How to learn programming when you don’t have time

Photo by Jiyeon Park on Unsplash

First let me say, learning something with little to no time can be overwhelming. But let me tell you this too, I’m sure you have more time than what you think.

The easiest way to learn something like programming with little time is difficult but not impossible, and changing your lifestyle a bit can help too. Let’s use my schedule as an example, I have a job where I work 12 hours a day, so let’s put it like this.

12 A.M. I wake up and go to the gym for 1 hour and 30 minutes, so I get off the gym by 2 or so.

2 to 4 A.M. Study programming.

4 to 5 A.M. Prep my stuff and go to work

5 A.M to 5 P.M. Work

5 to 6 P.M. Get home and get ready to sleep.

12 A.M. wake up and do all over again. 

And on weekends I study as much as I can. You see, the problem is not lack of time, the real problem is how you use your time. If you want something bad enough you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.

We all have 24 hours in the day but the difference is in how you utilize that time. I know, maybe this is not what you wanted to read. But this is the only way, and the secret word is “Priorities”, your priorities define who you are.
I know it’s hard, but these things pay off, just remember to go in all the way, if you go just halfway you get nothing. Be a finisher, and this will be a little bit easier.

Pomodoro Technique

Once you get that know it’s time to optimize your time when you’re studying or learning a new skill, in this case, programming. For that, I recommend the Pomodoro Technique. This is a time management system that helps you to work with the time that you have. It breaks your work into 25 minutes chunks with a 5 minutes break in between and a long break (10 minutes) after 4 Pomodoros.

To read more about the Pomodoro technique I would recommend reading this blog.

Personally I like this website to do my Pomodoros, it’s really simple to use and it works perfectly fine for me, you can even change the timing if you want to do so. But you can use whatever you prefer as long as you like it.