Are you thinking about how to teach yourself to code?

Knowing how to code is one of the most valuable skills you can have. But, teaching yourself to code is no easy feat. It takes hard work, dedication, and patience. Learning code doesn’t happen overnight, so you need to be prepared for the long haul. How do you stay on track throughout your journey? Read on to learn 5 important things you should know before you teach yourself to code.

How Your Code Looks Counts

It’s always important to keep in mind that you are writing code for humans.

Therefore, how your code looks and reads is extremely important. This means you should always:

  • Have good indentations
  • Correctly name your variables
  • Not leaving broken code
  • Not leaving comments

From the very start, paying attention to what your code looks like is very important.

Know Why You Want to Learn Code

There are so many directions you can go once you learn to code, that having an idea of what you want to do beforehand can help you narrow down your focus.

Do you want to build websites? What about computer games? Or, maybe you want to be a professional programmer?

You can always change your mind along the way, but having an idea of what you want to do can save you from learning things you don’t need to know. Plus, having a goal in mind will give you the motivation to continue.

Don’t Get Too Hung Up on Coding Languages

When you first start teaching yourself to code, you’ll quickly realize there are a lot of coding languages to choose from.

Picking one to start with can feel like an overwhelming decision, but don’t get too worked up over it.

There is no “best language” in coding, and once you learn one, it’s fairly easy to learn others.

That said, there are some more beginner-friendly coding languages out there, such as Ruby. You can also learn Java fast.

And, depending on what you want to do, some coding languages are better to learn than others. For example, if you want to write an iPhone app, then you need to learn Swift.

Better to Be an Expert in One Thing

When teaching yourself to code, you shouldn’t try to be a jack of all trades, because likely you’ll just be a master of none.

Therefore, instead of trying to learn the basics of one language, and moving on to the next, you should work to become an expert in a single language.

This will prove to be extremely advantageous later on when you’re trying to market yourself to employers.

Put Yourself Out There

When you’re teaching yourself to code, it’s very important to put yourself out there.

Reach out to great programmers you admire, attend conferences, interact online with programming communities. Putting yourself out there and immersing yourself in the coding community is the best way to receive supportive feedback along the way about your coding.

Fall in Love With It

All great programmers will tell you that to be a great coder, you really have to fall in love with it.

Honestly, getting through the tough parts of teaching yourself to code is really difficult if you don’t love it.

Technology is what moves the world forward, and learning to code will allow you to change the world. Keep this in mind during the tough parts.