You might be familiar with the following situation: You are in your first job as a software developer and spend less and less time with your own projects? Or the time you spend on them is generally getting less and less? I have the problem right now and I’ve been thinking about what’s causing it and how I can work on it. Well, the main problem, in my opinion, is that I no longer have the pressure from my studies to learn to take an exam, for example. Although I want to advance my own projects, I have to force myself not to use my time elsewhere. And, according to the motto “it requires pressure to create diamonds” not much works without pressure.
Personally, I like challenges. And for this reason I have decided to simply build this pressure by myself. On the Internet you can find various articles about the so-called 100 Days of Code-Challenge, which is about working on your own projects for at least one hour a day, 100 days in a row. The Challenge defines some basic rules, which I have adapted for myself, but would like to introduce you to in this article.
The Challenge itself requires you to work on your own projects for one hour or more for 100 days. Tutorials or online courses are not included in this time, a point I have discarded in my case. I have set myself various goals that I want to achieve within these 100 days, which also include various things I want to learn. That’s why I combine the challenge for myself from learning and programming sessions.
The project defines the process and rules on the website linked above in detail, but the basic idea is regularity and public commitment. This means that if possible you should make your projects publicly available (e.g. via GitHub), tweet your progress, or similar.
I’ve decided for myself to do the challenge for myself for now. While I understand the idea behind the publication, which should make it easier to keep up with the progress by pushing each other within the community, but I also want to use the time primarily for learning and therefore find the approach less suitable.
Nevertheless, I would like to encourage you to participate and join in as well. So how exactly do you get started? First set goals for the 100 days. What do you want to achieve? Do you have an idea that has been on your mind forever? Or are you already sitting on a project that you haven’t touched in a long time? Or do you, like me, want to adapt the goal of the challenge a little and improve and deepen your skills in various areas? Whatever it is, take your time to plan and formulate your goals in concrete terms. That’s it, actually. As soon as you know what you want, start with the implementation — and tweet your progress daily under the Hashtag #100DaysOfCode. Good luck! And by the way: If you miss a day, it’s of course not dramatic. Just add the day at the end of the challenge and make sure you don’t miss two days in a row.