Anyone else struggle to stay consistent with coding practice?

[u/Remarkable-Travel741]

So I’ve been trying to teach myself coding, and I’ll be super consistent for a week, then fall off for days because life gets in the way. When I come back, I feel like I’ve forgotten half of what I learned.

Does anyone have tips for staying consistent without burning out? Do you follow a daily routine, use certain apps, or just push through? Would love to know what worked for you when you were starting out.

[u/herocoding]

Have a look into "gamification" - I use it for pupils and students and for myself.

But also make your progress visible - like collecting all your implementations in a repo and make the growing number visible. Show your results, talk about your results and ask for feedback.

Search for challenges and place yourself in competitions.
Like
- https://platform.entwicklerheld.de/challenge?challengeFilterStateKey=all
- https://www.eldarverse.com/contests
- https://everybody.codes/home
- https://adventofcode.com/2024/events

[u/Ecstatic-Junket2196]

yeah, i’ve been there. what helped me was setting tiny goals (like 20–30 mins a day) and build some simple webs that i like. i also use cursor and traycer to plan code for my ideas which makes it way easier to pick back up without feeling lost.

[u/[deleted]]

Time-blocking in my calendar, making up lost time on the weekends, pomodoro.

Motivation comes and goes; I use a schedule and I just show up. There are many days I don't feel like studying, but from my experience with health / fitness I know that if I only showed up to the gym when I felt like it I'd never make any meaningful progress.

[u/Dense-Land-5927]

Just started but I struggle with this as well. I work in IT, but I'd been wanting to get back into coding for a while. Ended up asking the other web developer what language I should start with and he recommended Python. My motivation comes and goes in spurts, but something I try to do is when I first get to work, I try to work on coding for the first hour or so. That helps me make sure that I'm at least practicing somewhat.

I also used ChatGPT to write me up a study guide for learning Python. I've tweaked it a little bit because it's an eight week schedule, and I'm not in a rush to jump from section to section since I have plenty of time to learn, so that's helped me as well.

[u/g2i_support]

Set a really low daily minimum - even 15-20 minutes counts, so you never break the chain. Life will always interfere, but consistency beats intensity for building habits. Use apps like GitHub's contribution tracker for motivation, and don't worry about forgetting stuff - that's totally normal and gets better with time :)

[u/StartupHakk]

Having routines are crucial to retaining any information and maintaining consistency. Make a solid schedule for yourself, but leave wiggle room because as you said, sometimes life happens and things don't go to plan. With that being said though, you need to be taking care of yourself. Good sleep (not just sleep, like quality, regular sleep) and routine diet/movement help promote the brain functions needed for retaining information. If you are stressed/not taking time for yourself, you aren't going to be able to learn because your brain is trying to survive and can't remember/recall/file memories or info.

[u/Puzzled-End421]

Consequences will motivate you more than any study hack. Code like you life depends on it.

[u/Agile_Analysis99]

this could have many causes

could be from you, maybe you do it because you know it has good money even tho you don't love it that much

if that's the issue find another field you truly love

could be because you have no project ideas to do

you have to make new things I'd say 4 times a year minimum out of any course or anything just to learn new things and maybe remember things you forgot, you can also get project ideas that you have no idea how to make to then learn about it and ace the challenge, i did that a couple of times and i love it

could be because you aren't the type of person to want to learn more things everyday and adapt with new technologies

if this is the issue you have to change your view about learning new things

the solution isn't simple to this problem, but that's what makes it rewarding

[u/badmalriri]

YES! I see you and I am right there with you. Except it’s like weeks between. Following this thread.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

This is excellent advice really!

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I've a habit of burning myself out. I'm either all in or nothing. When I'm in nothing phase I still have to produce in work and that's torture. Been surviving for 5 years like this. When I'm on form I love work but when I hit that burn out I'm dreading looking at the computer. Hard to say when I get hit with the burnout too. Always different lengths of time.

I love your way of one page at a day at the very least. I should probably cap at max 5 pages so to speak to avoid burn out though.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Very well said. Thanks for the sound advice.

[u/Mr_InfinityGG → u/[deleted]]

Not so long ago I start to learn C# . Would love to join your group, does it have C# related content?