Tired of Programming? 11 Tips to Get Motivated
Are you losing the interest you once had for programming? Are you finding it challenging to complete your project as a software developer? Are you finding it difficult to continue your programming journey? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the problem is that you have lost interest in programming.
Do not be dejected because everyone (even expert) suffers this at one point or another.
Take a deep breath because this article will solve your problem. It will get you bubbling with motivation in no time. Your fire for programming will be rekindled, and it would even burn brighter. But it won’t be easy, and it will require a lot of dedication for it to work.
How can you achieve not being bored? How can you make sure you are not fed up or tired while programming?
It’s difficult, but you can accomplish it. This article contains tips on how to stay motivated while programming.
Here is an outline of what we will be going over:
- Connect with other programmers
- Stay away from aspect you find boring
- Work on something new
- Avoid difficult task
- Know the purpose of why you are a programmer
- Take some time off
- Think about your ultimate goal
- Be realistic
- Choose uniformity over speed
- Strengthen your willpower
- Do not get discouraged by the Imposter syndrome.
Hope these tips will help on your journey.
1. Connect with other programmers
It is easy to lose interest when you are doing it alone, and that tends to be the case when you are learning or when you are working in a small company that can only afford to hire a single developer. If you are feeling unmotivated, the worst thing you could do is to suffer through it alone.
Join a community and interact with your peers, people who understand what you are going through. Real life conversations are advisable, but online communities are manageable. Being tired of programming does not mean you are weak. You just need to see your circumstance from the perspective of other programmers; that way, you will see the reality that it is not as bad as it seems.
When you are in the midst of other programmers, remember the aim is not to whine all day and spread your misery to them. This is counterproductive as you might spread your misery to others. What you want to do is to share your concerns gently and listen to their stories of how they handled a similar issue. Listening to their stories will rekindle your programming fire.
If you are a beginner, then your lack of motivation might be due to insecurity and lack of confidence. If this is the case, then you will need a mentor, someone to call when you start second-guessing the quality of your code. They make sure you do not get tired of your programming journey.
2. Stay away from aspect you find boring
Programming has many aspects for you to explore, so your source of boredom may be due to the fact that you are just focusing on the wrong aspect of it. For instance, python language can be used for data science, web development, and app development. If you are tired when learning web development, you can try other aspects out, such as data science and analysis.
If an aspect of programming does not interest you, then do not bother learning it or even if you have already learned it, then do not bother starting work on it as – sooner or later – you will get tired of it.
As time moves on, you will lack the motivation to go forward, and you will become frustrated. Focus more on the aspect you have a passion for, as working on something you have a passion for is fun and the probability of losing interest is less compared to working on what you do not like.
3. Work on something new
In most cases, getting tired of programming is due to lack of excitement. For instance, if you are a software developer working in a small company, then there is a high probability that what you do is trivial and does not require much mental activity. Or if you have been doing the same job for years, then everything starts to feel like stimulation. You feel no growth in your programming capability, and slowly you get tired of programming.
If this is the case, then what is the solution? It is simple; all you have to do is switch to another project. If you ask any programmer, they will tell you that the real excitement in programming comes from the creative problem-solving. If that is missing in your work, then there is no difference between it and mindless busywork day-in and day-out.
To solve this, there are two options. First one is to ask for permission from superiors to be transferred to another project that will challenge your brain, but this is only applicable if your superiors will allow. The second option is to leave work entirely (only do this if you can handle the risk).
4. Avoid difficult task
Being a programmer is like reading a book. If you start reading a book from the beginning and just stop and start reading at the middle or the end of the book, it will be boring or won’t make sense at all.
This is why some programmers lose interest and motivation for coding. You may have been a victim of this, and you have tried to schedule projects that are difficult for you to code.
Here are some guides to follow:
• Don’t get too ambitious in the beginning, just start with something small.
• Work with the concept that you are familiarized with, then try to expand from there.
• When you find out what you are working on is difficult and frustrating, try something easier.
5. Know the purpose of why you are a programmer
There are different reasons why people want to learn programming; you might want to be a developer or writer for some firm, or you just love doing it as a hobby to increase your skills and knowledge.
If you don’t enjoy programming, it might be the best option if you reconsider your career options.
If programming is your hobby and you are not satisfied with it, then it’s not worth wasting your time on, but if you want to be hired as a programmer, then you need to keep learning regardless of how boring or unmotivated it is.
The reason why you are not motivated and how you can solve it depends on what your purpose is. Besides, if you have a goal to achieve, this can also serve as a motivation for you to keep on.
6. Take some time off
Some programmers don’t take time off, which make them lose focus or motivation while writing code. They write code for hours, days, and weeks without resting.
It might get boring if you write code too frequently; you should try to focus on other things in order for you to stay motivated and focused.
Sometimes, in order to get motivated, it is imperative to take some time off and release yourself of the stress.
7. Think about your ultimate goal
Whatever someone does, there is always a goal in mind when you first start. This happens in programming too; there is a goal you want to achieve when you first start – you should think about your ultimate goal. Why is it important for you?
