Anyone here loses focus when they studying?

1

Okay, there is this thing that sometimes happens to me that quite bother me.

Sometime when learning, I lost focus.

For example, after I finished personal portfolio project, I cloned 2 other static site, just to get myself familiar with HTML and CSS.

Then I kind of lost focus.

  • Sometimes I want to study javascript through FCC, sometimes I want to read all the YDKJS series books. Sometimes I think I just need to learn jquery and that’s what front end dev uses everyday anyway,.

  • Or maybe I need to learn git and github? Udacity has a pretty good tutorial about it.

  • CS50 is another good idea too!

After a lot of hesitation I went back to freecodecamp’s javascript part. I did not get used to it when I 1st went through the quiz. Now the second time I study it, everything starts to make sense.

Does any one of you faces these kind of challenges when you studying? Where you find your self a lot of online resources and dont know which one is the best for you?

If you are like me, don’t hesitate to share your experience here and let’s all go through this phase together. It took me a while to admit I’ve encountered some sort of bottleneck when self studying. And there was a short period of time I got all cocky and thought FCC’s knowledge base is too shallow for me. Now I have come full circle.

I created this thread to share my thoughts and doubts with you guys. Anyone who are as confused as me, come leave your thoughts and frustrations here. We should help each other like a team.

2

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Part of the frustration is that there are dozens of languages, frameworks, libraries, supporting technologies, etc. that you have to learn. It can be overwhelming.

I too have been plodding along and gotten side-tracked. I am currently working on the last five challenges in the backend section, the fullstack ones. This is a quantum leap in understanding that has really gotten to me. After finishing the five micorservice challenges, I effectively took a month off because I just couldn’t even start the fullstack challenges.Two weeks ago I decided to dive into these last challenges and fight my way through. Right away I discovered I need to learn Mongoose as the Clemetine example used it. Of course, I also needed to figure out Passport. Then one of the examples I liked that I was going to build off of for my site used Handlebars so I had to spend a few days learning that. But then I found that what I really needed was handlebars-express, almost the same, but implemented differently. And as I’ve built this first site, I’ve had to investigate a few more libraries.

But this is how you learn. And I’ve learned a lot. I know think I sort of understand the fullstack thing.

I think FCC is a good framework for learning. I have just made a commitment to myself that I will finish these certificates. Yes, I’ve read through the YDKJS series and a few other books and I’ve seen a lot of youtube videos along the way, but I keep coming back to FCC as my guiding framework. I try to let my outside research support that instead of letting it distract me. There are other things that I want to learn about, but they don’t have anything to do with FCC so I’ve put them off as I don’t want the distraction. There are a few topics I need to understand better, but I have put them off for now as I don’t want to get distracted from my goal.

Don’t get frustrated. Learning web development is not a straight line. There is no simple path. There are a hundred paths that must me completed in the end, and you sometimes have to run back and forth between them. The important things is: Are you learning? If you go back and redo the JS challenges and they’re easier, then clearly you are. And I would suggest that you’re learning more than you realize.

Just keep at it.

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FCC puts it the way it is by naming it “map”. So it shows you the places you should go, but you need to decide to I take a train,car, plane etc… you get the point.

It is a nice structure but without external resources it is hard to complete all of it properly and actually learning vs. just copy and paste. Therefore, it can likely also lead to some frustration as you yourself have to choose where do I go after I have read the assignment…

As long as you come back to an assignment and understand it fully, you are on the right track. Enjoy the ride!

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YeAh. One thing I know for sure was I am improving and learning. I’ve been the journey of : I don’t understand a single thing so just cope and paste and call it a day to okay I understand the idea of doing this but I can’t figure out why these certain steps need to be taken to well, I can finish 80% of this task myself now to this is actually quite basic.

This is one thing I am sure of.

5

Yeah. I know. That’s what I am gonna do.

Thanks for sharing! I thought I couldn’t be the only one that felt this way.

I hope this thread will help others and give them confidence in the long run!

6

Im pretty all over the place and can be taking 2 or 3 courses at one time. As things get more intense though, I find myself having to scale that back, but its hard.

