on and on. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught myself closing Facebook just to open my email, then closing my email just to open Facebook. I’ve always fallen short of my productive goals and failed to finish my projects because of this. At some point, I stopped fantasizing. I never stopped chasing my dreams, but on some level, I’d lost hope.

Last night I started fantasizing again. The reason was that I’d found an appthat will help me control my digital addictions, make sure I turn off my computer and get a good night’s sleep, and limit what I can do on my phone.

About Willpower:

I recently read an excellent book called ‘The Willpower Instinct’, by Kelly McGonigal Ph.D. One of my main takeaways from the book was that willpower works like a muscle. We have a finite amount and it can be drained. That’s why they put candy at the checkout line of grocery stores. After walking around the store trying to make good decisions, our willpower is exhausted and we’re more likely to make a bad decision.

We can do things to build our willpower, but every time we have to resist something, it drains us a bit. And the people and businesses that are aware of this are constantly chipping away at our willpower. If we’re running late to work and skipped breakfast, fast food is going to look awfully tempting. When we hear that chime on our phone, we pull it out like Pavlov’s dog and look for the red numbers. If we see an attractive person, we’re going to want to take action to see more of that person. Or we may want to take action to becomethat person. If we’re playing a game on our phone, it’s going to use all kinds of psychology to chip away at our willpower so we’ll buy that next upgrade, and the next, and the next…

About Dopamine:

Another takeaway I got from ‘The Willpower Instinct’ was regarding dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical our brain releases so that we’ll seek out rewards. It’s both a carrot and a stick. It gives us a satisfying bit of pleasure when we get it. And it causes us stress when we can’t get it.

There were dopamine experiments done on rats where they were wired up to be able to receive a dopamine hit electronically. Then they were put in a cage with 2 levers. One lever would give them food, the other would give them a dopamine hit. The rats would hit the dopamine lever over and over again without eating or sleeping. They would keep doing it until they passed out from exhaustion or died.

People aren’t that much different than the rats. Because of our cognitive abilities, we can resist temptations a little here and there so direct access to dopamine won’t kill us. But it will make us less likely to seek food, shelter, real social interaction, and other needs and forms of gratification. I personally have had days go by where I’ll play computer games from the time I wake until the time I sleep. I may only stop for a quick bite sometime in the late afternoon and I’ll “hold it” as long as I can until I really have to go. Computer and video games are my dopamine lever. But we all walk around with a dopamine lever in our pocket.

About Digital Addiction:

Over the years I’ve heard the addiction label plastered on everything from games to the internet to Facebook to porn. All these things have one thing in common — they’re digital. Digital addiction isn’t a real thing, just a label I created to blanket all the other addictions. But it fits because they all addict us in the same way. The fact is, we’re not actually addicted to games or Facebook or porn, we’re addicted to dopamine.

Every time we check our email, our Facebook notifications, our Instagram hearts and follows and we see that little red number, we get a small dopamine hit. Games give us tons of rewards, flooding us with dopamine. Orgasm gives us a rush of dopamine as well. Know what else gives us a hit of dopamine? Cocaine. When it comes to the digital world, we’re all crackheads.

It’s even worse if, like me, you work in the digital realm as a designer, developer, researcher, student, etc. You can’t just turn off your computer or put away your phone if you’re dependent on them to earn a living or education.

Overloaded:

Building up our willpower is an excellent thing to do. But we are so completely bombarded with temptations every day. And those dopamine releasing temptations are super hard to resist. I read somewhere the average person touches their phone more than 2,000 times a day. That’s more than 2,000 times we have to exercise our willpower just from having a physical device in our pocket. Then we spend time scrolling through our favorite social media platform hoping for another hit of dopamine from a cat video or a compilation of guys getting hit in the crotch or a touching statement from a friend or a titillating image. Meanwhile, we have other responsibilities and have to exercise a lot of willpower to break out of that behavior.

Our modern lives provide far more temptations than we are biologically able to handle. Some people don’t have a problem with this. They just naturally aren’t that into social media. Or maybe they get enough of a natural hit from the joy they get from day to day successes.

But many, or most of us struggle with one form of digital addiction or another. And we haven’t evolved to be able to handle it. It’s just all too much. And if we struggle with anxiety or depression, it can greatly amplify the need to feel good or feel better, making those addictions all the more powerful.

