The tech we're working with is changing faster than ever. Which is one the many reasons we love what we're doing. However this also makes it quite hard to keep up. Not all of us have the luxury of getting a lot of time to study at work.

Right now I'm working at an agency. So we develop solutions for our customers. I personally enjoy this because there's a huge variety of customers and cases you get to deal with. On the other hand there also tends be little time for personal- or professional development as primarily it's our business to be selling as many hours as we possibly can.

So in this case this means it'd have to happen in personal time. But there's so much to do in personal time! There's friends, sports, you might have a family that's demanding your time, etc.. And now you must also manage to stay up to speed on the developments of your tech stack. So how do you fit it in?

How not to drown

It's easy to drown in the matter, just by the idea. What personally worked for me is by not looking at it as a "must". Find out what interests you. Think of what you might like to do as side project.

What would you like to master next month, year or two years? I wanted to learn more about backend- and API development. To make this more fun I decided to build an API to control my home thermostat and build a simple app to utilize it. That way I could also check how well the API was working. This year I wanted to dive more into GraphQl and went back to this API and turned it into a GraphQl endpoint instead of a REST endpoint.

4 Steps to get going

Here's four simple steps I used to get going.

1. Decide on something that actually interests you personally 🤓

If it doesn't bother you too much, or just feel you "have" to do something, it won't work. It will drain your energy level and you'll never be happy on the result as you don't even really care.

2. Set ambious, yet realistic goals for yourself 📌

Challenge yourself, but be realistic. Can you only spare 1 hour a week? Then don’t decide to learn a new language by the next month. This won’t work. Set goals you can actually complete.

I created a repo on Github for my personal project and splitted it up in a bunch of small tickets I could finish in a few hours or a half a day. This keeps you motivated as you can see the progress.

3. Find a fun use case to practice with 🤘

By making it fun and relevant for yourself it’s way more interesting to get started. For example an old colleage of mine connected a sensor in his bedroom to his coffee machine. Now there’s always fresh coffee for breakfast!

4. Practice it at work too 💪

Once you set the goal see if you can practice it more at work too. Make known what area you’re willing to develop in and see if you can get more projects in that area. This way you get to practice even more. Nice bonus; you get to do what you actually like!

5. Don’t overdo it 🥵

Okay, one extra important tip. It’s good to keep up, but don’t overdo it. Keep it cool on a pace and quantity you can easily keep up with. If your pushing too hard it will demotivate you in the long term.

Be happy 🥳

You’ll see that you’ll actually be able to find some time to get going as you’ll be doing something you’re passionate about. Also by keeping it simple and realistic you’ll be ticking of your targets. This will boost your confidence as a developer in the new area your working on and help you on your way to mastery.