I am not sure what do I intend to achieve posting this, but I have something I wanna share with you guys.
Also I hope that someone who met the same problems will feel that you are not the only one.
I started learning through freecodecamp at last October. I was able to code/doing FCC quests everyday.
I finished the basic HTML and CSS part of the quest, completed my personal portfolio, and starting to look at javascript.
Right now I am at a state that is quite strange. Because of other responsibilities I could not keep up my pace.
I used to code everyday. But right now most of the time I only code 2-3 hours every 3-4 days.
I felt that I am âslackingâ right now. But I do not know how to bring back the good old âone day one hourâ routine.
And because of not coding regularly , every time I started to code I find that I have to relearn some of the stuff I used to do, and it is quite counter productive.
I hope all these are just temporary. Did you guys encounter the same problem? After a while you kind of âloseâ your drive to code? Or other responsibility caught up to you, so you cannot keep up the pace anymore? But you still want to do it. It is just that you are not as active as you used to. If so , how do you get out of this slump?
I have some legitimate reasons that why I "couldnât " code every day, but I donât wanna use it. Cos I think it is me, telling me to slack.
See how much time you have left beside what you do in life. Then see if you are willing to spend
it on coding rather then on something else. How big your motivation is and start taking notes so you
dont have to come back every time in the challenge. We all get stuck sometimes or dont feel like to code or just too tired. But main thing is to come back and slowly make it a routine, like a habit.
If that is not the case, programming for people who doesnât âfeel itâ or they are good at something else is what majority of them would say - boring. So see where you stand, taking a break is normal in every
business but feeling like - Iâm lazy or uninterested to move on is time to consider your wishes and
goals. Hope I helped you just a bit
Learning does not just happen in front of a computer. Just because youâre not âcodingâ does not mean youâre not âlearning.â
Go to a bookstore, buy a Javascript reference book, or a javascript quick reference book. Bring that book wherever you go, open that book and read a few pages whenever you have down time, instead of looking at facebook or twitter or playing game on your phone. Crack that book, become familiar with what functions/commands/capabilities JS can do. Write personal notes on your book.
The functions discussed here in fCC is just a very small portion of JS. When you sit in front of a computer and trying to solve a JS challenge, it will pop in your head âhey, I remember reading about this JS function that may be applicable to this challengeâŚâ and then you go look that up in your book.
When youâre in a bus, read that book. When youâre in a line, read that book. When youâre eating lunch, read that book. Do that and youâll even overtake people here that just rely on the fCC Map course.
PS: Because youâll be spending REAL Money $$$ on that book you bought, youâd be foolish not to use and read that book. Youâre going to make the most of it. why? Because that book ainât free. It cost you something.
I get that a lot large because I have a long list of to doâs and goals. Whenever I look at that list, I basically discouraged myself. But some times, I am just burned out spending too much time coding. Another time, I find other motivation and side tracked onto that and a lot has to do with life. It gets very busy.
After some time, I have to re-evaluate what I am doing and weight out what is more important. Then slowly working my way back to code.
But coding doesnât mean you should sit in front of a computer and write codes. A lot of time is problem solving, so you wonât necessary be coding. You can also read books, discovering new things might reignite your motivation to code again. Some times you can sit down with a few friends and talk about the next big thing that might inspire you to code even more.
Dont just do the FCC exercises. After you finish a section, go to an online webpage, view source, and look for the code you just learned. Better yet, cut and paste the code into an blank HTML file and use a browser to view it. Then modify the code and see what happens. You will not forget if you learn HTML this way!
There are a few exceptional humans who have the extraordinary ability to never lose focus, who can spend months and even years honing new skills while simultaneously going about their lives (working full time, raising kids, etcâŚ) without missing a beat. Some people just have that it factor. For the rest of us though, we generally go through periods such as the one you are currently experiencing. You can call it a slump; kind of the opposite of flow. Our brains are just not programmed to handle the amount of information and decision making that we deal with in modern society. Our ancestors were mostly preoccupied with building shelter, finding food and avoiding predators. Today we deal with the minutia of a million things. Add to that spending many hours a week learning web development and I think itâs normal that at some point you will need a break. There is some good advice above from other members, and yes there are ways to study away from a computer, but there is also the option of taking a break. Iâm going through this myself. I started this web dev stuff in November and have been going non-stop about 20 hours a week and just three days ago I crashed. On Thursday nothing sank in anymore. I couldnât concentrate, and I was losing interest fast. So I dropped everything and took a three day break. Information overload and fatigue go hand in hand. Sometimes you just need to give yourself a break. For me, 3 days was good, but it could be longer for you. Weâre all different. Get some good sleep, exercise, do other things that interest you. Then come back to it and feel refreshed.
Thatâs exactly what I did.
I found examples from other books/tutorials online and try to implement them myself.
It takes a lot longer than âfinishing questâ on FCC site.
But I felt that I built a somewhat solid foundation when it comes to HTML and CSS.
I can see my workflow speeds up quite alot. From the 1st time âI donât know what im doing as long as it looks okay it is okay for meâ to break down a website to diff parts and tackle them one by one. Then started thinking about the responsiveness of the website, then working on some minor detail I am not satisfied about. I even cloned a website just for the heck of it. And I felt I learned a lot from the whole experience.
Donât feel discouraged when you see the long list.
Narrow it down a bit. Then tackle them one by one.
