Reduce the Scope, Stick to the Schedule - Lessons on Coding Mastery/Consistency
We’ve all done it: we start learning a new language or certification, life gets busy, and 4 weeks later the project is abandoned. Let’s stop this trend.
This weekend I was in the car listening to the interview of James Clear at Diary of a CEO with Steven Barlett and man I really miss the vibe and knowledge of James Clear orbiting my neurons, my synapses feel like this podcast was a reward and the difficulties I am having on my learning and study practices are the cue. The question is what did I learn or re-learned on this podcast that could enable me to come up with a response ?
Lately, I have been falling out of my routine of refreshing my knowledge and my muscular memory in C. It is not like I was ever really good at this language at any part of my life but there were moments where I was decent at it a long time ago and all this AI Hype is making me more and more motivated to learn C again(contraintuitive I know). I even went back to a cheesy book I read years ago and I developed some skills with it, yep you can hate me all you want but it was the HeadFirst C from O’Reilly. There is something on that 90’s humor/nostalgia that makes me engage more with the material.
But going back to the point I started reading the book and solving the code exercises, couple of pages here and there. After 2-4 weeks motivation evaporated and work-life got really busy suddenly I stopped following my goal on becoming good again on this language and becoming again a Performance oriented Programmer. Listening to the Podcast James Clear says that there were things he would like to have highlighted more on the book, something that he learned to be very important with his experience over the years after the book was out.
If you want to become good at coding in any language or particular area of computer Science you know that sometimes motivation fades away and we abandon projects to only try them again in a couple of months/years then the same happens. LETS STOP THIS TREND, so these were the things he would like to highlight more:
How would this look if it was fun ? I just said that I was having a lot of fun with the book because of the nostalgia and 90’s humor but I can think of countless subjects that are boring to me by default like [ANY] Certification, Statistics, Algebra. So first lesson is that some way somehow you need to find a way of making these subjects FUN! to increase the chances of becoming a person that knows statistics, certified professional and so on. Easier said than done but one idea is to find a project you really like about even if it is pointless to spice things up like, I don’t know do an AI bot that plays a game you used to play when you were a child(very specific hun ;) ), Create something original(like a TODOlist app x) ), find a way of engaging with the thing you want to learn whether is professional or not, here focus on FUN.
How would I do this on busy days ? Here James said something, that I hope it sticks with me for more than 6 days( my mental cache so you know 😅 ). Reduce the Scope but stick to the Schedule. So for example I am working through some exercism problems these days to spicy things up on my C refreshment Developer journey, but what if the day is a very busy day how can I score one vote towards my habit instead of zero ( not doing it today ), I would read one problem and would imagine how I would solve it in C, that does not take that long I could do even standing and only with my phone. Find ways on the habits you have to do that Reduce the Scope but stick to the Schedule
Even better at the beginning of your goal establishment next time, already ask yourself how would I make this tasks parts of the process in order to reach my goal’s destination, How can I make them fun ? And How will I do them even when life gets in my way ? How can I Reduce the Scope and Stick to the Schedule ?
The End for now ...
Please any feedback is welcomed it is my second post on this platform and I am still trying to find my voice on Substack and how to express myself to my Audience in a way it is fun for me and also for you all.