Becoming Consistent

Hey, guys so the time has finally come for me to discuss the last of the 3 tenets I think it takes to be a great software developer. In case you did not read the previous 2, Communication(Getting to the Promised Land of Software Engineering) and Structure(Why is This So Hard?).

Its time to Change My life

Have you ever felt the sudden urge to change your life, to learn something new? Chances are you have and at that moment we are all filled with the will and vigor to spend as much time as it takes to make those changes. Sadly more often than not we usually fall short, the vigor dies down and we start to make excuses for ourselves. We trade in small consistent effort over a period of time for a high-intensity burn. It happens with everyone and it happens to me. For software developers this trend often finds a lot of us stuck in tutorial hell. I like to think that tutorial hell is like the plateau between being an absolute novice at programming and knowing enough to skip to build and deploy projects. A common sign you have entered tutorial hell is when you know enough to skip to the end of the tutorial videos and still complete the task at the end of the section.

Most people need consistency more than they need intensity. Intensity makes a good story. Consistency makes progress.

So our final tenet is Consistent Practice

Getting Out of Hell

A tricky spot we find ourselves in but I am going to say getting out of tutorial hell is the same as becoming a master and you can’t only become a master with consistency. We have all probably heard about the 10,000 rule in passing. If you haven’t heard is a short recap in Malcolm Gladwell’s Book outliers he says you can learn any complex skill if you get 10,000 hours of practice under your belt. That number seems a little big to me so I am going to try and break it down if I practice for 2 hours a day for 5 days a week (give me 2 days cause I can’t come and kill myself) that 10 hours a week. It will take me 1000 weeks to achieve that. A thousand weeks 🤔 sounds too arbitrary, at 50 weeks a year( yes I am taking another 2 weeks). That rounds up to about 20 years. Do you mean to tell me I can’t become a master until I spend at least 2 hours a day for 20 years? that is a long time to look ahead. Many people will look at this and say why not simply increase your time spent daily to 4 hours and that shortens the number of years to 10. Add another 4 hours and it’s down to 5 years.

2 hours a day = 20 years, 4 hours a day = 10 years, 8 hours a day = 5 years

My tips for getting consistent

• Decide How much time

  When deciding how much time you spend practicing remember to allocate time for rest. This is why I decided to give myself 2 days rest and 2 weeks off when calculating the above #Dont be too hard on yourself Eventually you will fall off the wagon as most people do. The average person will decide that because they could not do it for a week means they can’t successfully follow their plan. This is False and every time you fall off the wagon just get back on as soon as possible. Practice practice practice

• Break It Down

  If you have problems keeping consistent for a month, try keeping consistent for a week, if you have issues being consistent for a week try 3 days. Just keep practicing

• Don’t Try And Do It Alone

  A huge mistake some of us make is we try and be accountable to just ourselves. I am not a super fan of this cause I learned early in life that if a person does not want to do something. They could potentially come up with 1001 reasons not to do it. So sometimes we need other people on our journey to consistency to remind us that some of our reasons for failing are just reasons.

• Find Something Fun

  Find something fun to do and work on it. A real reason for quitting is realizing we don’t love programming just as much as we do. So we pack up and we look elsewhere. This is why from the very beginning have a project in mind, an application, or a platform and start building on it slowly. Projects are one of the best ways to learn and keep consistent. In time you would look back and see all the progress you have made from consistent effort and 20 years would have gone and you can now call yourself a Master. Not that you’d remember at that point in time.

  Thanks for reading. If you learned something, enjoyed reading, or if you even disagree with something I have said feel free to leave a comment or tweet at me. I am learning every day.