100 Days of Code: Day 47

Every weekend, I am genuinely surprised when Sunday night rolls around and it feels like I never really had a weekend at all. I absolutely love what I am doing right now, not just with my daily coding challenges but also with my updates in ye olde trusty blog.

BUT…

I have a really bad habit of becoming consumed with the things that I do, and I tend to let everything else kind of fall by the wayside. Housework? What housework? Yard work? What yard work? I don’t need to buy groceries this month. Or pay bills. Or eat, sleep, etc.

Okay, yeah, it’s not that extreme, but you get my drift. I want to put 100% into everything I do, and that sometimes means I don’t put any time into me.

I keep telling myself that I am going to give myself only a few hours a day Saturday and Sunday for coding, then spend the rest of the time doing other things that need to be done (or just relaxing). But then I end up spending all day coding when I know I am not supposed to.

So, today I decided to try something a little bit different. I decided to give myself an actual time goal instead of a task-based goal. I knew it would probably take me a while to finish these last algorithm scripting challenges, so I gave myself 90 minutes to do what I could, after which time I would finish up whatever problem I was working on, post this update, and move on with my day.

I am actually kind of surprised by the results. I did not finish all the challenges today, but I did make it through a few of them and I don’t feel guilty at all about stopping. Even yesterday, I felt bad because I wanted so badly to make it through this whole section, and that was after spending most of the morning and afternoon coding. Today? Not so much. I gave myself a goal, which I met and exceeded by around 20 minutes (the last problem was a little tougher than I thought it would be).

And now? I can go relax. I can enjoy the rest of my day, let my mind take a break, and come back fresh and ready to do more tomorrow.