Always be coding!

1/11/2018

Our habits and daily routines form the basis of our daily lives. Success in any particular endeavor is often achieved when one is able to hone in, refine, and constantly push one's self just a little bit more. In the case of web development, constant technological evolution therefore requires a successful web developer to be steadfast in their own habits and day to day engagements to be sure he or she is successful in creating the software that they envision. Moreover, always learning and keeping an inquisitive mind on the ever evolving state of tech, one is sure to be on the path to becoming a successful web developer, regardless of any programming language or stack they pursue. In other words, stay curious and always be coding!

In my ongoing coding journey, I've made it a daily priority to look at my list of current to-do's for my own projects or independent studies and begin chipping away at those objectives. Keeping track of which goals and problems to focus on makes the software development process much more efficient and retaining newly learned material becomes more ingrained in your knowledge of whichever subject. I've also found that maintaining a log of completed objectives helps guide me toward the next natural step in the project (checking to make sure the correct version number of a dependency in the package.json is loaded, for example).

A couple great resources I've come across, worked through to completion, and highly recommend are 100daysofcode and JavaScript30 by Wes Bos. Both of these challenges have helped me to develop the habit of always coding and learning by application and through repetition.

With the 100 days of code challenge, I made it a point to set aside some time everyday to look at my objectives for the week and gradually take steps to mark those items off my list. Every day, no matter how large or small the step I took, I was sure to commit it to github where I could track and visually see the progress I was making. So whether I was adding the complete server-side code for a side-project on one day or simply adding a few CSS tweaks on another, I was sure to log my progress. Of course not every learning experience is without it's roadblocks, so when progress seemed to grind to a halt on a particular day I took the time to reassess the problem, do a little research, and come back to the issue with a fresher pair of eyes and make that little step towards my goals. We are certainly creatures of habit and I can confidently say that this challenge has definitely ingrained the knowledge needed to becoming a more well-rounded developer.

[caption id="attachment_585" align="alignnone" width="580"] My Github contributions from this past year (2017)[/caption]

The JavaScript30 challenge is a great way to practice vanilla JS, pick up new skills, and have some fun doing it. Wes Bos does an awesome job leading you through the material while building some nice small apps and widgets along the way. It's a free course, requires no special tooling or frameworks and introduces ES6 subjects that are becoming evermore commonplace today. Thanks Wes!

With 2018 already underway, I've made a new years resolution to continue to evolve and refine my coding and learning habits while expanding my presence on various online platforms (which include maintaining this very blog site and twitter). Also, continuing my daily github contributions into this new year sits near the top of the resolution list.

In my next blog post, I'll go over the tools and resources I use when I'm hammering out code or setting out on a new learning experience. Happy New Year and happy coding!