Today I had a meeting with my mentor, Derek, over at Perpetual Education. I was confused about how to do something from a lesson the day before, so I asked if he could clarify some things about it and take a look at my code. Namely, this challenge required us to make the content of a webpage into a column while having the background extend the full width of the page. Sounds simple, right? In the end, it was.

Avoidable mistakes.

While attempting the challenge on my own, I was reviewing the instructions Derek had written as well as watching his video once more. While doing this, I was looking at the existing code of the webpage I was working on in order to see where I needed to make changes. As I was doing this, however, I was forgetting to do one critical thing: write it down. As a result, I started to feel somewhat overwhelmed. I lost focus and the whole thing became a mess.

The problem was not Derek’s instructions; his lesson was clearly written with each step explained in a way that was easy to understand. He’s a fantastic person who is more than willing to take the time to help his students. The problem is that I did not write down each step as he explained it. Doing so would have reinforced my understanding and allowed me to approach the challenge with proper scope and focus.

Be patient with yourself.

Give yourself an allotment of time to practice coding and be patient with yourself while you do. Write down what you study. Live it and breathe it; it will become clear to you. If for any reason it doesn’t, reach out! Ask for help. Many mistakes and roadblocks are avoidable if we follow these simple steps.

Best,

Andrew