This could be for you to be hired as a full-time programmer, so you can support your family financially; or you want to be your own boss, where you work alone and live anywhere.
By considering all listed above, you might have known what your “why” is, your ultimate goal, what makes you want to continue; you should think about all that.
Once you know your ultimate goal, you can write it where you will often see it. This will help in reminding your goal when you are getting fed up or tired; this will keep motivating you to continue.
It doesn’t have to be extravagant; it can just be a post in a piece of paper. Or rather, you can just create your own postcards and hang on your computer for you to see often.
What is your ultimate goal in programming?
8. Be realistic
Not being bored, fed up, discouraged, and giving up basically means staying motivated. Being good at something can also be a trap for you by having unrealistic expectations. Why does this happen?
Well, when you are bored or fed up while programming, it’s often as a result of what you are expecting, which doesn’t match up or correspond to reality.
If you are learning programming, thinking that you can just become a professional programmer within some couple of weeks or months, you might end up as a failure.
I am not trying to make it sound difficult, or saying you can’t get a job.
In my own perspective, I think it takes more than a year of practice and learning to be an expert or good enough to apply and land jobs. Though it all depends on your willingness and circumstances, how far you are willing to go to be a professional programmer.
In a case where you have a family or work part-time or full-time, you will have less time to work compared to someone who is just alone or doesn’t have to work at that particular time.
After all, we all move at a different pace. Some are fast learners while some are slow learners; this varies from one person to another. Try to judge how your own progress is evolving and try not to fail by having unrealistic expectations.
9. Choose uniformity over speed
The quote that says, “Win the race slow and steady” is very true. In the beginning, as you are starting, you will want to rush on things and practice for hours every day.
However, as mentioned above, this may be an unrealistic expectation, which could result in you being burned up and surrendering. You will be able to continue when you know how long and time you can spend every day or weeks.
Even if it is just an hour a day, and if you do these a week, that means you will have practiced 7 hours that week and 400 hours in a year, which is consistent. A small effort can lead to great success when combined with consistency.
For instance, brushing your teeth 5 minutes daily is not much of an effort, but consistently doing it every day will have a great difference on your teeth. For this reason, consistency or uniformity is more important than speed.
10. Strengthen your willpower
Do you know that willpower is a true muscle? I realized something during household chores.
At home, my siblings and I share the chores. So the task given to me was to do the dishes, so I do wash all the plates and place them in the dishwasher rack to dry overnight.
In the morning, I keep the dishes away, while the tea was drenched. Though it only took a few minutes, I hate doing that task as it is boring. But I do force myself, as it is my responsibility.
Interestingly, over time, it has been easier to do the dishes, as the task I hate doing has become a habit for me.
The relationship between willpower and muscle
If you start developing muscles as a result of working out, obviously it will be difficult at the start, but if you continue doing the workout, it will become easier. It also increases the size of your muscle, which gets you stronger.
When I started doing dishes, my willpower then was very weak. At a point, I was already getting tired and bored with it, though I kept on doing it as it was my responsibility, which also increases my willpower. But as times goes by, it becomes a habit, which later becomes easier than postponing it.
To successfully become a programmer, you must develop your willpower to sacrifice time when learning.
Though programming is fun, it’s sometimes annoying to have to sit and program instead of doing other fun things. Although the more you discipline yourself with work, the easier it will be with time.
If you have an ultimate goal, you should strive for a uniform time you will sacrifice for learning or practicing. And you should know that your willpower to do programming will get stronger over time. It is likely you do not give up midway through.
11. Do not get discouraged by the Imposter syndrome.
Imposter syndrome: this is something that depresses all beginners, even some professional programmers have difficulty getting rid of that feeling of not being good enough.
When I started working as a programmer, I was completely scared that they would spot me as fake. It was consistent during the first years of my job. It took me nearly 4 years to feel safer about my abilities and skills. If you have imposter syndrome, do not be discouraged because you are not alone – it’s natural.
This fear is so common among programmers because the areas and fields of programming are very broad. There are a lot of programming languages, technology keep appearing, tools, and so on.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the many skills you need to “know.” That’s why many emerging developers are concerned with imposter syndrome.
Overcome your fear of imposter syndrome with concentration and patience
You won’t be able to learn everything there is to programming. Honestly, nobody knows everything or is perfect, but we only tend to be perfect by keeping practicing. Most programmers understand or have perfected one or two programming languages while just familiar with others.
There is nothing bad in trying to learn more than one language; you should just not overdo it. The best option is to just focus all your attention on one or two languages and be perfect in it.
As times goes by, you will start feeling certainty about your skills and would have picked up the basic knowledge needed for programming, which will aid you in learning other aspects of programming, such as language, framework, tools, etc.
Being patient can also help sometimes, as it depends on the achievability of your goal. Having it in mind that learning programming takes time as it is very broad, it will take time before you are a professional at it.
Well, this doesn’t mean that you can never be professional or expert at programming- it will just take time. Well, if you are patient and try to focus on one or two skills, and you are better at it, that will help you overcome the fear of imposter syndrome.
