How To Grow Developers Part 2: Setting Goals

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Setting goals for yourself as a developer can be a helpful way to stay motivated and focused on your professional development. Here are some tips for setting goals

** This article is the 2nd part of a series of articles about developers growth, If this is the first article you have came across I would suggest navigating to the first article :)

1. Make your goals specific and measurable: Instead of saying “I want to improve my coding skills,” try setting a goal like “I want to complete at least one coding project per month using a new programming language.”
2. Set deadlines for your goals: This will help you stay on track and ensure that you are making progress towards your goals.
3. Break down larger goals into smaller, more manageable tasks: This can help you stay focused and avoid feeling overwhelmed by the larger goal.
4. Be realistic: It’s important to set goals that are challenging, but also achievable. Setting unrealistic goals can lead to frustration and a lack of motivation.
5. Stay focused: While learning new stuff, don’t jump between different subjects, finish what you started and then move on to the next one.
6. Review and revise your goals regularly: As you progress in your career and your priorities change, it’s important to revisit and adjust your goals as needed.

I also recommend using some tools that will help you to keep focused:

1. Use Trello which is a free task tracking tool (It’s like a very lite version of Jira)
2. Take notes, use a notes app to keep record of your thoughts and ideas, if you a Mac user like myself I recommend the Notes app and also the new (as of December 2022) Freeform app.

By setting clear, achievable goals, regularly reviewing your progress and using the right tools you can stay motivated and focused on your professional development.

Got some more ideas? Please comment below and help other achieve their goals