
How I stopped procrastinating, learned to code, and launched my first product - rbanffy
https://dev.to/lynnetye/how-i-stopped-procrastinating-learned-to-code-and-launched-my-first-product-2i1
======
gnicholas
As someone who procrastinates and is interested in how people learn to code, I
was looking forward to reading this. But there is no substance here about how
she stopped procrastinating or how she learned to code. There's a reference to
a coding school that she dropped out of, but we don't know why she dropped
out, what she learned, or whether she'd recommend others to do the same. As
for procrastination tips, the word "procrastinate" appears only in the title.

Looking forward to reading the sequel: _How I stopped procrastinating, learned
to write, and launched my content marketing blog._

~~~
krono
Many people try to solve their procrastination by trying to renew their
motivation. I find this to be very unreliable and it also has the potential of
leading you down the rabbit hole of less important things like watching videos
or reading articles like the one linked to here.

The only solution that worked for me and keeps me from relapsing into
procrastination behaviour is the non-zero-days concept: Every day you do at
least one thing to help you get closer to your end goal (whatever that is, can
be multiple). It doesn't matter how much you do or how big the task is that
you completed, just do something. Small things add up and before you know it
you're already halfway there.

More often than not, this gets me in the right mindset and I end up
accomplishing more than just the one small thing I set out to do.

This was a bit off-topic but hopefully it helps you.

~~~
Harvey-Specter
> non-zero-days

This is wonderful advice. I've been using the same concept for the last month
or so. When I get home from work I walk the dogs and then sit down and commit
to putting in a little work on whatever personal project I'm working on. More
often than not my 15 minute commitment turns into an hour or more of progress.

~~~
p-funk
Procrastination is actually just a mild form of discomfort about what one
perceives to be an overwhelming task. The "no zero days" mindset is excellent
because it gets you past the initial discomfort and gets you into the stage
where you're actually working on the thing. Once you are working on it, it
becomes easier to _keep_ working on it because you realize it isn't as bad as
you perceived before you started.

The pomodoro technique is another thing that's commonly recommended, which is
essentially the same. It helped me big time.

The great thing is that it applies to pretty much anything. Having trouble
picking up a new programming language? Just look at the wiki on it and you'll
probably find something that sparks your curiosity. Having trouble keeping up
with exercise? Just walk for 1 minute and you won't want to stop. It's all
about consistency over time.

------
fao_
I wonder how many people this article temped into procrastinating by reading
it, rather than doing their work, after it hit the front page of HN...

~~~
j2bax
Does _just_ reading the comments count?

------
SadWebDeveloper
How many non-developers are reading "Hacker News"?, that's the question...
usually almost everyone i read here has a background on it, even sysadmins
that usually then to not classify themselves as developers know something
about it.

Also with that name i first thought it was another NoSQL DBMS or IDE.

~~~
shostack
I'm a marketer. I consider myself fairly technical, can code a bit and can
easily have technical discussions with engineers. I'm not a developer but I'd
love to improve my skills and build a product one day.

------
igorm
It's also really inspiring to see that the author managed to get it done
working mostly alone as I understood. For me it was always the problem - if I
can't get someone on board with me for some project, it stops me even if I
would really love to work on it.

~~~
lynnetye
Lynne here! I wrote this article and hope I didn't make it sound like I did it
all alone. I had a lot of help, guidance, mentorship, and support along the
way.

While I don't have a cofounder or someone who is working alongside me on Key
Values, I absolutely would not have gotten here without help. Even without a
cofounder, people can (and should!) find help, guidance, mentorship, and
support from forums like Indie Hackers and dev.to.

~~~
igorm
Thanks for the response, Lynne! Yeah, I read that you had to
meet/talk/collaborate with different people and networking was really
important part of your project. But what excited me was that how you turned
the idea you love into the web-service, how you stayed motivated (even though
as you said you don't have a co-founder), how you managed networking - these
are wonderful examples to be inspired by (at least for me)!

------
cooervo
That key values website has a terrific UX and design. I love it.

~~~
tomp
Agree, amazing UI... there was just something I was missing: it has a _EQ >
IQ_ "key value", but not _IQ > EQ_ :(

~~~
lynnetye
This is an really interesting suggestion. Someone else in HN said the same
thing a few weeks ago. To me, the default in engineering is to value IQ over
EQ (this is why 99% of interviews lead and focus on the technical
screening/assessment). Do you disagree?

~~~
tomp
> To me, the default in engineering is to value IQ over EQ

Possibly, but ideally there'd be some kind of explicit emphasis place on the
importance of IQ, or explicitly committed to meritocracy, the idea being to
avoid MBA management types and office politics and such... Well one can dream
:D

------
s_dev
Well done Lynne.

Anyone else think the name of the product simply can't be beaten? It's
perfect.

~~~
victoriasun
Totally agreed! I think she nailed the name.

------
du_bing
Thanks for sharing, great launch!

