How to Stay Motivated to Keep Learning to Code

It's hard to stay motivated and to continue learning in today's world of constant change in technology, languages, and frameworks. We may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options, and how far the rabbit hole goes down each one.

So I wanted to share some of the things I do to stay motivated to keep learning to code, and how I continue to enjoy it day after day, year after year.

Here is my TLDR for those who want to view this at a glance. But if you want to know more, keep reading!

• Start by setting aside only 5 minutes to learn
• Break down any learning into smaller achievable parts
• Just pick 1 thing to learn and get started on it immediately
• Enjoy the process of learning itself as part of the journey
• Keep to a routine with scheduled time set aside to learn consistently
• Avoid mindlessness of social media, etc when learning
• Do it again, continue to learn, it's not something you can fail at, only something you might temporarily put on hiatus 

  5 minutes of Learning

  It doesn't seem like much. It isn't much. But it's more than not doing anything at all.
  It's easy to get overwhelmed when contemplating setting aside hours of your time to learn something you might not understand.
  The engagement for learning to code sometimes misses that level of entertainment you might get when playing a sport or game. But that's because that level of fun happens only once we get into the thick of things.
  Setting aside 5 minutes each day or week is enough to get you started, and starting is the hardest part. Once you start coding, the rest will come more naturally.
  You will enjoy and gain the motivation to want to do a little more. I've often found myself learning a lot for hours at a time after planning to have only spent 5 minutes on it. 

  Break down large learning into smaller parts

  Most thing's can be broken down into simpler and simpler parts that are easier to understand at each level. Learning to code is no different.
  Learning JavaScript, for example, might seem like a huge task. There are so many nuances to it. Yet, every part of JavaScript, down to how it handles an array (a group of items), to the way you can call methods (a way to do something) can be broken down layer by layer.
  The final result is that you might just start by learning how to pop (remove a single entry from the group). If you continue learning bit by bit, you will eventually learn how all the methods and functions work, until you can use this one aspect JavaScript without having to google it every time.
  You are essentially building on what you learn bit by bit until you get a better understanding of the whole, and this can be only done by reducing it all into smaller components to start off with. 

  Pick 1 thing to learn, and start learning it immediately

  You probably already know what you want to learn, you might have had it in the back of your mind for a while. Whether it is HTML, CSS, React or even just plain old JavaScript, it's great to want to start learning something.
  If you don't know yet what you want, freeCodeCamp has you covered with heaps of topics so you can just pick one or start at the top.
  But if you already have a topic, don't just think about it. It's all great to read the latest articles, look at the documentation over and over, see the news of what's happening in that language, but to really get started, you need to just start.
  This means if you want to learn React for example, just open up a new project right now and start working on it. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, you might just be doing the Hello World getting started guide, but the goal is to stop thinking about learning, and start learning. 

  Enjoy the process of learning itself as part of the journey

  When you go for a run, eat some food, or go to watch a movie even, you don't think of it in terms of "I want to complete eating this dinner", or "I successfully watched that movie". Rather, you enjoy the process of what you do.
  Often we forget about this in learning, we focus so hard on "Understanding the language" that we forget about "Enjoying the learning process".
  The best sort of learning is done when you enjoy what you are doing. Your brain will pick it up easier and remember it longer. That's why so many people who do well are the ones already invested and happy to learn something new.
  The trick is to stop thinking too much about "finishing" and more about what is fun and interesting in each topic you encounter. This way you will go further and be happier for it. When you look back, you will do so happily and when you look forward, you will want to experience more learning journeys. 

  Keep to a routine with a scheduled time set aside to learn consistently

  It's easy to put learning last. Last thing of the day to do, last thing of the week to do. You are essentially setting it as the last object with little importance. You won't have energy by the time you get to it, and you might altogether let it lapse.
  Instead, schedule it in first. First thing you might do when you wake up, or the first part of your day that you complete before going to work.
  You will be setting an agenda for it that is easier to keep. You will have more energy at the start of the day so you will learn it easier. And if you schedule it in before anything else, routinely, you will over time (days and days, weeks and weeks) learn quite a lot.
  It doesn't have to be for hours – when you spend just 15 minutes on a subject daily over a year, that's over 90 hours of learning!