My problem with starting out
Tags: motivation, 100daysofcode
Published: 2021-04-26 14:55:29

A lot of people know this struggle. You have something in mind, that you want to do, like starting to work out, build that cool side project or start a new challenge. But you can’t really force your self to commit to it. There is always either something else to do or you feel like you’re missing something, that you need to get started. So you just keep pushing the thing you actually want to do.

# The excuses keep coming

> “I can start, after this is done”
> “I promised to help with this other project, so I can’t really do this now”
> “Starting now means, I will be interrupted again soon”
> “My old laptop lacks the storage to do this in a comfortable way”

These are just a few of the things that came to my mind, whenever I thought about starting something like a side project or the 100 days of code challenge. And the worst part? 
I got a new laptop, but I didn’t start. The old one was never really the reason I didn’t start. 
The other project I should have done? Not really worked on this either, just felt bad about it. 

It turns out, all the reasons my mind came up with were just excuses. Excuses that allowed me to keep not starting something and just keep procrastinating.

# So what can I do?

A few weeks ago, I scrolled through twitter and came across a [tweet](https://twitter.com/dabit3/status/1377400759642390535?s=20) by [Nader Dabit](@https://twitter.com/dabit3). He was talking about how he creates technical content and learns something new. That somehow resonated with me. So I asked him for a tip, hoping for something like a hint on tooling or techniques. But he said, just do it and that he has the tendency to procrastinate. Oh? I absolutely have this tendency. I make plans and keep thinking about how to do the things I’d like to do, but don’t actually start to do them.

From another source (and I sadly can’t remember where) I also got the advice, that if you have a problem motivating yourself, just starting the activity can help. And I know that feeling. Just opening the editor and writing a line to two of code or even just reading it, got me motivated enough to keep going. After a while there are also some results I can look on to keep me motivated.

So for me it all comes down to just doing, just starting with something. 

# So I’m starting today

With this post I’m starting with the 100 days of code challenge. 
What I want to do in the 100 days: 
* I want to build an app, that works like a buzzer. You get a button you can press for example if you know the answer in a quizz. The host of the game then sees who pressed the button first. 
* I want to use technologies or frameworks that I am not used to. The current planned stack is react for the frontend (I want to try react native!), NestJS for the Backend and MongoDB for storage.
* I want to write about what I do, maybe produce some videos or stream my coding sessions. 

I haven’t everything ready. For example I didn’t set anything up to do the live streams or produce the videos. I also haven’t everything planned out for the app. So I will do this as I go with the challenge. I hope planning and set up sessions can also count towards the daily goal.

# And now?

Now I’m starting with my 100 days of code. Today I will 
* Set up all the repositories 
* Write a description of the app I want to build 
* Tweet about it

I know, none of that is coding, but if I keep planning for this, I will never start. In the next days I will definitely code. And if something interesting happens, I will try to write about it. 
So if you’re interested in my journey through this challenge follow me here or on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/raphael_haecker).