Burnout from learning code

Hi! I have been on my path to become a programmer for 9 months now, and I love it!
But recently I have started getting unmotivated, and small anxiety/panic attacks. I really dont want it to become a problem for me. Is there any tips/tricks to prevent it from happening? :slight_smile:

I’m in a similar place as you right now. It’s quite overwhelming the amount of things one needs to learn. I recommend taking a step back for whatever time you need. I’ve done so once already. Your mental health is paramount to both your own personal well being, and your productivity.

If you don’t want to detach from programming entirely, which is understandable, do the aspects that you enjoy. I don’t know what your personal focus is on (front or back end), but try focusing on something a little different. Take a step back from the FCC challenges, and maybe build a couple projects. If its been a while since you worked on your portfolio, go back and change up the look and update some info.

Search the web for a couple basic projects that you could do and take some time building them to add to your portfolio.

Working through the challenges can be quite brutal, a little mind numbing, and definitely stressful. It’s understandable to need something different for a while. I’m not sure if that’s your specific situation, but that’s something like what I went through a while back.

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I personally keep a list in my mind of “cool things to check out”, it can be anything.

  • New technologies (Progressive web apps?)
  • New languages (Clojure anyone?)
  • New extensions/features of software I use (New VSCode extensions?)
  • New things announced at conference X? (whoa the cloud can do that?)
    etc. etc

I look into these every now and then when I start feeling “blah” about the current state of things, since it’s like learning about the “next best thing”, or just seeing if I can gain something from something new.

Its similar to getting around to watching a movie you haven’t watched yet but wanted to, or driving a new car, or listening to a hit song you only heard a part of on the radio, or taking that “fun” class in school you get to pick as an elective. Your changing what is the norm, without committing to anything.

I’m not saying “Commit yourself to learning X for the next 5 months”, but rather spend 5 mins learning about something that sounds interesting and new you wanna learn more about. You might like it enough to check out more of it, or build a new small side-project/sandbox-project over a weekend to get more in depth.

It’s defiantly a method to get a change of scenery every now and then, and gives you more perspective on all the topics you can know about. There’s always things out there to learn about, I’m sure you might find some of it interesting

After all is said and done you’ll feel refreshed, or heck you might feel revealed to go back to the daily grind! :smile:

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you ever heard athletes say one game at a time?

This is what it is, it’s a grind. Sometimes, you do have to grit you teeth and get it done. Focus on the task at hand, accomplish it, then move on to the next.

It’s okay to take a break, immerse in something else for a few days, but remember to stay on track. Learn and accomplish something every day. Gamify it if you have to, make it a streak, some sort of point system

Thanks!
I´ve had a little break for a couple days and it really helped! :smiley: