Coding — A journey everyone struggles to start with.

If you are looking to jump into the world of coding, you may long for a little guidance to help you banish any self-doubt on how to start. Here is a list of things that would help you to ease into your coding journey with some confidence and positivity.

1. Set Up Goals

Goals are what motivates us. When you play a game, your goal is to win it and that is what makes you keep trying. Similarly, even coding requires some motivation. This motivation can be either to get a new job or to develop cool things. Having goals is one of the best strategies for learning any new skill. Since coding has a lot of obstacles coming your way, you would need constant motivation to do it.

Create specific and measurable goals — The more specific and measurable your goal, the easier it will be to work toward. For example, “Learn Python” might be a bit too vague for a programming beginner because it’s difficult to measure the progress or completion. Instead, try something like “Learn the basics datatypes of python today”. Set goals for each day.

2. Set Deadlines

Deadlines push you constantly to work towards your goals. If you are being handed over an assignment by your teacher without any deadlines, you would never complete it. But when you are given the deadline with some penalties if you fail to complete it, you will eventually complete it on time. Follow a similar approach. Set deadlines and if you don’t achieve the goal before the deadline, give up something you love to do until you complete the task.

3. Patience is key. Master Patience

Programming can be such a pain when things don’t according to plan. Some errors might take hours or even days to resolve. Patience is what allows you to get over these situations. Lack of patience with learning this new skill can lead to frustration, lack of motivation, and possibly giving up. Practicing patience can make all the difference in how you absorb each lesson. When you have an error that takes a long time to get resolved, A great tip would be to take a break. Have something you like or watch an episode of “Friends” maybe. Take a break by doing anything you love to relax.

4. Understand the basics

Basics in programming are ESSENTIAL. The programming basics will come into play in a variety of projects, both complex and simple. Pay attention as you first start to learn so you can fortify the practices you’ll use for your entire coding journey. Learning the fundamentals of a programming language is the first place any aspiring developer should start because those concepts are transferable to any programming language — and essential to all of them.

5. Write Code and Don’t Study them

This is a given. When you want to learn something, you are not going to learn just by studying it. For example, if you want to drive a car, you have to learn it by doing it. Just by seeing someone else drive, you are not going to learn it. So try to jump onto hands-on learning. Try to build as many projects as possible.

6. It is okay to ask for help

You are stuck at something for too long. You tried every solution you know. You have gone through the internet and yet you don’t seem to find the solution. You are stuck at a dead-end and this situation looks like a perfect situation for you to give up right? But you shouldn’t. Try to get a mentor. Try contacting experts on LinkedIn. If you are not so social, that is fine. Use Google. Google has solutions for any problem and most likely somewhere someone would be struck with the same problem as you as well.

7. Mistakes help you to become a good programmer

Your code will not always be a perfect masterpiece of computer science finesse. But here’s why that’s a good thing — every imperfection is a learning opportunity. The more mistakes you make as you start, the more you’ll learn right away, and the fewer mistakes you’ll make down the road.

In summary, Coding is tough but rewarding. Your main obstacle is the temptation to give up. Not everyone who starts to learn coding finishes it. Find a good course or a tutor to help you, have patience and perseverance.

All the best on your coding journey.