As a mother to a very active child I have a habit of leaving things half finished. Shelves of half read books and folders on my computer full of half completed projects. There just never seems to be time to finish especially if I would like to sleep like a normal functioning human.
So how do you get over this problem? I still haven't figured out how to get through my overwhelming stack of books. That is a mystery that may never be solved. My advice for getting through that stack of half finished projects while you have a small human in tow is as follows:
1.Let them see what you are working on. You will never have the free time to work alone unless they are in school, but if you are employed during that time frame your free time to learn that new skill is as elusive as seeing a unicorn. If you let them see what you are working on whether they understand why it works or not you bring them in instead of pushing them away. Truthfully the minute I start to explain what I'm working on to my son he stops crawling up my face to get attention because he feels included in the experience. Then slowly as if by magic he then wanders away and gives me the five minutes I need to figure out why the damn click function won't work no matter which way I write it. (more often then not it's because I'm distracted and missed a semi colon.
2.Build things you might need in your day to day life. As a content creator and everyday human my life needs organization. I realized when I became part of the Twitch community many moons ago that being a content creator is a special kind of job with special requirements of your time. So I wondered if people like me felt like the regular day planner wasn't organized in a way that would allow them to accomplish everything they needed. So I began to build a day planner specific to what I felt the needs of a content creator were. Then yesterday I realized what a cool idea it would be to have an app that allowed me to keep track of good behavior and chores for my son so that maybe he could earn an allowance. So I started work on said app. Both of these projects are open tabs on my laptop. I work a little on one and when I get stuck I move to the other. This means that no matter what I have accomplished something and feel like the time I took for myself meant something.
I feel like as wives and mothers trying to learn a new skill or just do something for ourselves is hard for us. There is always somebody to take care of and you are normally last on that list. If coding is your new found passion as it is for me then you desperately need to take that five minutes for yourself. Even if you can't code. Read somebody else's blog post, do one practice exercise or follow one coder on your favorite social media spot. Do one thing everyday to further your goal. Finish your projects one piece at a time. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I swear it isn't just the glare of your computer screen.
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