tldr; If you feel yourself buring out take a break try something different be that related or unrelated to what you currently do.
I've been trying to figure out what I've actually been doing these past two years since the last review which was in 2020!
At the end of 2020, I set out with this:
"I have many long-term goals. Eventually, I would like to try VueJS and Express. But going into 2021 I will be building more APIs using Django and getting better at integrating them on the front end."
Did I accomplish my goals since 2020?
I am happy to say I did do a lot of Vue that year. Nothing crazy but a lot of test sites. A lot of trying to figure out whether I prefer writing code using the new composition API or if the options API was the way to go. I've got to say I have since been mixing between the two since lots of Vue3 libraries give you demos using the composition API.
A lot of my time in 2021 was taken up by A-Levels. Namely my final project for Computer Science. I spend just over a year working on a timetable application for my school. You can read about that here.
The first half of 2022 was taken up by my final year in sixth-form college. Lots of exams and a lot more stress with university applications. Due to covid, we had a lot more exams than we normally would, hence the time I had to code was very minimal.
By the time I was done with exam submissions and University applications, I had been working incredibly hard learning different things hence I was incredibly burnt out. I had no desire to do anything productive. I spent a lot of time with friends before I had to inevitably leave for a different city and move to university.
I got my first University offer at the end of 2021!! I accepted a place around June once all the other universities had made their decisions.
Though I had no desire to do anything web development related. I started to play around with Haskell; It was a bit of a change of pace, but it was fun and something different to do when I felt bad about not doing anything.
Even though I wasn't doing much programming myself; I watched a lot of different twitch streamers make different apps and software. I think this helped keep me interested without burning myself out more. I liked watching Tsoding on twitch, he does a lot of different bits with lots of different languages; he was a good source of inspiration and motivation.
Starting University
Between August and October, I had a lot of admin to do for University. I had to fill out countless forms for enrollment, accommodation etc....
October 2022 was my first-semester doing Computer Science at University. For the first two months, it was about settling in. The only code I wrote was what I had for my programming modules. Taking the 3-month break from code helped put a different perspective on things.
Once I felt the motivation come back slightly, I challenged myself to redeisgn my portfolio from scratch in the span of a week. This was a really fun challenge because I meant I coun't really procrastinate from doing it. I wanted to make it simpler and less of a hassle to maintain. So I opted for Next JS (the link is below). I also made a custom new tab screen with all the commonly unsed links for my university.
This brings us to December of 2022. With new found intrerests in lower level programming, I decided to spend more time learning C and getting better at Haskell, while also completing university work.
2023 and Beyond
This year I want to keep reading books on Haskell unitl I really become comfortable with it. I want to do more low level programming maybe messing with x86-64 assembly. Some books I would recommend are:
- Programming From the Ground Up - Jonathan Bartlett
- Real World Haskell
- Learn You a Haskell
I also have a goal to build everything from scratch at least once. At the moment I want to make my own programming language with a compiler, and hopefully browser. I would also like to do the Harvard CS50 course.
I hope to apply to some dev jobs this year to do along side university if that works out, but more importantly I am soon moving to my final semester of first year, so getting through uni is my top priority.
Summary
I appreciate that, this article was a little all over the place, but if anything it reflects my life these past two years.
Ultimately, what helps me most with burn out is taking a longer break from everything, and trying something different see what else might interest you. ❤
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