The Solution:

There’s a story going around about Steve Jobs’ turtleneck. They say that he wore the same turtleneck every day so that he’d have one less decision to make. So he’d have one less thing to drain his willpower every day, allowing him to be more productive. It’s probably not true and actually has more to do with branding. But it’s still a good story!

The solution is to take away our decisions. We need to eliminate as many of those willpower struggles we fight every day as we can. We need to make it more manageable!

I’ve spent years looking for an app to help me block temptations. Usually, when I google it I’ll find parental control apps. They don’t help you control yourself, just others. I’ve seen website blocking browser plugins, but they don’t help with apps and can be easily disabled. I used to use admin tools on my PC to stop certain activities, but I always found a way to override them. Apps that block social media don’t work because I need it to promote my businesses.

I’ve seen tools that simply disconnect the internet. As a digital worker, that’s not even an option. As a life long learner, I rely on Google constantly. As a nomad, I require Google Maps daily. Turning off my devices simply isn’t an option either.

FocusMe does it all!

Then yesterday, I found it! An awesome little app called FocusMe. Other similar apps are too simple. They provide all or nothing solutions. I need to be able to enable and disable different things based on how I want to use them. It also lets me limit my access to apps like Steam and Minecraft just as well as websites. They also have an Android app that works almost as well as the PC version. It’s still better than anything else out there and definitely meets my needs. FocusMe does it all!

How I Use It:

I love gaming! But it consumes my life as I mentioned earlier. With FocusMe, I’m able to restrict the time I spend gaming on a daily basis to say, an hour or two. I could even go weekly or monthly if I just wanted an occasional marathon.

I need to have access to my email and social media accounts, but I want to stop the cycle of checking over and over or mindlessly scrolling away. With FocusMe I can limit my sessions to 10 minutes at a time (or less) and then not again for an hour (or longer).

It’s vitally important to get 8 hours of sleep a night. And sleeping at a regular time is also important to maintain a healthy circadian rhythm. But I often stay up late gaming, watching Netflix or finding one of 1,000 other ways to distract myself. Then I take a break and, well crap, it’s 2 AM again. FocusMecan lock my computer down completely at night. I set it to lock down from 9 PM to 6 AM. A more regular sleep schedule can also help ensure a more regular work schedule, which is good for my freelance business.

I watch a lot, and I mean A LOT of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and TV from other sources. I can use FocusMe to limit the time I spend on video sites and apps like VLC, just like I do with games.

I came up with a thing I call “analog time” where I’m allowed to listen to music and audiobooks, and maybe watch TV, but nothing else. No google, no games, no social media, no nothing, except for something I can run in the background while I do something artistic or craftsy or physical.

I can set it up to prohibit certain activities like gaming while I’m in work mode. It even has Pomodoro tracking baked right in so I can completely block distractions while I’m doing a Pom.

I can also lock down everything but one app or page to do work I don’t want to. For example, I clip tons of interesting articles and useful information to OneNote every day. In the years of using it though, I’ve only actually tried to organize it maybe 3 times. With FocusMe I can block everything BUT OneNote for say an hour a day. I can even whitelist other apps that hold data that needs to be organized like my Google Drive.

Final Notes:

When I first installed FocusMe, I had some issues with it not recognizing what browser tab I had open. That was a deal breaker for me. The dev responded to my support ticket with an update to the app that fixed the issue in 15 minutes on a Saturday! Holy cow! This is now an app that I trust completely.

I have a couple of notes on usage. I recommend going all in with FocusMe but do so incrementally. DO NOT use “forced” until you have a lot of experience. Stick with short random passwords, say 3 characters. Once you’ve streamlined your system a bit, make the passwords a little harder, like 20–50 characters or so. After you’ve been using it without thinking much about it for a week or more, go for 100–200. If you find that level isn’t stopping you, you can go all the way up to 2,000! Or you can use “forced” as an absolute last resort.

Also, there’s a trend when someone wants to make a big change they tend to go overboard. I’m going to stop eating all the carbs! I’m going to exercise two hours a day everyday! These extreme attempts only set us up for failure as they’re unattainable. Please don’t cut everything you enjoy out of your life. Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with the people you love. Games are a great distraction, loads of fun and a soothing escape at the end of a hard day. Be loving to yourself first, and use this to cut down and control the things that take over your life. With great power comes great responsibility.

I finished this article in 2 days, instead of 2 weeks thanks to FocusMe.