Data Science and the Procrastinator
Over the past 6 months, I had been searching for courses or certifications to study when I came across a post from a connection on LinkedIn. He had successfully completed the Self-Driving car Nanodegree, so I reached out to him and got introduced to Udacity. I have always preferred the feel of a book in my hand than a tablet but I had nothing to lose. Udacity had a variety of free online courses, so I decided to give online learning a try and started with an introductory course to Python. I liked the quizzes, short online videos and the forum where I could ask questions. Not long after, I came across the opportunity to apply for the Bertelsmann Udacity Data Science Scholarship and to my surprise, I got in.
I was thrilled and I felt May 8th couldn’t come any sooner. On the first day of the course, I found out that a criterion for being selected for Phase 2 of the Scholarship was online participation. How hard could it be? Share a few resources, ask a question occasionally, answer some queries — shouldn’t be a problem. So, I logged in to Slack and it was flooded with messages and instructions for the course. I wouldn’t call myself an introvert but Slack was overwhelming. I was worried and had doubts about competing for Phase 2 even before starting my lessons. I consoled myself with the thought that the first day of school is often nerve-racking and I decided to begin studying the following day. One day became a week and soon I realized that I had been procrastinating. I decided to stop wasting time and study, one lesson at a time. The plan was to spend an hour a day studying and slowly use Slack.
2 weeks in, and having just completed a third of the Statistics lessons, my motivation slumped. I needed an accountability buddy but how do I find one when I can barely find a person in my country to form a study group. A few days later, I saw a post on the Udacity forum to find accountability buddies. I reached out to Jeevan, a fellow Udacity Data Scholar who happened to love football like me. We created a schedule for the week and decided to check in every day with updates on our progress and encourage each other. On the same day, I joined the Python SQL Together study group and decided to follow their schedule of completing all the programming lessons in 1 week.
This was easier said than done. I had bitten off more than I could chew and I found myself behind schedule. After spending 4 hours per day for a week, I barely completed 2 lessons of Python and I found myself de-motivated..again. Every time I put in the effort to study and barely progressed, I would be disappointed. With the World Cup and my lack of progress, I started procrastinating again. And every time I logged onto Slack, I came across posts of people completing the program and others working on projects. Less than a month to deadline, I noticed the hashtag #30_Days_of_Data. I was late to the party but I wasn’t alone; there were lots of people like me who had only completed about 30% of the course.
It gave me hope. I decided to stop procrastinating and study starting with statistics. Within a week, I completed Statistics and began SQL. I joined the Turtle-Squad and the 30 Days of Data channels which have been helpful and kept me motivated. I started posting daily, asking questions, answering queries and did my best to motivate people just like the numerous people who motivated me. At the time of writing this article, I’ve completed 90% of the course with 9 days to D-day.
The scholarship not only got me interested in Data Science and programming but showed me the importance of a community, to not give up when things don’t go as expected. To all those who up voted my posts, encouraged me and answered my queries..thank you. You have motivated me more than you know. To Udacity and Bertelsmann..thank you for the opportunity.
