Motivational tools for learning how to code
Sometimes we need a little push to continue studying or learning new things. The same goes for programming, that is why we thought we would make a nice list of motivational tools you can use while learning how to code.
Set goals
The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.
Bill Copeland
Setting short term and long term goals is important. Since goals will help you get that needed conclusion for newly learnt skills. When learning how to code the first goal should be simple, learning how a programming language looks like, what are the tools,… all the simple things. A long term goal should be something like building your first simple application, setting up your first web page, launching your web service… We try to set goals for our students with assignments for courses. So that they can use new skills right away.
Perseverance and step by step learning
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.
Thomas Jefferson
Having a steady timetable can help you a lot in the beginning. I like to learn new hard topics just buy reading for 15 minutes in the evening. Step by step and with interest that time will grow until I will spent hours and hours sucking up new knowledge. But a few minutes a day can make a lot of difference. Just think of all the people NOT taking that time. You will surpass them soon. The best thing is that your knowledge will grow and with time you will do a lot more in those 15 minutes and in an hour you will perform miracles.
Just DO it!
A year from now you may wish you had started today.
Karen Lamb
This technique helps a lot of times. Instead of thinking about how hard it is, just start working on the subject at hand. Usually you will not know what to do, but researching it for a while will give you a lot of ideas, what to do and what to learn. And the best thing is, that you are already doing it, since you have already started. Nothing beats making progress step by step. A lot of content I have written over the years has been a fruit of this technique. I just start doing it, researching, writing the first few miningles sentences and in the end everything will polish out. And like the proverb at the beginning of this segment, I just don’t want to look back and say I haven’t tried. Somethings will fail miserably, but at least I tried. I find this video encouraging: https://youtu.be/ZXsQAXx_ao0
Prepare the atmosphere (loud music or a quiet room will do)
Without atmosphere a painting is nothing.
Rembrandt
I have met a lot of developers over the years and we are all different. Some like loud music, some like it quiet with no distraction. I have seen developers with a wall of messages and still successfully working on assignments. We are all different. Find your zen. Set the mood, find the perfect time of the day. You will see a lot of developers work nights. This is when distractions can be at minimum and your mind sets off into almost a nirvana state. But some are just too tired to work nights. Try it out and you will find the one that fits you the most.
What is not so apparent when working with computers, is that you must prepare your environment as well. Digital and physical. Clean your desk, make room for your mouse, touchpad, clear the clutter. An important part is to do the same for your digital environment, find the best tools for the job, invest in them, when you will know what you’ll be learning. Turn off the distractions, notifications, social media…. Since you will need internet for research, mute notifications with settings. It will help you a lot.
Repeat and improve
Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.
Jim Rohn
Repeating is an important step of learning. Practice is the best way of learning how to code. You can practice with the same task as the first time or even better take a task and try to change a condition or two. Try changing colors, try adding a new element, change the code, optimize, add new functionalities. Adding new features will make you research the topic even more and you will discover things you didn’t notice before, since you did not had that knowledge. This is a great approach and you will learn alot this way. Try to constantly customize a sample project, and you will find plenty of new topics you will want to learn, just to make that little improvement.
Revisit topics you have done
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who want to get things done and those who don’t want to make mistakes.
John Maxwell
Great motivation can be to see how much you have already learnt. Think about how much time you needed to do the first things in coding. At the beginning just writing one line of code can take a whole day, but with time you get faster and you start searching for harder topics to learn. And this can be a great reminder of your success. You have started, you have learnt and you are hungry for more.
Take a break
There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.
Alan Cohen
I loved everything connected with technology but I took a long break in high school not programming at all. A break can be different in length. If you’re learning for a few hours at a time, this could mean a 5 minute break or a quick meal. But you could be stuck with learning a tough topic and days would pass by without any progress. Then a break could be a day or two. And taking a break will help you solve a lot of problems, since the brain will be clearer and thoughts will have a cleaner flow. You will get eureka moment with coding a lot. But still take regular breaks to drink water, stretch your legs and to have a propers meal in peace.
Divide and conquer
Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.
Robert Collier
Divide and conquer is the best possible technique. A lot of problems just seem to hard to solve until you break them into smaller problems. In coding this is a common technique since it produces cleaner code. This is why we have methods, classes, packages and other programming tools that help us reduce the problem.
With learning it is the same. Learning a hard topic can be a lot easier if we break it down into smaller pieces. Don’t try to build the next facebook app, start with a single screen or even less, how to color a button or make it round. This way you’ll be gradually work towards the bigger goal.
Find a purpose
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
Michel de Montaigne
Having a purpose will help you a lot. In the beginning you can have a small idea for an app or website. And start learning just to be able to build a small part of it. It will probably take you a while to build the full blown version of your idea, but cut it down to a manageable goals.
When you start to be more proficient with your knowledge, you can find a open source project, a project for a social cause and help out there. A good way of getting more knowledge is to find an internship and learn on a real project.
These are just a few ideas you can use to get knowledge you are looking for. But if you start now with an hour or two a week, you will get somewhere in a year. But you will probably have a lot of fun and work for a lot more hours. I just can’t wait to hear about your future self. Let us know if you have a good story about how you started and we can add an example.
You can start with one of our courses at https://www.codebrainer.com/topics
