I asked tech twitter to share ONE mistake they wish they had avoided in their developer journey. I have documented the top responses in this article. Hope these will be helpful — especially for beginner devleopers.
Let's dive in! 🚀
TL;DR
- Overwhelming yourself 😟
- Setting unrealistic goals 🎯
- Not tracking progress 📈
- Not being consistent 🗓️
- Not taking breaks ☕
Overwhelming yourself 😟
In tech there is always:
A new library
A new framework
A new buzz word
…to overwhelm you.
It’s ok to not know everything.
Learn to take things 1 at a time.
Setting unrealistic goals 🎯
No, you can’t learn JavaScript in 1 month.
Or Python. Or Kubernetes.
You want accomplishment, but you will get anxiety.
Instead:
Set small goals. Have low expectations.
And scale slowly as you gain momentum.
Not tracking progress 📈
Measuring progress doesn’t come naturally.
But, without it you will reach nowhere.
Track finished projects.
Track time taken for tasks.
Track happiness levels.
Remember:
You can only improve what you measure.
Not being consistent 🗓️
If you want to be good at something,
you need to stick to it.
Long term consistency > Short term intensity.
Don’t overcomplicate it.
Start today. Repeat tomorrow.
Not taking breaks ☕
Working without breaks leads to burnout.
So, disconnect from work.
Often.
Listen to music
Go for a walk
Talk to your friend.
Make time to recharge.
Wrapping up 📝
Hope you will learn from these mistakes and avoid them in your career.
If you liked this post, follow me for more of these. 🙂
Share a mistake that you wish you had avoided. Would love to hear it. 👇
Top comments (17)
Great post! Honestly for me the hardest is taking breaks… 😕
I can get “lost” in a task so deep and not standing up from the table for hours… Really bad “habit”.
Any idea how to force myself to take breaks? (I tried to put alarm to take breaks in every hour but unfortunately I know how to ignore it.. 🙈)
I was going to suggest the Pomodoro technique (work for ~25 mins, break for ~5), but it'll be more challenging if you ignore the alarm.
You could always try setting a device in another room to play a really annoying sound or song every so often - that way you have to walk away. Not so great if you're in an open plan office though :)
Yes, pomodoro is a great way to structure your work sessions.
Haha..try keeping the alarm across the room to ensure you have to get up and switch it off 😀. The other way is to have an accountability partner who keeps a check on you taking regular breaks. Also, you can start maintaining successful breaks streak for added motivation.
I believe this will be required for a short time as you will see results of taking breaks pretty soon. Best of luck.
Thanks a bunch for the advice. Luckily I work from home so I can put lot of annoying alarms all over the house to get my butt out from the chair :) I am going to try it next week. Wish me luck!"
Good Luck 👍
Below points are not mistakes to avoid but to follow as J.Dev (Correct me If I'm wrong)
Not tracking progress is a good one.
I'm not new to this game anymore, but there are some days when I just feel that I haven't accomplished anything. But then when I look back over e.g. the past week, I find that I've accomplished more than I realised.
Another tip: keep a high level daily work diary - just one liners on what you've done. Compile it compile it into a weekly block at the end of the week. Re-read it after a month.
Great tip. Thanks for sharing Anthony.
Nice Thread, I would like to add to the below -
Thanks Prafulla. Great add 👍.
Excellent advice. Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for reading :)
What is the best way to stay consistent and track your progress ? anything special or just spreadsheets
You can check my blogpost on consistency here
'Set small goals'..... This I'm guilty of.
Hopefully I'll learn to take things easy
And that's ok. Try making it smaller than you think is necessary.