Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel! If you're new here, i'm Temi. I'm a graduate
software developer working in the UK and I make YouTube videos about coding, careers and adulthood.
Today i'm going to be giving you some motivation and study tips when learning how to code. even as
someone who works as a software developer myself, I still do struggle with keeping myself motivated
when self-teaching outside of work. I will be giving you some tips on what I find helps me
and some things I wish I did earlier on in my coding journey. Before I get into it,
don't forget to subscribe and hit the like button if you'd like to see more content like this.
Staying motivated when learning how to code can be quite tough and challenging, especially when
there are so many coding languages, frameworks and technologies out there. It's really easy to
feel overwhelmed with the amount of options and fall into this trap of analysis paralysis, where
you're unable to progress because of information overload. Despite what everyone thinks, I personally
believe that motivation is just to cherry on top when learning how to code and i'll explain why. So
motivation is quite fleeting as it can come and go whereas discipline is something you continuously
choose or you train yourself to do repeatedly. So when learning how to code, find your why and find
what inspires you. For example, if you really love gaming and you're interested to find out how games
are made, then I would advise you to pick up a book or start a beginner friendly game development
course. Or if you love Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest or whatever social media app it is, then
I would advise you to find a beginner-friendly app development course. So go where your interests take
you. So what i'm trying to say is that if you don't have a personal reason as to why you want to learn
how to code, then you're not going to have that initial shove that's going to get the ball rolling
in the first place. So if you pick something that's personal to you, that you know that, I am passionate
about gaming or I am really interested in social media and i'd love to see how that works. Then pick..
then start from a place that really interests you, that way whenever it gets tough and you feel like
you don't want to do any more, that you don't care, you have your why, you have something to go back to.
So once you know what part of tech or coding really motivates and inspires you, then the key
is building self-discipline and building a routine that will allow you to see it through and really
progress with your journey. If you are a beginner coder then you will have to put a lot of time and
effort into learning and studying, as coding will be something out of the ordinary to you
and therefore it might not click as easy and you might find it a little difficult. As you repeatedly
do it, it will get a little bit easier as it almost feels like second hand nature to you. So my first
studying or learning tip is to practice active based learning. And this is a method of learning
where you're really actively involved in your learning process. The first thing you should do
is have some structure to your learning so follow a book or a course to give you some structure.
And I have actually done a video on how I kind of structured my learning when I was
learning how to code. I'll put the tag up here or here so make sure to check that out. And as
you're going through your chosen resource, take notes or make diagrams if that's how you learn.
But make these diagrams and notes in a way that you understand so that when you come back to it
they make sense to you. If you're following a tutorial, make sure you code along as well.
This will help you retain what you're learning but also if you can't keep up just pause the video,
rewind it or even watch it at a slower speed. This is something I do a lot when following tutorials.
I'll tend to watch the video at 0.75 speed or even slower than that just so that I can keep up and
really understand what the course instructor is teaching. Something else that you could do
is project-based learning but project-based learning without following along a tutorial.
And this is something that i'm currently working on now. I'm currently building my own projects
without following along a tutorial and it is kind of scary and it can be quite difficult,
but at the same time, it is a really good way for you to apply everything that you've learned.
And building projects is just a really good thing to do because having good problem solving skills
is a really important part of being a programmer. And I know sometimes when people say build
projects it can be a bit abstract, especially if you're starting out on your own. But if you're
unsure of where to start or you're unsure of what projects to build, what I do is you just Google
frontend projects, backend projects or full stack projects. If you are still feeling a bit
lost and confused after Googling, have a look at my Instagram where I include project ideas and just
things that are good to know when starting out learning how to code. Also try and work on projects
that do interest you, that way you're more likely to follow through and actually finish the projects.
I know sometimes as developers, sometimes we get carried away with what we want to build
and we get really excited. But either way, if you're working on things that interest you then you're
more likely to actually stick with it and finish it. So the next thing is something I actually read
quite recently on a blog and this is to train your mind the same way that you would train your body.
So if you were going to the gym, i'm sure you would split up your days into lower body day,
upper body days, cardio and whatever the case might be. So the same way that you would do that, try and
do a similar thing with your learning. So kind of spread your learning out over a period of time
and try to focus on one topic at a time. So for example, on Mondays you could dedicate that to
learning about databases, on Wednesday you could focus on APIs and microservices, then on Fridays
maybe you could do web development. So it just really depends on you. I just think it's a really good
idea to kind of compartmentalise what you are learning on certain topics. And also your brain
can only handle so much at a time so it's a good idea just to make it that much easier for yourself
when you're studying. My next tip is to study or learn the things you find the hardest first.
