My Favorite Technique to Improve Coding Skills

everybody what's going on I mean Easter quits I'm a self-taught software developer and in this video what I actually want to talk about is my absolute favorite technique for rapidly improving your coding skills and this comes from many years of making a ton of mistakes to be totally honest with you and really refined down how to rapidly improve my skill set and boil it down to the most essential thing because there's lots of tips about how to make yourself a better programmer there's lots of little strategies but I want to boil it down to the simplest idea so I could share with you guys so you can really improve your coding skills faster and even make the process just generally more enjoyable so we're definitely gonna get to that now if you're wondering who I am I'm a nice Turk was like I said I thought myself to code back in 2014 I landed my first job in 2015 and I also since that time have been mentoring and coaching people to do this themselves so teach themselves how to code so this channel is really dedicated to understanding how to learn how to teach yourself to code and how to land that first job so I highly recommend hitting the subscribe button below but also make sure to hit the bell icon so you can get notifications anytime I put out an actual video alright so what is this technique that I found that really rapidly improves people's coding skills look what is the most essential idea that you could teach to anyone Beckett if they took it to heart could really improve them in a very short period of time the idea is understanding how to get into flow state that idea of getting in the zone or being in state is one of the most powerful techniques that I've used and I've seen other people use that can really improve their skills over a short period of time now you may have heard of this idea before so let me quickly explain what the flow state is what this idea of being in the zone is many people especially athletes I find an artist have talked about the flow state for a very long period of time they talk about this state of being in a highly creative mode or they find that their focus is 100% in the present moment and they just completely forget about everything that goes on around them and it's like the one of the happiest times that they can remember and this is something that many people report over many different types of activities all the way down from cleaning the floors doing dishes playing basketball whatever it may be so there's a really great book out there called flow by Mihai Csikszentmihalyi where he actually studies this idea of how to get into the flow state she did research on it cuz it was something that treeck 10 the idea that people got so engrossed in their activities that they forget to eat forget to sleep ok so why are we trying to get in the flow state what's the big idea so look it really is pretty simple when you're in the flow state the activity that you're doing is extremely pleasurable and if you follow the logic along here if you make something more pleasurable you're more likely to do it if you're more likely to do it more often then you are more likely to get better at if you're more likely to get better at it you're gonna have a long and prosperous career the people who are not gonna learn very quickly or those who have to force themselves to sit down and do the work so you want to get in the flow state as often as possible so that you look forward to doing the work so that the work becomes pleasurable you'll even find beyond that that you'll just be less effort involved like you'll you'll find will fire yourself dragging yourself to the computer and trying to learn things you were just drawn to because again it's more pleasurable another reason why you want to learn to get in the flow state when it comes to coding is that you just want to make your life more enjoyable if you're going to become a software developer you're gonna be doing this forty hours a week or more for a significant period of your life and I say why not enjoy that life like why make work time when you're doing something not fun and then make your free your leisure time when you do something fun when you get the flow state more often is such a pleasurable activity that you almost find it it's laughable that you find that people pay so much to do it but that's the basic reasoning of why you want to get in the flow State so now that you understand what the flow state is why we're trying to get into it let's talk about how to get into it and let's actually first start with some disclaimers my first disclaimer is really that if you're just starting out with this it's gonna be very hard to get in the flow state it's not something that typically beginners are very good at it will come with time but when you are doing a lot of passive learning in the beginning it's hard to get in the flow state really flow state comes when you are doing active or hands-on learning when you're actually writing code to the code editor for example so just know the expectation going into it the next disclaimer that I have is you really can't make flow state and end goal and this is really paradoxical because my entire video here is telling you that in order to get better you should get in the flow state more often and I just told you that you can't make flow state of goals so what is going on here why am I being so contradictory so this is one of the biggest paradoxes of getting in the zone is that to get in the zone you kind of can't really try to get in the zone nakiya has to be this middle ground where you're trying but not trying the more you try to get in the flow state the harder it is to get in right so if you like you know I'm gonna get in a zone I'm gonna get in the zone today I'm absolutely gonna do it you can find that it's harder to do now this may not always be the case especially when you practice something often but just know going into this that sometimes the harder you try you actually have to relax into it and this actually goes into my third disclaimer as well which is that if you're gonna get into flow state often it's something that you have to ease into I've actually experienced this a lot like sure YouTube videos he's treating YouTube videos is very hard most the time I'm not like chatty I'm actually more of an introvert believe it or not and for me to get to the point where I'm talking like I am now I have to ease into it maybe I spend 15 minutes shooting takes that I'm never gonna use but I never expect to get into flow state like right away if I can that's amazing I'm super happy about that but having that expectation will make it harder to get into flow state so just know that you have to ease into it so I should go into my four steps for getting into the zone so the first thing I really recommend if you're gonna try to get into flow state as often as possible is really have a set start and stop time any time you sit down to do work or do study I personally love the Pomodoro Technique right so that means 25 minutes of studying or working with a five-minute break period or if you want something longer you can do something like a 50-minute work period 5 0 by the way and a 10-minute break period where during the break you can do whatever you want and I find this works really well to help me get in the flow state because to be honest with you many times when I go to sit down to work my brain gives me a lot of resistance I really enjoy I've plenty of hobbies and plenty things I like to do outside of work and so it can be kind of hard to kind of sit there and get back into this idea of okay you know I'm really in the zone with coding but by giving myself a hard time when I'm gonna stop I know that eventually I can sort of have a rest or I can go check my phone or I can go you know outside and enjoy the weather for a little bit problem you don't have a designated