- Distractions: how to avoid getting distracted when
you're learning how to programme?
Let's see if we can figure that out in today's video.
(electronic dance music)
Welcome back, my name is Tim Buchalka
with another programming tip of the day.
And the question was
"How do you avoid getting distracted
when you're learning how to programme?"
Now, distractions can be a huge problem
when you're learning how to programme.
Particularly if you haven't worked in an office
or you haven't done that sort of book work
or brain work in the past.
You've maybe had another career
or you just never sat down and studied before.
It can be very easy to get distracted,
and that's because your mind can play tricks on you.
Your mind wants to be somewhere else and to get around that,
firstly, I recommend having a plan of attack.
So if you just figure "I'm gonna learn how to programme"
and you haven't made any effort to reduce distractions,
chances are pretty high you're
going to get distracted at some point of it.
Unless you're almost a Superman - Superman or a Superwoman.
You're going to find that you'll get distracted.
So what you really need is a plan.
And it doesn't need to be a complex plan.
It can be a simple plan, like, well let's go
through some of the common things.
Firstly, mobile phones.
So cellphones as they're called in America.
Great source of distraction; of getting distracted.
So eliminate that.
Turn your phone off, move it to another room,
put it on silent.
One or all of those things.
That's a great way to minimise things.
Now, if you're programming on a computer,
when you're going through a course,
watching videos and programming along or whatever it is.
Make sure that you've got your
other applications closed down.
So if you've got Facebook in another window
so that you can keep up to date with the latest messages,
that's probably setting yourself up for failure.
You can do without Facebook, or Twitter,
or whatever communication
uh programme
that you're actually using to keep up to date with things.
Turn that off at least for while your programming
for your particular session so you don't get distracted
'cause it's very easy to get distracted.
Next, after you've done that and
you've only really got the programmes that you need open
to do your training.
So if you've got uh, if you're working
on a video course, for example,
make sure you've got, or you should only have
your browser tab open
so that you can actually watch the video,
and the programme that you're actually using on your computer
to follow along and type in the code.
You shouldn't have anything else open.
Next thing.
Get your family, friends, or whoever you live with,
if you live other people.
Get them invested in your journey
to learn how to programme so tell them
what you're trying to do.
Look I'm trying to learn how to become a programmer here,
can you please give me some space?
I'm going to be studying now for the next fifteen minutes,
thirty minutes, hour, or whatever it is.
Can you just give me some space
so that I can actually do that?
And make sure that they are aware of it
and then people will try and help you out.
Most people, if they know that someone else
is doing something trying to achieve a particular goal,
they can be quiet for a period of time
to help you avoid distractions.
Because the last thing you obviously want
is to be working away, being in the zone programming,
and find someone's knocking on your door
and asking you to go to the shop to get some
milk or whatever the case might be.
So get other people invested in that as well.
The other thing that I would recommend is
that in today's busy society,
look, we're all busy, doing hundreds of things.
There's so many things that are distracting us,
so it's probably not realistic to
try and find a block of six hours to study.
So what probably have to do is try and reduce
the number, the uh,
the actual time that you spend per session.
So in other words, don't actually look
for a six hour session or a three hour
session of programming,
maybe you can find thirty minutes.
And do thirty minutes of study
seven days a week or six days a week.
That's actually gonna be more
productive for you as a rule than
trying to find five or six hours
and getting distracted after one hour
getting frustrated and stopping and moving on.
So I would recommend you looking for short periods of time,
and studying and focus for that thirty minutes
or whatever the period of time is
and from there, you can always
look at increasing it if things are going well
and taking all of these other things away.
Taking away all of the other distraction potentials
should give you uh, get you set up
and help you power through
and complete your programming learning
or your programming training.
Alright, so I hope that helped.
If you've got any questions,
feel free to leave a comment and I'll get back to you.
If you're ready to look at the next tip,
Click on up here, and you can check that out.
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