How to Avoid Falling into the Abyss of Things You Don’t Know: An Introspective Journey
Each day is like a good pair of pants.. you must put them on one leg at a time. — Me
After graduating from a web development bootcamp recently, I have to remind myself of this pretty frequently. I start every morning with a cup of coffee (or three) and a healthy dose of “Oh my g*d.. What am I doing??!”.
Don’t get me wrong, I love every minute of what I do, and I did not choose the path that I’m on by accident. However, at times it can feel unbelievably overwhelming.
When I allow myself to think of all of the things that I don’t know… the word anxiety doesn’t even begin to cover it. So, to avoid these immobilizing black holes of despair I’ve taken some time to really get to the core of where these feelings stem from, and how to combat them. Here’s what I’ve found to be most helpful:
Baby Steps
I like to spend every morning, obviously with a cup of coffee, but also with a few quiet minutes to remind myself that Rome was not built in a day, and so my dream career will not be either. I take about fifteen minutes to myself, either in my car on my way to work or before I leave my house to remember what my goal is and assess what “baby steps” I can take today to reach that goal. Breaking things down into manageable tasks that I can check off at the end of the day gives me a feeling of instant gratification that keeps me motivated and excited to return to work the next day.
Get Organized
Clearly, I’m a task oriented person, so after my quiet time, I like to spend the first 30 minutes of my work day getting prepared and organized. I take my tasks from my morning meditation and create a to do list (either on a sticky note or a Trello board). I usually like to separate my tasks into a few different categories: work, study, and personal. Most of my day is devoted to actual work, but I also know that in order to be well rounded and avoid stress, there are other areas of my life that need attention too. So I check and respond to email/slack for work, read a few blog posts, do some work, complete a personal task, do some more work, etc. I have found that structuring each day like this allows me to feel like my most productive self.
I actually found a great resource for keeping better track of your time recently. I use a site called Freshbooks for managing invoices for my freelance clients, it costs $15 a month but it has some awesome tools including a feature to track and record your time. It even gives you a section to include what project you’re working on.
Always Continue Learning
Because technology is a field that is always advancing, continuing to educate yourself is key. I’m the kind of person that can easily get lost down rabbit holes when learning new things, so let’s start by squashing that fear first: YOU WILL NEVER KNOW EVERYTHING THAT THERE IS TO KNOW. Got it? Okay good.
So this brings me back around to my first point. Let’s put those baby steps in action here too. Identify what your main career goal is and be deliberate about your learning. I’m most interested in design and front end development so I try to spend a little time each day either reading blog posts or listening to a few podcasts about these subjects. Code Newbie, Talking Code, Recode, and Hanselminutes are some of my favorite podcast and blog sites. Some other great resource for brushing up on real world coding skills are pluralsight, and udemy.
Blog About It
Last but not least, blogging. Every person I have talked to so far on my journey has stressed to me how important blogging is. Not gonna lie, it took me two weeks to finish writing and actually publishing this blog post but I did it, and here are some reasons why I tried avoiding it for so long:
- I don’t know what the heck to write about
- Weird.. (important) people are gonna read what I write?
- I don’t have time for that nonsense
And here’s why you should do it anyway:
- It’s good for you
- It’s good for you
- It’s really really good for you
Despite feeling weird and awkward about putting my writing out there in the public sphere for other people (including possible employers) to read, I have found that pushing through and finishing this blog post has actually motivated me in so many other areas. Not only that, but blogging really is a great career tool and can give employers a great insight into who you are. So just do it.

Good luck out there to all my fellow N00Bz!
