One Year, Infinite Possibilities: A Self-Taught Programmer's Journey

#codenewbie #beginners #productivity #career

My first post on this platform was about the Pomodoro's technique and how I started using it as part of my process of reskilling to be a developer in 2019.

During that year in 2019, I had been silently posting updates on my personal blog, mainly because it contained posts of my self reflection and introspection of my progress.

I did 1031 Pomodoros, which is equivalent to 430 hours; 176 hours came from doing the courses I found online and the other remaining 254 hours came from debugging, struggling, and relearning concepts that I didn't understand.

Now that I've been working as a software developer for the past 4 years, I decided to revisit and post publicly here where I might reach a bigger audience and share what I’ve learned since becoming a developer.

Here are some key factors that kept me programming consistently and staying focused:

Utilizing the Pomodoro technique 🍅

The Pomodoro technique has been instrumental in my success. When you have faith in the process, "what-if" scenarios transform into "when" outcomes. By utilizing this technique, time works in your favor, and the Pomodoro method becomes the instrument for measuring your progress.

Having monthly self-reflections ✏️

Having introspection is monumental in keeping yourself motivated. It allows you to acknowledge the things you've accomplished no matter how small and also helps steer you back in the right direction.

By writing, it helps clear your thoughts and any doubts you may have about yourself. You'll notice whether you're burning out or when you need longer breaks.

It also keeps you accountable for what you're doing with your time. If you notice yourself stuck on a problem for way too long, just move on, look at the solution and learn why the solution was written the way it was.

Removing your phone 📵

While this may be pretty obvious.. I found in practice that this is pretty difficult to do.

Your phone is extremely distracting and constantly competing with your attention. If you're doing a Pomodoro, make sure the phone is on silent or move it away in a different room. Its addicting nature is due to the constant notifications and the apps that entice you to be on it non-stop.

It was definitely a struggle for me as I find myself just unlocking my phone for no reason. I found something that helped me improve my focus and concentration, which is the next tip on this list.

Reading books 📚

Reading has been proven to increase your focus, attention span, concentration, and improves memory. I really needed to retrain my brain to stay focused and increase my attention span, so I found some books that really interested me and developed a good reading habit.

Reading helped rebuild my attention span after being glued to my phone from years of browsing social media and watching YouTube. Eventually, it helped me reduced the habit of constantly checking my phone.

Drinking coffee ☕

Okay, I admit, this is a weird one. I was never a coffee drinker. I only drank tea for my caffeine fix, but eventually I switched to coffee. I’m not sure if it was because I was really addicted to the sugar (something I definitely gave myself ample of in my coffee), or just the larger kick of caffeine that coffee gave me compared to tea, but nonetheless, I found it helpful in reducing the barrier to get into flow state.

Patience & Meditation ⌛

This is pretty important. You need to be kind to yourself. If you're going to start learning on your own, be patient.

I started meditating to improve my sleep and lower my stress. When you're out learning on your own, it's going to be stressful. Sleep is very important in remembering concepts that are new to you and help build those new connections. Improved sleep means better energy and focus.

I was skeptical about meditation as I didn't think something so simple would help, but it really helps clear any frustration while you're stuck on a problem. I highly recommend developing this habit, because as a developer, you will run into a lot of frustrating moments.

Consistency is key 🔑

This is by far the most important tip. Pomodoro's kept me programming consistently. I experience mini-dopamine effects that reinforced this habit of learning and programming in 25 minute intervals. 25 minutes may not sound like a lot, but the small chunks of time really add up. Motivation is short lived; Consistency is key to making progress.

The above tips were the things I learned as long the way and none of this was applied in one go. You can try putting some of these into practice and find out what's best for you. I hope this post has offered valuable insights, and please feel free to share it with anyone you think may benefit from it.

If you're curious feel free to drop by my personal site @ https://kien.dev where I blogged every single step of the way, including how much time spent per month, what courses I did, how I learned and what I did to accelerate my career path into programming.

Thanks for reading! 🙏