When you’re sitting there, scrolling through Twitter or Facebook, half sitting/half laying down in your chair, when you really don’t do anything except letting time slip through your fingers in the evening, how do you get started coding? What is your catalyst for going from that “dead inside state of mind” to “let’s do this!!”?
For me it’s a matter of “If I don’t do this, I won’t get a programming job, which means either back to retail when my money runs out or no more Facebook to scroll through”
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Have a plan ahead of time for when you will work, where you will work, and how long you will work.
That’s a very good and strict way of getting back into coding!
I myself have this dream of being able to live in two different countries during the year (Sweden in summer, Japan during the rest of the year).
In order to be able to achieve that dream, I am working on becoming a web developer (as I can work from anywhere). Whenever I start to feel a lack of motivation I think about my dream and (most of the times) get back to being creative. The good thing here also is that whenever I see something that reminds me of my imagined future, I also get a dose of motivation from it.
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Dreaming is sweet and building dream is sparta
I have found that freecodecamp is great for little challenges for learning but places like Khan Academy has free courses where you are producing work as you learn and seeing what you are learning producing real pages or projects really gets addicting and then when you see that happen every lesson here becomes another logic puzzle for you to figure out and it really does become addicting! I am working on two or three free coding websites at the same time and it never gets boring, i actually get excited to see what i can make! So that might help with motivation. CodeAcademy also has badges and points you can work toward so it is more fun… so you might want to work this stuff in as a basic building block until the coding fever befins to grow!
@JoggingShoes You will have to decide what is the most important to you and how you would like to spend your free time. Remove items from your life that you consider to be a waste of time. My friend used to play games on his phone and watch a lot of TV and one day he realized that the time would be better spent doing something more productive because he had goals to accomplish and playing the games and TV were not helping at all. He said to me “Time is valuable and life is short”.
In my experience having a simple written reminder that is in a common area helps. Bonus points if it is attached to a specific goal or achievement.
CodeAcademy also has badges and points you can work toward so it is more fun… so you might want to work this stuff in as a basic building block until the coding fever befins to grow!
It has? Might have to check it out because getting that small checkbox next to the challenges found here on freeCodeCamp is addicting and good to do now and then.
You will have to decide what is the most important to you and how you would like to spend your free time. Remove items from your life that you consider to be a waste of time. My friend used to play games on his phone and watch a lot of TV and one day he realized that the time would be better spent doing something more productive because he had goals to accomplish and playing the games and TV were not helping at all. He said to me “Time is valuable and life is short”.
I definitely agree with this. I am trying to move away from pure “entertainment” little by little and replacing it with productive work. Recently I have tried to put in about 50-60 minutes of coding before work which helps me at least get that amount done each day. After work it’s easy to get stuck playing games with friends etc. I don’t want to replace that, but I want a good balance.
In my experience having a simple written reminder that is in a common area helps. Bonus points if it is attached to a specific goal or achievement.
That’s simple but very good I think! I’m currently working on a project whose aim it is to help out with keeping a good streak going which is a ton of fun. This should then be my start page every time I start my computer so that it pops up straight in my face everytime I use it.
I set small target. I want to finish 10 before I watch YouTube video/read the fCC forum 
or I have to finish this today.
My bigger target is to get a job this year.