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martin li
1,026 PointsLost motivation?
I think i feel lost motivation to learn and its depriving me of confidence. I want to learn but im struggling in the java class, can someone give me alittle advice to motivvate myself to program. So no, i am not forcing myself to love it. I love technology and I love creation. I love manipulating software like video editors photoshop, and stuff I have a knack for tech stuff and I know I am not that far off, just losing abit motivation to learn b/c facebook and steam and stuff like that
martin li
1,026 PointsI need to catchup in my introductory programming java class tho
3 Answers
Michael Fish
7,804 PointsI'll tell you what you need to do. (worked for me) Go into the setting in steam and turn off the setting that makes it automatically start when you boot your computer. Then go into your facebook settings and choose deactivate account. Wait 2 days and when the world hasn't ended you will be able to focus much better.
Good Luck, Mike
Craig Dennis
Treehouse TeacherTry just doing 1 video blocks. If you want more, do Jumping Jacks.
Hang out in here, if you are looking to get distracted, at least it's a Java distraction ;)
martin li
1,026 PointsI need to catchup in my introductory programming java class tho
Kaetlyn McCafferty
12,193 PointsKaetlyn McCafferty
12,193 PointsIf you're struggling with something, sometimes it's best to step away from it and work on something else for a while. You can always come back to it later and try again. If you're having trouble with Java, then set it aside and work on learning something else for a little bit. I had to do this with JavaScript a few times when I was first learning. I struggled with it at first, which indeed put a dent in my motivation and confidence ("I don't think I'm ever going to get the hang of this" "what's wrong with me? Why can't I just GET it?" "Maybe this isn't for me" etc), so I decided to take a break from it, focus on some other languages and projects, and when I came back to it with a fresh mind later on it helped a lot. Eventually, I did get it, and now JS and I are good friends. So just because you're struggling now doesn't mean you always will! It's 110% normal to struggle. This stuff isn't necessarily easy! The most important part is just sticking with it and not giving up. You can always do courses over again - I've done that before too.
If you find yourself getting distracted easily - such as by facebook - and you lack the willpower to completely ignore these things for large chunks of time, then maybe you can try doing your learning using a sort of "pomodoro" technique - basically, you set aside a period of time (I think 25 minutes is what's usually used for pomodoros), and set a timer - for those 25 minutes, you don't focus on ANYTHING but your learning/coding/whatever you're doing. When they're up, take a break - sit on facebook - do whatever you want for a while, then do another 25 minutes of coding, take a break, etc. A lot of people find this really useful.