One New Healthy Habit this Month

#beginners #webdev #challenge #mentalhealth

Learning web development is a lot of work. It's fun but the work never ends.

Between collaborating in an open source unfamiliar codebase, starting a fullstack project with other developers, being more involved in the community, taking a computer science course and submitting problem sets, learning about Redux and using it in a personal project, exploring the job market as an early career developer looking for advice and networking, AND writing my first blog post, my mind has certainly been busy.

I try to stay healthy - I mostly cook at home and keep consistent at the gym where weightlifting and cardio are part of my routine. Still, I kept getting excited at night thinking about code, solving the next problem or all the cool things I could do with a skill like coding. But I need to learn to give my brain a rest.

The Challenge: A New Habit

I decided to join in on VC’s monthly challenge called “Healthy habits for Happy devs.”

This challenge couldn’t have come at a better time! I decided my goal would be 5 minutes of meditation every day for 30 days, and hopefully keep the new habit going after that. I needed to learn to quiet the mind, to prevent burnout and have a healthy long-term career. This new habit would also help me process my learning.

Achieving the Goal

Developing a new habit is basically a new goal so there has to be a plan.

I started to track the habit daily by blocking the time on my calendar. The goal is small enough that it should be easy to do daily.
My favourite way of creating a new habit is The Xeffect, where I go full-on old school pen and paper to keep track by crossing off a big X on a large square.
I downloaded a free meditation app. I'm not a big fan of guided meditation so I use the app's timer function. I can set the number of minutes, whether or not there is a bell to tell me it's the end of the meditation and if I want to listen to any sounds/music during it or just focus on my breathing and listen to nothing.

I just sit comfortably or lay down, and start by taking 3 slow deep breaths in and out. When I realize my thoughts trailed off, I just bring my attention back to my breathing. Repeat until the bell rings.

Halfway there

Here's what my Xeffect looks like.

I can't find my markers but anything will do as long as I have a way of keeping track.

Conclusion

It’s been two weeks. It feels like a chore to start but some days, once the 5 minutes are up I wish I could sit there longer. So I’m gonna up it to 10 minutes a day and see how that goes.