Adjust Your Learning Style for Results
Coding is difficult. If you’re reading this, that doesn’t come as a shock. When I began my journey to learning how to code I found endless, endless, amounts of resources. Sifting through this amount of data can be a daunting task with the feeling of being overwhelmed always on the horizon.
As I progressed through the basics of coding, in the very early stages, I would usually start my work session as so:
- Open laptop
- Identify what problem I’m going to work on
- code until I get tired, or….get distracted
- rinse and repeat
Efficient, no, common practice? Possibly.
There are thousands of articles about how to code, but in my opinion, the articles that discuss the actions of learning and processing information are the most valuable.
— Here are my personal steps that I developed to be more efficient and start to enjoy the process of learning in general. —
- Harness the power of Pomodoro. The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method where you separate work into intervals, usually around a half hour, and take short breaks in between.
When I started using The Pomodoro method of learning, I very quickly noticed a sense of sharpness for a longer period of the day, with less mental fatigue.
2. Optimize your workflow!
I never thought about optimizing my screen to have multiple windows in view all at the same time. As a novice, I wish I had read about something so simple. Now I always have my terminal, file explorer, code, and server windows in plain view. This is a personal preference, but if you have never thought about exploring the customization of your editor give it a try. You may be surprised how much changing a few simple setting can benefit you.
3. Take notes within your code using comments.
As pictured above, “// need to call server…” is a simple note I created before continuing to creating my fetch call. This simple technique keeps me focused on the task at hand. If you have difficulty with your mind wandering off as I do, I would highly recommend trying this.
4. Keep open tabs to a minimal amount
I used to never worry about how many tabs I had open in VS Code, but now I try and only keep the minimal amount of tabs open at a time. When I am done with a file I’m working on I close it immediately.
These are my personal preferences that helped me keep on track while learning how to code. I was eager to share these simple tips because they helped me dramatically and there are not many articles about the simplest of tips.
Good Luck and happy coding!
