How to improve your programming skills

Hello, Habr! I present to you the translation of the article “How to improve your programming skills” by Gaël Thomas.

Here are the top 5 tips

1. Set goals for yourself

Setting goals increases a developer's productivity.

Understand:

• Why you started programming
• What your programming goals are
• What dream you want to achieve by becoming a developer

Everyone has personal goals, but I’ve created a list of universal ideas for everyone:

• Create a website
• Get a new job
• Work as a freelancer
• Work remotely
• Challenge yourself
• Improve your financial situation

Don't forget to save a spot for a special goal: a personal project. If you want to succeed and stay motivated, you must create pet projects. But you don’t always have to finish them. The idea is to achieve small goals in your own projects.

For example, if you want to learn how to use a database in general, you can start a blog project. But if you are learning how to add something to a database, you might create a simple form to add a record to the database.

It's important to use projects to achieve goals because this leads to working on concrete examples. What can motivate you more than that?

2. Do it again... and again

Once you choose your goals, work on them as much as possible. The more you practice, the more you learn.

Learning to code is a skill, and you can compare it to sports. If you want to excel at it and perform well, you must practice a lot, specifically on a computer, not just read books and dissect code with a pencil.

Write code daily, during lunch breaks, or after work. Even if it's just for an hour, if you build a habit and stick to it, you will see daily improvements—gradual but steady.

“Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.” (Zig Ziglar — Twitter)

3. Share what you learn or create

This is the best way to learn something new.

Some ideas for sharing what you're doing:

• Write blog articles (for instance, on Habr)
• Join conferences or local meetups
• Ask for feedback on StackOverflow
• Record your progress daily with a hashtag #100DaysOfCode

A bit of storytelling:do you know why I created HereWeCode.io?

I am fascinated by code and sharing knowledge. Over the past few years, I have read a lot of articles on platforms like: freeCodeCamp, dev.to and so on. I learned that anyone can share what they learn and create, even if it's just a small thing.

I created this code for several reasons:

• To share knowledge and become a better developer
• To help beginners understand key concepts
• To create simple and concrete examples for each
• To do what you love and enjoy it

Anyone can do this. I started with a simple action. First, I wrote an article on Medium titled "Learn What an API Is!", then I wrote another one about Docker titled "Beginner's Guide to Docker: How to Create Your First Docker Application" and so on.

Write for others and you will improve your programming skills. The ability to explain a concept and how it works is a crucial skill for a developer.

Remember: You don’t need to be an expert in the field to write about something.

4. Read code

Everything you read about code will improve your programming skills.

Here’s what you can read:

• Code on GitHub
• Books
• Articles
• Newsletters

You can learn a lot from others' code. You can find experts in your area or use GitHub to find code similar to your own. It's interesting to see how other developers write code and solve problems. You will develop your critical thinking skills. Is the method they use better than yours? Let’s find out.

Besides daily programming, why not read at least one article or a few pages of a programming book every day?

Some well-known books:

• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
• Cal Newport: Deep Work

5. Ask questions

Don’t hesitate to ask too much.

Asking questions is useful if you don’t understand something. You can turn to your colleagues or friends. Use programming forums if you don’t know anyone you can ask.

Sometimes you need a different explanation to understand a concept. It’s certainly good to get lost in online searches, but at some point, it’s better to ask other developers.

Leverage another person's knowledge to improve yourself. And if you ask another developer, there’s a high chance they will not only respond but also appreciate you.

Source: habr.com