Taking breaks
Consistent practice by coding every day is one of the most effective ways to learn. It's also the fastest way to level up your skills, especially if you build lots of small projects that are interesting to you. And if you're not currently working as a developer, but looking to break into the industry, there's basically no way around it.
But coding every day can also get exhausting. Even if you only code a tiny bit each day, it can still take a toll on you mentally.
It's especially true if you're still new to programming - because you'll run into lots of problems and frustrating issues you just can't wrap your head around.
And even if you've been a developer for a long time, the industry moves fast. And having to keep up with all the modern tools and frameworks can still get rather tedious.
So as I sit on a beach in Cyprus, sipping a drink and enjoying my vacation away from code, I wanted to use this opportunity to stress the importance of taking time off.
Yes, learning to code takes time and effort.
Yes, you should enjoy learning new things in general.
But none of it matters if you get burned out because you forced yourself to code all the time when you weren't intrisincally motivated.
So remember that it's always important to take breaks if you feel yourself:
- Getting overworked
- Don't enjoy the process as much
- Simply don't have time for a while
That'll be way more sustainable in the long run and ensure you don't end up quitting development all together by burning yourself out.