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Misty
Misty

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Making a Done List

Last post, I listed the following goals for this week:

✅ keep coding everyday
◻️ work on a mobile-first, responsive design for the static website I created last week (and possibly work on a post or posts detailing the iterative process for it)
◻️ watch some code with me streams on Twitch (if you have any recommendations, please let me know!)
✅ get through the City Skyline project in freeCodeCamp's RWD course
◻️ try to replicate something from scratch

I’ll be honest, a part of me wants to chastise myself for not doing more of what I planned to do. But!

  1. That’s not helpful!
  2. I did actually accomplish plenty of things!
  3. Even if I didn’t accomplish anything else besides, that would still be okay!

(ALL THE EXCLAMATION POINTS!)

I’ve heard people mention creating a "Done" list at the end of the day so you can really see the progress you're making, especially on things you hadn't expected to work on so weren't on your "To Do" list. I’m going to look into how I can fit that into my day because it does seem very helpful and encouraging. My checkboxes above don’t reflect:

  • that I learned about CSS animations and variables;
  • that I’m becoming more comfortable and familiar with HTML and CSS;
  • that I was able to help a fellow student fix an inadvertent space in their code;
  • that I started reading some books about working in tech to get a better feel for what I'm jumping into.

In the last week I managed to get through a lot of the freeCodeCamp projects, and just have two final ones (product landing page and portfolio site) to complete before getting the certificate. I expect those will take a few more weeks for me to complete as I try to build them in a less guided way.

Since I’ve been learning CSS through freeCodeCamp, my most exciting projects have been this responsive cityscape, which turns from day to night (screenshots only below):

daytime image of a city skyline

nighttime image of a city skyline

And this most adorable penguin, which waves with animation in the actual display of code instead of just a screenshot:

Image description

All done in CSS! It’s blowing my mind, to be honest. And I love every bit of it. In addition to learning how to code these things, I also learned how to make GIFs. Finally. :laughing emoji: (I used Screen to GIF, if you're curious.)

This coming week, I’ll be working on:

◻️ product landing page
◻️ portfolio site
◻️ my vision board project
◻️ trying to replicate something from scratch
◻️ watch a code with me stream or two
◻️ work on a mobile-first, responsive design for the static website I created a few weeks ago
◻️ starting my JavaScript module through Skillcrush!

Super excited to get my feet wet in JavaScript and keep learning!

What have you been excited about this past week? What are you excited for this coming week?

Top comments (2)

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jacobvarney profile image
jacobvarney

@mistydb I greatly enjoy the "Done" list - too many things get done in a day, but often all I'm left with is fatigue and no idea what I did. Fast forward a few months and I feel like I've accomplished nothing. However, for learning programming I track my progress in a spreadsheet to record what I did and measure against my goal for the year.

Your CSS art looks awesome!

Last week I was excited for the Splatoon 3 demo on Saturday. Coding-wise, I made the commitment to start learning less and doing more: I'm going to spend one hour a week "in the books" and two hours working on projects. And I'm excited for that this week :)

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mistydb profile image
Misty

Thanks, @jacobvarney . Your progress spreadsheet is such a great idea and looks very helpful! I especially like the graph so you can see your progress compared to your goal at a quick glance. Keep it up - you're doing awesome!