What I do is I keep a running list of what Im studying and what Id like to study, whatever Im actively working on is highlighted in yellow…if I have a bunch of stuff in yellow, I focus on completing something I already have on my plate before adding something new. I also highlight everything Ive completed in green…and I like seeing stuff in green so that motivates me to see something through to completion.

At a point where Im hitting pause to really focus on deepening my knowledge of JavaScript, data structure and algorithms before I complete a course Im taking on ReactJS. Theres just so much to learn, and I put a lot of pressure on myself. But trying to give myself a break…esp since I can feel myself reaching burnout. I havent been feeiing too well and my pace has slowed dramatically…so I know I need to take a breather for a day or two to clear my mind. Last time I burned out, I didnt study for almost 2 months and I cant afford to do that again.

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7

A lot of materials/courses/books will cover the SAME STUFF… the only difference will be it’s just sold/explained/described in different ways by a different author/teacher/lecturer.

So I don’t think you need to read/enroll in several JS/ courses all explaining the same thing. So don’t put pressure on yourself that you need to finish 5 books, 3 video courses all explaining about JS/ in just different ways.

The best material will be the one you’re understanding the most, with maybe just a tad bit more difficulty (i.e. just beyond your current reach, but not too advanced beyond reach that you’re left disappointed and more confused).

With the abundance of different materials, if a certain course isn’t suiting your learning style, or the author’s style isn’t your cup of tea, just abandon it and pick a different one.

When learning a new language, I tend to pick books/courses that are very simple as my 1st book/course. Then, I may do another pass at it at a later date. Next, I pick another resource that will be more in-depth in the explanation with more materials, more breadth. At this point, I may also read materials that are more advanced just so I know what’s upcoming on the horizon. I may not understand it yet, but I know what will be ahead (I’ll know what I don’t know). But this takes time, so don’t be in a hurry.

Sometimes, the next book/course you’ll take will rehash the same basic concepts, and you can just skip those and go directly to the parts you don’t know about.

And lastly, reading books, watching videos, they’re all good – but the learning it produces is short-lived and shallow. If you really want to learn something, you have to use it in a project – doesn’t matter if the project is simple or stupid. I guarantee, the stuff you used in your own from-scratch-project, will stick with you vs. passive learning of reading or watching a video course.

8

Yes, it can be frustrating. Yes, sometimes it can seem like you’re cutting and pasting and not really understanding.

I came to this with a little bit of a coding background and still there were things that I just didn’t understand right away. I keep a list of things that I want to go back and study further. If something is especially impenetrable, I might spend a few hours doing side trip, googling things and checking out youtube videos.

It’s a strange dance, trying to get the right balance of depth and breadth of learning. If we focus too much on one thing, we may not understand it because we lack the context and understanding of supporting ideas. And if we get distracted be every little thing we don’t completely understand, we’ll get frustrated at a seeming swamp of side trips that keep branching off, endlessly. We have to find a balance.

If there is some specific idea that evades your understanding, please open up a thread and ask. I guarantee you: There is no question that you can ask that there aren’t at least a dozen other people who don’t have the courage to ask.

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yes :fearful: It often feels like I need to learn too many things at once. Bootstrap, flexbox, Javascript, stepping through javascript using the chrome debugger… I have gone through multiple learning loops. “focusing” without getting lost on side trips to deepen my knowledge is tricky. Sometimes I dont use a thing for months and feel like I have forgotten what I once knew about it. I plan to start taking more notes and creating better blog posts to refer back to me. Sometimes it is frustrating, but when I step back my skills have increased significantly from where I started.

10

About the chrome debagging tool, if you are okay with it, cool, most of the devs use it a lot. However for me it was a bit inconvenient.

Go to node js website and install it on your machine.

Then go to terminal and type node then you will have a local js editor that can give you real time feed back. It is just like chrome, but more tidy and eye pleasing. And whenever you wanna quit , type control+c twice then you are back to your terminal.

Later you will find out the real usage of node. I am still not sure how to use it yet. But I find it a better place to practice my js than chrome. Good luck!

11

Thanks for the help. Me too, find I learn the most when I am doing some personal project.

It gives you a feel about how the procedure should be. Even though the project were quite simple.

I think your answer will benefit a lot of people. Thanks for sharing!