My 1 year and 4 months of becoming a better coder (Part 1)
Tags: codenewbie, beginners, javascript, 100daysofcode
Published: 2020-11-08 19:58:59

This started with the idea of me switching my company. I spent two years in a company then, I wanted to switch for better opportunities. I asked myself some basic questions like what is my current tech stack and how do I see myself in the next 10 years. It was a time of realization as life was like an accident I had no plans of how I was leading my life.

I got to understand one thing although I have experience in various fields I have no expertise in a specific field. I took this as a challenge and worked on my JavaScript skills to be better at coding the web. I started learning by following tutorials, code along but was not able to make any significant progress. 

I watched some youtube channels and read blogs. I got to know that to be good at coding I need to be consistent, like saying code daily or at least 5 days a week. I tried this but failed. I came across 100DaysOfCode. I decided to code for 1 hour daily. To my surprise, I was not able to sit for more than 10 minutes. My mind was moving everywhere. I tried this for some time and failed as I couldn't continue. 

I was new to failure then, before that, I was treating it casually and gave up my idea for some time. This was also alarming as I was working for my paycheck and not improving on myself to get a better raise. After further research, I found some great tools to track my progress like the tomato-timer or the Pomodoro technique and updating 100 Days progress in the Twitter community with #100DaysOfCode.

I tried with this, it worked for I guess 30 days after which I gave up again. This was the time when I was constantly picking up and giving up on my skills. My friends were getting better job opportunities that created motivation around me. I also coded with more effort as I wanted to get this job. I did it. Then I got into a hibernation state as I achieved my goal. 

Cutting two months of "code if I wish", I got into my new job. I also moved to a new place. In my new office, I found the standards of output expected are very high. I suddenly realized that I was not as per the quality. I started my coding journey again but it was very hard to focus on the subject. I really had a bad experience in my first project in which I was depressed as I was not able to pick things up. Instead of persistently working on it, my mind turned to fear that literally paralyzed me and I was literally ruining everything. But this time things started to move due to my consistent efforts over time.

They released me from the project, it was eye-opening for me, I made a plan and started practicing again so I can be prepared before entering the new project. It worked for me in the new project as also I improved and there was less work compared to the last so I was able to deliver things on time. This made me confident. Meanwhile, I started the 100DaysOfCode again with yoga, meditation, reading tech articles, writing blogs, understanding businesses, and exercise. This time I got hooked. 

This was my 10 months journey. I will cover my further story of ups and downs and my learnings and where exactly am I standing right now in the next part of this article.