SillyPanda

How do guys balance daily work and upskilling?

Same as title. These days due to low job security and having faced layoff last year, I always feel the need to continuously do interview prep like DSA, LLD, etc even when I am not actively looking for a job. Plus, due to new technologies coming up, I feel the need to keep upskilling too. If I don't upskill or do interview prep continuously, I feel guilty as if I am wasting time. I feel like at this point, I am just living life to upskill and interview prep. Is there a way to balance all this along with work as it gets very tiring after a while and I feel burnt out?

6mo ago

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ZoomyNarwhal

Stealth6mo

Make a daily, weekly and monthly plan. Compile all the major topics you need to cover over the months. Identify the top resources for each of them from where you will be learning these. Stick to 1 resource per topic because you need to prioritize amidst your work obligations. Make a daily and weekly table in excel. Assign topics to the days, and stick to it as you progress through the week. Be honest to the plan and don't deviate from what you have assigned to learn each day, unless you have an interview coming ahead urgently. Mark the days you actually covered the assigned topic (I colored the cells green if I did, and yellow if I didnt)

At the end of the month, I calculated how much progress I made - chapters completed by total assigned chapters (%)

There is nothing new in what I have shared here. But I really found the act of breaking down the learning path to discrete details, down to daily plans really helped. It almost gamified the learning process for me, and I made good progress too. Take the weekend do this exercise, and dive straight in from Monday (on my busiest days I assigned as little as 30 min, but it helped) Weekends I devoted more time.

Also don't do more than 60 min on weekdays, because it's not sustainable in the long run and you'll burn out, unless you really need to

FluffyJellybean

Porter6mo

I highly appreciate this approach. Tracking every day without being pushy to achieve a lot keeps you on track.

Although it sometimes gets hectic to stay sticked to the schedules. You got friends and family to spend your time with Or maybe you got a super busy day at work. On such days it feels like you’re too lazy to move even a needle but those are the actual days when it counts the most. Because once you take a break you just start getting into a comfort zone trap.

On such days I just prefer to do the attendance marking progress because I believe, on some days it’s all about just showing up even when you have not done a lot!

ZoomyNarwhal

Stealth6mo

Exactly! This whole approach makes you accountable to yourself, driving you to meet your learning goals, especially on those days when you open the tracker and see the missed days piling up. And of course, we are all humans, those days we need to unwind woth friends/partner/entertainment I atleast attempt to do 50% of what's tasked for that day. Like you rightly said, it's all about showing up even if its baby steps, but you still show up no matter what

DizzyPanda

Stealth6mo

I feel the same, I also tried. But the primary work itself sucks the energy out of you and after a day’s hardwork, you also feel to chill a bit.

But, I guess maybe we can make an effort to do just 2 things -

Solve a coding problem (if not solve, just try the best and then understand the solution)
Read 1 article on any tech you’re exploring or deepen the knowledge in current tech

I’m going to try and do this as much as I can

SillyPanda

Stealth6mo

@CodeMax Thanks for the advice. Yeah I agree that after work it's just exhausting to do anything else. Been doing interview prep and upskilling past couple of years and gave a few interviews too. Either I reached the last round and got ghosted or was asked so hard questions that it's impossible to solve. Not trying to complain or anything but at this point I just feel luck is a huge factor too.

JumpyMochi

PhonePe6mo

What's your role and what kind of work do you do? Why do you guys feel the need to upskill yourselves?

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