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General Discussion

Posted by Lucas Santos
Lucas Santos
19,315 Points

Finding the time to study while working 8 to 12 hours a day

Hey guys I have been a treehouse student for a while and love to learn here. I am currently employed as a "Front End Developer" and work anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day. I use tons of HTML, CSS Javascript (with libraries) and PHP creating rich user interfaces and functionalities and I love what I do. But what I really want to do more than anything is creative Mobile Apps for Android. I have been learning some Java with Craig here at Treehouse and it's something I can really enjoy doing, bringing my ideas to life on every mobile device. Lately I have been working a lot and can't study as much as I would like to.

So I want to hear some advice from someone who has been in the same situation as me, how do you find the time to learn something as complex as Java while still working 8 to 12 hours a day?

And also I know this can very from person to person depending on programming experience but how many hours of study (Java) do you believe one needs to have a proficient understanding enough to actually create a Mobile Application.

Would love to hear advice, thoughts and experiences you've had.

Thank You.

2 Answers

jason chan
jason chan
31,009 Points
jason chan
jason chan
31,009 Points

you can just learn cardova and phonegap. Which is just html, javascript, and css. It's basically a browser app. Look it up.

Lucas Santos
Lucas Santos
19,315 Points

I'll give that a read today on my free time, thanks Jason.

Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points
Konrad Pilch
Konrad Pilch
2,435 Points

Lol, its a lil funny how you know JS and PHP and you wonder how long would it take to learn Java xD but seriously, if you want to go into Mobile , what you can do is to save up for 3-6 months of living.

So you e.g save im in UK so 5k pounds per year should be ok, so if you saved 5k per year, then you can quit your job and study 12 monhts before you run out of money, Meanwhile you can freelance as well as web developer sometimes.

That way ud have 16hours learning or Java well, minus eating and cooking time. You wont need to care about your hair, it would waste your time, you will not care what to put on , what clothes or whatever, you will live like primitve man.

That way you will be 100% focused on Java and will have as much time as you want. Take in count to be able to pay for medical thingy as well just in case.

Count up how much you spend per monht, and if you spend 1k then save up like 4k per 3 monhts and learn then .

But well, i dont know you, this might not work, unless you could freelance with a client that takes ages to reply but he will pay enough to sustain your self while learning Java

Hope it helps!

Lucas Santos
Lucas Santos
19,315 Points

Hey Konrad sorry for the late reply here I have been very busy. Thanks for the advice, maybe some time off inorder to study more is something I should consider. I will have to see because rite now at the rate that im going with java it will take a long time to develop the necessary skills required to create an app.