A reflection on my CNC2022 Code More journey

Name: Uchenna Egbo

Title: Software Engineer

#CNC2022 Cohort: #CNC2022 "Code More" Cohort 1.

"Code More" Goal: To code more consistently.

Introduction

Introduction

Hi, my name is Uchenna Egbo and I am a software Engineer from Nigeria. My motivation for joining the code more challenge is to code even more consistently.

I am an experienced programmer, however, after my ordeal at my previous job, my passion and love for coding was waning a little bit. I needed to rekindle the fire back by finding a community that would motivate and push me gradually towards rediscovering my joy for coding and building stuff again.

When I found codeNewbie online, it instantly felt like it was meant for me. My expectation was - to be more consistent with coding because I knew I loved doing what I do.

CodeNewbie helped me excel by guiding me towards achieving that. Now I have a defined step, methods and hacks that works out of the box for me which I have discovered while going through this training.

https://community.codenewbie.org/yuhcee/comment/9pf

Mission 1

Have a clear picture of what I wanted to achieve, what achieveing it would look like, identifying and removing obstacles that might hinder them ahead.

Mission 1 helped me think clearly what I wanted to achieve and why I wanted to achieve it. Some of my assumptions were that I would have enough passion to push through the hard parts. But while that was true for some days, for most days, that was not the case.

However, I was quick to adjust to what works for me while going through the program by constantly tweaking my tasks, schedules to keep me motivated towards my goal. I aslo identified that social media was the major cankerworm that was eating the most productive hours of my day.

When I hit a wall, I tend to take a break by checking my phone and then it spirals to me not coming back to what I was doing. I now have strict rules to not touch my phone while working until I am on break - pomodoro enforced breaks.

https://community.codenewbie.org/yuhcee/comment/9pg

Mission 2

Breaking down tasks and scheduling work sessions for the week.

I was gaining momemtum with coding and accomplishing my daily set tasks, albiet, not consistently as I'd wanted to. But ceratinly felt like the walls that held me back in the past are begining to crumble down.

I created a morning routine task that helped me dive in early on in the day to accomplish my most important tasks before getting fatigued.
I used google calendar to block off my time and notion to detail what I want to achieve daily. And I go back to them at the end of the day to review if I'd accomplish them. I also use the Pomodoro technique to take breaks at intervals.

It really helped me pique my productivity and perseverance levels.

https://community.codenewbie.org/yuhcee/comment/a6g

Mission 3

Improving and optimising my project tracker.

Going through the program, I realised some assumptions I have made were a little bit ridiculous from the on set.

I had to readujust them a few times. I reschedule my waking time, activities, programs and environment a few times as I learned more about myself - my strengths and weaknesses.

I adopted techniques, methods and ideas I have reasearched and found online that worked for me. Constantly optimising because it is a journey, and not a destination.

I even spoke to friends, got an accountability partner that helped me push through tough tasks. I broke my tasks down even further to be more realizable and less vague.

https://community.codenewbie.org/yuhcee/comment/a6f

Mission 4

Reflections on the Journey so far and revisiting my goals.

I was pretty happy with where I am at, with what I have achieved so far. I noticed a change in mindset, mentality and renewed vigor toward codig again. Even though my Github or profile does not reflect the kind of consistency I'd initially imagined, I am confident that the foundation has been laid with what I have gained from this program.

There's no denying that it will only begin to manifest in the nearest future. I have grown my resilence, optimised my environment, have a clearer daily goals in mind, and cut out distarctions that limit my productivity.

Achieving a small important tasks daily and consistently is better than having a giant task that you might not achieve, make you feel worse and lead you to even further procrastination.

Showing up consistently is more important than doing huge work occasionally. Consistency is more important that Intensity.

https://community.codenewbie.org/yuhcee/comment/a6o

Sticking to it

I plan to stay consistent by sticking to what I have already identified that is working for me and doubling down on it. Taking it gradually day-by-day and smashing my goals. It adds up eventually.

Biggest Challenges

The biggest challenge for me most times is me being unforgiven towards myself when I have failed to hit a daily target. I allowed it to weigh me down or affect me negatively and even the next day is often affected.

I learned to forgive myself quickly, realising that I am a human, I can't always be consistent. That I have to see everything that happened today as only today's business - identify what worked and what hasn't, forgive myself for the ones that didin't work and move with a fresh energy into the next day.

Highlights

I stayed with a Algorithm problem that I couldn't solve, tried all the techinques I have learnt, methods and debbuging until I solved it. Before now, I would have ran away, but staying with that problem grew the beliet in me that, I can do it - anything I put my mind to. It gets better!

Overall Reflections

I learnt so much about myself, through struggles, reflections, identifying and optimising things I wouldn't natuarally do or think are insignificant before. It has raised my productivity level, gave me a clear vision and much desired consisitency in the right areas.

I also learned from other people's struggles and motivations - they helped to push me even further to let me know that I am not alone in this. Everyone needs to figure out their shit at some point and that's perfectly normal.

What's next for me

I just want to continue with coding more, learning more and sharing what I have learnt publicly.
From there, I hope it adds up to land me my dream job at Google someday. Fingers crossed.