It's About Time

 It Actually Is

Around four and a half hours a week. That's my rough average of the amount of time I've spent on actively learning how to code these last few weeks. Why am I telling you this? Why do you think? It's important to know how much time you spend on something. The more time you spend actively practicing and learning, the faster you will get better at that thing. Since I want to reach my goal of having a pretty good handle on programming in around the next six months, I need to put in the hours to actually learn and grow as a developer. 

What That Means Practically

I've started "clocking in" when I code. I do this so I actually know how much time I'm spending day-to-day and week-to-week in my developing developer journey. This can begin to create a feed-back loop for me. I also analyze the data that those hours offer me. This data can help me to know how dedicated I actually am to learning this new skill set. If I spend seven hours one week, but only four the next, why was that? Did my seven hour week accomplish more, or was some of that time wasted? I am hoping that I will get into the practice of asking myself these questions so that I can grow in my skills at a steady pace and not waste time or slack off too often. I hope to build up a habit of creating data to inform me as I go on this coding journey. This data can help me be honest with my progress and commitment.

Some Suggestions

  • Set some time aside most days to code. I typically set aside 45 minutes to an hour after dinner for coding.
  • Find helpful programs to track your time.
    • For my total hours, I use this free too called Toggl Track that lets you know how much time you spent when you "clocked in" during days and weeks over time.
    • My text editor of choice is VS Code. I use the extension Code Time to track the time I'm actively coding. They send me an email report once a week automatically with this data. I love this tool.
  • Be cautious about social commitments.
    • I've found myself pushing out meeting with friends for another week or two if my calendar is starting to fill up and I won't have any weeknights to spend coding that week.
  • Don't underestimate a day off. 
    • Sometimes rest is best. There are times when my work day was overwhelming or my body is very very tired. I need to balance my mental and overall health with achieving my goals.
Tim David



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