Have you ever told yourself you’re going to spend the next few hours learning to program, but you end up watching cat videos instead?
Staying motivated can be a challenge when programming, and there are a range of different things that could cause it. If you’re feeling lethargic and bored programming, you should identify why you’re feeling that way, get your motivation back and save yourself a lot of time and grief.
Many people suffer from a lack of motivation when coding, for a number of different reasons. So in this article, you’ll find out those reasons, and what can work to cure your programming boredom.
Connecting With Other Coders
Coding can be a lonely pursuit. And of course, it’s easy to lose interest if you’re on your own.
If you join a community, which could be an online forum or a real-life club, you can connect with other coders, and this really does help to make you more motivated.
Members of Treehouse enjoy a built-in discussion forum, which is full of other enthusiastic people learning the same things they are.
Lessons
- Connecting with other like-minded people helps to motivate you.
- Join an online forum or a real-life club.
Staying Away From Stuff You Don’t Love
Your boredom may be because you’re focusing your attention in the wrong area of coding.
If web design doesn’t interest you that much, then why focus on that as your main area of coding? You’ll just find yourself growing frustrated. Stop your love/hate relationship with web design, and focus more on proper programming and software. You’ll be a lot happier and more engaged.
Now that example of web design may not apply to you, but it’s likely there’s an area(s) of coding that doesn’t appeal to you. If you’re forcing yourself to code in this area, then that explains why you’re losing interest.
Lessons
- You don’t have to like every part of coding. It’s fine to specialize.
- Stay away from the areas of coding that don’t interest you.
Not Biting Off More Than You Can Chew
Being a coder is like reading a book.
If you’ve read the first few pages, but then jump ahead to a page 3/4 of the way through, the story’s not going to make sense to you. It’s going to be unfamiliar, and boring.
Sometimes this is the reason why we lose interest and motivation to code – we’re jumping ahead to unfamiliar territory.
Perhaps you’ve been a victim of this before, and attempted to start coding projects that are out of your comfort zone. When you have to look up every single line to make sure you’ve written it right, it’s no wonder that coding becomes tedious.
Lessons
- Don’t get overly ambitious – it’s better to start small.
- Get comfortable with the concepts you’re learning with some small projects, it doesn’t matter how trivial they are. Then move on to bigger stuff.
- If you find that what you’re doing is frustrating, try something easier.
Asking Yourself Why You’re Doing This
Different people have different reasons for learning to program. You might want to get hired as a programmer, start your own startup, do it as a hobby or just for the sake of attaining a new useful skill.
If you’re really not enjoying what you’re doing, it might be a good idea to re-evaluate. If you’re trying programming out as a hobby, but you don’t enjoy it, then it’s not really worth doing. But if you’re aiming to get hired, then you may want to keep at it regardless of how unmotivated you might be.
Lessons
- The reason behind your lack of motivation and how to solve it differs depending on what your purpose is.
- Your end goal can serve as your motivation.
Trying Something New
Feeling bored with what you’re doing? Perhaps the answer is to try something new.
If you’re getting tired with playing around with only front-end technologies like JavaScript and HTML, you could learn back-end in the form of PHP and SQL. Learning back-end will make things a lot more interesting for you.
Of course, the idea here is not to learn back-end, but to try something new. This could be anything – back-end, front-end, a new language, mobile development, whatever you want.
Lessons
- The reason you’re lacking motivation may just be because you’re sticking with the same-old technologies.
- Trying something new can be exciting and open up a whole new world of possibilities.
Taking a Break
Some programmers write code for hours on end, every day. And they couldn’t be happier.
You might think that’s crazy, and find that taking frequent breaks works better for you. Occasionally you feel like writing some code, other days you’d rather just focus your attention on other things. You don’t have to be motivated all the time.
Lessons
- None of the other tips worked for you? Sometimes the trick is to just take a break and the motivation will come back by itself.
- Different coders have different coding styles. Some people can write code all day, others prefer to dabble.
Final Thoughts
Of course, staying motivated is all about you. While this article should be helpful, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all these strategies will work for you. Hopefully some will.
If you are lacking in motivation, identify why you’re lacking in motivation, and work from there. Find the way to stay motivated that works for you, and you’ll get your programming enthusiasm back in no time.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
