Just a day or so after managing to break my 109-day-code-streak at the LearnVerified program of Flatiron School, I have been spending a lot of time pondering the value of the code streak.
What Is A Code Streak?
For those of you who may have never heard of the term ‘codestreak’, a general definition of a codestreak is the number of consecutive days on which you’ve spent time coding or learning to code. In my case, it was the consecutive number of days that I spent time learning to code in the LearnVerified platform.
So Many Coding Platforms, So Little Time
I have spent all of 2016 devoting my freetime to learning to code. Actively learning to code was a 2016 New Year’s resolution I made to myself this year. And for all practical purposes, I can essentially guarantee that I have spent some time each and every day in the pursuit of learning to code.
Whether it has been reading actual books on various coding languages; spending time going through lessons on different online platforms such as Treehouse, Codecademy or FreeCodeCamp; enrolling in several Blueprints at Skillcrush; completing courses and tutorials on Udemy, Skillshare and Udacity; using the SoloLearn apps on my phone while waiting for a table at a restaurant or in between pet sits each day when I am away from my computer and just NEED some coding time; and eventually enrolling in the online program at Flatiron School. I can honestly say I am addicted to learning to code!!
Code Challenges
About a month into being enrolled at LearnVerified, I came across the #codestreak hashtag on Twitter, at which time I was already 35 days into working on lessons on the Learn platform. And then shortly there after, I ran across the #100daysofcode hashtag (41 days into my #codestreak) and coding challenge. How could I not start participating?!?! I was almost halfway there!!
Research has shown that it takes 31 days of conscious effort to make or break a habit. That means, if one practices something consistently for 31 days, on the 32nd day it does become a habit. Information has been internalised into behavioural change, which is called transformation. - Shiv Khera
At first I wasn’t sure I could keep it up because I am not very good at keeping track of things…thankfully, Flatiron actually made that pretty darn easy with their built in current learning streak feature of the student dashboard! All I had to do was just keep on, keeping on!
Keep on learning to code, which I was doing anyway…except now I was striving to make sure I did it for 100 days. Which actually should not have been such a big deal since from January 1st til the first day I tweeted the hashtag of #100daysofcode on June 27th, according to an online date calculator:
The total number of days between Friday, January 1st, 2016 and Monday, June 27th, 2016 is 178 days.
One hundred seventy-eight days is equal to 5 months and 26 days… 100 days should be a piece of cake!! Yet the closer I got to the hundred day mark, the more worried I got. Would I blow it days or even a day before the 100 days??
100 Day Accomplishments
I feel like these last 109 days (not to mention the 178 days before that) I have learned so much!! Not only have I managed to get through roughly 100 lessons of the LearnVerified program (82 lessons in the Fullstack Web Development track and 25 lessons in the new Intro to Javascript track).
I have also managed to:
- build a number of Ruby on Rails app (the first of which was a Pinterest-clone which I am kinda fond of!) from various Udemy classes and Youtube tutorials
- worked my way through and earned my certificates for the HTML Fundamentals, CSS Fundamentals and SQL Fundementals of the SoloLearn apps
- finished the Tribute Page challenge at FreeCodeCamp
- have found so many more (more than one can possibly get through in a life time!!) tutorials, lessons and coding resources that I just need to find enough time in the day to work my way through!!
- And yes, I have learned a lot about coding…but I have also made learning to code a habit. Coding is a part of my everyday life now. I look forward to getting time to code each day…it is actually a bit of a problem…it is a total addiction!
Now, after a long day of work or errands or just everyday chores, I find myself jonesing for just a little coding time!! Just one little lesson on Learn or a quick fix of Treehouse if time is short or even having to wait for a table at a restaurant isn’t so bad cause I can work through a few questions on a SoloLearn app! I need my coding time!!
Although I ‘technically’ broke my codestreak, as in it is back to 2-days at the moment, I spent that particular day making my Sinatra Fwitter project look pretty (working on the CSS) as a break from my frustration at trying to get all the specs to pass.
So although my codestreak has reset itself at LearnVerified…my Year of Learning to Code is still safe…and continues…. :-)
Originally posted on my personal blog back in September 2016.