How many hours of studying?

Hi,
Currently I’m still studying the basics of HTML/CSS/javaScript, and was wondering how much time YOU spend on studying HTML/CSS/Javascript ?

  1. How many hours is enough for you and on which days do you spend all day studying?
  2. What exactly do you do?
  3. Advice for starters (just like me). What to do and what not to do.

There’s no magic number. Do however much you can reasonably sustain.

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First Question: [My Answer]

I study HTML and CSS many hours a day while fitting other things in my schedule. Technically, I feel a lot at times I don’t get enough hours in. But I remember lesson and use the fundamentals that I can remember.

Second Question: [My Answer]

You watch lectures (I suggest you take notes) and then complete workshops and labs to ensure you know how to code. Workshops are step-by-step projects with directions. Labs are projects you complete on your own, but are given guidelines on what is required.

Third Question: [My Answer]

Always remember to use a closing tag. Always use a semi-colon and the end of a CSS rule.

Good Luck!

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Hi @Wassenaar !

Everyone’s schedules will be different.

For example, someone with a family and full time job might only have an hour or so a day to commit to learning while someone in college or younger might have more hours in the day to devote to studying.

So it just depends on what is going on in your life and the time you have.

The main thing is to be consistent.

Those learn programming and become professionals aren’t always the ones who dedicate 6+ hours a day to it. Those people definitely exist but there are plenty of people who consistently learn a little bit each day for years on end and still become professionals.

So consistency is key :+1:

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My progress depends on my free time, but I try to knock out at least one section of my courses per day. For fun, I also study one dialogue from the English Curriculum daily. Now I’m deep into the “objects in JS” section of the Full Stack Developer (FSD) course.

In addition to that, I recently snagged the Responsive Web Design certificate and went through its legacy content. Since I’m always learning and not everything clicks immediately, I’m supplementing my FSD work with the Odin Project or JavaScript archived material as well as some legacy JS content. This helps me get more examples and catch the point.

If you’re thinking about FSD, it’s still in beta, so some topics might not have a ton of examples, workshops, or labs yet.

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I am very much hoping that this is the case, as I certainly don’t have time to dedicate hours every day to this, as I already work full-time in another career and have children too.

I am aiming for a career change but I can only put in an hour a day at most. Still, as @jwilkins.oboe says, ‘consistency is key’. I’m making solid progress by doing a little bit every single day, and working methodically through the curriculum. Another well-worn epithet is ‘work smarter, not harder’!

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  1. As said, it all depends. But I would suggest “less, more often” is better than “more, less often”. It is a marathon, don’t wear yourself out.

  2. Build stuff.

  3. Inject what you care about into your learning. It can be anything, as long as it helps motivate you. Make it fun and rewarding to you on a personal level. Try not to compare yourself (too much) to other learners/developers.

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I would say do as much as you can without burning yourself out. I hear the stories of people doing nothing, but code for 8 hours or more a day. However, I question how much they actually absorb in those 8 hours. A lot of people just burn through lessons, and think they are learning, but when it comes to using the same skills they used in another challenge they have no idea what to do. I have been a professional developer now for over three years, and I have a degree for it but I did a lot of working on coding on my own. Honestly, I probably spent 4 hours a day making sure I actually understood the topic before moving on. That being said, there is no magic number like the others said. The important thing is you keep going, and work on building your own projects, and try not to go so long without doing anything if you decide to take time off

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Hi @Wassenaar

Focus on the quality of the learning, not the quantity. I’ve read plenty of posts on the forum where Campers have said they’ve forgotten everything they learnt.

Studying for a few hours for several days a week may actually be more productive then spending six or more hours every day. A person can only learn so much in a day, and it takes time to form synaptic pathways in the brain (learn).

Watch Quincy Larsons Welcome message, it has some great tips for studying. Take short breaks, mix things up, review what you learnt and what you are going to learn next.

If you can, tie it up a written reason or purpose for why you are learning coding. I’ll help keep you motivated.

A rough guide I’ve suggested before on the forum is for each hour spent studying, spend about four hours practicing the skills you learnt, spread out over the rest of the week. This way you won’t overload yourself with learning and remembering what you learnt, and you’ll gain plenty of muscle memory.

Make personal projects, even if no one will ever see them. Then make improvements to them when you gain new skills. Nothing has to be polished.

Happy coding

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I learned to code in just 1 hour per day to start with a baby at home. It took a few years for me to transition from my non-coding job, but I eventually got a full-time software developer role about 5 years ago. My current salary is 6x what I was making in that previous role, and I get to work remotely, so it was definitely worth it for me!

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