start and stop time is that when you sit down to do the work your brain tends to wander and you lose focus very easily and those two things are really detrimental to staying in the zone being in the zone really requires that you focus on one thing you single tasks to the single task as much as possible and you also have something that you're highly focused on like which is one thing that you're trying to accomplish so really having a 25 or a 50-minute period we're gonna work allows you to spend that time focus on one single thing now the second thing that I I need you to get in the flow state is to define a specific outcome or result the worst thing you can do when you are about to sit down do work is not to think through what you're trying to accomplish in that Pomodoro time right so in that 25 or 50 minute period I've done this a lot when I used to get started working I would sit down and just kind of open up my email or open up my code editor and see where I left off and just kind of sit there and work and again I would never even set a designated start and stop time and so my mind would lose focus I'd wander around from different things I kind of get bored after a while but what I started doing that really made a huge difference was I would really hone in on the exact specific thing that I wanted to accomplish during a 25-minute or 50-minute work period and I would listen no more than really two things two things that I wanted to accomplish I could even make it one if it was easier before the end of that work period and I would make it super specifics so let's say you're doing it to do that maybe you just pick one small piece of functionality like making it to do items show up when you press ENTER and just focusing on that for the next 25 minutes and what it really does by focusing on one specific thing is it allows you to know whether you've progressed with something or it allows you to know whether you've completed something I find that the best way to get into that flow state is to have sort of an actionable item something that you know you can measure yourself against you can see that you're making progress the worst thing you could do so the thing that's really antithetical to getting into the flow state is having this nebulous idea about whether you're making progress or not so really focus on some sort of goal that you can know that you're either done with or you're making progress on and you're more likely to get into that flow State the next thing I recommend to get into the zone as often as possible is you have to eliminate distractions as much as humanly possible that means eliminating your phone as a distraction any apps that may pop up and give you notifications that can mean people right so in other words if you're studying in your house if your mom your sister your spouse your kids come up and are interrupting you while you're working it's one of the really the worst things that can happen to you as far as getting into the flow state the flow state requires that you have your focus undivided on a single thing and when you have to stop what you're doing to do something else right so to check an email to go to YouTube to respond to some of these question if they're physically in the room will drag you out of the zone and it will just make it less likely that you're able to get in there so one of the things you want to do is really focus on eliminating all distractions so number one I would say turn off your phone right like close anything that has a notification put your computer on Do Not Disturb even beyond that like go to a place in your house or a place in your neighborhood where you can't be interrupted by other people so that means you can either tell someone that they can interrupt you so that's your spouse your kids or your girlfriend boyfriend mom brothers sister whatever whoever lives in your space make sure let them know when you have your headphones on not to interrupt but if it's really something that you can't prevent then I would actually recommend leaving the house and going somewhere like a library if you can to make sure that you're not getting distracted this is one of the most overlooked things and most people we're living in a day and age where distractions are all around us there omnipresent so this is the hardest battle you're gonna fight but I guarantee you if you can curtail the amount of notifications and distractions you're getting this is the one thing that's really gonna help you to get in the zone as often as possible now my last piece of advice here is to really hammer this home you want to practice as much as humanly possible right so the more that you practice something the more pleasurable it will be the more pleasurable it will be the more the likelihood that you will get in the zone a lot of people have experience getting in the zone in the most mundane activities you could possibly imagine sweeping the floor or clean the house washing dishes farmers who pick some sort of crop off of a plan all of these people can potentially get into the zone if they do it often enough and find ways to make it interesting and challenge themselves so for you to really get that next level you have to make sure you're consistent in your practice one of the reasons this happens is because your brain is very plastic mean it's very moldable right so you can change your habits you can change your behaviors you can even change what's pleasurable to you by just repeatedly doing something over and over again and so you should take that into account when it comes to getting into the flow state so make sure to practice and make sure to be consistent more than anything else alright so now you know this technique of how to rapidly improve your coding skills and this is something I hope you take with you moving forward it can dramatically change the results you're getting it can take something that may not be pleasurable maybe you struggle to show up and put in the work and you feel you're grinding through this process of learning to code you can really shift it and make it more pleasurable but it takes time and you may need to revisit this video and follow the techniques and relearn them over and over again I know for myself sometimes I lose a touch with it I have to come back with it so I hope you enjoy the video please leave a like if you enjoyed it and by the way if you are the type of person who is serious about making this career change meaning you have been putting in the work to do that and you want to step it up to the next level and work with me one on one to help make this career change then I highly recommend taking the time right now to book a career strategy session with me I will leave a link in the description below where you can make that appointment that career strategy session is designed to evaluate whether we're even a good fit to work together so during that call we're really gonna dive deep and figure out what your problem areas are what you're struggling with I don't know what your goals are and from there I'll understand if we can work together for a good fit and what your program will look like so I would recommend doing that as soon as possible I know time slots tend to go very quickly so I'll leave that link in the description below and we'll go from there other than that thank you so much as always for watching and [Music]

Channel: Andy Sterkowitz

Views: 78,823

Rating: 4.9128466 out of 5

Keywords: self-taught programmer, self-taught software developer, programming, learn software development, learn programming, learning strategies for programmers, learning strategies for software development, programming learning tips, software development learning, how to learn programming, how to learn software development, how to learn software engineering, computer programming, andy sterkowitz

Id: dyEcPKkELyw

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 29 2019