A past perspective and mental model to learn
Looking back, I can see that I've built up a lot of cool stuff that I never pushed or just didn't share, like cool thoughts like: My studies about DX this is my knowledge material that has been built up in the last few years and now I can say I am ready to share it. Well, that is the main reason; the second reason is actually that I need to practice more writing and sharing my thoughts as a cleanup mind method. As the years go by, our minds are not able to store all the knowledge we have. Because of this, an interesting method to learn is: study, go ahead, revisit the concepts, and go ahead again.
This is how it works:
- I learn new concepts;
- I practice by building side projects or writing about them;
- I discover gaps in my knowledge;
- I move on to another topic or practice;
I've learned this method with TK and adapted it to my reality. You can see more here: Learning & The Power of the First Step
The future and my goals with it
My main goal is basically to document what I am learning and give back to the community all the things it has given me. My second goal is basically to go back to the basics and fill the gaps that I have - sometimes we focus on work and only study what we need to perform well there, but now my goal is to learn by passion, understand core concepts that I don't understand yet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad developer, but I know I need to learn more and know more. So I'm basically writing this post on my day zero. I'm studying more these days and trying to create a learning model for my life, working in my day-to-day and creating new habits that will help me move forward with my goals. It's not coaching advice, but we know we need habits and discipline to be successful with our goals.
What am I doing now?
I've taken some steps back, and now I'm trying to understand what I want to learn and how it aligns with my goals. In the day-to-day, I'm trying to write down everything I should do in my work and what I want to study during the day. So the model is basically: If I have more visibility about what I need to do, I can organize myself to do everything; and knowing what I want to learn, I can understand the steps to learn, breaking it down into small goals, which works well to learn something complex.
What do I need to improve?
Sometimes it is hard to follow a strict routine, and getting disciplined is also so hard. So I need to improve how healthy this routine is for me.
About my health, I need to improve: my sleep and my eating; it's important to keep my mental health so I can continue with my routine to learn more. Other things are important to me now, like: Less caffeine because it drastically disturbs my sleep. And less social media because it drastically decreases my concentration.
Regarding my internet usage, I noticed I was constantly seeking quick dopamine hits, while studying requires more sustained focus and can feel less immediately rewarding. Over the past few weeks, I've been intentionally reducing my social media consumption. While I've stepped back from platforms like Instagram and X, I still check in periodically to stay updated on tech community discussions. Rather than completely disconnecting, my goal is to be more selective about the content I consume. Social media today often emphasizes lifestyle content over meaningful discourse. However, platforms like X remain valuable sources for tech news and discussions, so I'm working to maintain a filter to only see what's important for me to know.
Final thoughts
I'm learning a lot with this new process, mostly about myself, which is good in general. I'm trying to have a simpler routine, and I'm trying to work on my learning every day, instead of waiting for the best conditions. I'm trying to be stricter and say no to what's not important right now and maybe what's more important: I'm running a long marathon right now instead of trying to run a sprint.