It happened to me too. For example I have 3 tasks, sometimes I did 1 , while other times I did 3. Then jump back to 2 .
It is okay to make it a bit messy, at least thatâs what I thought.
I started around the same time, and had quick progress during the early portions and kind of hit the wall around the intermediate algorithm challenges. I chose to skip the projects until the algorithms are done, saving the portfolio for the last one before requesting the front end cert because I would then have completed projects to add to it.
I havenât really gotten over the wall yet because I just donât fully understand how to do anything with JS out of a console. I get side tracked easily with what little free time I have, and I am currently having too much fun with Python to bring my focus around to JS 100%, but I will get there, and the time wonât be wasted because I am learning about programming, not just a different language. Itâs helping when I come back to do the occasional intermediate algorithm and it passes because I got the underlying concepts better than before.
I need to be able to build something with it, so I should probably find a tutorial that I can build on my development server and tweak. I wonât fully get over the wall until I can see JS working with HTML and CSS instead of being stuck in the console all the time.
I am very much in the same position right now- so if it helps, you arenât alone. I enjoy learning to program, and I think Iâm good at it, but itâs gotten very hard to sit down and do it. And yeah, I also have âlegitimateâ reasons why Iâm not doing it, but since coding is how I plan to basically turn my life around, pay off my debts, and have work I actually enjoy, I want to get back in the saddle.
Good to hear Iâm not the only one. Maybe we can all keep checking in here and keep each other on track.
This was a huge hurdle for me as well. In my opinion, FCC doesnât address it very well, and neither does Codecademy. I found Colt Steelâs Web Developer Bootcamp on Udemy explained it best for me, but that is a paid course. Still, if you can get a coupon for it, I recommend it. Itâs worth the money.
hey donât worry about it. Letâs just keep this thread going and if you have any doubts/experiences you wanna share just post it here. As you can see that others have posted diff point of views, which will help us a lot. Keep on coding cos I know I will.
Iâve been through this. I wasted a long time feeling this way. I donât think Iâll ever go back to it.
I wonât claim to be an expert. Actually, Iâm a beginner. But I will tell you that Iâm obsessed with front-end web development right now.
For me, the catalyst was realizing that I could create something beautiful. Reading paragraphs and paragraphs of documentation can suck. So does writing a line of code only to realize that itâs invalid and the keyword you just typed in was completely made up.
What drives me is vision. Thinking about learning code can be boring. Thinking about creating menu that looks like something out of an '80s arcade game? Making my portfolio a 3D cube where each side is a different section? Turning my quote generator into a machine thatâs operated by a lever? Not boring. Once I get an idea stuck in my head about a particular project, I start thinking about how I can make it happen, then I start putting it into code, then I run into bugs, then I find out a little bit more about programming as I solve those bugs. The excitement of slowly putting the project together more than justify the mistakes that I make along the way. Iâve even had projects that turned out to be total busts, but at least I learned from them.
You should never be in a scenario where you have no inspiration. You can take inspiration from literally anything. When I said I was obsessed with web development, I meant I view the whole world and try to see how it can possibly relate to web development. How can I relate a beautiful apartment buildingâs color scheme into web design? How can I create a theme that looks like a sunny day at the beach? How do I animate a cog to make it look life-like? How do I combine CSS shapes to make a robot? Can I animate that robot? Can I interact with that robot by clicking on it? These are the kind of questions that drive me to keep learning and coding.
hey man, good to know the way you think and feel, so i kind had the same problem but mine are in the weekend cos i can badly seat in front of my pc and code but i learn by reading is a temporary solution i found for not to be out of codeâŚi am improving that.So advice you trying the 100daysOfCode challenge you can find a repo in gethub and on tweet or even here in fccâŚDont give up you know you problem, you understand it then time to find a solution and never give up
I understand âslacking offâ. I suspect you are doing too much and you need a bit of space. If you do not plan rest, your body will take it anyway but not when it suits you.
How much of your time do you spend on planning and organising yourself? Can you talk to others and maybe agree on a few things that help you organise yourself better? Do you sleep well?
Do you have to travel much? Do you use a car or do you travel by train? In a train you can read, in a car you cannot. Maybe you could use that time to read or for offtime (the Song of Fire and Ice books are much better than the television series or listen to music.)
You feel that you have to learn things âagainâ but you do notice you need less time for that, right? It is quite normal I think, especially in the beginning, to have to learn things again. A lot of small details go into coding. A dot, a comma, a semi-colon, all different things, easily overlooked.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will start to use all those little time like âwhen Iâm waiting for a bus etcâ to learn too. And I am sort of on my track again. So, thanks!
In my experience the hardest bit is to get started, thatâs why Quincy says make it an intent and commitment to code just 25 minutes a day, once you have completed your 25 minutes you are more likely to be in the flow and to just keep going.
Saying that, I know exactly what you are going through, I have 2 little kids and a job that take up so much time itâs so easy to fall off the bandwagon for days, weeks, monthsâŚ
For me (total beginner) everything until Javascript was smooth sailing. JS became a LOT of going forth and back, doing the exercises and tasks, not really understanding why something worked, so starting from scratch and doing them all again, reading books, reading online, forums, taking notes- basically just hammering and hammering it in until I finally started to understand more. After reading many JS books, I actually found that as a beginner I shouldâve read just one - (donât laugh LOL) Javascript for kids it explains things so much easier, it wouldâve saved me a lot of time.
