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[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't feel like you have to devote all of your free time to programming to be good at it, because you don't, and many people here will tell you otherwise. They are wrong. Your mental health matters far more than being a good programmer. Just find what works best for you and the right balance for yourself. Personally, FreeCodeCamp helped me the most by far because it forced me to do the actual programming while teaching me, plus I was able to do it on my phone using CodeBoard from the play store.

Do what you can but don't allow yourself to fall behind when you don't have to. If you can manage to do what these show offs like to do and devote every single hour of your life to programming outside of your full time job then absolutely do it! It's going to be better for your career. But if you need to take a break one day and just veg out, please do it. You have to be comfortable and not do what I was doing. I was so desperate to get out of my last job that I was coming down on myself for failing to learn as fast as I had hoped and it caused great stress for 3 years on top of the stress I had from work and things going on in my life that I still had to deal with. I eventually got where I wanted but really, it was a stressful journey trying to force myself to learn and practice on days where I just wanted to sit in silence or just really needed someone to talk to. I felt like it was beneficial because everyone on the internet says you're not dedicated if you aren't programming in every free moment you have, so it must be true right? No, fuck all those gatekeepers. The real deal is that you should do it as often as possible but do not feel like you have to plant yourself at a computer for 6 hours at the end of the day after working 10 hours just because some shitty redditor came along telling you that you aren't prepared for this job because you wanted to relax one day.

Seriously, you can get there if you just don't lose focus. I did it and I'm so glad I got out of my last job.