I used to be a freecodecamp regular, I did 265 challenges before burning out completely, I was good with algorithmic challenges but when it came to doing projects I failed miserably, I did not even know what an API is, I still do not know that.
I think that I failed because there are no steps to do projects and of course I understand that why there are no steps to do projects but still I feel like we as beginners should be given something more to achieve what we want.
If anybody wants to view my profile and help me with JavaScript projects and API’s, I will be very happy.
Hey ! Welcome back!
I procrastinated a lot on the projects, but went on with the small challenges and worked a little bit on the side with p1xt guide. It helped me build confidence and decided not to think too much about making an original design but just reverse-engineer fCC’s examples. I also made the choice to use the technologies as pure as possible, that is to say pure CSS and pure javascript, no framework for the moment. I feel like frameworks abstract too much and I like to understand what is happening.
1 Like
I think I was trying to create original design despite being a beginner, I should have used the reverse engineering approach.
The technical part is already hard enough. Not being a designer or an artist it made more sense to use that approach. I still want to make something good looking so in the meantime I go on other websites (photo, design, etc), look at other peoples’ project, help other people when I can on the forum or the gitter chatrooms 
Teaching others is also a form of learning, not to be confused with solving the problem for other though ! ^^
1 Like
Welcome back. Don’t beat yourself up, I have programmed on and off for a loooong time. Basically it comes down to whether you do it as a job or as a hobby. As a hobby other things will keep getting precedence, like learning to play the guitar, it is easy to pick it up and put it down many times, trouble is languages and frameworks are fast moving, the guitar and chords are not.
Anyway, let me say this. Projects are the best way to learn, as they force you to go out and discover what you don’t know or figure out how to tie things together (research, try, fail, = growth). At university you learn a language and do many small programs or even stubs, it is to get the concept down, applying those concepts comes from a project. It can seem overwhelming. But it is not.
Focus. Divide and Conquer.
Break up your project into 2-7 pieces / parts. high level.
Break up those pieces into 2-7 pieces /parts.
Repeat until you reach an achievable, “compartmentalized” scale, ie. relevant scope…
Sketch it out, you are outlining here. Boxes, sentences, an overview and framework.
This is your plan. Dig in and get started on a piece, focus on that piece while being mindful of the whole (aware). Like learning the guitar learn a few of the chords and work on a section of a song. Get it down and expand.
How do you eat an elephant? (this is figurative not literal) It is so large, so intimidating, so overwhelming.
The answer is: One bite at a time. (byte 
)
Seriously, it takes courage to start, it takes courage to persevere. One step at a time.
Don’t beat yourself up.
Another hint: For small pieces (this would be terribly hard in a large project with many files / parts) look at other peoples code, work with other people, you can learn from the structure, implementation, and methods of others. Codepen is amazing, I wish they had something like this for C++ years ago, haha. Take it with a grain of salt, some will be good, some will be bad, but when you follow the good ones, they will accelerate your skills and understanding.
Be Joe Dirt - Keep on Keepin’ On
Cheers,
-WWC