This is something I used to do a lot when studying for university final exams and I cannot even tell
you the difference that it makes. And this is because the things that you find the hardest
obviously take a lot more effort so if you decide to tackle that task first um so first thing in the
morning if that's when you want to study, it means that you have a lot longer to actually complete it.
When you eventually do solve the problem, you'll be feeling really confident and just in higher
spirits to do all the other things that you have to do next. When you've learnt a new programming
concept, it's important to make sure that you've actually understood and that you're not trying to
memorize the information. And a good technique to use in order to make sure that you've understood,
is something called the Feynman technique or commonly known as the 'explain it like i'm five
years old' concept. This will naturally help you break down a more complex topic into digestible
and simple pieces of information. The idea is that if you can teach it to someone who knows nothing
about programming or coding, then it's a really good indication that you've actually understood
what you've been learning. So the way that you could do this is to first get out a pen of paper,
write the technique down and try to explain it in really simple terms in just in plain English
and also work through some examples and practice. And as you're writing your explanation,
try and identify areas of weakness and areas that you believe that you don't actually understand.
Go back to your explanation and try and pick out any complex terms that you used and try and
break it down even more if you can, into simple digestible language. And as you're doing all of
this, think about 'how would I explain it to a kid?' Or, 'how would I explain it to someone who doesn't
know anything about coding or programming?'. And the idea is that you just repeat this until you feel
that you have mastered the technique or the idea. Lastly, learning the information is important but
remembering it is even more so. A good technique for remembering what you've learned is through
a method called active recall. This involves retrieving information from memory through
testing yourself at every stage of your revision or studying process. So retrieving information from
our brains then actually makes it easier to retain that information that we've learned. In
the case of programming and coding, I would say the best way to do this is by doing coding challenges.
And some really good websites to test yourself are Code Wars, HackerRank, Leetcode and I think Free
codeCamp also have questions that you could do when um going through certain learning pathways.
I will leave all these links and resources in the description box below and if you are aware
of any more that i haven't said yet, please leave them in the comments so other people can benefit
and use them too. Another good technique for learning is space repetition. So by introducing
time intervals between your study sessions, you can remember more even if you haven't actually spent
that long studying. And this basically involves spacing out your learning. If you whizz through a
coding course or even a book without actually reviewing and testing yourself, then you're a lot
more likely to forget all the information that you've learnt. By actively reviewing
the coding and programming material that you've learnt, you'll get better at long-term retention.
The more you repeat something, the more you'll remember it. So it's like if you have a favourite
song, the first time you hear it obviously you're not going to know the lyrics, the second time you
might know a few words from the chorus but after you've listened to that song on repeat for a while,
you're gonna know all the lyrics off by heart, you're gonna know the tune, you're gonna know
the melody, everything like that. And the best time to kind of review the information and review what
you've learnt, is around the time you naturally forget it. So for example, if you are really
comfortable with the um concept of variables and arrays in a certain programming language, I would
say maybe do that um every week or so until you find that you no longer need to do that. Whereas if
you find functions and scope a lot more difficult, then I would study that maybe every three or four
days. So the idea is to repeat the process every so often until the concepts stick and you feel
like you no longer need to review or revise the information every so often. To wrap up this video,
motivation isn't the key when learning how to code. What's more important is being disciplined enough
to come up with an effective study or a learning plan and being able to follow through with it.
Make sure you are understanding what it is you're learning by breaking down complex topics into a
lot more digestible pieces of information, using the methods I mentioned earlier don't be afraid
to test yourself. I do understand when learning something for the first time, it can be just really
easy to race through it without stopping and thinking, 'hang on a minute, do I actually understand
what i'm learning'? I do get it, believe me i'm still learning too so I understand because at the end of
the day it really is counterproductive if you're spending a lot of time learning the information
but you actually don't understand it. Some of these study methods and techniques I already use
but a lot of them I don't and I came across when researching. And I do see myself implementing a few
into my study schedule. If you'd like me to make a video on how to produce effective study plans then
do let me know in the comments down below. And if you found this video useful, please subscribe and
give it a thumbs up so you can see more from me. Thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next
video!