I'm a Self Taught Developer, and I Feel Stuck!

If you clicked on this, I assume you feel stuck too.

Follow these steps to feel better.

Hi this was my story once and believe me this is the worst feeling ever as a developer. First I will share my personal story and then I will give you advice on how to get out of this feeling. I know you might have days when you feel like going nowhere. I hope this article will help you get out of that feeling.

My story

I started programming 5 years ago. I had a very difficult time as a self taught developer. I used to move back and forward from one language to another, watching tutorial after tutorial. And that was depressing. But by time I figured out my mistakes and found ways to learn effectively. I have mentioned some of the common mistakes and steps on how to avoid them and what you should be doing instead.

Common mistakes you should avoid ❌

Don’t let yourself get distracted

This is a very common mistake and a lot of people do this. Sometimes people do it unknowingly and spend hours and hours of their valuable time watching or doing something irrelevant. I used to make this mistake quite often when I was learning css. I would often get distracted by cool animations or stuff that was far too advanced for me at that time. And I would spend my time learning those instead of learning the basics first. You should stop doing that everything has its own time but first, focus on the basics.

Watch this video to get a better understanding of what I mean by that.

Don’t compare yourself

You should not compare yourself with others. Most of the times you are comparing yourself with someone who is better than you and has spent a lot time to develop skills. This makes you feel sad and incomplete. So, stop doing it. Instead, focus on yourself.

Don’t move on to another topic without finishing previous one

As a self taught developer you are always in a hurry of learning everything in one go. But this is the worst mistake, and it has long term effects on your career and personality. 

Don’t be impatient

People give up too early and may even switch careers just because they don’t see any result in the first few months. But, you should know that things take time to give good results. So stop being impatient. Don’t be too quick too judge. Hard work does pay off.

Things you should do ✔

Make a routine

Start by making a routine and committing to that routine. Now, its up to you what type of routine you want to make. But, what’s important is that you should make a routine that is best for your productivity. Don’t follow other person’s routine but make a routine that suits you the best. There are a lot of techniques to help you make a routine. For example: pomodoro technique.

This ted talk video will help you understand the value of pomodoro technique: How a student changed her study habits by setting goals and managing time | Yana Savitsky | TEDxLFHS

Break your tasks into smaller tasks

Most of the times people get intimidated by the difficulty of a task. Trust me! this happens a lot and sometimes they either give up or spend too much time on the same task. Don’t just dive into the work. Start by planning what you will do first and afterwards.

Breaking your tasks into smaller tasks not only make them easy to perform but accomplishing those tasks also make you feel good. You can use methods such as scrum to achieve your goals.

Learn more about srcum with this video.

Practice everyday

Practicing is very important. A time will come when you will eventually forget what you learnt. But if you practice regularly then there is no chance you will be forgetting something anytime sooner. As we all know

practice makes a man perfect

Track your progress

The only person you should be comparing yourself to is your past-. This might sound weird but this is the best thing to know what you have accomplished so far. So tracking you progress is important. You can use apps such as notion. 

learn how to use notion: The Most Powerful Productivity App I Use — Notion

At the end I would say that you should be confident on what you do. Always stay motivated and be ready for the challenges. Best of luck!

Feature Image Photo by Mitchel Lensink on Unsplash