Accelerating Progress in a Coding Curriculum (self-taught)

	Project	Est Time	Est Date	Complete ?
Core Lessons
	Intro Projects	7.5 hours	09/01/16	Yes
Electives
	Git and Github	11 hours	11/01/16	Yes
	Linux Command Line	?	11/20/16	Yes
Core Lessons
	Build a Portfolio Site	33.5 hours	12/01/16	Yes
	Online Resume	32.5 hours	04/10/17
	Resume/Cover Letter Review	2 hours	04/14/17
	Arcade Game Clone Project	34 hours	05/01/17
	Career Dev / Profile Review	3 hours	05/03/17
	Website Optimization	29 hours	06/02/17
	Neighborhood Map	37 hours	07/10/17
Electives	Health Tracker	2 hours	07/14/17
	Interview Practice	3 hours	07/17/17
Core Lessons	Feed Reader Testing	7 hours	07/26/17
Online Resume
5 weeks			Finish By
Week 1	Data Types, Variables, Conditionals, Loops		02/25/17
Week 2	Functions, Arrays, Objects		03/04/17
Week 3	Up and running, data types		03/11/17
Week 4	Flow Control, Jquery Basics		04/01/17	**modified**
Week 5	jQuery DOM manipulation, event listeners, project		04/15/17	**modified**

What you're viewing above is one of three free tools I've used to dramatically increase my productivity when it comes to advancing through my current coding curriculum.  I am a UDACITY student in the Front End Web Developer nanodegree program. It is thorough, intense, project-based and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to break into the industry.

You may notice that my last blog post was from September 2016. It is now March 2017 and I have not finished the coursework. Why? Distractions, frustrations, dips and swings in motivation and just life.  As this is a paid course it really popped me in the head just how much my starts and stops were costing me financially not to mention how that is subsequently delaying the realization of my career goals. So I made a change and implemented 3 tools I want to share with you now.

1. The first is the calendar above. UDACITY provides you with a calendar when you sign up for the Nanodegree. In my case, that schedule was completely unachievable due to work, family, and church commitments.  So after beating myself up for months for missing deadlines, I made my own calendar based on how many hours of instruction was included per section and how long it took me on average to go through the various sections up to that point. The format is simple: I took the current project which is the online resume and I broke each section for this project down to know where I should be by the end of the week.  Based on the ENDING of the current project, I then projected forward when I should be able to finish the other projects and put that at the top. I then shared that with my wife who is the best accountability partner (nagger) anyone could hope for.  Long story short, every week, just like in school, I know exactly where I should be...and she does too.

2. RESCUE TIME. Straightforward chrome extension that lets you know on a weekly basis how productive you've been.  If it's been a heavy facebook worldstar week, you'll get a low productivity percentage. If you've been going hard and forsaking the mind-wasters, high score.  This too gets shared with amazing results.

3. BLOCK AND FOCUS Another simple yet effective chrome extension I use on a daily basis.  Quick version: Tell this app all the sites you're not allowed to go on during your study/coding period and for how long, and this app will block you from them. There's a more extreme version Go *?#&#*# work! that does the same thing with more *pointed* reminders.

Taken together, these 3 tools have accelerated my journey and made this fun again. I look forward to my summer graduation.